Tracy Arm
Our exploration began this morning in this most beautiful of fiords, with a 7 am wake –up call. By coincidence or serendipity we were directly across from a landslide that occurred in 1992. If you looked closely you could see what appeared to be an Alder line of trees, younger, and higher above the tide line than the others in the area. Could a wave from this massive slide have removed all the older vegetation? Such a wave would indeed be a sight to behold! Tracy Arm is just this kind of magical and spectacular place.
Earlier in the morning the entrance of Tracy Arm, which represents the ancient terminal moraine of the Sawyer Glacier and furthest point of its advance during the last ice age, marked the starting point for our day’s exploration. This ancient terminal moraine and now an entrance bar for Tracy Arm has been dated back some 1500 years. Only 1/3 of a mile wide and some 70 feet deep this entrance is a formidable challenge to navigation with its powerful exchanges of tidal currents and sometimes standing waves.
Our visit to this fiord was highlighted with glimpses of slate, greenschist, phyllite and occasional limestone on the southwest side and gneiss, marble, schist and garnierite on the northeast side of what is called the “Tracy Arm Elbow”. This demarcation explains the sheer cliffs and dramatic walls found east of the elbow, truly a geologist’s playground.
After visiting the Sawyer Glacier in our Zodiacs and witnessing the beautiful blue colors and occasional calving, not to mention the newly born harbor seal pups with their protective mothers, we made our way to Williams Cove for an afternoon of hiking and kayaking. As to not miss a moment of the true Alaska experience, a newly hatched swarm of insects escorted us back to the National Geographic Sea Bird for a recap that included a fine geological explanation of our day’s explorations by Cameron Davidson of the Carlton College Alumni Association.
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