(B-2) Arctic Coastal Plain from Prudhoe Bay to Barrow

Leader: Torre Jorgenson, ABR Inc, Fairbanks
Duration: July 4-9, 2008
Cost: $2,250 (Pre-registration: $100) If there are questions, contact Field Trip leader.
No. of Participants: Maximum 18 people - ( This Field Trip is Sold Out, accepting Stand-By Registrations. )

Description: On- and offshore oil and gas developments and construction, coastal permafrost, thaw lakes and thermokarst development, and a visit to the native community of Barrow and the research community. (See detailed trip description)

Field Trip Itinerary:

Day 1, 4 July: Fly Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay; visits tp processing facility, drill site, and pipelines; discuss environmental management, effects of road dust on ice wedges, oil spill restoration.
Day 2, 5 July: Prudhoe Bay land rehabilitation techniques, permafrost and ecosystems in drained-lake basins (non-thaw lakes) in sandy terrain. Evening travel to Nuiqsu,t , Kuukpik Hotel.
Day 3, 6 July: Colville River Delta; boat trip, permafrost and ecosystems associated with floodplain evolution and coastal fringe, thaw lakes and tapped-lake basins.
Day 4, 7 July: Helicopter west to the Fish Creek area; large exposure of coastal plain deposits, recent degradation of ice wedges in upland terrain. Evening travel to Barrow.
Day 5, 8 July: Barrow; tour research facilities, examine buried, pre-Holocene ice-wedges, permafrost terrain evolution associated with drained lakes, impacts of snow fences, visit the city of Barrow, Chukchi Sea bluff erosion. Evening lecture and visit in the local museum.
Day 6, 9 July: Climate-change and ecosystem related projects and facilities, permafrost exposures and coastal processes along Elson Lagoon, long-term active layer and permafrost monitoring sites. Fly to Fairbanks or Anchorage.