Virtual permafrost tunnel featured at visitors center event

September 2, 2016

Rod Boyce

A new virtual version of the permafrost tunnel in Fox, housed in a portable planetarium complete with the tunnel’s characteristic smell and old bones, will be open at a free community event on Saturday, Sept. 10.

The virtual tunnel will be part of a Permafrost Expo at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Expo visitors will be able to touch ice age bones, probe 30,000-year-old ice using microscopes and real science tools, and talk to national experts about changing permafrost in Alaska.

Look for the life-sized mammoth, Pingo Peat, outside the center.

The event was created by a University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute project called Hot Times in Cold Places: Permafrost During Climate Change.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Jessica Garron, jigarron@alaska.edu, 907-474-7598.

ON THE WEB: www.facebook.com/HotTimesinColdPlaces/

www.permafrosttunnel.org