Rivers and streams in Alaska are changing color – from a clean, clear blue to a rusty orange – because of the toxic metals released by thawing permafrost, according to a new study.

Rivers and streams in Alaska are changing color – from a clean, clear blue to a rusty orange – because of the toxic metals released by thawing permafrost, according to a new study. The finding ...

"In a lifetime of descending rivers," John McPhee wrote of Alaska's Salmon River, "this was the clearest and the wildest river." The writer who toured the Salmon in 1975 might not recognize it today.

Rivers and streams in Alaska are changing color – from a clean, clear blue to a rusty orange – because of the toxic metals released by thawing permafrost, according to a new study.

Rivers and streams in Alaska are changing color – from a clean, clear blue to a rusty orange – because of the toxic metals released by thawing permafrost, according to a new study.

The rivers and streams in the range appeared to rust and became cloudy and orange over the past five to 10 years, according to the study published in the journal Communications: Earth & Environment.

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have developed a way to use satellites to detect open water on otherwise frozen rivers.

Now, remote rivers in the Alaska backcountry are turning from a pristine glacier blue to an alarming rusty bright orange, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications ...