Rusting Rivers b-roll - Anaktok Creek

This is B-roll video of the Anaktok Creek in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska from June 11, 2023.

This video shows an aerial view from a helicopter flying over Anaktok Creek in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska. The snow-covered ground at the bottom of a mountain valley shows water in the winding braided river. As the helicopter rounds a mountain slope you can see a tributary of orange water flowing into the Anaktok Creek and changing a section of the river orange.

Orange streams are increasingly common in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. Recent observations from Arctic Alaska indicate that waters draining permafrost landscapes may be susceptible to iron and carbon mobilization following thaw. The orange stream color reflects oxidized iron, but also often indicates elevated heavy metal concentrations.

One visual indication of the altered iron-cycling processes is the abrupt change in the color of stream and river reaches, reflecting a dramatic shift in water quality. The conversion of streams from clear to orange water appears to reflect a considerable deterioration of habitat for benthic macroinvertebrates and fish. Although the underlying processes causing orange streams are unknown, this region is experiencing widespread thaw and subsequent shifts in hydrologic flow paths.

In 2019, a team of U.S. Geological Survey and Nation Park Service researchers began working on this issue, with the overall goal of defining and understanding changes to Arctic rivers in Alaska to meet conservation goals of the Department of the Interior.

The research team has identified more than 70 locations of rusting rivers throughout the Brooks Range and continue to investigate this phenomenon.