Hawaii or Alaska?

You finished your school, got a job and worked for 30 years and you want to retire. Finally, you have chosen as your retirement place Alaska or Hawaii- not quite sure yet. You can select only one of these two choices. I know, these are two opposite places: one is warm the other is cold, one is places on the 13th place as density in USA and the other one is placed as the lowest density but you like both places. You visited them, you enjoyed them and it is time to make a decision.




VS




Let’s compare these two places and find out which one is best regarding the natural/social environment.

Location and physical setting:
-----------------------------
Both, Hawaii and Alaska are situated in or bordering the Pacific Ocean. You can’t drive all the way to Hawaii, but you can drive from your home place in Northridge, CA to Alaska if you want (I looked up on the Internet- the distance is about 6,000 miles). From San Francisco to Honolulu- Hawaii’s capital, the distance is 2400 miles (page 360, from “Regional Landscape of Canada and Unites States”). Both places have active volcanoes (take a look at http://www.nationalatlas.gov to see a map with volcanic activities). The climate is different: Hawaii has a tropical location while most of Alaska is characterized by tundra. Based on www.infoplease.com, Alaska’s lowest temperature was -80 degree F and Hawaii’s lowest was 12 degree F. The huge difference is not a surprise because there are two different climates. I like cold weather, but not -80 degree F, that’s way too cold (don’t forget, that’s a lowest all time record). Regarding precipitation, both Hawaii and Alaska do have rains, it just depends of your particular location. For example, if you are located around Mount Waialeale from Kauai (Hawaii), you will enjoy about 486 inches of annual precipitation. Same thing with Alaska, in the South side, there is a lot of humidity which will increase the amount of precipitations.
Populations:
-----------
If you like ethnic diversities, Hawaii is the best place to choose. Ethic diversity is perfect to discover other races traditions, foods, etc. 30% White, 18% Filipino, 21% Japanese, 5% Chinese, 8% Hawaiian, etc is the ethic diversity of Hawaii. In Alaska, there is less ethnicity regarding population: 75% White, Asian (as a group) 5%, 4% African-American, 19% American Indian or Alaskan, etc (www.wikipedia.org).
Regarding taxes (yes, I don’t like taxes) there are no sales taxes in either Hawaii or Alaska. Don’t forget, if your choice is Hawaii, the amount of general taxes is 4% and 0% in Alaska (wikipedia.org).

Well, these are just a few factors which can be taken in consideration if you want to live in Hawaii or Alaska. They are both wonderful places to live or visit.

The North Pacific Coast --How Environmentalists, Natives, Companies, the Government can work together for a better Alaska?

There were about 30,000 people (31,000 native Indians and about 400 white) in the 19th century (http://explorenorth.com). That means about 13,000 acres per person. Today, with Alaska’s population close to 700,000 people, the density is not even 1 acre per person and that is actually the lowest density from USA (www.wikipedia.org).

Almost a century ago, the Alaska government passed a law regarding settlement which is the reason for some struggles between Alaska’s state government, native Indians, United States government, business, and environmentalists. How all these cooperate

Let’s assume you belong to one of these groups and your main concerns are just regarding your group. If you are the CEO of ARCO AmPm (the petroleum company), you know that America’s largest oil field is in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and you also know that you are a business man, which means that your main concern is how to make money. How would you defend your position/business interests?

How about if you worked for government, how would you make everybody (local/federal government, native people, and environmentalist) happy about Alaska’s land?

Let me give you my version...

First, the native people should be compensated for the land which belonged to them. Also, they should have enough land for their own communities, parks, etc. Once they reach an accord with the government, they should understand that creating business and exploiting land is needed in some cases.

Second, strict laws should protect the environment and let companies create businesses, which would create jobs, taxes to government, etc… If the environment is protected, Greenpeace and other NGO companies could not say anything.

Third, the local communities would have more jobs and a higher standard of living.

Last, of course the government would be happy if taxes are paid.

A unknown proverbs says that “There is no “I” in team work”, therefore environmentalists, natives people from Alaska, companies which are interested in creating jobs and of course making $, and the government should work together and try to solve all the struggles which currently exist in Alaska.

Pacific Ring of Fire: From California to Alaska

The Ring of Fire represents an area where a lot of volcanic activities and earthquakes occur. As we can see from the map, the Ring of Fire is located in the basin of Pacific Ocean.


Some of the US states which are located on the Ring of Fire are California and Alaska. California is well known for earthquakes (it has some active volcanic as well), but because this blog is entirely dedicated to Alaska state, I will talk about volcanic activity in Alaska (I already discussed about Alaska’s earthquake in a preview post).

I was surprise to find out that 43 of the nation’s 53 active volcanoes are located in Alaska. That means that almost 82% from the population of active volcanoes are located in Alaska. The main reason for this concentration of volcanoes in Alaska is the presence of so called Ring of Fire where almost 50% of Alaska’s land is located.
Another interesting fact from www.alaska.net is that more than 10% from the World’s active volcanoes are located in Alaska. The last massive eruption was in 1992, in Mountains Spurr:



In 1990, Mt Kiska erupted as well:



Would you like to live in a place with active volcanoes? Personally, I think that would be exciting. I am not talking about having your house next to the volcano- that would be a threat for your live. I think it would be a good experience to live in a place where an active volcano is located. What do you think?

Resources:
------------
1) www.wikipedia.org
2) www.volcanoinfo.co.uk
3) http://www.alaska.net/~logjam/volcanoes.html

Cappadocia, Turkey from Europe or Mesa Verde, Colorado from the USA's Southwest Border??

As we already know from the lecture, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado are all states which are considered parts from The Southwest Border. New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado are states which are best known for their Anasazi communities.



There are similarities regarding the place called Cappadocia from Turkey and the place called Mesa Verde from Colorado. Let’s take a look at some pictures:

Cappadocia, Turkey:
------------------






Masa Verde, Colorado:
--------------------






Based on Wikipedia.org, Ancient Pueblo people were an ancient native American culture which were located in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The name pueblo comes from Spanish and means “village”, because they were living in apartment like villages of stone.
Pueblo people were very good at weaving. They used to hunt and also, the main crop was corn. What is interesting is that the meat which they use to hunt it was stored in undergrounds pits. Make sense, they did not have refrigerators at that time, right? :)

If you visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Pueblo_Peoples#Warfare_and_cannibalism, you will learn that there is evidence regarding possible cannibalism rituals which occurred in pueblo tribes. To be more exactly, an excavation from 1997, in Dolores, Colorado found remains of at least two dozens a human skeletons that indicate violence and dismemberment. This evidence is not the only one: there are also unburies bodies which were found in places where Pueblo tribes used to live. There is no proof to indicate that the act of cannibalism was done for religious purpose or for survival/meat consumption...


Resources:
------------

1. www.wikipedia.org
2. http://www.mesaverde.com/Slideshows/hovenweep/hovenweepslide07.htm
3. http://www.dragonflydream.com/PuebloIndians.html

The wildlife from Alaska’s Empty Interior

From the following map, we can easily see that the Empty Interior covers most of Alaska’s land:



But why this region it is called “empty”? Is that an indicator that there is no life at all? No animals or humans?

In the second post of this blog (called “Megalopolis”), I already discussed about human’s and their territories, ;). It would be fair that next, we should dedicate a post to the wildlife from Alaska’s Empty Interior.

Did you guys ever seen a moose? If you did not, you should move (or at least visit) the town of Anchorage from Alaska. This is the only place from USA which has a “moose problem”. In this city, there are so many mooses that destroy some of the local crop that there have been talks about hunting and reduce their numbers. I like animals and I hope this hunting which people are talking about (http://www.alaskascenes.com/wildlife.html) will not happen any time soon.




Other animals characteristics Alaska’s Empty Interior are grizzly and black bears. I don’t guarantee that you will see them in the wild, but you can go to Denali National Park (http://www.denaliparkresorts.com) or to MacNeil River Sanctuary and you changes to see them are pretty high.




If you see any bears on the rivers, don’t disturb them! They are fishing and they might get violent,:).




There are also birds, like Bald Eagle, and Ptarmigan, Loons, Tufted and Horned Puffin, Gulls, Swans, Sea Ducks, Steller’s Jay, etc.

Also, Caribous are living in herds. There are more than 30 herds which are spread across Alaska’s Empty Interior. Again, Denali National Park is the best place to see them. Caribous look like deer, but they are bigger: males can be up to 660 pounds and females can have up to 300 pounds.



There are also other wild animals like: Dall Sheep, marine animals (whales, fishes, sea otter, etc ), mountain goats, lynxs, grey wolf, musk oxes.

If you decide to go in a place and see wild animals for an arctic climate, you should choose a national park in Alaska. As I already said, Denali National Park is a perfect place to visit. Enjoy!

Resources:

1) http://www.alaskascenes.com/wildlife.html
2) http://www.denaliparkresorts.com
3) http://www.alaskacruises.com/alaska_wildlife.asp?pageID=499
4) http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/GEO/map11.gif

The Tundra Biome in Alaska

For those of you who are planning to travel in Alaska, you will encounter tundra. Based on www.alaskadenalitours.com, the word tundra is derived from the Finish word for treeless land.

There are two types of tundra: artic and alpine which are both present in Alaska. The artic tundra occurs at higher elevations while the alpine tundra occurs at lower elevations.




Tundra’s vegetation is low and is dominated by grasses, shrubs, mosses, and lichens.

Talking about lichens, have you ever touched lichens? It is so soft, I remember when I was a child and I used to take my shoes and socks off and walk on lichens.

This is a picture of a lichen:




The artic tundra covers about 20% of the entire North American continent (1).

If there is not too much vegetation that means that it will be hard for herbivores animals to feed. Carnivore animals will not be able to feed that well if there are no herbivores. This is the explanation why there are not too many species of animals in Alaska. There are only about 700 species of plants and that is a really low diversity of plants. Any ideas why plants can’t develop in a huge number? Well, one thing is for sure: it is cold and plants can easily freeze. Another reason is the soil which does not have a high level of nutrients and sometimes is waterlogged.
Believe it or not, two-thirds of flora is insect-pollinated and that means that there are a lot of flowers.






Even if there are low precipitations (about 10-50 cm/year), that does not indicate that we are in a desert, with no rivers at all. There is less evaporation because the weather is not warm, so that is a perfect balance between the precipitation and the amount of water needed for soil’s vegetation.

What would be the indicator animal species for tundra? Well, if see caribous &reindeers (rangifer tarandus) that could indicate that you are in a tundra biome.

And by the way, some parts of tundra are crossed by huge pipes which transport petroleum. This is one indicator which shows that even the beauty of some places can be “disturbed” by human’s actions. We need gas for ours cars, so why should be worry about the environment, right? :)

Resources:
------------
1) http://www.alaskadenalitours.com/alaska_natural_history/major_vegetation_types_of_alaska.html
2) http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/tundra.htm

Township and Range in Alaska

How many of you used Google Earth? It is a free software which uses pictures taken from orbits satellites and provides them to the end user of the application.

Another interesting use of Google Earth is to convert the Township and range of a location to Latitude and Longitude. Click the link :

http://www.earthpoint.us/Townships.aspx

and follow the instructions:




If we click “Fly to on Google Earth”, we are actually opening the Google Earth application and launch a search of the township and range, in the selected state.
Here is what we see:





We can use the zoom option, in order for us to improve the resolution:



...and finally:








We also have the option to find the township and ranges based on latitude and longitude:




After we click "Fly to On Google Earth", we get the following image:




The United State Public Land Survey is full covered by Google Earth Point. This software is free for 15 days. After this period you have to buy the license.


It is amazing how technology can evolve. We can find convert a township and range in latitude and longitude coordinates in a few seconds. I am wondering what technology will bring in the future and how far are we going to scientifically advance.


Resources:
---------
1) http://www.earthpoint.us/Townships.aspx

Should I buy earthquake insurance if I own a house in Alaska?

Alaska is a place where there are a lot of earthquakes hazard. A few statistics regarding the seismic activity of Alaska indicates this fact. For example, Alaska has 11 % of the world recorded earthquakes and three of the world’s largest earthquakes are recorded in this state. Also, seven out of ten largest earthquakes from USA were in Alaska. Every 13 years, at least one great earthquake occurs (magnitude 8 or higher).

In 1964, the Great Alaska Earthquake was recorded with a magnitude of 9.2. This is the second largest earthquake ever registered. I posted some pictures which shows the massive damage which occurred:
















The Alaska Seismic Hazards Safety Commission is an agency which measure and evaluates the movement of tectonic plates. For the report of February 2010, the agency estimates the fault’s long term slip (http://www.dggs.dnr.state.ak.us/download/ashsc_meetings_minutes/ASHSC_2010_annual_report.pdf).




The ASHSC proofs that in a specific Alaska zone, the earth moves about 0.4 inches per year. This is pretty accurate taking in consideration that Pacific tectonic plates moves at about 0.5 inches per year.


Resources:
---------
1) http://www.johnmartin.com
2) http://www.ce.washington.edu
3) http://kska.org
4) http://www.infoaboutalaska.com