A naturalist known as John Muir captured this photo of an Alaskan glacier. He called it an "imposing array of jagged spires and pyramids, and flat-topped towers and battlements". The above glacier is a alpine glacier, which is born on the mountain tops instead of the plains. They are sheer but change the earthís energy and are an unbelievable site. Glaciers are formed when there is a high amount of snow fall on ice then the snow and ice become one and form huge masses of ice sometimes thousands of feet thick. If the weight of Alpine glaciers becomes too much they begin a downhill venture and may join with other glaciers to form rivers of ice. Many of these rivers will empty into fjords and bays and join to form massive icebergs. After the glaciers have taken their downward march many of them leave behind broad, rugged valleys and deep lakes as they go.
Alaska has over forty historically active volcanoes, (which is 10 percent of the world total). Beneath the Aleutian Islands and the southern coast, the Earth's tectonic plate moves into the planet's molten crust and melts. The pressure builds and molten rock and gasses burst which leads to the formation of islands and mountains. In June 1912, the most powerful eruption occurred in the Katmai region out of the Novarupta Volcano. It threw up twelve times as much ash and rock as the Mount St. Helens blast, causing the skies to go dark across the Northern Hemisphere.
This picture is the tundra in northern Alaska, because of Alaska's extreme temperatures there are very few trees. Alaska has many temperate rain forests in the panhandle. Alaska's land has more earthquakes than any other U.S. state. It is the largest state in area in the U.S. but smallest by population. This beautiful land is bordered by British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and the Arctic Ocean. Alaska is famous for it's eight famous national parks. It is a beautiful place with some dramatic scenery.
This picture is of the trumpeter swan. These birds come to Alaska from the coast of British Columbia and Washington each spring to nest. The mating pairs head to Alaska to claim a private marshy nesting area. This is where they hatch and raise their young. These birds were almost once extinct, now their numbers are about 15,000 and 90 percent of them live in the Alaskan wilderness. This bird is one of the portraits of beauty in the Alaskan habitat. You can find them in the southeast, south central, or the interior of Alaska's great land. The trumpeter swan prefers to live in the wetlands, lakes, ponds, marshes, open wooded regions, or the prairies. Their call is a very unique trumpet like a double honk.
North America's largest land carnivore is the Grizzly and the Brown Bear. They both make their home in Alaska. These bears can be either black, brown, blonde, or even two tone. Regardless of their color they are all considred the same species. In the summer, when the salmon are abundant in the coastal waterways, the brown bears will consume up to 90 pounds of these protein rich salmon. They must consume this much to prepare for the October - April dormant season. It is not uncommon for the bears to weigh 1500 pounds and measure up to 10 feet high. While the brown bears are having a buffet of salmon on the coast, the grizzlies are gorging on berries, fish, and rodents' inland. The grizzlies size is not near as enormous as the brown bear. The grizzlies top the scales anywhere from 300 to 700 pounds. What a glorious sight these creatures make.
Hump backs Each spring the humpbacks all return to feed in the teeming Alaskan waters, by retracing the route they swam months before. The humpbacks are often called the not-so-gentle giants. Many times the male humpbacks will ram eachother head on or thrash against eachother while fighting for dominance. Cunning hunters? Indeed! They have been known to gather below a school of herring and cause commotion by flapping their fins or singing songs, which causes a rage of bubbles upward sending the herring to the surface extremely disorientated. After the herring propel to the surface it is feast time for the humpbacks. The average weight for the males is 25 tons and the average female is about 35 tons. That would be nice if those weight differences were accepted in our culture (female more than male)?
Sockeye Salmon are only part-time residents of Alaska. They spend most of their time in rivers and lakes before they head for the seas. It is normal for the salmon to return after two or three years to Alaska, at this time they are fattened and begin there long journey to spawn. The United States is the largest harvester of the sockeye salmon. After spawning, because of the abundance, Bristol - Bay is the largest fishery. Japan is one of the largest importers of the Alaskan salmon. About one third of the salmon we eat today comes from farms and hatcheries.
Most of the Alaskans live in the urban areas because just about anywhere else in known as the "bush" and you cannot even travel by car. About 16 percent of the population are actual native to Alaska. The natives mostly live in scattered villages and they call the "bush" home, along with the homesteaders, trappers, miners, and dreamers. The total population of Alaska is 609,311. Whites make up about 75 percent of the population. The next largest group is composed of descendants of the area's early inhabitants, the Inuit, Native Americans, and the Aleut. Religions in Alaska are Russian Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and numerous Protestant Denominations.
This picture is an ancient general store in Alaska. It was very common for general stores to sell bricks of gold. The gold attracted many settlers to this vast land. Alaska is one of the first North American homes. During the ice age, between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, Alaska was linked to Siberia. Most of the water was occupying glaciers, which caused the sea levels to sink and the arctic grassland to drift between the continents. The earliest ancestors of the natives today, crossed over from Asia. In the mid 1700's the Russian colonists began to trade fur which brought about 823 settlers. Then in 1867, the Secretary of State urged the U.S. to buy Alaska from Tsar Alexander II. Alaska sold at the turn of the century for 7.2 million dollars - with a 150 million gold rush. Finally, Alaska became a state in 1959. Today, Alaska is an oil rich land. "
Jodie Hays November 15, 1999