Journal Entry

Yet Another Weather Day

Yesterday's storm has largely blown itself out, but there remains behind sufficient cloudiness in our target areas to keep us grounded. To get an idea of what yesterday was like here is a short clip I took from the porch of the KISS building (I didn't really want to venture much further).

http://youtu.be/JDaGKkuf7rw

Some colleagues and I took the opportunity to go for a long hike. We chose as a target the so-called Garnet Mine: not really a mine, but a mountain whose rock contains many garnet crystals. It is a favorite destination for OIB team members, but most usually make the hike when the ground is free of snow.

Yesterday's new snow made our hike all the more difficult, and while the weather was cold, trudging through snow warmed us nicely. It also tired us out. On the way to the "mine" we saw three caribou and two musk ox. I didn't get any good photos of the musk ox as they were too far off, but the caribou showed less fear.

Two 'booA couple of caribou warily eye us. They would soon hightail it in the other direction. HikeA view from near the Garnet Mine. We are walking on the south side of the ridge to avoid the snow you see in the background. Despite persistent temperatures below freezing, the dark ground absorbs enough radiation to melt the thin layer of snow, but only on south aspects.

The ice on the myriad lakes and tarns in this part of Greenland seems to be about two feet thick right now. You can tell because the clarity often allows you to see down that far. The cracks in the ice make for dramatic patterns.

Ice patternThe patterns in the ice here are mesmerizing. Most lakes are fairly bare of snow due to the stiff winds that commonly blow through.

Kanger Culture

You see this all over town:

Musk ox hideA musk ox hide dries outside. These and caribou hides adorn the sides of many residences around town.

People tanning the hides of a muskox. Often the people doing this are not the actual hunters. The hunters will often sell the hides to someone who will spin the hair into wool and then make and sell clothing made from muskox fur. Quiviut, as we call it in Alaska, makes for a soft, warm garment, but its relative scarcity commands a premium. Like a $100 hat, for instance.

Fries and sausageYum! How about a salad with that?

This is one of the local lunch staples: French fries with sausage (i.e. a heart attack bomb). I haven't had it yet (and I'm not sure I will). The two restaurants in town don't serve a single vegetable dish, like a salad. Some entrees have vegetables in them, but not many do, and the veggies are pretty sparse in those that do.

Finally...

Here is a video NASA recently produced detailing the ice elevation throughout Greenland. I thought they did a fantastic job with this one. You can bet the video is based upon OIB data.

http://

Today was the day of my PolarConnect event. And since I'm writing this one day later (as I usually do) I can say that I had a lot of fun with it. Thank you to Mr. Harder and Mr. Fenster for making things on the EHS end work. I really appreciate it. And thanks to all of my students for asking such interesting questions. Obviously most of them were over my head - good thing I had a couple of NASA experts flanking me.

Comments

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 14:52

Guest

Hello Mr.Hood. I am Madison W. from los coaches creek middle school. I have a question. Do you exactly know why andhow these garnets got to be only around this area? Or why they formed here so easily? Thank you-Madison

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 16:00

Guest

Mike here. Although we crowded too many studnets into Mr. Harder's classroom, most of the students really enjoyed and were impressed with the presentation and answers to the questions. This is really a worthwhile program and I hope it gets to continue. Thanks again for getting the resources from your end to work so well.

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 16:00

Guest

Mike here. Although we crowded too many studnets into Mr. Harder's classroom, most of the students really enjoyed and were impressed with the presentation and answers to the questions. This is really a worthwhile program and I hope it gets to continue. Thanks again for getting the resources from your end to work so well.

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 17:48

Guest

Hello Mr. Hood. This is Sarah. M from Los Coches Creek Middle School. I have a question. What causesthe ice to creak and could you walk on it without it breaking. Thank you.
-sarah m

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 18:06

Guest

Mr. Hood,
Although they don't mine for garnets in Greenland, are there any true mines in Greenland? Additionally, how are the buildings made? Is all the lumber and other building material shipped to Greenland? I noticed that there aren't any trees in your photos.

Thanks,
Mary Burr

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 20:22

Guest

Looks like a fun time in the weather! Maybe you could strap some skates to your feet and get a tarp and go wind surfing down the streets.
Also that presentation was very awesome, I loved learning about the equipment used to map out the land and under the ice. Have fun!

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 23:20

Guest

Hi Mr. Hood!
Looks like a a swell time up there in Greenland despite the weather. You've posted various things about the culture there, such as the food, sled dogs, laundry hanging out in cold weather, and what not. However I'm curious about some other cool things you've learned about there culture, main exports? Peoples way to relax in the cold area?

Thanks
-Jennica (p.5)

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 23:20

Guest

Hi Mr. Hood!
Looks like a a swell time up there in Greenland despite the weather. You've posted various things about the culture there, such as the food, sled dogs, laundry hanging out in cold weather, and what not. However I'm curious about some other cool things you've learned about there culture, main exports? Peoples way to relax in the cold area?

Thanks
-Jennica (p.5)

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 08:15

Guest

Hey, it's kyle m from p4, does Greenland have a currency? If so, how does it compare to US dollars? And is there a lot of subsistence hunting there?

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 08:15

Guest

Hey, it's kyle m from p4, does Greenland have a currency? If so, how does it compare to US dollars? And is there a lot of subsistence hunting there?

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 08:32

Guest

Hello MsHood, Its Jose from p4 How long is the winter in Greenland?
And also whats the lowest temperature you've experienced by now?

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 14:15

Russell Hood

Jose-Like anywhere the length of any given winter varies.  This one seems to be particularly persistent.  The Ice Bridge folks have said this is the worst weather they've had in a long time.  It has only a few times barely breached freezing.  The coldest temps we've had were about -15F.  But it has not been above +15F much either.  I'd say the winters here average from October until May.  The ice in the local lakes is at least two feet thick even right now.  It's not going to melt until some time in May, for sure.  Suffice to say that winter here is longer than in much of AK.-Mr. Hood

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 14:15

Russell Hood

Kyle-Greenland's currency is the same as Denmark's, the kroner.  Right now the exchange rate is roughly 5.3 Kr per $1US.  We simply divide any price by 5 to get a dollar estimate.  It used to be a bit more but the value of the US dollar has been low worldwide for some time now.  Yes, there's lots of subsistence hunting here.  They shoot caribou, muskox, and seals mostly.  I think they also snare arctic hares.  I'm not sure what else they may hunt.  Greenland's population is small, for the world's largest island.  They only have around 55,000 residents and most of those are native Greenlanders, who bear a strong resemblance to the Inupiat of Alaska.  The remaining population are of Danish decent.  Sorry, more than you asked for.-Mr. Hood

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 14:15

Russell Hood

Jennica-The main export up here is, not surprisingly, seafood (fish, shrimp).  There is considerable interest in resource development, but so far they're only mining rubies which doesn't account for much to their economy.  But more mining - and possibly oil extraction - is on the way.How do the people relax up here?  I'm not sure as I haven't seen many locals outside very often.  It has been notably colder than normal this spring and perhaps that is why they are staying indoors.  This community has a pool and indoor rec center, but I haven't been inside it to gauge the use.  One thing a lot of locals do is make handicrafts out furs, claws, and tusks and sell those to tourists.  Kangerlussuaq, where I am staying, isn't a great example of a typical Greenlandic town because so much of the activity here centers around the airport.  I'd probably have a better answer for you if I was staying in a more typical town.-Mr. Hood

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 14:15

Russell Hood

Sarah-The answer to your second question is yes - it can easily support a person's weight without breaking.  In fact, you could drive a car on the ice and not worry about it breaking through since it's so thick.  Lake ice can crack for several reasons, but most are associated with temperature changes in ice.  Ice has very little tolerance to changing temperature in the sense that it is very brittle.  You done this before: take an ice cube right from the freezer and drop it into a glass of water (warm or cold) - the ice cracks immediately due to the change in temperature.  So when the air above a lake cools or warms (even if it's not warming above freezing) this stresses the ice greatly and cracks result.  The thicker the ice the more likely you are to see cracks as thin ice is more pliable than thick ice.-Mr. Hood

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 14:15

Russell Hood

Mary-There are no trees anywhere in Greenland that I'm aware of.  There is a currently a ruby mine in Greenland somewhere and they do have vast reserves of rare-earth metals that they might mine in the future.  But for the most part the landscape here is relatively untouched at this point.  That may well change as the country seeks financial independence through mineral development.Most of the buildings here in Kanger are made of pre-formed concrete molds.  This is because they were built by the US military when the air base was established here in the 1950's.  But there are several homes made of wood as well.  And yes, that wood has to come a long way before it's transformed into a house.  I think most houses in Greenland are indeed made of wood, but larger commercial buildings, just like there in Anchorage, use metal mostly.  But they do a good job of insulating them, that's for sure.-Mr. Hood

Mon, 04/21/2014 - 14:41

Russell Hood

Madison-The short answer to your question is no, I do not know why they formed just at this one location here.  But there are some clues...First, garnets only form in metamorphic rock - this is either sedimentary or igneous rock that has been compressed and heated for a long time beneath the earth.  These processes change the nature of the rock and we call it "metamorphic."  If you saw my pictures from the rock near the glacier that was sedimentary metamorphic rock.  The rock where I found the garnets was igneous metamorphic - most likely gneiss.  The crystals of garnet can be formed by the same metamorphic properties that made the rock around it.  Or...they can be formed AFTER the metamorphic rocks around it were made.  In this case the crystals form when the rock around it is ground up by tectonic processes.  Such crystals often have parts of the surrounding rock embedded in it.  I think this is what I've got.  If I have time I'll try to post a picture of the single garnet I brought back with me.  (They were hard to remove from the surrounding rock.)-Mr. Hood