27 July, 2002

Cold and wet.......

I awoke this morning to the patter of rain on my tent. Needless to say, no radar work today. I has continued to rain all day, and has been very cold. As I write this, and look at the hills to the south side of the valley, I see a new skift of snow on the very tops (when they arenąt blanketed by clouds).

Dr. Baker and Kendra left this morning to pick up a couple more graduate students. They will be working on a project at Fort Richardson, a military base in Anchorage for the next week. They will be collecting seismic data in an attempt to determine depth to bedrock, and look for other layers present above the bedrock layer. This information will aid in determining how water moves beneath the surface at this location. This type of information is important because, if for instance, there was a spill of some type of material that entered the ground water itąs movement could be tracked. An effective cleanup procedure could then be implemented.

Because I couldnąt work on my project today, I helped out Darren Bake, an REU student. He is working on a project that looks at how streams on the surface of the glacier migrate and cut into the ice. Today, Darren needed to layout a grid that contained a stream he has been studying as well as take some water temperature measurements.

The grid will be used to collect relative elevation points which will be used to make a surface map. This data will be collected in a day or two, and then again in a few weeks. Comparisons will be made between the two data sets to show how the topography of the grid containing the stream has changed.

Even though I am cold and wet...........

Life Is Good,

DT

Darren Bake, an REU student marks a corner stake for a survey grid. Notice that there is another flag in the background. Data from this grid will be used to construct a surface map of the area.