A Walk through Time, the Alaska Pipeline and an Ice Museum??
Next stop was the United States Corp of Engineers Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility. I have to admit, when I saw the "permafrost tunnel" on the agenda, I thought we were going to visit a tunnel where permafrost conditions are simulated and studied. WHY did I think this? I have visited several research tunnels at NASA including wind tunnels and an icing tunnel. Conditions are created in a "tunnel", typically a long above ground building and then research is scheduled. I did NOT expect to be walking through time. In the last journal, I posted that the permafrost in Fairbanks is about 2 feets below the surface. The permafrost tunnel is located 16 km north of Fairbanks. It was constructed nearly 40 years ago and is one of only a few underground exposures of Pleistocene aged permafrost.
Chantelle outside the entrance to the United States Army Corp of Engineers Perfmafrost Tunnel Research Facility.
As I walked through the tunnel, I was literally seeing geologic history of the Earth unfold. Bones, horns annd tusks of Pleistocene animals stuck out of the wall....preserved perfectly in the tunnel. The tunnel has a refrigeration system that allows it to stay very cold. It was like being inside of an industrial walk-in freezer. The floor of the tunnel and the sides were covered in loess deposits. Loess is a very fine glacial sediment.
As we descended into the tunnel, bones, horns and tusks of Pleistocene animals estimated to be 14,000 years old were visible.
In my previous journal entry, I showed pictures of the thermokarst areas in the boreal forest. The Permafrost tunnel allowed me the opportunity to see what the ice lenses and permafrost was doing UNDERGROUND! This is invaluable to the scientists and researchers who work here. So much so, that they are in the beginning of the process to excavate and open a new tunnel! The tunnel is expected to be completed by 2013. Below is a picture of me with a "textbook example" of an ice wedge. Ice wedges occur when the surface has a crack in it that is filled in with water, as the water freezes, it expands making a wedge shape.
This is a textbook example of an ice wedge. The surface has a crack that is filled in with water, as the water freezes, it expands making a wedge shape.
One of our tenth grade Ohio Science Content standards covers changes over time. This tunnel provides samples, data and experimentation that allows scientists to put together a picture of what may have been happening on the surface of the Earth based upon evidence frozen in time! In a time when global climate change is an issue, it is important to consider what natural changes the Earth has gone though during it's history. After leaving the permafrost tunnel, we stopped at the Alyeska pipeline. This is a 48 inch diameter pipeline that was constructed in 1977. It stretches 800 miles and has moved over 15 billion barrels of oil!
Chantelle and the Alyeska Pipeline
At the end of a long working day, the PolarTREC teachers headed to Chena Hot Springs with our trusty driver Reija (thanks Reija!). On the way there, we got to experience the picturesque Alaskan landscape. We even saw TWO moose!!
Alaskan landscape as seen out the window of a 15 passenger van on the way to Chena Hot Springs!
Chena Hot Springs is a great place for science teachers. Not only are there recreational activities, there is some fascinating science. Chena Hot Springs is a "hotbed" for geothermal research. They have a joint project with Department of Energy who funded a $1.4 million exploration project designed to locate and characterize the geothermal resource underlying Chena Hot Springs. The goal is to build a model of the deep reservoir using geologic and geophysical exploration techniques coupled with state of the art reservoir engineering. Once the model has been completed, it will be tested by drilling a 4000 ft slim hole, sited to intersect the deep geothermal reservoir. The Chena geothermal power plant came online in late July 2006, putting Alaska squarely on the map for new geothermal technologies. Chena Hot Springs is the lowest temperature geothermal resource to be used for commercial power production in the world. The hope is that this will be the first step toward much greater geothermal development in the state. The cost of power production, even in semi-remote locations such as Chena, will be reduced from 30¢ to less than 7¢ per kWh once the UTC plant is installed and operational. Find out more about Chena Hot Springs at their website!
They are also home to the Ice Musuem....what an AMAZING place THIS was! The temperature inside the museum is maintained at 20 degrees Farenheit by a huge refrisgeration system. When you enter the museum, it is like entering a walk-in freezer. There are parkas available for borrowing if are not dressed appropriately. In 1996, the temperature inside the museum dropped below 20 degrees, sublimation and melting affected the ice scultures, so they had to begin again from scratch. There were many ice statues, all hand carved by world famous ice carvers; Chena de Milo, Sarah Palin, the Coca Cola Polar Bear, jousting knightsand the world's largest ice chess set are just a few. There was an igloo with a working xylophone, 4 bedrooms complete with ice beds and an ice outhouse (it is not uncommon for many placesin Alaska to still use outhouses). The ice was lit from behind or inside with changing LED colored lights. It was an absolutely breathtaking (for real - remember 20 degrees farenheit) experience! You can stay overnight in the ice museum, as well as get married in their ice chapel.
This is a dueling knight sculpture in the Ice Museum at Chena Hot Springs.
After a soak in the natural geothermal hot springs, we headed back in the Alaskan twilight for another great day at PolarTREC Orientation! It was a long day, but we still had journals to post and homework to complete. Tonight's homework was a practice audio post! Hopefully, it will be up on the site soon! Tomorrow is our last day of Orientation, so check back to see how we finish the training!
Signing off from Fairbanks, Alaska...