Roadside Geology of Alaska
By Cathy Connor; Mountain Press; $26.
The blurb: The biggest U.S. state is full of superlatives. Denali, the highest peak in North America at 20,237 feet, is still rising, pushed upward as a tectonic plate collides from the south. That collision has also created huge mountains along Alaska's Gulf Coast, where humid coastal air has produced the largest subpolar icefield in North America. The exceptional heights of Alaska's mountains are mirrored below sea level by the 22,377-foot-deep trench of the active subduction zone along Alaska's southern shore. Earthquakes associated with the subduction zone shake Alaskans frequently, and the magnitude 9.2 earthquake in 1964, with its epicenter in Prince William Sound, was one of the largest seismic events ever recorded.
Such an active geologic setting calls for an updated edition of this popular roadside geology guide. Since the first edition was published in 1988, volcanoes have erupted, faults have ruptured, glaciers have retreated, permafrost has thawed, and geologic interpretations have changed. Author Cathy Connor discusses the latest findings in Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia and the Yukon. In addition to roads and national parks, the book covers the "boatside geology" of Alaska, including the fjords of Southeast Alaska, islands in the Bering Sea, and the Tatshenshini River.
Connor has a master's degree in geology from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from the University of Montana. Since 1991, she has taught at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. During summers, she is on the faculty of the Juneau lcefield Research Program. When not inspecting rocks, sediments and ice, she's surveying her beloved Alaska landscape on skis or from boats, depending on the season.
Excerpt: The last of the geologic train cars to crash into southern Alaska is the currently accreting Yakutat Plate. It began to geologically join the Chugach and Prince William terranes about 26 million years ago, in Oligocene time. The Yakutat Plate is coupled to the Paci?c Plate, which propels it northwesterly along the Fairweather and Contact Fault systems, ultimately shoving it into Southcentral Alaska, where lifts national park mountains from Glacier Bay to Denali.
The first discovery of oil in Alaska was in the Yakutat terrane. Placer miners found oil seeps on the eastern Copper River delta at the former town of Katalla. The first oil claims were staked in 1896, and Alaska's ?rst producing well was drilled in 1902 by a British ?rm that hit an oil-producing formation 260 feet below the surface. The oil and gas seeps found onshore in Katalla, Yakataga and at the Samovar Hills are in the Paleogene Kulthieth and Poul Creek Formations of the Yakutat Plate. Sediments and plants were deposited in a deltaic to marine environment and later formed into these fossil fuel deposits. During offshore petroleum exploration in the 1970s, drillers had trouble penetrating the overlying Yakataga Formation, which was deposited in Miocene time. Miocene glaciation along Alaska's Gulf Coast generated erratic glacial boulders that were ?oated, or rafted, by icebergs out over the continental shelf, where they were dropped into Yakataga Formation marine sediments. The contrast in hardness between marine mudstones and bedrock dropstones was hard on drillers and drill bits.
Alaska's Snow White and Her Seven Sled Dogs
Written and illustrated by Mindy Dwyer; Little Bigfoot Publishing; $10.99.
Blurb: Celebrated author and illustrator Mindy Dwyer returns with another delightful Alaska retelling of a classic tale. Joining Dwyer's successful Alaska fairy tales ("The Salmon Princess" and "Alaska's Sleeping Beauty"), this new book introduces a princess reimagined.
In a twist that will delight young readers who love heroines from "Frozen" and "Brave," this Snow White is a strong, resourceful Alaska musher with a pack of seven trusty sled dogs. Threatened by Snow White's beauty, the evil Ice Queen does everything she can to stop the young princess. She sends an assassin musher, a trapper with a deadly fur coat, and a homesteader with a poisoned drink. Snow White has her loyal sled dogs and a handsome musher on her side, but will it be enough to defeat the Queen?
Excerpt: She ran away as fast as the dogs could go until she was deep in the wilderness.
"Whoooo, whoooo?" asked a snow owl from the darkness.
"It is I, Snow White."
The owl flew home to the Master Skate Maker and his wife and reassured them, "Snow White wanders, but your daughter is not lost."
Snow White chose Scout for her lead dog, saying, "Scout, you'll help me find the way!"
Ruby, her swing dog, wagged her tail when Snow White told her, "You are the smart one." And she knew Ruby's partner, Warrior, would protect them from danger.
Hunter could provide them with meat out on the trail, and his partner, Sniffy, the other team dog, had a good nose for trouble.
Her wheel dogs, Blue and Fluffy, were closest to her in the team. "Blue," she whispered, "you will keep me from getting lonely out in the wilderness. Fluffy, the mama dog, curled around her. Snow White said, "Fluffy, I know who will keep me warm."
With her seven dogs, she felt safe and ready for adventure.
Contact Kathleen Macknicki at kmacknicki@alaskadispatch.com.