In early August, a mysterious "orange goo" substance washed ashore in the remote Inupiaq village of Kivalina along Alaska's northwest coast. The unusual phenomenon generated a lot of media speculation and troubled residents of the village, who feared contamination of their water tanks and berry harvest. To determine the nature of this substance, Alaska's Department of Environmental Control sent samples to NOAA's Analytical Response Team in Charleston, SC, for thorough analysis and verification.

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