2007 Friends of Pleistocene Alaska Cell

Kenai Peninsula Field Trip

Ice from the west side of Cook Inlet deposited these erratics 17-18,000 years ago in the Captain Cook State Park. The first night of the field trip will be spent here.

Ice from the west side of Cook Inlet deposited these erratics 17-18,000 years ago in the Captain Cook State Park. The first night of the field trip will be spent here.

 

We have planned three very busy days of touring 14 localities in the northern Kenai Mountains and western Kenai Peninsula, where we will examine evidence of the last major glaciation and subsequent events and present opportunities to discuss the glacial, fluvial, lacustrine, marine, seismic, volcanic, vegetation, and fire histories. Day 1 (Saturday, September 1) we will tour from Turnagain Pass through the northern Kenai Mountains, down the upper Kenai River valley, west across the Kenai Peninsula lowland, and up along the coast of Cook Inlet to Captain Cook State Park, where we will spend the night. Day 2 (Sunday, September 2) we will travel down the coast of Cook Inlet, stopping along the way to visit significant exposures and features, and plan to spend the second night in Karen Hornaday Memorial Park in Homer. During these two days, we will discuss glaciated valleys, massive rock failures, moraines, outwash fans and terraces, diversion channels, fandeltas, lake deposits and shorelines, glaciomarine deposits and coastal terraces, estuarine deposits and effects of earthquake-induced subsidence, volcanoes, coastal-bluff stratigraphy, modern beach features, and tsunami hazards.

The optional third day (Monday, September 3) features a 6-mile hike through the scenic coastal rain forest on the south side of Kachemak Bay to investigate evidence of a huge rockfall-driven flood from the terminal lake of Grewingk Glacier that occurred in October 1967. Pre-registration and pre-payment of a $60 fee are required for this excursion.

We are working hard on plans and a guidebook and will update the website and an e-mail list to report progress. Please send an e-mail to Patty Burns at pburns@gi.alaska.edu if you want to be added to 2007 Alaska Cell FOP e-mail list or if you have any questions.

We hope to see you on the Kenai this fall,

Dick Reger, Reger's Geologic Consulting

Ed Berg , U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Patty Burns, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys