JediUnicorn wrote

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The substance first washed up on the shores of Kivalina, about 625 miles northwest of Anchorage, on Wednesday. It covered most of the harbour, attracting crowds of bemused residents.

On Thursday residents found the orange matter floating on top of the rain buckets they use to collect drinking water.

By Friday, the orange substance in the harbour had dissipated or washed out to sea, and what was left on ground had dried to a powdery substance.

Samples of the orange matter were collected in canning jars and sent to a lab in Anchorage for analysis.

Until results are known, Kivalina's 374 residents will likely continue to wonder just what exactly happened in their village.

"Certainly at this point it's a mystery," said Emanuel Hignutt, a chemist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage.

Kivalina, an Inupiat Inuit village, is located at the tip of an 8-mile barrier reef on Alaska's northwest coast, and is located between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River to the north and the Wulik River to the south.

Villagers have never seen anything like this before, and elders have never heard any stories passed down from earlier generations about an orange-coloured substance coming into town.

"This is the first for Kivalina, as far as I know," said 63-year-old Austin Swan.

Portions of the samples will also be sent to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in South Carolina for testing.

"There's a number of experts in the areas who can identify if it's an organic material, for example, and what species this is, or perhaps it's not an organic material, and we're going to determine that, as well," Hignutt said.

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