Living on the Edge Alaska 2009

The Final Countdown (insert music here)

2009-07-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

So we are just heading back to our campsite to get ourselves set up for an early departure for Anchorage tomorrow. It was a great trip, see what the final thoughts are (they had limited time and a lot of laughs during this blog session). Also a few group photos from the last few weeks!

Isabel Zellweger

Hi!Hi! Well, I cannot believe tonight is our last night here, this is quite sad! These past three weeks have been amazing, one of the best experiences of my life. It is crazy how fast this trip has gone by. I have learned so much, from how to pitch a tent correctly to what an accretionary complex is. I am really going to miss the beautiful scenery of Alaska and the awesome group (Garver and Jackie included!). My experience would not have been the same any other way. Goodbye LOTE 2009 L!

Ps- Thank you Jackie and Garver!!!

Isy

Taylor LaBrecque

Hello, for the last time. We’re all looking forward to going home tomorrow but it’s going to be hard to leave everyone. I can’t believe the three weeks have already gone by or that I have only one more night with my tent-mates. I’ve grown very close to each member of the schisty fissures and I can’t imagine going through this with anyone else. I’m so thankful to Jackie and Garver for putting up with us and making this trip so much fun. I hope the rest of your summers are amazing!

Taylor

Tyler Willey

Hey Hi! Tonight is a very sad night, as it is our last night here in Alaska. Words cannot describe the experiences and sights I have seen and had here over these past three weeks. It feels like just yesterday that I walked off the plane into Anchorage. I want to say thanks to Mom and Dad for tolerating our shenanigans and on occasion joining in while they drove us all over Alaska. I am for sure going to miss traveling and living with everyone! See everyone in the fall!

T-dubs

Liz

So after eating our last meal here in Alaska, I cannot believe that I won’t be waking up with these 11 people for the rest of the summer. Spending three weeks with all those on this trip has been an experience of a lifetime. Even if I visit Alaska again in my future I know it will not compare to this trip. Thanks friends and family for giving cool comments on the blog and for all your support for us on this trip… “If ya’ll seen a leprechaun say yeah!”

Tyler Izykowski

Oh, hello there… I didn’t notice you come in. So the trip has finally come to an end. I’ll be spending an extra evening bumming around Anchorage before I head home Sunday night. Words can’t begin to express how awesome this experience has been. I just want to say thank you to Professors Cockburn and Garver (who are doctors), as well as everyone else on the trip for making it everything that it was.

T.I. out.

How’s it going! I can’t believe that it is our last night in Alaska. It feels like months ago that I stepped out of the Anchorage airport. We have done so many things in such a short period of time, and I have no idea where the time has gone. I don’t have much to say to be honest, except to express how truly amazing this trip has been. I want to thank Jarvis and Captain Cockburn for all they have done to make this trip as great as it has been. I also wanted to thank everyone else who made this trip truly memorable. It was a great time, I won’t forget it.

-City

Alex

Hey everybody! I can’t believe this trip is ending tomorrow. This trip has been amazing, its really hard to condense all of the things I have experience in to a few lines. I can only say that I hope I can return to Alaska again and that everyone can experience this amazing land. This trip wouldn’t have been so incredible without Dr. Garver and Dr. Cockburn’s ability to plan a trip that could allow us to see so many different parts of Alaska. Thanks.

-Hobo Jim

Ben

What’s up guys! Who would have guessed that this trip is finally coming to an end? There are few words that could adequately explain what this trip has taught me and how beautiful “the great land” is. The incredible sights and sounds let alone the awesome group I have spent the last three weeks with only make me want to spend even more time up here. Alaska is an incredibly special place that everyone should find the time to visit. The doctors not only made this trip an scenic amazement, their knowledge has made it an educational extravaganza as well. All I can say is thanks guys…I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

-Curly

Marisa

Hey there! BFFF! Today is our last day in Alaska! I do not know how the trip went by so quickly! It was so much fun and really interesting to actually see aftermaths of the 1964 earthquake and tsunami. I especially enjoyed seeing and hiking on Matanuska and Child’s glacier. This trip wouldn’t be possible without Professors Cockburn and Garver, which made the trip a blast! I wish the trip could have continued longer! Thanks for everyone making this an incredible experience!

Marisa

Shabana

So, wow! Tonight’s the last night we can have s’mores but more importantly the last night that we will be together in Alaska. This has been a crazy experience and has only whet my appetite for Alaska and for traveling in general. It’s been so awesome meeting lots of new people and seeing lots of unique things that are so different from home. This trip has opened my eyes to career opportunities and really inspired me to work in the field. I will never forget the sights, the wildlife, and most importantly the people that have been my family for these past 3 weeks. Jackie and Garver have been more than professors, they’ve been great mentors, friends and parents (Mom and Dad!). I’m so grateful for all of the hard work that was put into this program! Thanks for reading and have a great summer!

LOL (lots of love)

Thug nasty aka Shabang Shabop Bop Tupac Shakur

Kodiak!

2009-07-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, we arrived into Seward this afternoon after an over-night ferry ride that left Kodiak Island late last night and dropped us off at Homer early this morning. The students have lots to say about the last week or so.

Tyler Izykowski

The beginning of the final leg of our trip has docked us on the island of Kodiak. In our three day, two night stay we overcame a flat tire incident (blast you Fire Bear!), spent a lot of time looking at the effects of the tsunamis that hit Kodiak in 1964, and investigated the recent activity of faults in the Narrow Cape area. We determined that Narrow Cape is seismically active and therefore a less than ideal location for the multimillion-dollar Kodiak Launch Complex. In between projects, we relaxed by the beach and fished, catching tons of ugly, prehistoric looking rockfish and even a flounder (well done Shabana!). We’re boarding the ferry back to the mainland where we make our final stop in Seward to say what’s up to our Union Alum brother man, William Seward, purchaser of the Great Land. Until then it’s 9.5 hours on the ferry, which means a good night sleep and a shower. Chaoooo!

Liz Morgan

Whoa Nelly, what a crazy past few days it has been. The last time we chatted we were still in Cordova and had one night still to go in our stay there. After leaving Cordova via ferry, we stopped at Ninilchick for a lovely over-night fourth of July stay on the beach with a glorious view of Mt. Redoubt. After packing up camp we started making our way to Homer. There was a slight delay because of a car accident (not us) and we made it to our destination safe and sound. We had some time to look around the stores in Homer and I got a cool book from the Homer bookstore, as well as pins made from a local artist. The ferry ride from Homer was incredible! I had never been on a boat that I slept on (ferry ride was 13 hrs and we left port at 10 pm Alaska time). Kodiak is amazing. We’ve been studying the effects of the Katmai 1912 eruption on local topography. Its location in the surficial stratigraphy can help identify fault types and determine the local movement of the faults. As I write, I am back on the ferry, and we’re making our way back to mainland Alaska. It’s exciting to have the trip come to an end, but it is bittersweet. It has been the experience of a lifetime and I will treasure the friendships that I’ve made along the way.

Marisa Kwoczka

Since we last chatted our group has been traveling a lot. We went to Hartney Bay and studied the location of sea barnacles on the uplifted rocks that were moved in the earthquake. After the 1964 tsunami, Cordova rose two meters and we were able to see where the barnacles had once lived and where they are present today. Afterward, we hung around Cordova and Liz and I frolicked by the port and then we regrouped and took a ferry to Whittier. From there we drove to Ninilchik and studied sediment deposits and past faults. The following day we took a thirteen-hour ferry to Kodiak and here we also learned about sedimentary deposits. In 1912 Mount Katmai erupted depositing volcanic ash for miles. While studying the sedimentary deposits we noticed different layers of volcanic ash varying from coarse to fine and peat/ dead organic material. In Narrow Cape, Kodiak our group created a topographic map of the area by pointing out faults and reasons why the landscape looked the way it did. During our free time, we swam in the Pacific ocean again, which was not as cold as Ninilchik. Now we are aboard the ferry again but headed back to Homer. Showering here is great and the beds are super comfy! Unfortunately our trip is almost ending, but we will be able to blog one more time! hot diggity dog!

Marisa

pootchiiiiiiiiii

Alex Connell

Hey everybody since we pulled up stakes at the Chugach National forest we have traveled all the way to Kodiak Island. We have done a lot of traveling by car and ferry. We made a stop in Cordova where I saw sea otters for the first time in my life. After hanging out with the sea otters we hoped on an overnight boat to Kodiak. The weather on Kodiak has been really warm, it was actually really nice taking a dip in the chilly Pacific Ocean waters near our camp. We are camped out along a beautiful stretch of stream that flows directly in to the Pacific Ocean. All of us at the campsite have been catching weird looking tidal fish called a sculpin it has been a great time. Since we have been here we have investigated faulting in the twin lakes region, investigated ash layers from the 1912 eruption of Mt. Katmai, and tsunami deposits from the great 1964 Alaskan Earthquake. It has been really interesting understanding the complex hazards that Kodiak Island has to face when planning any major project. I am sad the trip is starting to wind down, Alaska has been amazing.

Taylor LaBrecque

We’re sadly leaving the beautiful weather on Kodiak Island. We arrived here Monday morning after taking our first dip in the Pacific Ocean on the Fourth of July and were fortunate to be able to see Mount Redoubt from our campsite. We’ve been learning about the different stratigraphic layers at various sites. In Kodiak we were able to make a prediction of what type of fault had affected the area and caused the deformation that we saw. We were concentrating on the area of Narrow Cape and calculated the altitude at the lowest and highest points. The land was shaped in a “W” and could have either been Horst and Graben faults or simply two faults together. One age marker that kept us in check was the ash from the Katmai eruption in 1912. It had such a distinct color and taste that we immediately knew the time frame that the substrate was from. We found this layer in all of the stratigraphic layers we looked at which gave us insight into how much ash was actually deposited on the island. We only have a couple days left in Alaska and I can’t wait to find out what we’re doing next!

Tyler Willey

Hey all. Since we last blogged we have done much traveling, and now find ourselves leaving Kodiak Island after 2 nights and 3 days. We spent the 4^th of July in Ninilchik at a campsite that was beachfront and looking out at the steaming Mt. Redoubt. We were secretly hoping she would blow. We have spent most of our time studying stratiographic layers and how we can use them to date past disasters. We have been studying many faults that can be seen in the sediment layers, and spent most of our time at Kodiak mapping the Narrow Cape Fault. We measured altitude at various points along the map and studied some sediment and vegetation before we individually mapped what kind of faults we were on and where they were located. Most of the group seemed to have the faults down to two different types, and to which group is right continues to be unknown. Our last day on Kodiak we looked at 3 bays that were impacted by tsunamis caused by the 1964 earthquake. In Middle Bay, we were able to dig down and find a layer of ash from the 1912 Katmai volcanic eruption, followed by a very small layer of peat, followed by a layer of ocean sand on top of it. We were then able to say that the sand was from a sandsheet brought onshore by the tsunamis in 1964. Some other excitement we had at Kodiak besides great weather (apparently warmer and sunnier then the east coast) was swimming in the pacific ocean, Garver catching a red salmon, and practically everyone catching many small rock fish. The days are quickly winding down, and I am sad to see the end of the trip approaching. Hopefully our final days in Seward and Anchorage continue to bring excitement and fun! See y’all in a few days!

Tyler W

Shabana

Wow! I’ve really enjoyed these past couple of days on the coast. I’m from a coastal area back home but there is no comparison here. In my last blog I mentioned that each area we have visited is completely different and its still continues to be different. My favorites on the coast (Hartney Bay, Ninilchik Beach, and Narrow Cape) have been aesthetically mind blowing and all very different. Hartney Bay (just outside of Cordova)was organically rich and had lots of critters growing everywhere. Ninilchik was very rocky, but looked exactly like a beach. The greatest part was the next morning a Ninilchik when the tide went in about a mile! We met a couple of new people there including our friends Bob and Sonya who grilled fresh Salmon and Halibut for us. “It was the best yet!” Narrow Cape on Kodiak Island was unbelievable. It was very pacific looking…like in a magazine. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought I was in New Zealand! These past couple of days have been full of travel, beaches and music. Not to mention I had lots of fun when Eve, Steve, Adrienne and Doug came over for s’mores at Mc Kinley Cabin (by Cordova). The whole gang was singing and thanks to Eve and Steve I’ve been newly inspired to play the banjo! But in our travels these past few days, it was interesting to see the difference in Cordova’s interseismic subsidence (seen at the bay) and Kodiak’s interseismic uplift (seen in the fast growth of vegetation on slopes). I’m really looking forward to our trip to Seward (after all I do live on his memorial street in Schenectady)…not really looking forward to our final exam tomorrow which just means that this trip is coming to an end. But hey, all good things must come to an end. So, all I can do is enjoy our remaining days! Talk to you soon!

-Shabang

Ben

As we’re now riding our second long ferry back towards the Alaskan mainland, I’ve got a lot to catch you readers up on. We had a final night in the cabins (another very late night of ridiculous antics) before waking up at the butt crack of dawn to catch a ferry to Whittier, AK on the southern side of the Kenai Peninsula. Upon arrival, we had to drive through a one-way tunnel that accommodates cars and a train on the hour, which was pretty amazing. Our next campground, Ninilchik, was a beautiful beachside site where the friendliness of those in AK continues to amaze, as our neighbors gave us fresh salmon and halibut for dinner. We, in return, stunned the locals by diving into the frigid waters of Cook Inlet. We eventually got on the first of our overnight ferry rides (and got to shower again! It was almost not worth it considering the showers we got J) and arrived in the truly beautiful town and port of Kodiak City. About 10 miles from our campground on Kodiak was the Kodiak Launch Complex, a commercial satellite launch center that we found has been built on a number of active faults (way to go U.S. government!). We also looked at the sediment layering in Middle Bay where we found remnants of tsunami deposits following the 1964 earthquakes. Kodiak was devastated by this event and yet, along with all of Alaska’s coastline, is now tsunami prepared (as evidenced by the awesome siren that went off in Kodiak city today). Kodiak has been a ton a fun and one of, it not the most beautiful place we have visited so far. We hiked up a tall ridge overlooking the Pacific that featured a number of abandoned bunkers from World War II. It was an erie throwback to wartime life and an incredible juxtaposition to the incredible craggy coastline and fantastic wildlife we could see from atop our cliff (puffins, whales, seals and a ton of turns diving for fish). Alaska, as their license plates say, truly is the last frontier and a place of completely unfettered beauty. Only a few days left L but I’m sure they will be as amazing as the last 3 weeks have been!

Peace,

Curly

Well it doesn’t get any better than this. I’m sitting on the ferry to Homer from Kodiak Island with 8 hours of ride ahead of me. Everyone is studying for our final exam, which is coming up tomorrow night. It is a little bit like back at Union except we are living on a boat for a night in ALASKA haha. The last couple of days have been busy ones. Since I last wrote we have stayed in a few new places, and visited a lot of new towns along Alaska’s coast. We spent time in a town called Cordova, which was easily my favorite town on this trip. It was serene, surrounded by snow capped mountains, and was full of rich history. I loved it. After that we took the ferry across Prince William Sound to Whittier where we stayed on a beach across the way from Mt. Redoubt (Which is the currently erupting volcano you may have heard about on the news here and there). It was amazing, and I got a chance to swim on the beach, which was only a few steps away from our tents. Here we learned about the massive coal beds, which lay underneath the Cook Inlet. We also got a chance to look at the sediment layers, which are deposited underneath the basin, and we talked about post-1964 earthquake uplift in the area. After staying outside of Whittier for a night we drove to the town of Homer where we caught the ferry to Kodiak Island. During our time on the island we managed to fix a flat tire, check out volcanic ash and tsunami deposits, catch some fish, and go swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Izzy alone caught over 30 rock fish in the river next to our campsite on the island. Shabana managed to snag a halibut as well. We took a trip out to the Kodiak Launch complex yesterday and talked about the hazards of seismic faults, which run parallel to this muti-million dollar satellite launch center (good planning on that one :/). We also went to a place called Middle Bay today and dug up tsunami deposits from the waves that destroyed the area in the hours after the 1964 good Friday earthquake. Back then Kodiak was ill prepared for such an event, and because of this people lost their lives. Fortunately in the years following the earthquake the island set up warning systems for the shorline towns. We heard them test the warning siren today while we were hanging out in Kodiak. Now we are into the last few days of the trip, and most of us are excited to get home but sad to leave this place. I feel like the trip has gone much too fast, and I can’t believe how the time has flown. We have seen so many things, and taken in so many beautiful sights that I barely acknowledge the mountains that flank the ship as we chug along. We only have a few days left here, but I am positive more amazing things are to come. Until next time!

P.S. not many new animal sightings, just a ton of bald eagles, a few whales, and some puffins

Isabel Zellweger

Hi! Hi Everyone! So I believe our last blog was while we were staying at McKinley Cabin, so let me fill you in with what we have been up to! On Thursday we explored the alganik slough and looked at the sedimentary stratigraphy of a bank. When we did that we discovered the rotating clay and peat layers. The clay represents the interseismic deposition (when there was slow subsidence) and there was a bit of running water. The peat represents cosiesmic uplift, the land was moved upward and there was vegetation. It was very interesting to look at these layers on the Alganik slough because they are a strong indicator of subsidence and uplift. Another indicator was at Hartney Bay when we compared the barnecels levels, which indicate how high the sea level was at that point. Hartney Bay being in Cordova experiences coseismic uplift. This was seen because the barnacle level from 1964 is much higher on the shore than today’s level. After Cordova we took the ferry to Whittier and headed down to Homer. On the way we camped in Ninilchuk,, which was very beautiful. We were very fourtnate to have Mount Redoubt right in front of us- what an amazing sunset! At Ninilchuck we all were very brave and took a dip in the ocean which was pretty cold! Over the next few days in Cordova and Kodiak we focused a lot on the formation of Alaska’s volcanic arc, forearc, and accretionary complex all due to the subduction of the pacific plate underneath the North American plate. In Kodiak we also focused a bit on faults; we did a mapping project dealing with the faults along the Kodiak Launch Complex. This project was really interesting to do because it made us think about the formation of the patterns on the land. Many of us decided that there were four faults creating horst and graben topography. I will definitelyß say that Kodiak has been one of my favorite places on the trip so far- the weather has been absolutely perfect and it the scenery is absolutely beautiful. I am so fortunate to experience all of this. I am sad I have to say goodbye to all of this soon! On another note, its bedtime now, so I have to go… Until next time!

Bye!

Isy

More pictures! June 29-July 3

2009-07-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

First night at Childs Glacier - just checking out the calving front.

Update from Cordova - June 29 - July 3

2009-07-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

Palin announces her resignation at the end of July - the town's a buzz!!

Another update! We are in Cordova for the afternoon to investigate the aftermath of the 1964 Earthquake - they had to relocate the harbour. The students have a reported on their first few days on the Copper River Delta -very exciting stuff! Keep the comments coming -they are very popular.

Liz Morgan

What a crazy past few days this has been. Since I’ve last blogged, we’ve been spending our time on the Copper River Delta, exploring it in all its majesty. As we were leaving the campsite from Childs Glacier we saw two U.S. Geological Survey workers collecting data from a station on bridge 340; they were measuring stage (height) of the Copper River as it travelled past the bridge. The one man, Tim Brabets told us that since 1970 the river has changed route and bridges that once had a lot of discharge now have nearly none. Other bridges now have more discharge than they know what to do with. This posses a threat of under cutting the bridges that were not designed to uptake that much stress. Tim took us through a cornucopia of steps on how the stream is gauged and how those measurements are calculated through conversation standards, which in turn are published in professional papers by the USGS. The gauge itself weights 150 lbs, about 100 times more than the instrument we use at school during labs to measure local rivers and creeks! Both men were wearing really cool hats. People in Alaska are really polite and almost always ready to strike up conversation. We’re going into town tomorrow and then off to another ferry. This trip gets better and better every day.

Tyler Izykowskis

Well well, we meet again… So after we left Squirrel Creek Campground, we travelled to the city of Valdez. We visited the original location of Valdez, which was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake by a local tsunami, before arriving to the new relocated city of Valdez to catch a ferry to Cordova. On the three-hour long ferry ride, I caught some Z’s and then helped the United States Forestry Service Ranger teach little kids about glacial processes. It seemed a bit over their heads but the ranger gave me an "I heart the Chugach" pencil and a lollipop so it all worked out. We anchored in Cordova and drove along the Copper River Highway where we saw our first bear, a huge grizzly bear chilling on the side of the road, before arriving at our campground directly across the river from Child’s Glacier. This was most excellent because the glacier calved what seemed like every five minutes and echoed through the campground as massive chunks of ice sheered off into the Copper. We spent the next day mapping the substrate composition of the glacier and old Copper River basin. We had an awesome dinner of quesadillas down by the river and watched the glacier continue to calve. Definitely a memorable experience! The next day we pulled up stakes and left the campground for the McKinley Trail Cabin about 30 miles away. We looked at the Million Dollar Bridge on our way and talked about how it was misaligned when it was restored 40 years after it was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake. It’s been pretty sweet so far here at the McKinley Lodge, stuffing 10 people into a four-person cabin like some kind of cornucopia of geoscience love. We spent today looking at stratographic sequences and taking tree core samples in the Alaganik Slough to understand the response of the landscape to seismic uplift and subsidence. We’re spending part of the day tomorrow in the town of Cordova and then leaving Saturday for Whittier. Woo, it doesn’t get any better than this!

Taylor LaBrecque

Since the last time we blogged… I SPOTTED THE FIRST BEAR! We were on our way to Child’s glacier campground and were told to keep our eyes open because we were in “bear country”. Sure enough about a half hour from the campground we saw our first bear, which was so much larger than I ever could have imagined. It sat patiently across the lake as we took pictures and videos of it. It was definitely one of the most exciting events on this trip so far, because bears are by far my favorite animals. Child’s Glacier also turned out to be pretty amazing. Our group spent hours watching it calve off into the Copper River. In 1993 there was such a large piece of ice that fell from the glacier that it created a 30 ft wave. This wave took out most of the campground we were sleeping on. Watching the calving glacier consistently mesmerized us for hours each night before we retired to our sleeping bags. It was tough to leave that campsite, even though the mosquitoes were so threatening that I had to bring out my mosquito mask. Today we spent our entire day in the Alaganik Slough taking a cornucopia of tree core samples. This was really interesting; from the cores we could get insight into how the trees in the area responded to seismic events such as uplift and subsidence. It was really cool to be able to compare the cores to see how the 1964 earthquake affected the trees differently. I’ve been learning so much on this trip and I can’t wait to see what’s up next.

Ben Carlson

After a fun and fantastic few days since our last blog, I’ve got a lot to catch up on. On our way to Childs Glacier, we spent a day in Valdez (yes the same Valdez of the famous oil spill in the late 80’s) before taking a ferry to Cordova and onto Childs. Despite Valdez being a huge oil port, the town is nothing of note, a typical medium sized town that relies heavily on fishing. You really get a sense for how small the Alaska population is (~600,000). Upon reaching Childs Glacier, we completed our second mapping project by mapping different sediment deposits left by the Copper River. We found that the river’s banks used to extend far beyond their current reaches and that runoff from the top of the glacier had created its own river channels after the Copper had shrunk; all this from looking at dirt! Both on our drives and campsites, the cornucopia of wildlife continues to amaze. We saw our first grizzly bear, which, despite its cuddly looks, was one of the most impressive creatures I have ever laid eyes on. We’ve also seen a number of bald eagles (as Garver says, they’re like crows up here) and the fish continue to fly, at least at Garver’s lure J. It seems like just yesterday that I was thinking how many awesome days I have ahead yet I’m already wishing it would never end. I’m still itching to get to Kodiak and there will be more adventures than I can count to come for sure. But until then, I’m just lovin life in the great north!

Isabel Zellweger

Hi! Hi! There have been many things we have done since our last blog. After Squirrel Campground we traveled down to Valdez. On the way we stopped at Old Valdez, which was pretty cool to see. Old Valdez was a city that was destroyed by a local tsunami caused by the 1964 earthquake. In Valdez, before we got on the ferry to Cordova we got to take our showers and do laundry…very nice. After an enjoyable 3 hour ferry ride we arrived in Cordova and drove to Childs Glacier. Being at Childs Glacier was pretty remarkable because we got to watch the glacial processes of caving. Childs Glacier actively caves because the Copper River erodes into it. The Childs Glacier advances about 200 ft per day, so this caving is pretty important or else our campground would have been covered by ice. The next day we did a mapping project on Childs Glacier dealing with the past route of Copper River. On Wednesday we left Childs Glacier and had a short drive to McKinley Cabin on the Alaganik Slough. Today we explored the Alaganik slough and took many tree core samples to see the effects of the 1964 earthquake on the growing patterns of sitka spruce trees. Also, thanks to Taylor we saw our first bear! Very exciting!

PS- I’m learning a cornucopia of new country songs! HOT DIGITY DAWG!

Alex Connell

Hey again, I have been having a great time since we last talked. We have moved south to Cordova. During the trip we crossed over the beautiful Chugach Mountain range. This range has risen over millions of years from the pacific tectonic plate subducting beneath the North American plate. This subducting also creates massive earthquakes in excess of 8.0 approximately every 300 years. This last happened in 1964 during the great Alaskan Earthquake, this massive earthquake created a cornucopia of problems for Alaskan residents from tectonic shaking, to massive tsunamis. The effects of this earthquake really hit home when we went to old Valdez, which was completely destroyed by a tsunami created by the 1964 earthquake. Seeing the foundations of the buildings was quite spooky and made me realize the serious geologic dangers Alaskans face. We are now on the Copper River looking at soil horizons and tree cores in order to understand how these tectonic events affect the landscape and vegetation in this area. Next time I talk to you I’ll be in Kodiak!

Ed Milde

Hey Guys! The trip has only gotten better since the last time I wrote. So far we have made our way down south to the shore. We took an awesome ferry from Valdez to Cordova. We passed by the Exxon Valdez spill site, which was a little sobering to see even though the effects weren’t visible anymore. We spent two nights at the Childs Glacier campsite. This was easily my favorite part of the trip, mostly because on our way into the site we spotted a grizzly bear across a pond chilling along the rode. We got incredible pictures and must have watched it for 10 minutes before it finally walked into the woods. Then we set up camp right across the river from Childs Glacier. This glacier is special because it terminates directly into the Copper River. So as the glacier flows out daily huge chunks of ice calve off of the glacier as the quickly flowing river eats away at the constantly advancing ice face. Spent hours just watching humongous faces of ice slam into the Copper River right before our eyes. When we went to sleep there was one so big that our tents shook. We had to set up camp further inland instead of camping right across the river from the glacier because apparently in 1993 the calving ice created a wave 30 feet high. As you can see the trip has been incredible, and it just keeps getting better. I am getting to know everyone very well, and I love sharing this cornucopia of experiences with such a great group of people. Like always I hope everything I going well wherever you may be. I’ll talk to you again soon when we are on Kodiak. Later guys!

p.s. 18 Moose, 8 Bald Eagles, 1 Caribou, and 1 BEAR! haha (For Now)

Shabana Hoosein

Oh hey there guys! Everything is great here in Alaska! We’re going on our 14^th day tomorrow. These past days have been pretty intense in terms of learning. We’ve worked on our second mapping project at Childs Glacier and today we spent the whole day coring trees. Its so surprising to see how different all of these places are in Alaska. We’ve only been to two different campgrounds on the coast so far, but they are distinctively different. Child’s Glacier was…well, a glacier! Regardless, it had a lot more rocks than I had expected. There was a crazy amount of mosquitoes on the campgrounds too. Right now we’re by the Alaganik Slough, which still has a good amount of mosquitoes (not as many as before though). The land composition is swampier and muddy/clay-like here. Its swampy here because its experiencing interseismic deposition. So basically, the land jerked up during the 1964 earthquake and it is now slowly subsiding. As it subsides water gets drained back into the soil, making it more like clay and less likely for vegetation to survive in it. Both places are still absolutely breath taking. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Child’s Glacier was calving approx. every 15 minutes and the swampy waters of the Alaganik Slough are bright turquoise. I’m so glad that I have the opportunity to come out here and really indulge in the simple, but true beauties of the world. I know that there is a cornucopia of great beauties to come! Next stop Kodiak Island!

-Shuh Bang, Shuh Bop Bop, Shabana J

Tyler Willey

Hey all! So I am currently out of breath after outrunning a park ranger in the woods with Ben for our expired/lack of fishing licenses. Don't worry we were successful in finding Garver who showed us some new findings that related to our tree coring exercises we did today along the Alaganik Slough, and by the time the ranger found us and talked to Garver she didn't even question about our licenses. So, we are currently staying in a (very small) cabin along the Alaganik Slough and spent the day coring trees to see if the uplift caused by the 1964 earthquake put stress on the tree growth, or if it allowed for new habitats to be formed. Besides coring the trees we also examined sediment layers to see the periods of uplift (coseismic events), and periods of subsidence (interseismic events). Our days before arriving at the Alaganik Slough were spent mapping how Child’s Glacier and the Copper River have interacted together and changed over the years. Child’s Glacier was way different then the other glaciers we have visited in the sense that it sounded like we were getting a constant thunderstorm at our campsite due to huge chunks of ice calving and crashing into the river. Upon climbing the glacier for mapping there were huge crevasses and it proved difficult to walk very far onto the glacier around these cracks. The only downside to the beauty and fun we have had at these sites is the cornucopia of mosquitoes and gnats that are constantly biting you inside and outside the cars and tents. Well, only 2 more nights of these intense bugs before we finally head off to the highly anticipated Kodiak Island (Big Fishing supposedly!!).

Catch y’all laters!

-T-Dubs Willey

Marisa Kwoczka

Greetings everyone! So far I have been having a blast here in Alaska! I can’t believe we have been here two weeks! After our group left Squirrel Camp ground, we arrived at Child’s Glacier at the Copper River. We were able to observe the glacier caving right in front of us! Every time a chunk of ice fell, it sounded like a tremendous thunderstorm. Child’s Glacier moves about 200 feet a day but the Copper River runs through it preventing the glacier from entering our campsite. On Tuesday we hiked part of the glacier and did a topographic map of the surrounding area. We left Child’s Glacier on Wednesday and made our way towards the Alaganik Slough and the Chugach National Forest cabin. Around here, we have been taking tree ring samplings and have continued to study the after affects of the 1964 tsunami. We have come across a cornucopia of insects while being in the Copper River Delta, the Alaganik Slough, and the Chugach National Forest. The mosquitoes are killer! I am really excited to go to Kodiak in a couple of days so talk to ya when we are on the ferry!

Recent Pictures, June 22-June 29

2009-06-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ok Sorry for the multiple posts- but our connection time is limited!

Tangle Lakes and Upper Copper River Basin June 26-28

2009-06-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

Ok this is the second post for today, these entries were written last night at our campground after an amazing red salmon bake -- the salmon were literally caught hours before we enjoyed them - what a day!

Tyler Willey

Hi all! So the last few days have definitely been full of adrenaline and excitement. As we ventured our way towards Tangle Lakes we got to experience a brief snow blizzard and rain. Upon arriving at the campsite, it was raining fairly heavy so we rushed to set up tents, and to set up a tarp over our picnic table using 2 trees and branches as poles. After eating dinner we got to go fishing in the lakes…and surprisingly people besides Garver caught fish! I started off the catching with a grayling, and soon after Tyler caught a nice lake trout. The night ended with me catching 2 grayling, Tyler 1 lake trout, Ben 1 grayling, and Alex 7 grayling on his fly rod in a nearby stream. The next day we split into 3 groups and were assigned quadrants in which we had to hike around and observe vegetation, sediment, rocks, and any wildlife. Each group plotted 10-15 points in their quadrant on an aerial map, and upon returning to camp at the end of the day all points were shared and each individual created a map showing the vegetation and old and new deltas of the river. My group, which included Tyler and Marisa, started off the plotting with quite a scare when nose high in brush we saw a “bear” climbing a tree, after further observation it was thought to be a wolverine, and upon learning wolverines don’t climb trees we concluded it HAD to be a beaver. As we safely left the area and continued on our wandering throughout the brush and hills, we soon learned that this bear/wolverine/beaver was really a porcupine, as Jacki and Garver had gone out to observe what we had seen. There were no other adrenaline rushing encounters for the rest of the day, and the only other real interesting wildlife sighting was a bald eagle flying overhead. We attempted to go out fishing, however the wind was too rough on the lake, so we soon decided to head back and finish our mapping projects. After waking up and leaving in the morning we went down the Copper River. We stopped at a large fishing wheel station where we saw the people capturing HUGE salmon. One of the fishermen we talked to explained how the process works, how to filet a salmon, and in the end even gave us 7 fish to take for dinner! It was so cool to see the King Salmon, and I soon discovered how heavy they were when I couldn’t even hold one up with my left hand! After finishing at the fishing wheels we then drove to Squirrel Lake, which is where we are staying for one night.

The days here never cease to amaze me, and I can’t wait to tell more stories as we continue our travels.

Talk to y’all soon!

Marisa Kwoczka

Greetings everyone! We have spent the past two nights at Tangle Lakes campsite. When we arrived there on Friday it was raining so we had to set up camp pretty quickly. I went fishing with Jackie, Garver, and Alex, but I somehow became separated from them and headed back to camp early for some smores. Saturday morning we slept in and had a late start to working on our topographic map of the campsite and beyond around Tangle Lakes.

The ten of us split into three groups and were assigned areas in which we had to hike around and observe vegetation, sediment, rocks, and wildlife if we saw any. I was grouped with Tyler Willey and Tyler Izykowski. As we started our hike, we thought we saw a small black bear on a tree in the distance and backed away. After watching this “bear” for a while, it seemed too small to actually be a bear and assumed it was a wolverine. Later on we discovered it was a porcupine. We hiked to two peninsulas and the only other wildlife we saw was a bald eagle flying overhead. After a long, tiring day we drove to the Tangle Lakes Inn for dinner and I had a Delicious Fruit of the Forest pie mmm good! I went finishing afterwards and officially caught my first graying fish and reeled it in! Garver took some funny pictures of me being squeamish when holding the fish. This morning we left Tangle Lakes early and had a long drive to Copper River. The town Copper River was an old gold mining town and we looked at two small museums. Then we stopped at the actual river and met a man named Mike Sullivan who was fishing red and king salmon. He gave us seven red salmon to have for dinner! We watched him cut up the fish and I was able to hold the Red Salmon and the very large and heavy King Salmon. We ended our day at Squirrel Campground where we are staying for the night. Tomorrow we are going to Valdez to shower and do laundry before we take a ferry to Cordova! It will be the first time we are showering since we arrived! WOOHOO! Talk to ya in a few!

Isabel Zellweger

Hi!Hi! So it is our tenth night here in Alaska and we are at Squirrel Campground. We spent the past two nights at Tangle Lakes Campground, where we did a mapping project. Tangle Lakes is a cool campground set on an old river delta, which makes the area relatively flat, not to mention the bathrooms got a 9.3 out of 10 rating! At Tangle Lakes I made my first fishing cast ever, no luck though- but Tyler W. did! We got to Tangle Lakes, (after a drive which included snow!) on Friday and went on a hike that afternoon to get an overview of our project. For our project, all of us were divided into three groups- all with their own area to survey. The object of our project was to create a topographic map of our areas and figure out the creation of that area. My partners were Taylor, Shabana, and Alex. Around noon yesterday the four of us set out on our journey to study the sediments, vegetation and wildlife in our area. Garver drove us to the Tangle Lakes Inn and dropped us off. From there we set out and surveyed ten areas before making our way back to camp. Luckily we did not see any bears, moose, caribou, or any large animals for that matter because I will admit I was a bit scared. However, going out into the field was awesome. It was really cool to go out on our own and think like a scientist. We finally made it back to camp where we worked on the actual maps and ate dinner. Today we woke up to egg –a- muffins, packed up and got on the road. From Tangle Lakes to Squirrel Campground we made many stops. We stopped at Glenallen to get some gas followed by the town Copper River. Our next stop, which was supposed to be a quick half an hour turned into a very interesting couple of hours. We went down to the bank of the Copper River where there were many fishing wheels. We met a man who generously gave us our delicious dinner- 7 red salmon. Tonight we are going to finish up our maps and head to bed because tomorrow we are waking up early to make our way to Valdez. In Valdez we are getting to take much needed showers and do some much needed laundry. Tomorrow afternoon we are taking a ferry to Cordova, where we will be spending some time.

Shabana Hoosein

Hi everyone! The last time we blogged, we were just coming from Donnelly Campgrounds. Since then, we traveled to Tangle Lakes, which was the best yet! If it weren’t so rainy and cloudy it would be the absolute best. Upon arriving we set up our tents right away (in the rain) and got to work! We hiked up this really steep slope and when we got to the top we could see the entire campground! I’ve really come to like hiking because after all the sweating and heavy breathing, you get to the top feeling more accomplished than when you were at the bottom. Metaphorically, it brings across an appetizing feeling because it’s so fulfilling. So, I’m glad that we do a lot of hiking because I look forward to it every day (not good for the shin splints though :/). On this hike we found a patch of snow (which was pretty rare across the whole campground) and we slid down the hill. That was lots of fun! Our second day at Tangle Lakes was amazing! We got put into groups to make the area around the campgrounds. I was in a group of four with Alex, Taylor and Isy where we explored the deepest (and wettest) areas of the campgrounds. As the four of us walked down the road in our rubber boots, hiking attire, and field notebooks, it felt like we were in a scene from an expedition type of movie. As we got further and further into our site, I felt more and more like the guy from “Into the Wild” (especially when we saw an abandoned vehicle in the middle of the woods). Being out on our own for the first time brought mixed feelings. It was exhilarating because it felt like we were real scientists mapping on our own and supplied with a walkie-talkie as our only source of communication to the outside world. It was sometimes intimidating because we did a lot of bushwhacking and some of the vegetation came above our heads. In this case, bears, moose or other wildlife could have come out of anywhere. In the end it was mostly lots of fun because we ended up singing at the top of our lungs the whole time to scare off bears and other wildlife. By the end of the mapping, we were so exhausted from an estimated 5 ½ hours in the field that covered approximately 7 miles. Nonetheless, that was an experience that I will definitely take back with me to Union and may keep it in mind when I’m looking for future jobs/internships. Tonight, we are in Squirrel Campgrounds for the night and we head off to Valdez tomorrow morning. Valdez will be the location where I’ll get to take my first shower since last Saturday! I’m pretty excited. After that we’ll be on a ferry to Cordova on the coats. Overall, I really am excited for our studies at the coast. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Tyler Izykowski

Hot diggidy dog! Good times here in Alaska! The tenth day of our journey has landed us at the Squirrel Creek Campground. We’ve just completed our northernmost leg of the trip and have made our way down from the Tangle Lakes region. At Tangle, we engaged in a mapping project that helped us identify the history of the landscape. We broke up into three groups and investigated three different regions of the area that corresponded to an aerial photo obtained from GoogleMaps prior to our trip. Each group used ground truthing (an extensive observational analysis of the relative elevation, vegetation, and substrate composition of a dozen or so locations in the region) in order to report back to camp for further group analysis. We determined that the bizarre topography of the Tangle Lakes region was most likely due to glacial processes. It became apparent that stagnant ice and sudden drop in lake levels had long lasting effects on the land and the river connecting Upper and Lower Tangle Lake. Later, we made a color coded map of the area to visually demonstrate the diverse topography of the region. The project overall was very interesting and made for a day of hands-on, do-it-yourself learning. Saturday night we dined at the Tangle River Inn, which was most unexpected and welcomed. After filling our guts with deluxe burgers and homemade pies, we retired for the night before our early departure in the morning. Sunday morning we left Tangle and travelled south along the historic Richardson Highway (oldest highway in the state) to “the hub of Alaska,” Copper Center. We visited the quaint village of less than 500 residents, stopping at a museum and getting a feeling of what gold rush Alaska might have been like before continuing our way along the Copper River. We stopped to observe some salmon wheeling and were pleasantly surprised to find a fisherman, Mike Sullivan, who was more than happy to show us the ropes. He gave us a brief description of how the salmon wheel works while he filleted freshly caught red salmon. I asked if he would mind if I gave it a try and gladly taught me to fillet a salmon. Then he unloaded about six 40-pound king salmon from his salmon wheel and had us try the fish eggs. Long story short, a little salt would have been nice. We said goodbye to Mike, but not before he supplied us with six red salmon as well as the fillets that I had cut, which made for an unbelievable dinner when we finally reached Squirrel Creek. We’re leaving early tomorrow morning for Valdez where we’ll be able to finally shower and do laundry and explore the city before catching the ferry to Cordova. Phew! I finally made a decent length blog entry. Alright, it’s getting late and I need to sleep off this salmon so until next time, you stay classy Planet Earth!

Hey Again! So a lot has happened since I last wrote two days ago. After we left Donnelly Creek we set out for Tangle Lakes. This was a really nice campsite. We had our tents set up on a hill tucked in behind a small tree line right along a small stream/ river. It was incredible falling asleep to the sound of running water not 20 feet away. Tangle was significantly different from our last campsite. Here we were above the tree line, so the only trees we could see were the ones which were by our campsite and a few others spread out around the massive area of land behind us. Tangle Lakes is located on (you got it) Tangle Lake, which was great for fishing and just relaxing. It was beautiful. After our first night at Tangle we got into three separate groups and set out to do something called ground truthing. We did this in order to make sense of these air photomaps we had of the area. After we walked around the area we colored in these air photos depending on what kind of topography and vegetation was located in various places on the map area. This assignment was a lot of fun mostly because it gave us a chance as students to be on our own and do our thing by ourselves since the groups consisted only of the students on the trip. We had a few possible bear sightings but they all turned out to either be a bush or a porcupine. After the mapping project we woke up the next morning and set out for Squirrel Creek, which is where I am writing from right now. On our way here we acted like tourists and stopped at a few small museums and lookouts which overviewed the new river plain we were entering. We mostly followed the Copper River on the way to Squirrel Creek, and the views were absolutely incredible. We got a chance to look at the Wrangell St. Elias mountain range and see a Shield Volcano (Mt. Wrangell) on our way up. Before we got to our current camp we stopped at a salmon fishing spot where fishers used baskets to catch the salmon running along the river. They used these ferris wheel like things which periodically dipped into the river and occasionally caught a salmon or two. We got a chance to spend some time with a fisherman who was very kind and gave us 7 fresh Red Salmon which I can smell cooking as we speak. The weather here in Squirrel Creek is awesome, Tangle Lakes was beautiful but it rained a lot. Here it is sunny and the most rain we have gotten has been an occasional sun shower. Izzy and I may go for a swim later, since this is the first spot that we have come to where swimming may actually be enjoyable and not painful. Unfortunately we are only here for tonight and then tomorrow we are going to be moving on to Valdez where, thank god, we are going to get to shower and do some laundry (I can’t even imagine how bad we all must smell at this point haha. A lot of us are excited to see Valdez because we have heard a ton about it since the pipeline ends here after its 800 mile journey from Prudhoe Bay in the north. I have to admit I miss home a bit, but so far this trip has been more than I could have ever imagined. I know home will always be there, but I am only gonna be in Alaska for so long. I miss everyone at home and I hope wherever you are everything is going great. I’ll write again soon, probably after we leave Cordova and Child’s Glacier. Until then, stay safe!

- “Fancy” Ed Milde

p.s. 16 Moose, 3 Bald Eagles, A ton of weird Squirrels, 1 Caribou and 0 Bears (For Now)

Liz

Howdy Ya’ll…TOMORROW IS SHOWER DAY! It’s been a little over a week since we’ve taken hot water showers so when we go to Valdez tomorrow we’ll get to experience a long overdue washing. However, camping has been great so far and it's almost better to wake up every morning with bit of yesterdays grime on you. I can hardly believe that the trip is a third over; Time flies by so fast! The past few days were spent at Tangle Lakes and the group split up into three teams to map out an area of the campground. Each group had an air-photo and a designated area to hike through to help distinguish the different geological areas. Because Garver and Cockburn did not accompany us on the individual trips, the groups were given bear mace and a ‘bear banger’ (flare to scare bears) and a walkie-talkie just incase. There were no dangerous encounters, but one group saw a porcupine. The overall deduction (after the data was collected from each team) was that the campground sits on an old delta, and the present active channel is cutting down into it because of a sudden lowering of Lower Tangle Lake. The other areas have a dimpled texture as well as high unevenly distributed peaks, due to stagnant ice melting. The topography of the Tangle Lakes area was definitely affected by glacier ice melt draining. The field experience was great, but the best part of the day was probably eating at the Tangle Lakes Inn (deluxe burgers with fruit of the forest pie [a pie that has raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, apples and blackberries]); it was delicious! Today was spent mostly in cars driving toward Valdez. The best stop we made was at Copper River, where there were people fishing salmon, using salmon-wheels. Can you believe that, if you are a resident of Alaska, you can catch salmon by picking them up out of the water with nets! We spend a few hours watching Mike Sullivan catch and filet King and Red Salmon. I just finished dinner (fresh Red Salmon, courtesy of Mike) and now have to complete my map of Tangle Lakes and its geologic areas (therefore short blog). We also get to take a ferry tomorrow so hopefully we’ll see a lot of marine life, or more exciting, a bear, once at Cordova.

Loving every minute of it,

- Liz

Taylor LaBrecque

Hello again! It hasn’t been long since our last blog but we’ve definitely done a lot. Yesterday was the first day that we went off without the Professors to do group work. We set our tents up at Tangle Lakes campground and spent two nights there. The first day we arrived we took a hike to get an idea of the general area that we would be mapping the following day. Near the end of the hike we managed to find one of the only patches of snow in the campground and had a great time sliding down the very steep incline. Unfortunately the landing wasn’t quite as soft as we had imagined but repeated the process several times anyway. When we woke up in the morning we split up into three groups, each of us assigned to different portions of the Tangle Lakes area. The goal of the project was to take notes on both the vegetation and the different types of sediments that appeared throughout our hikes. We had to design our own paths to follow and unfortunately our group had a lot of swampland to cover. Although our rubber boots got waterlogged and received dozens of bug bites, we still had a great time. Our group consisted of three girls and Alex; I’m pretty sure after that hike he knows the lyrics to every Taylor Swift song. We sang the entire time and jingled our bells just to be sure that there wouldn’t be a bear encounter. We identified a lot of the same vegetation throughout most of the stops we made. This was mostly lichen, northern labrador tea, and specific species of willow and birch. The wetter parts and the peaks of the mountains had shorter trees. It was interesting how most of the ridges were covered with rocks instead of shrubs of vegetation like the sloping sides. Our group was accountable for the southeast corner, which was farthest from the campsite and the river delta. One of the reasons for doing the project was to see the differences in vegetation and relative altitude. The area around the current delta used to be covered in water and we could see this by looking at the overall picture of Tangle Lakes. The entire lake has decreased by a couple meters and the river running into it adapted to the change by cutting into the sediment. We were actually camping on a portion of the old river delta. We learned a lot at Tangle Lakes; it was hard to take down the makeshift tent we put up above the picnic table and pack up camp. We spent most of today in the car traveling south. We stopped in a big fishing area that is known for its large numbers of salmon. We met a very friendly guy who ended up showing us about the spin wheel that many of the Alaskans use to fish. We got to see him filet some king salmon and he sent us off to cook seven fish for dinner. Best dinner yet! Tomorrow we get to explore Valdez and take showers. None of us can hide our excitement!

Can’t wait to shower!

- Taylor LaBrecque

Alex Connell

Hey again! We have done a ton of fun stuff since we last talked. After packing up from Donnelly Creek we headed for Tangle Lakes Campgrounds, which has beautiful glacial topography and crystal clear lakes and streams. On our first night we went for a hike to get an overview of the land. The next morning we were split into 3 groups to survey the land by ourselves. This surveying is known as groundtruthing. It was really cool to actually do geological work to get a feel for how geologists construct a story about how different land formations are created and how these processes will affect the future of the land. Our group consisted of Taylor, Izzy, Shabana, and myself and our field area varied from tall hill peaks to low swampy areas. It was really fun and exciting trudging though the swamps and hill slopes singing songs and being loud so the local wildlife would stay away. Our group looked at the sediment, rock types, and vegetation to get an idea of how the different areas formed. I also was able to find a lot of carrioubu and moose bones incluing half a caribou antler! Once we finished that we combined all of our data to create a story of how the Tangle Lakes area was formed. Right now I am in the process of creating a map of the area showing how different areas of the land were formed. Also Tangle Lakes had great fishing and I caught my first fish on a fly rod with some guidance from Garver. Tell Granddad I caught 7 graylings so far. Also a couple of us brewed tea from the leaves of the Labrador plant that we found at the campgrounds that smelled and tasted great.

Today we left Tangle lakes and moved south towards Squirrel Campgrounds where we will be staying the night. Along the way we stopped at a local fishery that used fish wheels to catch massive king and red salmon. We met a fisherman named Mike Sullivan who was such a great guy. He showed us how everything was done at fish wheels from the catch to the filleting of the fish. I was able to try salmon cavier for the first time ever it was almost as fancy as Ed. He even let Tyler filet one of the fishes. Not to forget that we gave us 6 10 lb salmon! We ate like kings tonight, thank you Mike. Tomorrow we head out again to Valdez to catch a ferry to Cordova. I got to get back to my mapping I’ll talk to you again in Cordova!

Alex

PS Mom I get to shower tomorrow so I am not completely filthy.

Ben Carlson

We’ve reached just over a week into our amazing journey and yet it feels like we’ve been here for weeks already, which would make sense considering how much we have packed into our time here. We left Donnelly Creek two days ago in appalling weather, encountering snow, yes SNOW, on our drive to Tangle Lakes, significantly reducing our ability to be view the terrain surrounding us. However, upon reaching Tangle, we found a beautiful set of lakes flanked by ridges and a burbling creek that ran through the campground. Our first day consisted of a small hike along one of the ridges that ran by the edge of Lower Tangle to a small snowpack that remained from the winter where we sledded down on our butts with a group of kids from a student group repairing and cutting new trails through the bush. The big news of the last few days came yesterday, where we were set free (the professors amazingly trusted us with flare guns and pepper spray!) to map the topography and vegetation of the area surrounding the campground. Ed, Liz and I set out on our own for almost 5 hours recording vegetation, sediment characteristics and other elements of the terrain eventually allowing us to map out distinct sections of the landscape on our own. This trip was the first time we were set free to work on our own and really gave me a look into how this element of field geology would be practiced in an occupational setting. As time goes on I am finding myself more and more drawn to the field of geosciences and I may well be wrangled into their cult (you think I’m kidding). After two nights in Tangle Lakes, we took a day of travel to get within 80 miles of Valdez where we will get our first showers and do laundry in this busy oil port. We drove back down the Richardson highway through the “Hub of Alaska” (Glenallen) and on to the tiny old gold rush village of Copper Center which consisted of a VERY small museum, a little in, a garage and that’s about it. As you can tell, it has fallen pretty from its heyday of the early 20^th century. We then drove to the banks of the Copper River, one of the biggest rivers in North America and the biggest un-dammed river in the continent. We ran into a local fisherman who runs a “fish-wheel”, a water-wheel-like contraption that spins with the river current and catches salmon running up stream in large baskets. He ended up giving us about $200 worth of fresh-caught salmon and I tried caviar (fish-eggs) for the first time. As described by Tyler, “it’s like a weird-tasting gusher that dissolves almost instantly”. It was strange for sure, an acquired taste I guess. Tomorrow we finally get clean (which is a good thing I guess) before getting on a ferry to Cordova and Childs Glacier (which I CAN’T WAIT FOR). There is much yet to come and it looks like its only gonna get better. Talk to ya’ll soon (looks like all that country music we’re listening to thanks to Garver is getting to me)!

Ben

Denali Fault - Pipeline June 22-25

2009-06-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Alright, we have an internet connection and about 30 minutes until we have to catch the ferry! Thankfully the students wrote these blog entries on June 25!

Shabana

Right now, we are at our fourth and last night at Donnelly Campgrounds, which is about 200 miles from our last site at Matanuska Glacier. This campground is great because we have easy access to the stream (which is freezing cold), drinking water, and a pretty okay outhouse. We arrived on our first day and went to Castner Glacier on our second day. This glacier was very different from Matanuska. There was a lot more sediment and rocks on Castner Glacier and LOTS of mud! Ed, Tyler I. and I went in the mud barefoot, which was the highlight of the trip. The mud felt great (better than a spa) and had such unique and interesting qualities. It almost acted like a dried layer of pudding when you first touched it, but as you continue to submerge your feet into it, it acted as slow moving quick sand. At Castner Glacier we came across this man from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Although we weren’t expecting to see any people in this area, it was interesting to meet a real person with a job out in the field. Our third day in we went three different places: the pipeline at the Denali Fault, mile marker 207, and Gunnysack Creek. At the pipeline, we went into the side forests, which had denser vegetation than I would have expected. The ground vegetation was covered in this bouncy moss that was lots of fun to jump on. We also saw lots of the same plants from Matanuska Glacier like Alpine Sweet Vetch and Poplar Trees. We also saw this tree that was split in half from the Earthquake in 1912 and 2002. It’s hard to believe that that tree had been so strongly affected by these earthquakes and the pipeline was fine (because of the way it was built). Today, we went to Bear Creek and Donnelly Dome. The Donnelly Dome was definitely an amazing sight to see. It’s surreal to know that the Black Rapids glacier affected all of the surrounding area and this dome wasn’t. This trip continues to get better with every site we go to. The next couple of days should be fun, but I cant wait to get to the coast!

Liz

This second leg of the trip has been pretty cool, weather, water and knowledge wise. Every day has been a different adventure. For starters, the campground we’re staying at was used as a campground for those who were constructing the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline! Coincidently enough our main area of study for these past few days has been observing how the natural hazards of this Alaskan terrain affected the planning of the pipeline’s path. Firstly there are is the threat of earthquakes from the Denali Fault. The pipeline engineers have combated that aspect by putting sections of the pipeline on footers coated with Teflon, which allow it to slide on metal ties mounted in the ground. The other days of the trip were spent looking at the path of the Black Rapids Glacier surge in the 1930’s. This particular surge caused the Delta River to be dammed by glacial deposits, therefore causing the local tributary streams (Donnelly Creek and Bear Creek) to deposit their sediment. Over time, the Delta River carried the glacial deposits away and the local streams were allowed to again erode their respective areas. The pipeline engineers also planned for another glacial surge incident by placing the pipeline in the inflection point (point where erosion and deposition of a stream is the same) of the Bear Creek tributary. This is logically the best place to avoid any type of major fluvial damage. As adamant the designers were in making sure the pipeline avoided natural hazards, we saw in one of informational rest-stop sign that they portrayed the Denali Fault as a sinister (left moving) strike slip fault, when it is indeed a dextral (right moving) strike slip fault. Hey, at least they planned correctly, because in 2002 when there was an earthquake the pipeline remained intact and no oil was spilled. Tomorrow we’re packing up camp and moving on to Tangle Lakes to do a mapping project. Hopefully the nice weather stays and the bugs remain innocuous. I’m falling in love with this place; it is almost too good to be true.

Alex

The second part of our trip has been incredible. We are staying at Donnelly Creek Camp Grounds that has a beautiful braided stream system running through its backyard. This stream has the Central Alaskan Mountain Range as its background, its quite spectacular. This stream is teeming with arctic grayling that we have fished for every night. It has been an incredible and cold experience learning to fly fish barefoot in an Alaskan stream. Besides the grayling the other wildlife has been spectacular in this area. We have seen bald eagles, moose, caribou, red foxes, arctic hares, as well as our friendly camp squirrel that we have affectionately called Baxter. I never thought I would be able to see such incredible animals outside of the Discovery Channel. The other thing I though I would never see outside of my television is the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. Being able to see and touch the pipe really put in perspective the level of planning and engineering it took to create an 800 mile pipe over some of the most treacherous land on Earth. The pipeline crosses the Denali fault, permafrost soils, glacial zones, alluvial fans, mountains, rivers, and various other hazards that could destroy the pipe and cause massive environmental disasters. The fact that the pipe has not had any misshapes is a testament to the planning of the engineers who created it. We studied these processes that could potentially destroy the pipe. To solve the earthquake problem created by the Denali Fault the pipe is set up on Teflon shoes that side on metal beams to bend and not break in a large earthquake event. The pipe planners thoughtfully avoided thermokarst terrain that could destabilize the ground if the ice underneath melted. The engineers also build the pipe above permafrost because the heat from the oil could melt the ice in the soil and destabilize the land. We also learned about Alluvial fans that can erode and deposit sediment that could through the pipe off. Understanding the different factors was really eye opening to understanding planning massive projects. Tomorrow we head out to tangle lake were we will begin our mapping projects, Garver also said the fishing is much better so I am really excited.

Tyler Willey

You don’t know pain until you stand barefoot and knee deep in the subfreezing waters of the Delta River, listening to Professor Garver laugh comfortably in his chest high waders as he watches the fish completely ignore your bait. Now, our 4^th and final night at Donnelly Creek State Campground we are about to go fishing once again and no matter how many times I tell myself I’m not touching that freezing water, I know I will eventually find myself wading out trying and failing to catch a fish. Besides watching Garver catch all the fish the last few days, we have spent our time here studying alluvial fans and other hydrological and glacial processes. We studied Castner glacier where we saw ice caves being formed by water rushing under them, and also learned how by stomping on the clay like sediment you could form sinking sand by causing the water to rise to the surface. We also took many hikes up small streams such as Bear Creek and Gunnysack Creek and studied the alluvial fans, and how the erosion and deposition levels have been changed over the years. The pipeline has continued to amaze and entertain us over the last couple days, as we still constantly shout in the vans when we see it, and climb on it every chance we get. We went along the Denali fault and were able to see rust marks from where the pipe had slid along its Teflon coated footers in the massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake of 2002. Since then the pipeline had been shifted back to its original place on the footers preparing again for another possible earthquake at any time. Well, tomorrow we head off to tangle lakes, where rumor has it there is good fishing. As we continue on in our travels we continue to see new wildlife such as bald eagles, caribou, rabbits, squirrels, and moose, and hopefully we will soon spot our first bear. Well, the freezing water of the Delta River is calling my name, and I can hear Garver and the fish already taunting me so hopefully tonight will be my lucky night.

Catch y’all later.

Taylor

For the past couple of nights we have been staying at Donnelly Creek Campground and it’s been a blast. Every night half of the group goes fishing and the other half of us stay at the camp. We sitting around the fire and stuffing our faces with s’mores. Garver is still the only one to catch a fish… or seven. That’s not to say that the others aren’t putting in the effort; Tyler and Alex manage to end up shoeless and up to their waste in the icy water every night. We’re all still attempting to adjust to the lack of darkness and bright yellow tents that look like giant suns as we fall asleep. Although we don’t have a glacier in our backyard like the last campsite, a couple peaks from the Central Alaskan Range isn’t a bad view either. We’ve been spending our days hiking in our very fashionable raingear. All of us are jealous of Isy’s bright blue jumpsuit. One of the highlights for me occurred when we were observing the process of extracting water from mud at Castner Glacier. We noticed that by handling and working the mud, we were de-watering it. Although this was all very interesting, the best part was when Garver was demonstrating it, got stuck in the mud with his legs spread, and fell face first into the mud. This was one of those awkward times where you question whether you’re allowed to laugh or not. There have been quite a few of us taking tumbles as we travel across rivers and bushwhack through thick brush. We’ve also been learning a lot about TAPS. It’s amazing to see how thoroughly the architects constructed the pipeline to deal with obstacles and events such as rivers, floods, moose, and earthquakes. One of the most interesting things we saw, when looking at the pipeline, was a tree that was split in half both by the 1912 and 2002 earth quakes on the Denali Fault. The tree recently died but it had been living for a while after both events, which is very rare. It was cool to see where the fault affected the surface. The affects were subtler than I thought they would be. Once and a while we could see a couple trees that were slanted or dead but most of the earthquake affects were buried by new growth of vegetation. I’ve been learning so much from everyone on this trip and am looking forward to the next few weeks we spend together. We’re all counting on Tyler/Izzy to keep us entertained and for him to keep Ed laughing so hard that he cries.

How’s it going out there! I am writing from the Delta River state recreation site in Alaska. A lot has happened since the last time I blogged. First of all we are all a lot smellier than the last time we wrote. Izzy and I tried to remedy this by taking a bath in the river two days ago, and I can tell you it was easily some of the coldest water I have ever been in, I couldn’t breath, but at least I smell better (yeah right). For the last few days we have had some real rainy weather up here. We have spent the majority of our time on the river studying river processes and various alluvial fan processes. We also took a trip to the Castner Glacier, which is a glacier that is covered entirely in deposition. It didn’t look quite as impressive as the Matanuska glacier but it was still a lot of fun. We got a chance to hike down to the bottom of the glacier and climb into a “cave” that was forming at the base because of the running water which ran underneath the entire glacier. We also spent a lot of time on the pipeline talking about the engineering which went into it. We also spoke about how the Alyeska company prepared the pipeline for seismic activity which is abundant in Alaska. We also had a chance to see how wildlife interacted with the pipeline. As we were hiking yesterday we ran into a mother moose and her calf attempting to cross the pipeline, and saw how it was very difficult for them to do it. It was a reminder of how machinery and nature do not seem to mix, and was a little bit sobering. The trip so far has been a blast. The group dynamic is incredible. I haven’t laughed this hard, and this much in a very long time. There are so many things that keep happening and so many new experiences that I have had a chance to enjoy with a really great group of people. Honestly I keep forgetting that this is a class at all. Yesterday we got a chance to stand on an active srike slip fault (The Denali Fault). That is incredible. We were standing on a fault which caused a 7.9 scale earthquake only 7 years ago. It was mind blowing in a sense. We noticed trees which either had survived the events on the fault, or had lost their lives do to the seismic activity. One tree was split in half because it had the unfortunate fate of growing directly on the fault line itself. Our campsite has become like home, we have been here for almost 4 nights now, and I am going to be honest it has felt like a home away from home. I am sure I will feel the same way about the next campsite too though. So far adapting to the lack of darkness has been difficult but we have become experts at falling asleep in complete sunlight. It hasn’t taken very long for the group to figure out that I eat a ton of food, and it has become a talking point around the campfire especially at meal times. We collectively surpassed Cockburn and Garver’s rationing of food and we had to go into town today to get more food haha. For now I am going to absorb the view here, and look over the Central Alaska Range, which is the backyard of our campsite, before we move on to Tangle Lakes tomorrow morning. I hope everything is going well wherever you might be. You’ll hear from me again soon!

Ed “Fancy” Milde

P.S. Everyone calls me fancy now…don’t ask me

P.P.S. 13 Moose, 1 Caribou, 2 Bald Eagle, and 0 Bears…for now

Tyler Izykowski

Greetings from the Great Land! We’re on our 4^th and final night at the Donnelly Creek State Recreation Site campground and concluding a very exciting and informative leg of our journey. Since the last post, we’ve learned about the history and engineering of the Alyeska Pipeline, explored the rock-covered Castner Glacier and examined the Delta River and its tributaries. We’ve learned a great deal about stream processes and the glacial record of this area. Today we retraced the history of Bear Creek by analyzing a cross section of the stream bank that has been exposed by erosion. By drawing and analyzing the soil profile we were able to reconstruct the likely history of this Delta River tributary. After visiting Delta Junction for some groceries and supplies, we drove around the Donnelly Dome looking at the pipeline and added a considerable amount of tallies to our ongoing count of wildlife. We saw five moose, arctic hares, a family of foxes, a young bald eagle and a caribou, all within about two hours, bringing our total to thirteen moose, two bald eagles, three foxes, one caribou, and countless other small woodland critters. No bears yet unfortunately, but I’m optimistic we’ll see some soon. We leave tomorrow for Tangle Lakes where we’ve been assured the fishing is better and the nights are colder and wetter. So until next time, thanks for all the comments and take care. Send cheese.

Marisa Kwoczka

Hello again everybody. Since we last chatted, our group has been pretty busy. We had a long drive after leaving Matanuska to Donnelly Camp Site Reservation. So far we have studied the Alaska Pipeline and how it was constructed to survive up to an 8.0 magnitude earthquake and many local creeks and glaciers. As we were walking around the pipeline, we spotted a moose and her calf and had to be extra cautious. We looked at trees nearby the pipeline to see the after affects of the Denali Fault earthquake in 2002, which was at a 7.9 magnitude. Surprisingly not a drop of oil leaked out. A lot of the trees were slanted or had some of the tops broken off. Another day near the Donnelly Camp Reservation we visited the Castner Glacier. Castner Glacier was mostly covered in dirt and rocks and looked a lot different from Matanuska glacier because most of the ice was hidden. It was very slippery at some parts due to the mud around some of the rocks. Garver ended up slipping into the mud as he was showing how the mud was sort of like quicksand the longer you stepped in it. There were also cool ice caves where we took pictures in. During two other days at Donnelly Creek, we studied local streams like Bear Creek and Gunny Sack Creek to learn about Alluvian fans. Alluvian fans are created when large rocks and sediment are brought down throughout the stream and then are spread out when they are deposited lower in the stream. At Gunny Sack Creek I was walking along the rocks and slipped and fell into the creek, which was really funny at the time except for being soaked for the rest of the hike. Today we drove around Donnelly Dome, which is a land mass that should have been moved by a glacier but was not, and spotted a lot of hares, a family of foxes, and shockingly, a caribou. Throughout our drive we spotted a few moose. So far we have seen thirteen moose. Every night we have been at Donnelly Camp Site Reservation we have had the opportunity to fish. The fish in this area are grayling and I was able to catch one the other night, which was exciting! Since it never really becomes dark here during the summer, we are able to fish until late at night. The other night at fishing area there was a very large bald eagle as well. This is all for now, talk to you in a few days!

Ben Carlson

Hello again from the far North. Alaska continues to astound both scientifically and aesthetically, an incredible juxtaposition of rolling plateaus next to 13,000 ft snow covered peaks all overlain by the engineering marvel that is the Alyeska Pipeline. We have spent the last few days camping at the Donnelly Creek campground along the banks of the braided Delta River analyzing the alluvial fans, the sediment deposition associated with the many mountain and glacial streams emerging from the hills, and what all this deposition can tell us about the climate at the time of deposition. Our first full day at Donnelly Creek, we hiked up the soil-covered Castner Glacier which over the last two short years has completely collapsed making the hike much more difficult and slightly treacherous. We eventually reached the outlet stream and were able to climb under the glacier into a small ice cave. We also encountered an amazing mud (who ever thought those two words would go in the same sentence!) that was essentially quicksand. We spent probably an hour playing in the mud, trying not to get stuck until, finally, Garver fell prey to the soupy concoction, falling flat on his stomach despite attempts to save him! We have also spent approximately a day exploring the trans-Alaska pipeline, learning about the engineering behind its construction that allows it to sustain up to an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. We walked into the woods adjoining the pipeline as well to see a tree that had literally split in half as it sat on top of one of the surface fractures that occurred during the 2002 Denali fault earthquake, a magnitude 7.9. This tree provided an amazing visual of how violent these events can be not only to human institutions but nature as well. After returning from our daily excursions, many students from our crew have been making their way down the Delta River in search of what has become the elusive Arctic Grayling, a fish that seems to love John Garver but remains out of reach of the Tylers, Marisa and Alex. As I write this, they are heading out for another night on the river so wish them luck! Finally, as these days in Alaska soldier on (the fact that I am thousands of miles from home still hasn’t sunk in) ones perspective on everything is seriously altered. Standing at the mouth of Gunnysack Creek as it flows into the Delta River with a broad floodplain in front of and behind you and the Central Alaska Range peaks leering on your side, you realize that everything in Alaska is on an entirely different scale than back home. Forms of measurement used at home are useless and you feel entirely insignificant, in a good way, in the shadow of such enormously powerful forces as tectonic movement. I can already tell I will walk away from this trip with an entirely new appreciation of geologic activity (how convenient J), and we are less than a week in! If the last few days are any indication, the rest of this trip will be absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait for each new day. Thanks for all your comments and you’ll hear from us again soon.

Isy

So here are a few things to fill you in since our last blog! After leaving Matanuska we ventured north to the Donnelly Creek Campground, and tonight is our last night here. During these past few days we have looked at many different geological phenomena. One that is particularly interesting to me are earthquakes. I will admit I am a little sad we were unable to feel the one that occurred a few days ago. Dealing with earthquakes, it think the engineering of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and how it is designed to withstand earthquakes is very fascinating, especially because the Denali fault’s recurrence interval is about 100 years. It is pretty amazing that engineers were able to create an 800-mile long structure that goes through many large mountain ranges and over many active faults. It is also very impressive how engineers were able to map out every single foot of the path of the pipeline, and how they knew what to avoid, like the Black Rapids Glacier for example. The Black Rapids Glacier went through a glacial surge during the 1930s and grew about three miles, which dammed the Delta River. While designing the pipeline engineers made sure to steer clear. We have visited (and climbed on) the pipeline many times; during these visits we looked at the different methods of design seen through out the pipeline. Yesterday when we are at the pipeline we also saw many scratch marks, which showed the movement of the pipeline during the March 2002 earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.9. Another natural processes we have been looking at are alluvial fans, which act as debris shoots for rivers. Also yesterday, we traveled to Gunnysack Creek where we discussed the inflection point between the erosion and deposition of the river, which had use thinking about the river’s geological history. Today we went to Bear Creek where we looked at the sedimentary layout of a section of the stream bank. For each section we analyzed the sizes of the sediments and the roots. Also today we went up to the town of Delta Junction to get some more food because we surpassed Garver and Cockburn’s expectations of our eating abilities. On the way there we were able to see Donnelly Dome, which was also pretty cool. Donnelly Dome is a fleigberg, meaning that it survived a glaciations, it is a mountain that was overridden by ice and not destroyed by it. The mountain was a sight to because it is considered something that “is not supposed to be here”. After driving around the Donnelly Dome for a bit we headed back to camp and are now enjoying our last hours here. Talk to you in a few days!!

All Okay

2009-06-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

In case you heard there was an earthquake in Anchorage this morning (Monday) . We didn't feel it
and we are proceeding as planned on our way to Donnelly Creek in the Central Alaska Range.
Just wanted everyone to know that we are all okay.

Matanuska Glacier!

2009-06-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

SOO We have a weak connection at the main gate of the Glacier Park Campground, so here's an unexpected updated! Read what the students have to say so far!

Ed Milde: I am both a Geology and Environmental Science Major. I am a rising junior at Union, and this is my first trip to Alaska. So far the trip has been more than I could have ever hoped for. We are only three days into our stay and already I have seen and done things that I never thought I would be able to do. Yesterday we spent the day in Anchorage and the town of Palmer. After that we travelled to the Matanuska Glacier, which is where I am writing this entry. It’s an incredible view and we can see the glacier clear as day from our camp sight. Today we went onto the glacier itself, and spent the entire day there talking about the different aspects of glaciers and how they change throughout the years. The scenery here is absolutely incredible. As we were hiking yesterday one of the other students here commented on how the mountains in the background looked like they were painted there and weren’t real. In the glacier we visited a place called Hidden Lake. It was an enclosed turquoise lake within the glacier itself, completely closed off from the world. It was incredibly serene, probably one of the calmest places I have been in a very long time. It is surreal here, especially for a kid who was born and raised in Brooklyn. I haven’t seen nature like this my entire life, and I cannot wait to see the other places we are going to go. I am easily entertained; I am still reeling from the fact that we have seen three moose up here. I have never seen a moose in my life. That is a big deal for a city boy. Anyway so far the trip is incredible, and I can’t wait to see more of Alaska, hopefully everything is good for you wherever you might be. Thanks for reading.

Shabana Hoosein: Hi there! I am an Environmental Science major on the Ecology track. I am a rising junior and this is not only my first trip to Alaska but the west coast in general. I’m really loving Alaska so far. Its so surreal that I have to remind myself that I’m here every two seconds. Most of the time I think a lot of things here are the same, but they’re actually very different! Things like the time difference, the Universities, and especially the whole sleeping during the day thing. Oh and did I mention the glacier that we hiked today? Yea that’s pretty different. Matanuska glacier was unlike anything that I would have ever imagined. Coming from Long Island, we don’t have much land elevation, but hiking today was fun. It was almost like we were in an ice jungle gym! Surprisingly we got some plant biology in today’s hike, which was awesome! I think some people got bored after identifying a couple of plants, but I would have spent hours there! In general, every corner I turn, there’s something new and different that blows my mind. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was on my way here, but I knew that this trip would be a journey to remember and right now I feel like it is going to be that and so much more.

Tyler Izykowski: Howdy y’all! I’m a Geology major/Environmental Science minor from Clifton Park, NY. I’ve just finished my sophomore year at Union and am ecstatic about being up in Alaska learning about geological hazards first hand. We just finished our 3^rd day here and have already seen and experienced a lot, most notably our day spent exploring the Matanuska Glacier. Our day began with “egg-a-muffins” at 8:00 am before setting out to the glacier. We hiked into Hidden Lake where we took our shoes off and waded across a glacial stream. After stopping for lunch and learning about some of the glacial debris present on the glacier, we pressed onward, climbing up and sliding down the ice until well into the afternoon. Upon exiting the glacier, we stopped to learn a bit about plant identification and the processes of glacial retreat. Dinner consisted of a group effort of grilling anything and everything available for a smorgasbord of quesadillas. We have a long drive tomorrow to the Alaska Range so the rest of the night we’ll just be broing out by the fire and relaxing. So far the trip has been great and the group dynamic has been incredible! It’s hard to imagine that a dull moment will go by on this trip considering the awesome group of people we have. P.S. three moose and counting…

Liz Morgan: What’s going on lower 49? I’m a Geology Major and rising junior from New York’s, Utica. Life here in Alaska is very different from what I’m used to back home. There are mountains everywhere! The people here very friendly and I’ve already gotten a business card from a Denali Commission Surveyor. She who told me if I ever decided to move to Alaska after college, to give her a call and she would gladly pull some strings and help me find a job in the Geosciences department of her office. As for today, I walked on my first glacier! It was an incredible feeling to be dwarfed by such a huge force of nature. We saw blue, white and black ice and enormous crevasses. Trust me the pictures don’t do the experience justice. After sliding about on the lower glacier for a couple hours, we were all excited to be back on more stable ground and were slightly more excited to grab some dinner. Our campsite is located about 200 yards for the glacier’s base; talk about a background for a meal, huh? As much fun as it was here, I’m happy to be moving on in our trip. Each day holds new excitement and I’m ready to experience whatever Alaska has to offer. After the trip is said and done, maybe moving to Alaska wouldn’t be such a bad idea; its state mineral is gold and 50% of the population live in one city (Anchorage). Hey, it might be fun to live in a place where there are more moose than people. See you in three weeks friends and family!

Tyler Willey: Ayo all! I’m a Geology and Environmental Science major, and rising junior from Stockton New Jersey. So far Alaska has been amazing. Pictures from previous trips do no justice for what we are experiencing first hand. Yesterday, our first full day in Alaska, we ventured over to the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the Alaska Tsunami warning center. The AVO was a huge surprise to me, due to the fact that it was about 5 times larger than the Montserrat Volcano Observatory I visited in Montserrat this last winter. Being able to actually see a COSPEC in person, and all of the cameras and seismic monitoring on Mt. Redoubt was amazing! All together AVO had over 30 computers, which showed up to the second seismic readings and camera views of Mt. Redoubt. After that we headed to the Tsunami center where we saw where recent earthquakes in the world, and learned about how fast magnitude and tsunami warnings are recorded and sent out all over the world. As for today, we spent most of the day playing on the Matanuska Glacier, which is conveniently located right next to our campsite. The blue color of the ice in the crevasses was so pretty, and climbing up the icy slopes was a great way to burn off all of those s’mores we devoured last night. Also, another highlight of the glacier was wading into Hidden Lake, a glacial lake located in the glacier. The water was very refreshing to drink, however it was hard to tell whether I was walking in mud or the tingling was just the numbness in my feet. After a long day of climbing and exploring the glacier, much like a little kid, I could go for a nice nap right now. The 24 hour daylight has definitely been messing with my time schedule, and I rarely have any clue as to what time it is. Tonight, however, I am sure I will have no problem falling asleep in the daylight. Tomorrow is a new day, and I have no doubt that I will be amazed by what else Alaska has to offer. Catch y’all laters!!

Isy Zellweger: Hi everybody! My intended major is environmental policy. I am a rising sophomore from Rye, NY and this is my first trip to Alaska. After long plane rides, we all finally made it here and so far its been great. I am so excited that I have been given this amazing experience to explore the field. Yesterday we visited the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center- both very cool, and reassuring. It was very interesting to see all the different technologies behind monitoring volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. Today we walked over to Matanuska Glacier from our campsite, which was truly amazing. Not to mention we have full view of the glacier from our tents- very beautiful. Being my first glacier visit Matanuska glacier exceeded all my expectations. It was quite something being able to walk up onto a glacier, being able to see it first hand. We were able to see numerous different moraines, moulins, crevasses, and glacial lakes to say the least. A few of the students were adventurous to put their feet in the water- very cold! Overall Alaska has the most stunning scenery I have ever seen in my life. Almost in every direction you look there is a mountain range towering across the landscape, something I do not mind at all. It’s 8:35 PM right now and it honestly looks like 3:00 PM in the afternoon- this whole “it doesn’t get dark” thing is a bit confusing, but I think I’ll be able to adjust. A part of this trip, which I am highly anticipating, is seeing the volcanoes, another incredible natural hazard. Actually I am highly anticipating every part of this trip- I can’t wait to explore more Alaska! Goodbye everyone!

Ben Carlson: Sup everyone down south. I am from the greater Boston area (Acton, MA to be exact) and I am currently a declared Environmental Science major. These first few days in Alaska have been activity filled with barely any time to fully realize that we are thousands of miles from home despite the incredible terrain. Our exhaustion following the day of travel was immediately followed Saturday morning by a trip to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), a particularly active agency following the recent eruptions of Mt. Redoubt only 100 miles or so from Anchorage. There have been numerous eruptions lately resulting in large ash clouds that hinder the flight paths of planes arriving and departing one of the world’s most important cargo airports. We then ventured an hour North to the Alaska/Western Pacific Tsunami Warning Center which was particularly interesting as only the night before, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook the coast of southern California, requiring the Tsunami Warning Center to submit a Tsunami risk report which was, thankfully, quite low. We then finally arrived at the end of our first day with an immaculate view of Matanuska glacier, a ~25 mile long valley glacier emerging from the mountains into the valley we are camping at. Hiking onto the glacier was a first for everyone on the trip and was an incredible experience while looking down into the moulins and glacial lakes really provided prospective as to how immense and complicated these glaciers really are. Even though we have been in Alaska for just over 48 hours, I’m as excited as ever and cannot wait to explore the rest of this beautiful state. Peace out

Taylor LaBrecque: Hello Everybody! I’m from Falmouth, Maine and just completed my freshmen year and am interested in environmental science. I’m so excited to be here after the long flight across the country. Our first visit here in Alaska was to AVO, the Alaska Volcano Observatory. We were able to see all the maps and cameras monitoring the recently erupting Mt. Redoubt. The images they were able to capture were unreal. We learned about the potential consequences that the volcanic ash could have on air travel and cities both near and far. In the past the ash has traveled as far down as Texas. After AVO we jumped in the car for an hour ride to the Tsunami Warning Center. There are only two in the US; the other one is in Hawaii. The center allowed us to create a tsunami using a toy model. Although it was just a model, the devastation that the giant wave created was stunning. We stopped at a couple other sites before we reached the site where we would be pitching our tents. We chose a spot where Matanuska glacier was the first thing we saw in the morning. This morning we had an early breakfast and headed out for the massive glacier. We made it much farther on it than I ever imagined. We hiked to a hidden lake near the front of the glacier where we were all able to take an ice cold drink of water. On the glacier we learned about crevasses and moulins and the complicated process by which they are created. All of us surely enjoyed the extended hours of sunshine today. Hope everyone in the Northeast is still enjoying that rain. See you everyone.

Marisa Kwoczka: Hey everyone! I am an Environmental policy major and a rising junior from Mendham, New Jersey. So far Alaska has been amazing! The views of the glaciers from the plane were incredible. I had to lean over the woman next to me in order to take some great camera shots. Once we arrived in Alaska, some of us went to a nearby fishing area and watched the locals fish for King Salmon. Afterwards we crashed for the night at the University of Anchorage Alaska. During our first day in Alaska we visited the Alaska Volcano Observatory and learned how the volcanoes in Alaska were being monitored 24/7. Next, we went to the West Coast Tsunami Warning Center and watched a presentation on past tsunamis and the effects on Alaska and other places around the world. Tsunamis were also being monitored 24/7 at the Tsunami warning center. Other than the tsunami warning center in Alaska, there is one other warning center in Hawaii. For the rest of the day we visited a few very scenic areas and took spectacular pictures of braiding streams and mountains. We ended the first day at a camp sight by Matanuska Glacier. On day two we spent the entire day hiking the Matanuska Glacier. All of us wanted to jump in the lake within the glacier but it was way too cold but Tyler, Izzy, and Ed managed to walk around in it. It was my first time seeing a glacier in person and I can’t wait to see more of them as our trip progresses. I was a little nervous throughout our hike because I am pretty clumsy, but I made out of the glacier okay! Our pictures look awesome and will make you will want to come and join us for the rest of the trip! Talk to you later and enjoy our blog and pictures!

Alex Connell: Hello! I am an economics major and an environmental science minor and I’m a sophomore from Westford Massachusetts. I have only been here for three days and have all ready had some incredible experiences. Even the plane ride had beautiful views of mountaintops and glaciers. Only hours after getting off the plane I saw the largest moose I have ever seen as well as watched a wonderful Anchorage sunset complete with a lecture about how Anchorage is under the threat of an impending volcanic eruption from Mt. Redoubt. A large-scale eruption from Redoubt could cause dramatic problems such as shutting down air travel of both people and goods into Anchorage and showing the entire city in a blanket of ash. Lucky the friendly people at AVO are constantly monitoring this volcano to protect the public from a potentially dangerous situation. It was interesting to see both the technology as well as understanding the system of informing the public in the event of an eruption from Mt. Redoubt. After that we swung by the West Coast - Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and we given a great tour of the facility as well as a presentation about both the history as well as the seriousness of being able to warning communities around the Pacific Ocean. It was incredible to see the level of sophistication and area of protection that the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center has and provides. After that we arrived at the Matanuska Glacier, which is by far the most majestic place I have ever stayed. The Glacier and mountains surrounding our campsite seem like the backdrop of a Hollywood blockbuster. We spend all of today exploring and learning about the glacier. It was my first time on a glacier and I as in awe of its size and ability to move the earth. The glacier moves through the valley dragging and depositing sediment as it accumulates and melts its ice. The melt water of the glacier is a beautiful shade of blue I have never seen in my life. Along with the massive amount of sediment moved the glacier also creates large crevasses as well as moulin’s, which are large holes in the glacier that are created by movement of the glacier and the glacial melt water. It was quite a humbling experience wandering through these massive ice formations that I will never forget. I am really excited to move on tomorrow and see what else is in store on this trip. Talk to you later.

Editor's note - the comments are great!! Happy Father's Day everyone, and we saw another moose on the way to the gate to post this!

They Made It!!

2009-06-20T00:02:00.000-07:00

Everyone has arrived! We are just back (11pm, 3am eastern time) from a quick peak off Flat Top Mountain and a bit of an overview of Anchorage. Our friendly neighbourhood bull moose even put in an appearance for us! Everyone arrived safely and with all their luggage! Before the students arrived we spent the day getting food and the vans organized for the trip. We are off to the Alaska Volcano Observatory tomorrow at 8am, then the West Coast Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer Alaska. Those are our first and last 'clean' stops of the trip. For the rest of the day we will make our way across the Castle Mountain Fault with stops at the Wishbone, Chickaloon and Tscona formations before setting camp at the edge of the Matanuska Glacier. Please follow along with us, but bear in mind that we won't have decent internet access until Valdez which is just over a week away! Although they are tired, you can tell by the smiles and the chatter that everyone is very excited about being here!

Anchorage Traffic

2009-06-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

While checking out Flat Top Mountain and access to some of the recent ash-falls on remnant snowpacks we were faced with this guy! I fairly young bull moose - the second moose sighting of the day (the first was just across the street from where we are staying!). This view looking southwest over Anchorage shows one of the many volcanos in the area. When we drive along the coast of the Kenai peninsula in a few weeks we will have a better view of this volcanic arc and maybe even an ash or steam cloud!

Check out this link to a video of the guy in action. And a better video from the passenger - funny thing that driving and filming is tricky.

Keep your camera close for the flight up here!

2009-06-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

I arrived this afternoon (with the time changes it seemed like the day never went past noon!) to clearing skies and an even better forecast for the weekend. We had pretty good views flying over the Coast Mountains, Chugach and a bit of the Wrangell/St Elias range. See you at the airport!

Garver's in Alaska!

2009-06-15T14:56:00.001-07:00

Well I've just spent my first morning here in Alaska and t

he weather is wonderful, in fact everyone is talking about what a great summer it has been so far. It is cool and partly sunny. Definitely need a light jacket. I am off to Petersburg Alaska for a week of Geology with the SE AK Keck group and then I will meet everyone back here in Anchorage. The King Salmon just started running in this part of Alaska and in fact there is a salmon derby going on today down at Ship Creek, which is walking distance from the downtown area. I wasn't fishing, but I did talk with a number of people who were including this fella in the service who was fishing in Alaska for the very first time. Whoa, nice one, about 25-30 pounds of King Salmon.

Where are we today?

2009-04-03T08:02:00.001-07:00

Use this link to get to a larger version of our schedule - SCHEDULE

The Count Down Has Started

2009-04-02T20:10:00.001-07:00

We are excited! This summer we have 10 students (and us Prof John Garver and Prof Jaclyn Cockburn) heading to Alaska on June 19. It is a great mix of rising freshmen and rising sophomores with Geology and/or Environmental Sciences or Policy interests. As we get closer to the trip we will add a little more to our blog. Once we get to Alaska the blog will be in full swing and you will be able to see what we are up to on a fairly regular basis. In the mean time, check out the class blogs from 2007 and 2008 by clicking on the year to take you to those sites. Or check out our general class website, with highlights from the last two years here. A link to a pdf of our schedule will be posted shortly. Check back in June for a pre-trip entry.

How to post a comment?

2009-04-02T20:04:00.001-07:00

Here is a quick lesson on how to post a comment, we know you want to know - we love to read them!

At the end of each post on the blog there is a line of small text that looks like this:

"Posted by Prof John Garver and Prof Jaclyn Cockburn at 12:06 AM 6 comments"

All you need to do to post a comment or read the other comments is click on the word comments. It will open a new page and there you will see an option on the top right to write in your comments and read the other comments on the left. You shouldn't have to create a profile, but it might be easier if you do.