Let me start by apologizing. I really meant to write this journal entry sooner but I have been swamped since I got back to school. I think the best thing for me to do is to pick up where I left off on my last journal entry. In case you have forgotten...I was having a blast in Alaska! We continued to have a series of trainings about the technical requirements for our upcoming trips. I consider myself to be pretty computer savvy, but I have to admit that it was a bit overwhelming. I am definitely going to practice so that by the time I go to Antarctica I know what I'm doing. The wonderful people at ARCUS realized that we were getting a bit inundated, so they planned a couple of field trips. We went to the Reindeer Research Station that is managed by the University of Alaska - Fairbanks. It was really interesting learning all about the reindeer. However, the most amazing part of the visit was when we got to feed the reindeer. We were able to walk among the reindeer and feed them dried lichen. They really liked the food and we were tickled to death to get to see and touch the reindeer. In case any of you are wondering - reindeer do not fly.
An older reindeer at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Reindeer Research Station.
Next we went to the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility which is managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. My first college degree is in Geology, so you know I was in heaven. The main horizontal tunnel is 110 meters long and at the rear it is 15 meters below the ground surface. We went into the tunnel and saw a large number of bones in situ. We also got to touch frozen water that is appropriately 32,000 years old. It was probably a thaw pond and the reddish-brown area marks iron-rich organic material that was located at the bottom of the pond. It was really cool (and quite a bit cold).
This water located in the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility and is probably a thaw pond. The reddish-brown area marks iron-rich organic material that was located at the bottom of the pond.
The final stop on our field trip was to see a section of the Alaskan pipeline. It was impressive. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my skills with my new camera. I bought a Nikon D80 just before I went to Alaska. I am in awe with everything that the camera can do. However, I am still struggling to just take photos. When we arrived at the pipeline, another teacher tried to show me a few tricks. I am not sure what happened, but the result was that all of the photos that I took of the pipeline have a blue tint. I decided that they would look better in black and white. What do you think?
This is a section of the 800 mile long Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System.
The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System is 800 miles long. It began moving oil in June of 1977 from the North Slope of Alaska to the northern most ice-free port of Valdez, Alaska. So far it has moved over 14 billion barrels of oil over 3 mountain ranges and over 800 rivers and streams. It really is amazing to see it in person. Well, as you can see, my trip to Alaska has been very full and lots of fun. I will give you the rest of the details of my adventure in the next few days. So much fun and yet they call it work!