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You are here Loess: You are here

You are standing near the top of the cliff (blue arrow), looking in the direction of the green arrow.


Possible Loess deposit, Fines near top of cliff

A Loess? Unstratified Fine Tan Silts.


Exposed here near the top of the cliff, is a fine uniform tan silt with no sign of layering. This could be a loess deposit. Large deposits of Loess are found associated with glacial ice sheet advances. A loess is an accumlation of windblown dust in areas in front of continental ice sheets, in areas that are not covered by ice. The windblown dust of a loess is derived from erosion resulting from changes in vegitation as ice sheets advance. Oddly enough, despite being so far North, this part of northern Alaska was not covered by the North American continental ice sheet during the Pleistocene glacial advances. Thus this is not an unreasonable place to find loess instead of glacial till.


From here you can:
Look at some dark stuff at the very top of the cliff.
Climb out onto the tundra.
Climb back down to the rocks exposed on the cliff.
Climb back down to the bottom of the gully.

jbg sect 20 beach jbg section 65 beach chukchi sea up gully at jbg65 up gully at jbg 20 tuap and karmuk at jbg 65 karmuk at jbg 20 Cretaceous Nualvik tuap karmuk fines peat
Sources: See beginning of trip.
Part of the Athro, Limited web site.
Copyright © 1998 Athro, Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Written by Paul J. Morris mole@morris.net
Maintained by Athro Limited
Date Created: 22 Apr 1998
Last Updated: 23 Jan 2000