GlacierDogMapMe: What is the Most Southerly Active Volcano on Earth?

* Antarctica’s Mount Erebus. 12,448 feet above sea level, Mount Erebus is the most southerly active volcano on the planet. “Its slopes are covered with snow and ice, glaciers, crevasses, and the occasional lava flow, but steam usually rises from its summit, betraying the heat within. If Erebus were a dessert, it would be a reverse baked Alaska—frozen on the outside, hot in the middle.”

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/mount-erebus/judson-text

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GlacierDog Walked on Lake - Faces Portage Glacier Head-On! Amazing Experience…

* GlacierDog was standing in the middle of Portage Lake to snap these photos.  High winds capable of knocking anyone off his or her feet - even those with four of them - are quite common here!  These winds caused the interesting swirly snow pattern on the mountain that sits opposite to Portage Glacier.

* Just over the mountain with the swirly snow is the historical town of Whittier, Alaska, established by the U.S. Army during World War II.  There is a 2.5-mi railroad tunnel that was blasted through the mountain from Whittier to Portage.  The tunnel was completed in 1943 and became the primary debarkation point for cargo, troops, and dependents of the Alaska Command.  The Port of Whittier was then recognized as a strategic ice-free, deepwater port.  Today, the only “road” access between Whittier and the rest of Alaska is through the train tunnel, which is opened for motor vehicles in each direction separately each half-hour.  It is the longest combined vehicle-railroad tunnel in North America!

GlacierDogMapMe Website: http://www.glacierdogpublishing.com

GlacierDogMapMe: Where Was the Largest Volcanic Eruption of the 20th Century?

* 100 years ago in June 1912, the 20th century experienced its largest, most voluminous, explosive volcanic eruption.  It occured in Alaska and formed the huge lava dome, Novarupta.  In what is now Katmai National Park and Preserve, over 3 cubic miles (about 13.5 cubic kilometers) of magma blasted through the floor of a broad glacial valley for 60 hours.  Clouds of ash rose high into the atmosphere and drifted downwind, dropping more than a foot of ash on Kodiak, dusting Puget Sound, and eventually circling the globe.  The ash and gas cloud colored the Mediterranean sky and measurably depressed global temperatures.  The eruption was also correlated with some 50 earthquakes recorded at distant seismic stations (including 14 shocks of magnitude 6.0 to 7.0) and produced a series of ash flows that filled what became the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.

* 6 miles from erupting Novarupta, Mount Katmai collapsed into a deep, steep-walled, steaming crater.  For many years Katmai was believed to be the volcano creating the massive eruption.  But in the 1950s geologist Garniss Curtis carefully mapped ash thicknesses that identified Novarupta as the culprit. 

Refs: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/Katmai2012/timeline.php

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1791/

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GlacierDogMapMe Finds Evidence of Ancient Life in an Unlikely Place!

* Just below the surface of crumbly dirt in the year 2005, Lewis and Ashworth discover dead beetles, wooden twigs, pieces of dried moss, and bits of other plants.  Where?  The Friis Hills in Antarctica!  Today, the Friis Hills, which sit on a flattop mountain, 60 km (37 mi) from the coast, experience cold winds shooting off the Antarctic Ice Sheet, some 30 km farther inland.  The Friis Hills see -50°Celsius (-58°F) winter temperatures, and even a warm summer day rarely exceeds -5°C (23°F).  When Lewis and Ashworth placed those bits of the ancient frozen moss in water, the plants swelled into tiny soft, squishy sponges.

* The Friis Hills are a 6 mile-long, 1,750 meter (5,741.5 ft) high cluster of hills at the north side of the bend in Taylor Glacier in Victoria Land.

* Today Antarctica is barren and icy, void of much life other than seals, penguins, and other birds along the shores.  However, the ancient bits of bugs and plants discovered by Lewis and Ashworth reveal a different past - one filled with moss, various critters, and forests of leafy trees! 

* Nevertheless, even today, Antarctica’s terrain is not completely dead.  Small regions of bare, ice-free rock can hide crevices with a faint crust of green algae-stained dirt housing a few creepy-crawly critters which may include worms, tiny flies, six-legged springtails, or small eight-legged mites that are related to ticks.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/06/the-oldest-place-on-earth/

GlacierDog’s Website: http://www.glacierdogpublishing.com/

GlacierDogMAPME:  Where and What Is Denali?

* Denali, also called Mount McKinley, is North America’s tallest peak at 20,320 feet and is located in Alaska about 150 mi NNW of Anchorage.  “Measured from the 2,000-foot lowlands to its snowy summit at 20,320 feet, the mountain’s vertical relief of 18,000 feet is greater than that of Mount Everest.”  http://www.nps.gov/dena/

* While temperatures at Denali’s summit are severe even during the summer, winds can gust to over 150 mph and the winter temps at an elevation of just 14,500 feet can dive to colder than -95°F!  Permanent snowfields cover more than 50% of the mountain, feeding its many glaciers.  Denali’s granite and slate core is covered by ice that in some areas is hundreds of feet thick.

* “Denali”, meaning the “High One” in native Athabascan language, crowns in the Alaska Range in a huge national park.  The park and the mountain were first named for President William McKinley, but later renamed Denali National Park and Preserve.  The mountain now goes by either Denali or Mount McKinley.  

* Denali Park is a largely unspoiled wilderness.  In addition to viewing the mountain, visitors can spend the incredibly long summer days taking wildlife tours and are able to see moose, bear, Dall sheep, goats, and eagles.

http://www.nps.gov/dena/ and http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/dena/

GlacierDog’s Website: http://www.glacierdogpublishing.com/

GlacierDogMapMe:  Where and What Is “Giant’s Causeway”?

* The Giant’s Causeway is an area of thousands of volcanic basalt columns on the north coast of Northern Ireland. The columns are mostly hexagonal-shaped, though some have up to eight sides. The columns can reach heights of nearly 40 feet.

* How did it form? Volcanic action. “… highly fluid molten rock was forced up through fissures in the chalk bed to form an extensive lava plateau. … The rapidly cooling lava contracted and variations in the cooling rate resulted in the world famous columnar structure.”  http://www.giantscausewayofficialguide.com

* The lore: The Causeway was built by legendary giant Fionn mac Cumhaill, Anglicized as Finn McCool, due to an ongoing rivalry between him and another giant in Scotland, Benadonner, or Benandonner. Finn built the Causeway between the two countries so they could have a trial of strength.

http://www.all-ireland.com/attractions/ulster/antrim/giantscauseway.htm

GlacierDog’s Website: http://www.glacierdogpublishing.com/

GlacierDogMapMe:  What Is the World’s Deepest Canyon?

* Which canyon is deepest is debatable and depends on whether you are measuring a deep (narrow) chasm between two (steep) mountains or a gorge between more vertical cliffs. As shown above GlacierDog’s top contenders are: Cotahuasi Canyon and Colca Canyon in Peru, Kali Gandaki Gorge in Nepal, Yarlung Zangpo Canyon (or Tsangpo Gorge) in Tibet, and Vikos Gorge in Greece.

Sponsored by: http://www.glacierdogpublishing.com/

The next MAPME GlacierDog will be: Where Is Tiwanaku (Tihuanacu, Tihuanaco) and why should you care?

MAP ME GlacierDog:  What Is the World’s Deepest Lake?

* Lake Baikal (or Baykal) is the deepest lake in the world, over 1.6 km or 1 mi.

* It curves through southern Russia for nearly 400 mi.

* Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake by volume. Its 23,000 cubic km of water constitutes about 20% of the world’s total surface fresh liquid water. In fact, it has as much water as all of the Great Lakes of North America combined.

* It lies in an active, widening continental rift zone. The sediments at the bottom are over 7 km (4 mi) thick, giving its rift floor a depth of 8 to 9 km (over 5 mi).

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http://www.glacierdogpublishing.com/

The next MAPME GlacierDog will be:  What Is the World’s Deepest Canyon?