All work and no play, well you know how I feel about "that" expression! So here I am in Fairbank, training for PolarTREC, learning new information at an exponential rate, and would you believe it, even on a field trip we managed to absorb more data. The afternoon started at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Reindeer Research Station, an amazing place where I learned that Reindeer are domesticated. Can you believe it, just like the common cow, our northern ungulate was at some point in the past developed to "meat" the needs of a human population.
Did you know that their hair is hollow, provides excellent insulation, and, here is a good one, the reindeer has no sweat glands except a few right by their nose. Many people wonder if a reindeer is the same as a caribou, nope, same species, different sub species. So yes, here we all were a group of teachers on a field trip learning even more, it was ideal!
Feeding a female reindeer. Her eyes big as she slowly approaches the hand offering a tasty morsel
Spending time learning about the reindeer was a treat, but now we are off again to location number two on our field trip quest, the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility; Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
This tunnel was started in 1963 as part of a project looking at building underground facilities and foundations in permafrost. And I know you are all wondering what exactly is permafrost, well.....a permanently frozen layer of soil, And that is exactly what we saw, 14,000 to 40, 000 year old roots, soil, bones, water, it was remarkable! Our guide, who has worked for this facility for over 20 years, brought us through the doorway and we entered a world of really dry, yes dry, silty soil, frozen in time.
As you know global climate change is a real concern throughout the world and by studying old records found in permafrost, scientists can develop hypothesis not only about the past, but predictions for the future. We spent about an hour in the tunnel, and one of the strongest impression I leave with is that there exists today stories from the past, the really far past, and if it wasn't for people like our guide these stories and the science they teach would be lost forever!
If you have any more questions about reindeer or permafrost please check out the attached URL, a great site. http://reindeer.salrm.uaf.edu/