@natgeo
National GeographicMiddleton Island, a remote sliver of land in the Gulf of Alaska, was once a U.S. Air Force radar station during the Cold War. Abandoned after just seven years, its crumbling towers and bunkers have since been transformed into one of the world’s most unusual seabird research stations, where scientists study black-legged kittiwakes, puffins, cormorants, and murres, and track how climate change, marine heat waves, and pollution affect seabird populations.
On the profile · Dec 9, 2025