Washington Post: “An uncommon ‘ivu,’ or ice shove, is possible in northern Alaska on Thursday night, bringing the chance of coastal erosion as a shattered sheet of ice piles up against the coast. The Arctic coastline of Alaska’s North Slope is readying for the ice shove, with the local National Weather Service forecast office urging residents to remove property from area beaches. Ivus occur when strong winds push sea ice up against the coast. The fetch of wind blowing over long sheets of ice gives it enough momentum that it is unable to stop upon colliding with the shore.”
“That results in the ice fragmenting or breaking, accumulating in heaps along the coast. And where winds and wave action are strong enough, the force of an ivu can cause damage. ‘They’re fairly infrequent,’ said Luke Culver, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. Most of Alaska’s North Slope is sparsely populated. Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow, and Wainwright both sit along the coast but are settled far enough inland that the ice shove may prove benign. However, 280 miles to the east-southeast in Kaktovik, the Barter Island Airport’s runway may need to be watched if mounds of ice accumulate, but that appears unlikely.”