Authorities say a mysterious orange-colored substance has washed up on the shores of the remote village of Kivalina in northwest Alaska.
While tests conducted on the surface of the water on the mysterious orange goo have been inconclusive up to this point, Coast Guard Petty Officer David Mosely told KTUU – an NBC affiliated television station serving Anchorage, Alaska – that it’s not a petroleum substance and it’s not man-made.
In addition to showing up on beach shores and and harbors near the tiny Alaskan village, the goo-like substance has also shown up in some residents’ rain buckets, City Administrator Janet Mitchell told the AP.
Mitchell explained that residents of Kivalina are disturbed by the odd color of the substance and fearing that it might be toxic, have requested that an algae expert from the University of Alaska Fairbanks be sent to investigate the mystery goo as soon as possible.
Pictures captured by Mida Swan, one of Kivalina’s 377 citizens, show an orange sheen across the harbor and close-ups of the matter on beaches in the village which lies approximately 625 miles northwest of Anchorage.
Swan, who apparently stuck her hand in the orange substance to find out what it smells like, claims it does not give off an odd odor.
via CSM Img Credit: Mida Swan/AP
