Endicott Arm
Today was a day for the geology to shine! We awoke under bright blue skies surrounded by blue glacial ice. Just ahead was the Dawes Glacier located at the southern end of Endicott Arm. The Dawes was originally named the Young Glacier by John Muir when he visited this locality with his companion Reverend S. Hall Young in 1880. The name was changed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1891 to honor a Massachusetts statesman, Henry Dawes—who presumably had something to do with funding their operations. For the past several years the Dawes has been rapidly retreating, accounting for all of the ice in the waters. Immediately after breakfast we set out in the Zodiacs, heading for the face of the glacier to witness, first-hand, the birth of bergs by calving off the 250 foot high ice cliffs at the terminus. Along the way we saw enough classic examples of glacial landforms to illustrate a whole chapter of a geomorphology textbook—cirques, horns, U-shaped valleys, whaleback erosion and arêtes to name a few. Picking our way through an armada of icebergs, bergy bits and growlers, we finally saw the ice fall in college dormitory sized chunks that created impact waves several feet high. These even rocked the Sea Bird parked a couple of miles down the fjord.
Leaving Endicott Arm, we headed north up Stephens Passage towards Juneau, still basking on the deck in fabulous sunshiny weather that felt more like Southern California than Southeast Alaska. Hedrick Smith gave a thought-provoking presentation entitled “Voyage Beyond the Western Sea” about China’s emergence as an economic super-power and the geopolitical implications this might have in the future.
This evening we will arrive in Juneau completing a voyage that was full of surprises, ranging from Hoohnah, to exceptionally good weather, and an amazing concentration of charismatic mega-fauna. It was truly a trip that we will long remember.
Today was a day for the geology to shine! We awoke under bright blue skies surrounded by blue glacial ice. Just ahead was the Dawes Glacier located at the southern end of Endicott Arm. The Dawes was originally named the Young Glacier by John Muir when he visited this locality with his companion Reverend S. Hall Young in 1880. The name was changed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1891 to honor a Massachusetts statesman, Henry Dawes—who presumably had something to do with funding their operations. For the past several years the Dawes has been rapidly retreating, accounting for all of the ice in the waters. Immediately after breakfast we set out in the Zodiacs, heading for the face of the glacier to witness, first-hand, the birth of bergs by calving off the 250 foot high ice cliffs at the terminus. Along the way we saw enough classic examples of glacial landforms to illustrate a whole chapter of a geomorphology textbook—cirques, horns, U-shaped valleys, whaleback erosion and arêtes to name a few. Picking our way through an armada of icebergs, bergy bits and growlers, we finally saw the ice fall in college dormitory sized chunks that created impact waves several feet high. These even rocked the Sea Bird parked a couple of miles down the fjord.
Leaving Endicott Arm, we headed north up Stephens Passage towards Juneau, still basking on the deck in fabulous sunshiny weather that felt more like Southern California than Southeast Alaska. Hedrick Smith gave a thought-provoking presentation entitled “Voyage Beyond the Western Sea” about China’s emergence as an economic super-power and the geopolitical implications this might have in the future.
This evening we will arrive in Juneau completing a voyage that was full of surprises, ranging from Hoohnah, to exceptionally good weather, and an amazing concentration of charismatic mega-fauna. It was truly a trip that we will long remember.
