The little town of McCarthy, Alaska has a few lovely buildings, some dirt roads, and spectacular vistas. It also has an airstrip, and some friendly and knowledgeable pilots who will take you up in a plane for a tour of this magnificent place from above. This was a touristy opportunity that several of us decided to take advantage of, but it was definitely a learning experience as well, getting to see the glaciers that we have been talking about, walking on, and learning about, from above! Eleven of us started off from this cabin in McCarthy and headed off to the airstrip with Wrangell Mountain Air, ready to go up in two airplanes. I went up with four others with Austin, who took us up in a Cessna-206. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just let these pictures speak to you. (But I’ll include a few words to you can learn about this awesome place too.)
Downtown McCarthy to catch van to airstripOur Cessna-206 (the only plane that can carry its own weight in passengers/cargo)Our pilot Austin, taking us about 2500 feet above the ground5 passengers and a pilotA “braided river,” formed when sediment periodically gets blocked when being pushed along by a glacier and then changes direction to keep flowingA rock glacier (I had never heard of that before, but that rock is moving like a glacier)Multiple glaciers meeting at the bottom of the mountainAustin took us in close, only about 500 feet from the glacier (it was like you could reach out and almost touch it)These stripes are “ogives” or waves which form seasonally below icefalls. Dark troughs are markers of summer, while the lighter crests are markers of winter.The dark stripes along the path of the glacier are moraines (accumulations of sediment) have gotten pushed between two glacier flowsZooming in from above, spectacular blue melt ponds on the glacier surfaceThe heroes successfully returning from flight
Students in this Glaciology Summer School course consistently have their noses to the grindstone, so to speak, with lectures and project work each day, but in the evenings, there is a little time to relax (and it stays light outside very late). McCarthy, for being a tiny town with a population only in the double digits, offers a fine variety of ways to take a break. Sometimes it might be more along the lines of what you might have in a bigger city (like live music), and sometimes you have to be creative and make your own fun (like swimming in a chilly glacier-fed lake). My personal favorite is the fact that McCarthy had a town softball game on Friday night, when everyone in town is there to either play or watch, all within sight of a glacier looming in the mountains above. That’s not something you do every day. Neither is a “Zombie Prom,” currently advertised on a white board outside the town saloon for next Friday. All in good fun in McCarthy.
Swimming in the glacier-fed lake…Amazing live music (Deep Chatham) with upright bass, steel guitar, fiddle, and accordian…Playing softball with the whole town…Watching the softball game with locals, complete with beautiful music……all with a glacier watching over us.
I am totally enamored. Or back in time. Or maybe both. After a spine-jarring two hour drive on a dirt and gravel road, we stopped at a bridge over a clear, rushing stream. The bridge is just wide enough for someone to walk or bike over it, so we grabbed our backpacks and continued on foot along the dirt road into the lovely village of McCarthy, which is home to just 28 people (as of the 2010 census), and the fantastic Wrangell Mountains Center. At first glance, it appears to be a frontier town as you might imagine seeing a couple hundred years ago. But today, even though McCarthy has amenities like wifi access, this place is still a frontier. It is a frontier not only for adventurers and potential new residents seeking a quieter life in a stunning landscape, but it is also a fronier for scientific discovery. Being at the foot of mountains and glaciers, it is a perfect place for a glaciology summer school. McCarthy will serve as home base, campground, conference center and lecture hall, and the place where we will all learn more about this dynamic environment, how changes in climate affects it, and how changes in it in turn affect the world.
Here is a little tour of McCarthy. It won’t take long, but you will be instantly enamored too.
Walking over the bridge toward McCarthyThe main thoroughfareThe old hardware store, where we will have our mealsThe viewfrom the village – a moose JUST appeared from the woods but went back before I could take the photo!
The goal of the course is to provide graduate students with access to firsthand research frontiers in glaciology, including remote sensing, glacier geology and hydrology, glacier dynamics, surging and tidewater glaciers and ice streams, glacier response to climate change, and more.
Countries represented by participating instructors and students
There is a good reason why the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science in Miami is participating in this summer school on glaciers – and that is sea level rise.
Much of the general public is probably not aware of the research being conducted on glaciers, nor how this research may apply to their own lives and environments on the other side of the continent or world. The oceans connect us all, and here in Miami we are particularly attuned to the potential impacts of sea level rise on our beaches and reefs, and the availability of our abundant freshwater. Melting glaciers and ice are one reason sea levels are rising, and the Museum would like to connect you to cutting edge research on the subject. One of the ways we do this is to connect the public with the scientists engaged in this research, and this Glaciology Summer School is an extraordinary opportunity to do that. As an instructor, I will be expanding on the Museum’s local Science Communication Fellows program. I will work with scientists on skills and strategies to effectively communicate their research to the public, and they will share not only their research on glaciers but also their Alaskan adventure with all of you!
And that is what you will get to see here on this blog – in real time! See what they’re doing, you’re your questions, and follow along! And I will help guide the process, so that everyone will understand what brings a Science Curator from Miami, who still lives above sea level, to an Alaskan glacier.
Broad Key, FloridaWrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska
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