“Unlike plate tectonics and glaciers, which were topics of
discussion earlier in the week, Tuesday’s topics were more relevant to the environment
of the North Slope: tundra and permafrost. After watching Tunnel Man, we
started off with modeling an ice-wedge polygon landscape using clay. Everyone
became gradually accustomed with the idea that, beneath the familiar tundra,
there is frozen ground and that the frozen ground is responsible for the
configuration of the landscape.”
Alessio’s reference to Tunnel Man may be new to a few of
you. Tunnel Man is a super hero who lives in ice tunnels, and teaches children
about ice wedges and permafrost in Alaska. Tunnel Man is played by Kenji
Yoshikawa, a UAF Research Associate Professor for the Institute of Northern
Engineering. He is actively engaged in geophysical, geothermal, hydrologic, and
permafrost research throughout Alaska, and is known both for his science and
for his creative videos where he plays out the character of Tunnel Man. Kenji
has aggressively pursued the goals of the permafrost outreach program and
travels to schools throughout the state developing working relationships with
those involved in educational communities.
Later in the day, Alessio and the kids cruised out to the
Barrow Environmental Observatory with the very noble intent of putting into
practice what they had learned in the classroom. Numerous mosquitoes, Alaska’s summertime
enemies, descended upon the group and did their best to distract the
next-generation of Arctic scientists. The kids could not quite endure repeated
attacks and the frequency of “When are we going back to the car?” skyrocketed.
Nonetheless Alessio, Skye, and the kids did get to meet Liyuan and Beth, who
kindly demonstrated their techniques for sampling surface and pore water on the
tundra. Liyuan and Beth are geochemists from ORNL and they are in Barrow
conducting research as part of the NGEE Arctic project. Liyuan indicated that
the kids braved the mosquitoes, paid attention, and then distilled the essence
of their interaction into the question “Can we drink the water?” Beth replied that it wouldn’t taste very good
and Skye commented that an Arctic fox may have used the pool of water for a
potty break. Discussions then quickly turned to other topics!
Alessio and the kids thanked Liyuan and Beth for their help and then turned to other activities: they measured the thawed layer thickness; they noticed that the thawed layer was thicker in the depressions; they also discovered that the temperature of the permafrost was way colder than the temperature of the tundra. Alessio quickly dug a hole and chopped off tiny samples of permafrost and passed it around among the group. “It’s cold!!!”, somebody shouted. A valuable lesson was learned that then sparked discussions about how weather and disturbance can influence the tundra through impacts on ice and frozen soil.
Alessio writes that “After three days we are getting to know
the kids in considerable detail. We can recognize their writing and the style
of each of them. Some of the kids are beginning to open up to us, and are
expressing an interest in what we are trying to teach them. It is an amazing
experience, beautifully rewarded by their smiles or by the occasional blinking
when they understand concepts. We are grateful to be here with them and very
excited that Tunnel Man replied to our email!”
