Wednesday, August 05, 2009

College Fjord

This was as dark as it got our first night cruising. I think this photo was taken about 1130pm.


Our first full day cruising was spent in College Fjord. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

College Fjord is a fjord located in the northern sector of Prince William Sound in the U.S. state of Alaska. The fjord contains five tidewater glaciers (glaciers that terminate in water), five large valley glaciers, and dozens of smaller glaciers, most named after renowned East Coast colleges (women's colleges for the NW side, and men's colleges for the SE side). College Fjord was discovered in 1899 during the Harriman Expedition, at which time the glaciers were named. The expedition included a Harvard and an Amherst professor, and they named many of the glaciers after elite colleges. According to Bruce Molina, author of Alaska's Glaciers, "they took great delight in ignoring Princeton".[1]

In 1964 College Fjord was the epicenter of the Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history.

Smith Glacier (I think)
That was one big quake:

More Wikipedia:
Two hundred miles southwest, some areas near Kodiak were permanently raised by 30 feet (9.1 m). East of Anchorage, areas around the head of Turnagain Arm near Portage dropped 8 feet (2.4 m)... Post-quake tsunamis severely affected Valdez, Whittier, Seward, Kodiak, and other Alaskan Communities, as well as people and property in British Columbia, Oregon, and California. Tsunamis also caused damage in Hawaii and Japan.

Harvard Glacier.