Rainy Day in Kangerlussuaq
July 22, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Watson River Threatens Kanger Water Supply and Bridge
July 25th, 2012
NASA has posted data showing record melt areas covering the entire Greenland Ice Sheet from July 8-12. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland-melt.html
July 12, 2012
Ive been sick the past few days, but luckily the action has been in town this week. The Watson river is the major waterway that funnels though the spillway at the edge of town. Over the past couple weeks we have been noting the height of the river, but nothing compared to the water flowing though the spillway on Tuesday July 10th. I took a series of videos and photos over July 10-12 (today). The bridge across the spillway is also the only way to reach the other side of the river (unless you have a helio...). The town water supply, routed over the spillway from Lake Ferguson, is also threatened by the river as it flows over the main piping.
Today, July 12th, the bridge is impassible, with the center and far southern side completely eroded out by raging brown water. Some folks said this is the highest they have seen the river in the 40 years they have lived in Kanger. The water started rising rapidly on a clear, sunny, windy day. Hydrologists familiar with the area have noted that the watershed for the Watson river is massive, extending up to Summit and the ice sheet divide. What can I say folks, the ice sheet is melting...
Some Geographic context:
The Watson River Spillway at low water, Note the two Bridge trusses in the photo, The rock splitting the river downstream of the bridge is covered by rapids. The road sections between and south of the two trusses are completely eroded. You can just see the main water supply piping running along the right side of the bridge; its now submerged.
The Watson is fed by two converging, major rivers: one that flows from the Russell and Levit (I believe ?) Glacier, the other that flows down the Desert Valley (where Karen and I did the 40 mile hike). Discharge from the Levit glacier was twice the expected seasonal outflow. Water from the Watson is constricted at the spillway and widens again before flowing to the Kangerlussuaq Fijord. Kanger Fijord is the 3rd largest fijord in the world! During the high water event, discharge through the spillway was estimated at 15 billion L/sec. Over the duration of the high water event (est 15 hrs), as much water passed through the Kanger spillway as Denmark consumes in a year.
July 18, 2012
Today, the water has receded significantly. During the event the town's water supply pipe covering was ripped to shreds but the pipe was spared!
Some photos and videos:
Before (6/29/2012):
July 11, 2012 ~ 5:30pm
Earth-Mover has fallen into a sinkhole in the center fill section of the bridge. The driver made it out!
Looking up stream, Right hand section of bridge
Looking up stream, Left hand section of bridge
upstream of bridge, note the structure meant to divert water in the center of the river is completely submerged
July 11, 2012 around 10 pm
The Earth mover was swept into the river and, as of July 24th, has yet to be seen. The fill between the bridges and the far side of the road are completely eroded though, making the bridge impassible.
July 12, 2012
The water diversion structure upstream of the bridge re-emerges with the new channels distributing the water. Three other diversion structures were washed downstream and sit in a large sediment deposit today (July 24, 2012)
NASA has posted data showing record melt areas covering the entire Greenland Ice Sheet from July 8-12. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland-melt.html
July 12, 2012
Ive been sick the past few days, but luckily the action has been in town this week. The Watson river is the major waterway that funnels though the spillway at the edge of town. Over the past couple weeks we have been noting the height of the river, but nothing compared to the water flowing though the spillway on Tuesday July 10th. I took a series of videos and photos over July 10-12 (today). The bridge across the spillway is also the only way to reach the other side of the river (unless you have a helio...). The town water supply, routed over the spillway from Lake Ferguson, is also threatened by the river as it flows over the main piping.
Today, July 12th, the bridge is impassible, with the center and far southern side completely eroded out by raging brown water. Some folks said this is the highest they have seen the river in the 40 years they have lived in Kanger. The water started rising rapidly on a clear, sunny, windy day. Hydrologists familiar with the area have noted that the watershed for the Watson river is massive, extending up to Summit and the ice sheet divide. What can I say folks, the ice sheet is melting...
Some Geographic context:
The Watson River Spillway at low water, Note the two Bridge trusses in the photo, The rock splitting the river downstream of the bridge is covered by rapids. The road sections between and south of the two trusses are completely eroded. You can just see the main water supply piping running along the right side of the bridge; its now submerged.
All happening just down the street from KISS! Worth the walk despite my cold.
The Watson is fed by two converging, major rivers: one that flows from the Russell and Levit (I believe ?) Glacier, the other that flows down the Desert Valley (where Karen and I did the 40 mile hike). Discharge from the Levit glacier was twice the expected seasonal outflow. Water from the Watson is constricted at the spillway and widens again before flowing to the Kangerlussuaq Fijord. Kanger Fijord is the 3rd largest fijord in the world! During the high water event, discharge through the spillway was estimated at 15 billion L/sec. Over the duration of the high water event (est 15 hrs), as much water passed through the Kanger spillway as Denmark consumes in a year.
July 18, 2012
Today, the water has receded significantly. During the event the town's water supply pipe covering was ripped to shreds but the pipe was spared!
Some photos and videos:
Before (6/29/2012):
July 10, 2012, around 6pm, water is getting dangerously high and flowing over the town water supply pipe. Earth-movers begin to reinforce the fill between the bridge sections and the road.
Water is beginning to overflow the spill way bank.
July 10, 2012 around 9pm,
water is beginning to top over and erode the center fill section. The water pipeline is submerged.
July 10, 2012 around 9pm,
water is beginning to top over and erode the center fill section. The water pipeline is submerged.
July 11, 2012 ~ 5:30pm
Earth-Mover has fallen into a sinkhole in the center fill section of the bridge. The driver made it out!
Looking up stream, Right hand section of bridge
Looking up stream, Left hand section of bridge
upstream of bridge, note the structure meant to divert water in the center of the river is completely submerged
July 11, 2012 around 10 pm
July 12, 2012
The water diversion structure upstream of the bridge re-emerges with the new channels distributing the water. Three other diversion structures were washed downstream and sit in a large sediment deposit today (July 24, 2012)
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Kangerlussuaq Running Routes...to date
run from East to West, 13.2 miles in 2hr 15 min. With enough energy to sprint the finish!
Loved it, feel great!
No longer accessible due to Bridge out
no longer accessible due to bridge out
best run yet, beautiful views of the area along musk ox single track!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Ice sheet Hiking
Each time I get on ice I fall more in love with it. It feels like a different world. One where every feature is carefully sculpted; carved by high pressures, slow movement driven by its own mass, and the sun, melting pits where ever dust collects. The icy melt waters are just warm enough to cut river beds, caverns and moulins; or just cold enough to freeze into icy ribbons and stalagmites. The features are clean; characterized by glowing blues, blacks and bright whites. Shadows give the features depth and definition. Plus...blue is my favorite color.
On this hike, we fastened crampons to our wellies and walked onto the Russel Glacier near our sub-glacial site. The goal was to explore the moraine and river systems along the edge of the ice, and look to see if the river running along the glacier showed any obvious diversions that would route it under the ice, and into the flow we sampled... The other motivation was simply to explore. :) We found text book examples of the complex water ways that characterize glacial surfaces in the melt season. Intricate networks of rivers, deep cut meandering valleys, some flowing into crevasses or moulins, some forming waterfalls or spouts, others pooling into icy bottomed azure ponds.
There was no clear evidence of the river, rerouting and flowing under the ice. Being on the surface, however, provides a striking perspective on the amount of water running off the ice sheet, and the complexities of melt-water paths and fate. While the term supra-glacial flow is clear (water flowing on the top of the ice), sub-glacial flow seems to be a more complex term, and perhaps more precisely put in question form: What is sub-glacial flow? A question with answers that may vary based on what you are studying. Sub-glacial chemical weathering, or physical glacial dynamics, such as uplift, floating and movement? How long does water need to remain under the ice for sub-glacial, microbial niches to form? or for the water to carry a chemical signal indicative of basal rock weathering? Are these two factors linked? likely so!
The final fate of the melt-water runoff is obvious from the swollen, sediment laden rivers delivering both mineral nutrients and massive volumes of fresh water to the ocean...there is a lot of ice here...
Looking down river, towards Kanger from Russel Glacier
On this hike, we fastened crampons to our wellies and walked onto the Russel Glacier near our sub-glacial site. The goal was to explore the moraine and river systems along the edge of the ice, and look to see if the river running along the glacier showed any obvious diversions that would route it under the ice, and into the flow we sampled... The other motivation was simply to explore. :) We found text book examples of the complex water ways that characterize glacial surfaces in the melt season. Intricate networks of rivers, deep cut meandering valleys, some flowing into crevasses or moulins, some forming waterfalls or spouts, others pooling into icy bottomed azure ponds.
There was no clear evidence of the river, rerouting and flowing under the ice. Being on the surface, however, provides a striking perspective on the amount of water running off the ice sheet, and the complexities of melt-water paths and fate. While the term supra-glacial flow is clear (water flowing on the top of the ice), sub-glacial flow seems to be a more complex term, and perhaps more precisely put in question form: What is sub-glacial flow? A question with answers that may vary based on what you are studying. Sub-glacial chemical weathering, or physical glacial dynamics, such as uplift, floating and movement? How long does water need to remain under the ice for sub-glacial, microbial niches to form? or for the water to carry a chemical signal indicative of basal rock weathering? Are these two factors linked? likely so!
The final fate of the melt-water runoff is obvious from the swollen, sediment laden rivers delivering both mineral nutrients and massive volumes of fresh water to the ocean...there is a lot of ice here...
Jump Kyla! Fun with corel draw. If I've edited the photos, I'll make a note of it :)
crevasses, bridges, azure rivers, waterfalls, spouts, ridges, valleys, moulins and caves with scalloped, cathedal like ceilings that glowing an eternal blue.
Above and Below:
Rivers draining into moulins - vertical holes that flow down into the glacier. Watch your step!
Ice bridge
Looking down river, towards Kanger from Russel Glacier
HDR image, blending three exposures and set to grayscale
40miles, 2 days
~
"It wasn't that I wanted, like Cook and Amundsen and Vancouver and Bering and all those other dead explorers, to turn terra incognita into terra cognita, the world into a map. Quite the opposite. I wanted to turn a map into a world."
Donovan Hohn, Moby Duck
~
Last weekend (June 30-July 1, 2012) Karen and I hiked along the river that flows west from the ice sheet, through desert valley, into Watson River and the Kangerlussuaq, Spillway. Our goal was to reach the tongues of ice that wrap around the island mountain approximately 20 miles outside Kangerlussuaq. We had two days to cover the estimated 40 miles, round trip, distance. An 18.5 mile one-way distance was estimated on Google Earth...and our path was certainly not the blocky, straight segments we traced out on the map (one way map and elevation profile above). The back-country trail system is made and maintained by the local musk ox and reindeer. It consists of a pretty consistent network of stamped out single track. Without these trails, the terrain is challenging to navigate on account of ice heave hummocks and thick willows hiding numerous rabbit and fox holes...a recipe for ankle twisting, and, it turns out, mega-blisters... Unfortunately, the game trails are not totally consistent, forcing us onto uneven terrain for half, to one third of the hike. The thought of seeing the two glaciers converging around a mountain kept us moving forward despite sore feet.
First third of the hike, we couldn't see the ice yet... The piece of land that extends into the river bed in the top left of this image, is around the half way point. We started the hike around 8am and reached the half way point around noon; ~10 miles in 4 hours.
This slow flowing river cuts deep into the thick peat and sediment of this flat grassy valley. The depth, around 3-5 feet, seemed abnormal for such a slow moving, meandering river. I wondered how long this stream had been cutting the same wavering path.
Gyrfalcon spotted along our route!
As we crested a small ridge we startled a musk ox harem (this is the typical term used, the females congregate with the young, and the bulls roam solo), sending them bounding along the lake shore. In the image above the mother is in front and the youngest, baby musk ox, is trailing in the rear.
View from the finish point: the end of a high ridge line looking directly towards the convergence of the two ice tongues. The mountain creating this phenomenon is green with vegetation, an island in the ice.
I'm struggling with merging my panorama shots... more to come.
Clouds at camp. See the viking ship, oars and billowing sails, moving to the right!? :) The sun nearly sets this time of year, providing a couple hours of sunset lighting around 10pm before rising again.
Camp. One of the best and lightest tents I have ever used, a single wall two man tent by Black Diamonds, called the limelight. Its a cheery lime green. The light weight poles are set up inside the tent. We dozed with the screen door open, a cool breeze coming off the ice kept the mosquitoes at bay and the temperature in the 40s to 50s that night.
On our hike back we were so focused on reaching the car, heads trained on the uneven terrain and a rapid gait, we inadvertently snuck up on and startled a reindeer, musk ox and nesting goose. The reindeer, once it noticed my proximity (about 50 feet) freaked and bolted, thundering hooves moving faster than I had ever seen an animal run. The goose was as startled as I was, when it burst from its nest, flapping and squawking. It cranked at us from the near by lake as we peered into its down filled nest filled with five smooth white eggs (photo above). The close encounter with a musk ox was by far the most intimidating. I gave a yelp when, the ox snorted and took two pounding gallops to where it stopped, about 100 feet from us, and stared us down. I'm not sure I would have taken a photo even if I had my camera out... Fortunately, when solo, the males seem uninterested in charging. Karen clapped and yelled at it. My brain was concocting the best way to move behind the large rock just to the right of us...which really would have been more of an "ostrich head in the sand" move... After a face off, the ox turned and galloped up a hill, fortunately deeming us unworthy of a fight. We hiked from 8am to 8pm the first day, including stops, photos and a rest at the final turn around point, up until we sat down to make dinner. Day 1 was an estimated 21+ miles. Day two began at 10am and ended when we reached the car at 5:45 pm, covering around 19 miles in 8 hours, with average, estimated rate of 2.4 mi/hr.
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