geology of kenai fjords
The Alaska Collection, an experience by Pursuit, offers several lodging and attractions including Kenai Fjords Tours, Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge, Seward Windsong Lodge, Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, and Denali Backcountry Lodge & Denali Cabins. Kenai Fjords National Park is an American national park established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.The park covers an area of 669,984 acres (1,046.9 sq mi; 2,711.3 km 2) on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska, near the town of Seward.The park contains the Harding Icefield, one of the largest ice fields in the United States. Convection currents are at work within the Earth. A map created by Tom Patterson, National Park Service. Detailed Description. Overview. The center of the Earth is a tremendously hot core of iron and nickel. The Kenai Peninsula's Golden Geology 65 million years ago, the Kenai Mountains originated from the sands and muds deposited on the sea floor. In the process of their formation, hot silica-rich fluids penetrated the young rocks and then crystallized to form milky white quartz veins. As park glaciers retreat, more bedrock is exposed. Where glaciers have carved the bedrock into impossibly steep cliffs, the slate crumbles once the ice melts away - but the granodiorite stands, its sheer surfaces draped with waterfalls. Mysteries of Movement Ice has left its scouring marks across every surface. In the far western end of the park, a mixture of chert and basalt scraped from the ocean floor is jumbled with blocks of limestone that contain fossils matching those found in China and Afghanistan. When the pressure along the subduction boundary releases in the form of a large eaerthquake, the ground that was being pushed upward rapidly drops. Step aboard a 95-foot-long (29-meter) non-smoking cruise vessel designed with comfort in mind. Granitic islands, on the other hand, are packed with birds. In the park, as the North Pacific oceanic plate subducts beneath us, pressue builds up and pushes the edge of the continent upward. On the opposite side of the bay, the shore is eroded into spires, cliffs, and coves. The maps below are great if you’re hiking around the Exit Glacier (which, honestly, is probably where you’ll be going on your visit). The stark beauty of a land shrouded in ice, bordering the ocean, and teeming with wildlife covers a plot taking place underneath it all. Many visitors to Kenai Fjords National Park take a boat trip out of Resurrection Bay to see the wildlife, glaciers, and unique scenery. The aim was to do an 18 day route packrafting and backpacking through one of the world’s most dramatic landscapes. The affinity birds seem to have for granite is one of many ways that bedrock influences the life found on its surface. You can watch our adventure in Kenai Fjords on YouTube: Alaska: Glaciers, Whales, and Bears | Kenai Fjords National Park The roughly 9-mile hike to view the icefield took most of the day, and included plenty of stops to watch wildlife, including a herd … Kenai Fjords trail maps. The bedrock of Kenai Fjords National Park was carried north by the action of the tectonic plates. Strolling down the pebbly beach after a buffet lunch with Kenai Fjords Tours or during the early evenings before dinner if you're a guest at Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge, it's easy to get transfixed by the simple joy of beachcombing. The park's dynamic geology includes spectacular mountains with great glaciers flowing down between them to the sea, as well as awesome fjords that provide a habitat for thousands of nesting seabirds and seafaring mammals. On a longer timescale, sea level has risen and drowned the coast of the park. It was heated and pressed into a new form. Alaska Geographic works in partnership with public land agencies to connect people with Alaska’s national parks, forests, refuges and conservation lands through the creation and delivery of exceptional educational products and programs. Field data was collected in July 2015 from James Lagoon, a 30 m deep drowned cirque valley adjacent to McCarty Fjord in the Nuka Bay region of Kenai Fjords National Park. It gets its name from the bulbous, pillow-like shapes which form as a result of this rapid cooling. This movement disrupts the crust, breaking it into pieces and moving them around. Redoubt Volcano, on the west side of Cook Inlet, is a prominent physiographic feature and is … To search for additional information, visit the Data Store. A product of the Geologic Resources Inventory, the NPS Geodiversity Atlas delivers information in support of education, Geoconservation, and integrated management of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of the ecosystem. The bedrock of Kenai Fjords National Park was carried north by the action of the tectonic plates. See Maps and Reports, below. The water carried dissolved minerals such as iron, silica, arsenic, and gold. The Digital Geologic Map of Kenai Fjords National Park and vicinity, Alaska is composed of GIS data layers complete with ArcMap 9.3 layer (.LYR) files, three ancillary GIS tables, a Map PDF document with ancillary map text, figures and tables, a FGDC metadata record and a 9.3 ArcMap (.MXD) Document that displays the digital map in 9.3 ArcGIS. At the same time I would attempt to produce a time-lapse film of this little-known area. In Kenai Fjords National Park, over half of the landmass is covered by the enormous Harding Icefield, a thousand-foot block of ice that dates back to the last Ice Age. Continental plates are pieces of crust visible as the continents of the Earth. Home > Lodging > Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge > Heart-Shaped Rocks: Exploring Fox Island Geology Fox Island is the kind of place that makes you feel good inside. Mud, transformed by heat and pressure, becomes shale, a fine-grained, dark-colored stone with many thin layers. Geodiversity refers to the full variety of natural geologic (rocks, minerals, sediments, fossils, landforms, and physical processes) and soil resources and processes that occur in the park. Arches and spires form from the erosive action of waves. Seward Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise Tour **THIS TOUR IS NOW ACCEPTING RESERVATIONS FOR THE 2021 SEASON** Our 6-hours cruise explores the world of whales, wildlife, and glaciers found in Kenai Fjords National Park. The water carried dissolved minerals such as iron, silica, arsenic, and gold. Kenai Fjords—Glaciers and Glacial Features, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Next Chapter: NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Georgia, Previous Chapter: NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Katmai National Park & Preserve, Alaska. For example, during the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, the coast of Kenai Fjords dropped between 3 and 8 feet. Capes and Cliffs The cirques are now drowned in ocean water and the peaks that edged above Pleistocene ice are now islands surrounded by sea. Snall Boat Whale Watching Tour Kenai Fjords National Park is most easily accessible from the town of Seward, Alaska. During the trip I hoped to capture images that would define and justify my adventurous approach to photography. The Kenai Peninsula (Russian: Кенай полуостров) is a large peninsula jutting from the coast of Southcentral Alaska.The name Kenai (/ ˈ k iː n aɪ /, KEE-ny) is derived from the word "Kenaitze" or "Kenaitze Indian Tribe", the name of the Native Athabascan Alaskan tribe, the Kahtnuht’ana Dena’ina ("People along the Kahtnu (Kenai River)"), who historically inhabited the area. Beneath the splendor, larger forces are at work. Kenai Fjords National Park, Kenai Ntl Wildlife Ref, United States Aug 26, 2017 060456 PM.jpeg 4,032 × 3,024; 3.46 MB Kenai Fjords National Park.jpg 420 × 274; 18 KB Kenai fjords national park.jpg 2,048 × 1,536; 224 KB Presently, waves and tides further modify this glacier-eroded coastline creating a variety of geomorphologic features along the coast including sand and gravel pocket beaches, tidewater glaciers, rock cliffs, mud flats, and sea arches and stacks. This 6-hour cruise explores Kenai Fjords National Park and visits an actively calving tidewater glacier in beautiful Aialik Bay. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) is the largest and oldest constituent scientific body in the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). The fjords that the Exit Glacier and other glaciers have carved into the Kenai Mountains are filled with ocean water because the mountains themselves are slowly slipping into the Gulf of Alaska. The entire coastline of Alaska is made of a mixture of terranes and local igneous material. The servicewide Geodiversity Atlas provides information on geoheritage and geodiversity resources and values within the National Park System. A NPS Soil Resources Inventory project has been completed for Kenai Fjords National Park and can be found on the NPS Data Store. The movement of tectonic plates and the delivery and formation of various rock types prescribe where birds nest, where Steller sea lions breed, and where glaciers flow. For more information on the NPS Geodiversity Atlas, contact us. The cause for this movement is the location of the mountain range along the border of two tectonic plates, the collision of which is causing the land to shift and be pulled slowly under sea level. Jul 23, 2012 - Explore Kenai Peninsula Tourism Market's board "Kenai Fjords", followed by 265 people on Pinterest. Kenai Fjords National Park Geologic Resources Inventory. Media in category "Rocks in Kenai Fjords National Park" This category contains only the following file. In geology, a fjord or fiord (/ ˈ f j ɔːr d, f i ˈ ɔːr d / ()) is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Deep valleys carved by glaciers during glacial maxima are now flooded creating irregular shorelines such as Kenai Fjords National Park. Alaska Geology. Kenai Fjords National Park ... factors of climate, physiography, and geology can be used as differentiating criteria for delineating Sections defined as physiographic regions with similar geology and regional climate, and Subsections, more narrowly defined geology with repeating associations of geomorphic units. A crater … Our 6 Hour Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise explores the world of whales, wildlife, and glaciers found in Kenai Fjords National Park. This trip is going to take you to some of the most spectacular places in Alaska, including Kenai Fjords National Park, Denali National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Chugach State Park, and the … See more ideas about Kenai fjords, Kenai, Fjord. Information from Viator Tour description. The fractures in the rock filled swiftly with jets of superheated water from deep in the Earth. Cliffs and islands of greywacke, like Nuka Island, have virtually no seabirds nesting on them because their softer surface is too easily eroded to make a safe home. A warming climate raised sea level 10,000 years ago and snow falling at lower elevations melted in the summers, no longer transforming to glacial ice. Kenai Fjords This study contributed baseline information regarding the framework geology, coastal change, and archaeological record along the fjord-indented coastlines of southcentral Alaska. In certain places, it was also broken. On the outer edge of the Earth, where it is at last cool enough for the magma to harden into solid rock, the material forms a crust. Surrounding this is a hot mantle of liquid rock. Since the 1990's, GPS measurements record this upward movement along the coast of the park at an average rate of 10mm/yr. This 6-hour cruise explores Kenai Fjords National Park and visits an actively calving tidewater glacier in beautiful Aialik Bay. 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