Seward to Cordova

Hi All,
Well we have showered, laundered and restocked today in sunny Valdez. The students spent this morning's ferry ride from Cordova to Valdez working on their field books and their most recent blog update. Despite the coolish and wettish weather on the Copper River Delta (Cordova and area) I think all can agree it was still amazing! We started in Seward, at the foot of Exit glacier after returning from Kodiak, traveled back through the eastern edge of the Kenai Peninsula to get to Whittier. From Whittier we took the 'fast ferry' Chenega to Cordova. We camped along the Copper River for the first two nights, right across from the very actively calving Child's Glacier, then moved to the toasty cabin at the McKinley Lakes trailhead for two nights.

We are off to Squirrel Creek campground just north of Valdez this evening, before we check out ancient Lake Ahtna sediments and travel into the headwaters of the Copper River - McCarthy, along the old railway bed (hope for robust tires!!!). After McCarthy we head to the north side of the Denali Fault and begin the final section of our trip in the Central Alaska Range! This is a great group and the science and scenery have been outstanding. Enjoy the student updates below, as always the comments are big favourites. Happy Canada Day and 4th of July in a few days, we will be able to update when we arrive at Riley Creek Campground in Denali National Park.
jc
~ps - when we get a little more time and a better connection I will upload whole albums for people to view!

Shannon – After finally sighting a large grizzly bear on Long Island Channel we proceeded to check out the Alaganik Slough on the Copper River. Here we observed a stratigraphic sedimentary column composed of silt and peat. This area of Alaska was uplifted by the 1964 earthquake and the Copper River cut down in the marshy area. We were able to understand that this region has been slowly subsiding ever since it was abruptly uplifted. As the mud/silt layer of the pre-existing riverbed was uplifted, it dried out and began to accumulate peat layers and organics. As the layers began to slowly subside down, new layers of mud/silt gradually accumulated on top as a new river bed forms. The Alaganik Slough is one of the only places in all of Alaska that is used to determine and understand the recurrence intervals of earthquakes. Each time an earthquake happens, approximately every 400 years, the land experiences sudden uplift followed by gradual subsidence. Aside from this fascinating day in the field, the hike to Pipeline Lake was surely a blast. Jon, Kaitlin, and I thoroughly enjoyed our penguin plunge into the freezing cold water. The hike was out of this world. It felt as if we were walking in an enchanted forest because there was moss covering everything. All in all it has been an amazing week. I am surely looking forward to the rest of the trip!

Sam - As we stood on the outskirts of the Child’s Glacier Campgrounds we watched enormous building size chunks of ice calve off the main body of ice. Here we not only discussed the glacier but also, the complicated tectonic activity that has lead to Alaska’s unique landscape. We learned about the northern trending terranes that comprise Alaska, as well as the nature of the subduction zone that underlies the large land-mass of this state. There are three main terranes that comprise the accretionary wedge that pertains to this particular subduction zone, the Chugach, the Prince Williams, and the Yukatat. The subducting Pacific Plate is plowing these three microplates north, and because the massive North American Plate stands in their way, these three sections are being squirted out of the accretionary complex in a north-western direction. The Pacific Plate has also caused a rip in the lithosphere. This complex tectonic setting has lead to an offset chain of volcanoes. For me, this was the most interesting lecture thus far.

Joe - Bare feet on the dashboard! The past few days have been filled with amazing glacier hikes, wildlife encounters and interesting geology. One of the sites we visited along the Copper River delta had a fascinating dune complex. In the humid dunes along the river, snags and other forms of vegetation protect the eolian sediments from being blown further downstream. Unlike the arid dunes of the Sahara Desert which are known for their fast movement across the desert, humid dunes are more stabilized. The head or windward sides of the dune complexes have steep inclined layers held by vegetation. The slip side of the dunes were protected and contained tiny slope failure marks along the crests of the dunes. Seeing the signs of slope failure gave the group a strong indication that a snowdrift would be buried under the sand. We dug down several feet and found a thick snowdrift that proved our hypothesis. As we were making our way off the dune we saw a Grizzly Bear approaching a couple hundred yards away. This provided the group with a nice photo-op since we did not see any bears on Kodiak Island. Later, a few of us hiked up to the Pipeline Lakes and did a little fishing. The Cutthroat Trout in the lakes are prolific and hit a size 12 Humpback hard, ten fish in thirty minutes!! I look forward to Valdez and our journeys to come.

Amanda - It’s been a wet last couple of days, but we’ve seen some awesome stuff in the Cordova area and had some respite from the rain in the log cabin we stayed in the past two nights. Yesterday, we stopped at Hartney Bay, which is just ten kilometers south of Cordova on the Orca Inlet. With Hartney Bay’s high biodiversity in it’s nutrient rich waters, we were able to observe uplift in this area by looking at dead barnacles that were uplifted on bedrock above the rocky shore line. The area of Cordova has experienced uplift as a result of past earthquakes. By looking at the old barnacle line on the bedrock, we were able to see just how much uplift has occurred since recent earthquakes, like the one in 1964. Studies show that the area has experienced about a meter of uplift, and when we measured the height of the old barnacle line in relation to the modern day barnacle line, we were able to see the observed uplift of about a meter for ourselves. We also got to witness some truly spectacular glacier calving while we were hiking up Childs Glacier, which we luckily caught on video! We are on our way to shower and do laundry in Valdez, which everyone is looking forward to.

Kaitlin - On day six we were back on the mainland and headed to Seward. The town of Seward was named after Union alumni, William Seward, President Lincoln’s Secretary of State. He was the man who negotiated the purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, which obtained statehood in 1958. Previous to this, Alaska long held the name Seward’s folly, or Seward’s icebox. The town of Seward is situated at the head of Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula, and is located about 75 km from the epicenter of the 1964 earthquake. The town was affected greatly by the earthquake, as it is built upon loose sediments. The shaking caused sediments to dewater and caused land subsidence, which displaced the water in the bay, and the town was immediately inundated by a local tsunami. After the local tsunami, a seismic tsunami also hit the town, with waves approximately 20-30 feet high. The close proximity of these three events caused the town to suffer great damages, damaging the railroad docks, and washing out railroad and highway bridges. Seward is also well known because it is the start of the Iditarod, a large and famous Alaskan dog sled race. We also saw two sea otters in town about 10 feet off shore, who put on quite a show for us! The beauty of Alaska continues to be enjoyed, although we are all wishing for a few dry days to come soon!

Lenny - Our first night at Child’s Glacier Campground was filled with loud thunder-like sounds of Child’s glacier calving. These crashes happen every few minutes as the Copper River undercuts the glacier causing it to calve. The next day we were able to hike on the glacier. We walked up from the million dollar bridge over rocks which had been deposited by the Copper River. As we neared the glacier we saw large piles of rocks that were deposited by the river, and later pushed up into an end moraine by the glacier. The ice was dirty looking in front of s because it was part of a lateral moraine. We began hiking higher up the glacier, looking across the valley we could see Miles glacier across the large lake formed by its rapid retreat. Looking down from the glacier we could se sets of old moraines large ones in the distance were likely formed during the little ice age. The closest end moraine to us had a clear divide in its rocks that could be scene from a few hundred feet away. Halfway up this moraine there were no longer bright white granites, instead the rocks were darker and similar to the rocks in the mountains to our north. We were able to determine that his change was because the glacier pushed up river deposited rocks which were the granites at the same time that it pushed existing country rocks which were higher up the hill slope. These to different materials created this striking dividing line in the moraine. As we continued up the glacier we navigated our way around fairy deep crevasses. We finally stopped in between two crevasses, where we stopped for our lunch break. As the clouds moved in we walked down the glacier, navigating our way to the edge for one last group photo on the glacier. As we stood near the edge a 15 story section of ice calved, which was followed by another 10 story section. When they crashed into the water they produced a large thunderous sound followed by large waves. The week has been exciting and I’m sure McCarthy will be just as exciting.

Jon – Summertime in Alaska, doesn’t get any better than this! Since the last blog update it’s rained every day. This weather along with the mass of mosquitoes could have put a damper on our adventures in Cordova, but not with this group. This group is too strong, and too resilient to let these annoyances stop us. Day 7 brought us to Exit Glacier just outside of Seward. The hike up the glacier was exciting as we spotted a black bear rustling in some brush. At the top we learned about striations, scrapes on the rocks caused by glacial movement, and looked at a rouche moutonee, a rock sheet. The upslope of the rock sheet was very smooth, while the down slope was rough and had chunks of rock missing. The upslope is smooth because as the glacier hits the rock, the pressure increases causing the melting point of the ice to decrease. This water allows the ice to slide over the rock. On the down slope, the pressure decreases therefore increasing the melting point of ice causing the water to freeze. The lack of lubrication puts more strain on the rock and can pluck rock right off the sheet. This type of analysis helps to determine the direction of glacial movement. Some highlights from the past few days include seeing a grizzly bear, watching Child’s Glacier calve, playing “Can I go to the Island”, hopping in a frigid lake with Kaitlin and Shannon, and of course catching my 14 inch rainbow trout. That’s good stuff. I’d also like to post Joe’s joke of the week along with a Kaitlin quote.

Joke:

The Buddhist walks up to the hot dog stand and says, “Make me one with everything.” And the dyslexic atheist believes there is no dog.

Quote:

I slept on the table the first night, and then last night I moved to the floor.