Kenai Peninsula

Last night was our first night and today we traversed the Kenai Peninsula. We are now on the Marine Highway (the Alaska State Ferry Tustumena) and are just sorting through our 100 or so photos. We will dock on Kodiak Island tomorrow morning just before noon and head to our next campsite Buskin Creek for the next three nights. After setting up camp we will head straight into the field - Middle Bay to work on mapping the extent of the 1964 earthquake induced tsunami deposits. We will be out of touch until we get back on the ferry evening of June 23.

The connection this evening on the ferry is not doing us any favours, we will try to post pictures tomorrow morning before we dock, but for now take a look at the what the students have to say about their first impressions.

Amanda – Alaska is so gorgeous! Everywhere I turn, there’s a mountain staring back at me. The weather has been great—a little brisk, but no rain. It’s still a bit weird to be going to bed at 11pm in broad daylight. Yesterday afternoon, we went to Earthquake Park. It is the site of a massive landslide due to the soil liquefaction from the 1964 earthquake that shook Alaska. We hiked down to the mudflat of the Knik Arm in Turnagain Heights, where we walked out 200 feet or so, until we reached the point where our shoes got a stuck in the mud a good few inches. We checked out the mud cracks, looked at the bioturbation that was happening, and found some critters underneath the mud. We also saw huge moose prints on the mudflat. We’ve seen heaps of bald eagles and saw our first black bear today! We are on our way to Kodiak Island where we should see grizzlies and go fishing after dinner every night.

Kaitlin – After spending the night at Bird Creek, we packed up camp and made some delicious egg-a-muffins for breakfast-a great start to our day. After heading out around 10, we soon stopped at Girdwood, a ruined gas station from the 1960’s. Located next to the waters of Turnagain Arm, it suffered great destruction after the earthquake in 1964, due to the flooding of the salt water and subsidence of the land. Before the earthquake, there was a mature forest surrounding the station, and following the quake the vegetation had been killed by the salt water. The demise of the station came from the rapid co-seismic subsidence, therefore sinking approximately 1-2 meters. Since 1964, inter-seismic uplift has occurred, raising the land to be out of the tidal range and allowing the soil to be cleansed of the salt to enable future growth of vegetation. Beside the science and geohazards aspects of our morning, we were fortunate to see multiple bald eagles against the backdrop of the beautiful mountains. Alaska is a truly beautiful place and I’m so excited to be spending the next three weeks here!

Shannon – Being a first timer in this neck of the woods, I would say the most stunning sight when coming into Alaska is the breathtaking view of the mountains. Aside from the bird’s eye view of the Chugach Mountain Range when flying into Anchorage, it was the volcanic arc located west across Cook Inlet that took the group by storm. These volcanoes include Augustine, Redoubt, and Iliamna. It was incredible to see these profound mountains towering above the ocean water and valleys at over 10,000 feet above sea level. Tomorrow as we arrive in Kodiak, the one thing that I am looking forward to is seeing some Kodiak bears. Aside from a black bear which we saw from a distance and several bald eagles, we have yet to see a great deal of wildlife. Even though we have only been in Alaska for two days, the experience so far has been out of this world. I am truly looking forward to the rest of the trip with this wonderful group of people we have on board.

Jon – I have never been in a place that makes me feel so small. The forest is endless and the mountains so large and steep. Being from Vermont I have always told people, “I’m from Vermont I do what I want.” After having been here for only two days, I no longer live by this statement. Today a photographer took a picture of two bears, a mother and her cub with the mother having just stolen a salmon from a fisherman. We were told that it is a state law to attempt to stop a bear from stealing you’re fish, duh! Yesterday we watched a movie about the 1964 earthquake that forever changed Alaska. This earthquake had a huge impact on Alaska and its people. Its effects are clear after having visited only a few locations. I’m excited to continue exploring Alaska and uncover some of its hidden secrets.

Sam Rudolph Volet – As soon as my plane landed in Anchorage, I was able to view the magnificent scenery. For me the most interesting part of this trip so far was our stop at Ninilchik. Here our class observed one specific outcrop that contained three distinct units. The first layer contained a one-meter thick section of mudstone with a massive texture. Within this mudstone layer the class and I found fossils of leaves and other vegetation. The next layer was about forty centimeters thick contained lignite. The top layer was three meters thick and contained a fissile beige sandstone. Within this sandstone layer cracks show the remnants a small reverse fault can be seen. These cracks show the tectonic east-west shortening event that is occurring in Alaska’s forearc basin.

Joe Wold – With the ocean at the foot of large upthrown snow capped mountains and the group enjoying a hot breakfast around the campfire, I could tell this will be a once in a life time trip. We loaded into the van after breakfast and made our way down the Kenai Peninsula. We made several stops along the way to study the geologic hazards that have reshaped the land. At one of our stops we pulled into a fishing access point where we walked through the woods and came to a clearing. Lined up along the Kenai River were fisherman, eagles, and a slow lumbering sow black bear. The high flowing river was a silky blue color caused by finely suspended sediments from the glacier runoff. While we were at the river several fisherman landed large King Salmon, which are on their run up the rivers to lay their eggs to renew the life cycle. Kodiak Island is our next research location and I am so excited to catch a few fish of my own and study the Tsunami deposits.

Lenny Ancuta – Standing on Bluff Point overlook we were able to see the beautiful Kachemak bay and the snow and glacier covered Kenai Mountains a few miles across the fjord. For me it would be easy to miss the geologic significance which was 705 feet below us. Bluff point is at the crown of the largest rock failure on the Kenai Penisula which failed sometime during the late Holocene. We were able to observe large blocks of sandstone rich bedrock which were deposited by the failure in the bay. Today the crow of the failure is only about 10 feet from the edge of the highway. Another failure in this area could prove catastrophic given the fact that sterling highway is the only road into homer.