ALASKA: Earthquakes, Auroras and Cabbages

Day 54 of the Lower Puna Eruption and another 5+ earthquake at Halemaumau.  Interesting that the the summit of Kilauea Volcano seems to have one of these every day:

However, Alaska has more recently had the largest ones, for Anchorage and the southern part of the state sit on the Ring of Fire:

Note that the Juan de Fuca Subduction Zone is at the Cascadia Subduction Zone.  Six Hours to ? is shaping up now as a mega-tsunami that does not do much damage to Seattle and Anchorage, but triggers a mega-earthquake at this subduction zone.

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Alaska is twice as large as Texas and about the same size as the Hawaii Exclusive Economic Zone, meaning Hawaii is double the size of Texas, for their EEZ is limited.  The ethnic mix is about two-thirds white, 3.6% each for Hispanic and Black, and 5.6% Asian (mostly Filipino).  The population is around 700,000, about half that of Hawaii.

Seward's folly was a $7.2 million  ($100 million today) purchase from Russia in 1867.  The USA and Russia are only 2.5 miles apart, for in the middle of the Bering Strait are two islands that close, one sitting on the U.S. side, and the other in the Russian EEZ.

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, 33,500 feet, topping the 29,035 height of Mt. Everest:

However, from sea level, Mauna Kea is "only" 13,796 feet, whereas Denali (official change occurred in 2015), once officially known as Mount McKinley, is the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet, making it #3 to Everest and Aconcagua.  More than 100 have died trying to climb Denali.  Anchorage is 131 miles away and the mountain can be seen on a clear day.

The greater Anchorage area has a population of 400,000, and is equidistant to New York City, Frankfurt and Tokyo.  You can fly to 90% of the industrialized world from the Anchorage airport, making it a common refueling stop.  That might explain those two white 747s I saw when I arrived, which is the color generally used when passenger planes are between owners and temporarily leased.  Yes, the CIA has been known to use them.

Unlike Honolulu, Anchorage is the most tax-friendly city in the USA and has no sales tax.  The rate of rape crime is three times the national average.  Like Washington, marijuana is legal in Alaska.  The catch for tourists is that you can purchase weed, but can't smoke it in public or hotels.  And, don't sneak them home.  However, enforcement here is minimal and the crime is equivalent to jaywalking.

Hawaii has sharks, Alaska has bears.  Two hundred and fifty black bears and 60 brown bears, more commonly known as Grizzlies, make their home in and around Anchorage.  A grizzly killed a man around Anchorage and mauled another just about when I arrived here.  However:

# OF DEATHS IN THE UNITED STATES PER YEAR

Cause of death …………… # dead

Cardiovascular disease ……... 856,030
Transportation accidents …... 48,441
Drowning ……………………. 3,582
Hypothermia …………………699
West Nile virus …………….. 119
Hornet/bee/wasp stings …. 48.5
Snake bites ……….…….. 5.2
Bear attacks …………….. 2

In the Rare Event of an Attack

If a bear makes contact, you have two choices: play dead or fight back. The best choice depends on whether the bear is acting defensively or is seeking food.

• Most brown bear attacks are a defensive response. Play dead in defensive situations: Hit the ground and lie still if a brown bear you have surprised or any female bear protecting cubs makes contact. Lie flat on your stomach, legs spread apart for stability, with your hands protecting the back of your neck. A defensive bear usually ends its attack if it feels you are not a threat. Remain motionless for as long as possible. If you move, and the bear sees or hears you, it may return and renew its attack. In a prolonged attack, fight back.
• Fight back in other situations: Rarely, lone black bears or brown bears may perceive a person as potential food. Fight any bear that has been calmly focused on you and makes contact or that breaks into a tent or building. In almost all situations, your best defense against an attacking black bear is to fight back. Concentrate on the bear’s face or muzzle with anything you have on hand.

Bear spray ($32 from Amazon) is more effective than most guns, but most importantly, be careful, and feel comforted that bear deaths are very, very rare.  Sharks in Hawaii?  From 1828 to 2016, that's almost 200 years, there have been 150 unprovoked shark attacks and ten fatalities.  An average of 60 people die by drowning in Hawaii waters each year.

The greatest natural disaster suffered by Alaska was the Good Friday, 27 March 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake, killing 139.  The quake lasted 4 minutes and 38 seconds, generating a near field tsunami of 220 feet.  Seventy five miles away, Anchorage was not hit by a tsunami (which is all the more reason for eliminating this city from my future novel), but lost 75 houses and suffered considerable damage to bridges and highways.  This quake, at 9.2 moment magnitude, ranked #2 to the 9.5 1960 Chile tremor.  #3 was the 2004 Sumatra (around 9.2) earthquake, with #4 being the Great Tohoku (9.1) earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011.  The sizes of the circle are representative of deaths.

When I took the Anchorage tour, the driver ran out into the forest to show what a 9-foot "wave" of land looked like.  Yes, an actual wave rolled across towards Anchorage, totally destroying most of the infrastructure:

I then went to the Alaska Experience Theater, which shows various documentaries.  One in particular, the 1964 earthquake, seemed worthy, even though the cost was $8 for only 15 minutes.  Sure, the chair shook like a 5 earthquake, but the auditorium was shoddy and the schedules screwed up.  Basically, not worth the cost.

I might mention, too, that the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil accident also occurred in the Prince William Sound.  The Gulf of Mexico 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill released more oil into the watery environment.

If I had a bucket list, experiencing the Northern Lights, or aurora, would definitely be included.  So did I see any?  Of course:

However, these came from:

In the Sydney Laurence Theatre every hour on the hour from 9AM to 9PM at the Performing Arts Center is this program.  $15 for 40 minutes.  I enjoyed the presentation and learned that:

• Solar winds, traveling at a million miles per hour are charged particles which interact with the Earth's (many planets at the poles have this phenomena) magnetic field.
• Oxygen creates green, red and red-orange colors.
• Nitrogen is responsible for pink-red, blue and purple.
• All-red auroras occur only once or twice a decade.
• The Aurora Borealis (northern lights) are more prominent than Aurora Australis (Southern Lights)
• You CANNOT see these lights during summer.  In the northern hemisphere, only at night from late July through April.
• Auroras never touch ground and are difficult to predict.
• To take a good photo, use a good camera on a tripod.  Have a lot of patience.  Don't get frostbitten.
• The key to success.  Be there.

I noticed Humpy's across from the street from the Center.  Coming in on Thursday, the taxi driver pointed this out as his favorite restaurant.  From the outside it looked closed, but I went in and was surprised to see the placed filled, with only one table available, the best one in the house.  In fact the only window seat in the whole establishment.

I did get a tad worried when I saw the largest mosquito I've ever seen right in front of me.  Legs stretched out, surely 2 inches, and probably more.

This must have been a male.  I wonder what the biting female looks like.  I went on to have my best fish and chips ever, a Wild Alaskan Cod, with a glass of Alaska beer:

At the end of the meal I noticed on another table this:

So of course I had to try this:

My Bloody Mary:

What a 2-hour meal.  That above individual is not representative, but I noticed the people walking on the street were mostly old, obese or fringed, or some combination.  Seattle had healthier, younger and better looking Homo sapiens.

On the way back I took a photo of this cabbage plant because I remembered here is from where the heaviest comes.  Something to do with long days.  The world record is held by Scott Robb of Alaska at 138.25 pounds:

I leave today for Honolulu.  But before so, went to Burger Jim to have my final meal in my Sheraton room:

Okay with my drink leftovers, plus an exciting Iran-Portugal World Soccer match.

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THE BEST OF ANCHORAGE

Day 53 of the Lower Puna Eruption:

• land covered by lava:  6144 acres
• homes destroyed:  637
• lava flowing into the sea:  0.6 mile wide
• yet another 5+ earthquake at the summit
• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park remains closed
• the Jagger Museum will probably never again be used

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Conversely, yesterday might have been the finest day of the year for Anchorage, as the temperature got up to 65, the day was mostly sunny, the Summer Solstice is being celebrated and the Mayor's Marathon was held.  David Kiplagat just beat his brother, Paul Rottich, by one second, in 2:25:43.  Both went to the University of Alaska at Anchorage.

My day started with a view of Mount McKinley from my room:

Probably not, though.  My room faces Denali in just about this direction, but that just must have been a cloud formation.  On the other hand, this is a typical photo when seen:

I'm more and more beginning to think that was Denali.  I finally had a real breakfast after a week of hotel executive lounge mini breakfasts:

I remember the previous and only other time I was here in Anchorage, maybe a third of a century ago, also around the longest day.  I participated in a hydrogen conference at the University of Alaska, and after that was over, joined a salmon fishing expedition.  Paid a fortune to be taken by van with eight others a two-hour ride away to be dropped off at a river.  It was a total disaster (not the photo to the right):

• There was only about a 50-yard portion of a river, where there were a hundred or more fishermen.  Only native Americans can fish wherever they want.
• We were provided a long pole, line and a hook with some cloth material attached to it.
• At this time of year the salmon returning upstream do not eat.  You need to irritate them so that you just snag the fish.
• The river water was white, and very cold.  You could not see an inch below the top of your rubber wader that went up to the chest.
• You had to elbow yourself between two others, no doubt annoying them.
• People were snapping their pole so that the hook flew by your ear.
• While you could not see any fish, every so often a salmon would bump into you.
• For sure they were there because every few minutes someone caught one.
• I could only spend 15 minutes in that river for my toes got frozen.
• You then had to go back up the bank and wait long enough so that you repeated the process.
• I caught nothing.
• After a few hours we were taken back to Anchorage.
• There, you could purchase salmon, which they packed in dry ice and styrofoam.  
• Cost? Don't remember, but I'm sure it was more than $30/pound.  Then I had to carry it around before returning home.
• Had salmon for dinner.
• Next day went to the Safeway on Beretania and the same King Salmon was on sale for $3/pound.

Well, it turns out now that the Sheraton is a 15 minute walk to Ship Creek, where you can fish for salmon right close to downtown.  You need to purchase a license, rent gear and who knew what kind of luck I would get this time.  Here is a quote:

The state's largest city, population now roughly 292,000, got its start here in 1915 when a tent city sprang up around construction of what became the Alaska Railroad, which now has its headquarters a block from the creek.

The creek, which snakes from the nearby Chugach Mountains to the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet, features two main runs of salmon every summer, king and silver salmon.

"It really is a popular fishery," Bosch said.

With its proximity to downtown, it not only draws locals looking to drop a fishing line, but also tourists to either fish or watch the fishermen gut their take along the bank.

"The hotels right up here, we actually have people who stay in the hotels right here who walk down the road, right to the creek and fish in the creek," Bosch said.

Walking to the site, I wondered why there were no people (except for one or two obviously homeless people--and there is a very serious problem here, mainly Eskimos) nor cars.  Remembering that Anchorage has double the crime rate of the USA, I began to get a bit worried.  Well, nothing happened and I did get a decent view of the fishermen.  I saw no salmon swimming by, nor any fish being caught in the half an hour I hung around.  However, this photo shows what appears to be success, for it looked like a salmon was on the end of the green line:

I passed on actually fishing.  Saturday in Anchorage, however, was especially festive, for there were half a dozen outdoor markets and entertainment areas:

For men, you are a chum:

I got real hungry and went to my second Anchorage restaurant, Sullivan's Steakhouse:

Caesar salad, garlic horseradish mashed potato and half a pound of Delmonico steak, with beer from Alaska.  A simple glass of red wine was $14, so I skipped that.  I was particularly impressed with the Delmonico, which is a special type of preparation, not a cut of meat.  It was terrific, exactly how American beef should taste.

A took a short trolley tour, and learned a lot about the 1964 9.2 moment magnitude earthquake,which changed Alaska.  I will say more tomorrow.  A particularly interesting facet was home architecture.  What you see here is a yard with no home:

This is because many of the more expensive homes are underground.  Two, sometimes three floors.  The wind chill here can get down to -150 F, and this type of residence can get by with a winter heating bills of only around $50/month.

Another difference with Hawaii.  Our tides are like around 2 feet.  Last year in May we had king tides of 3 feet, breaking a 112-year record.  Waikiki Beach was threatened.  

Anchorage today?

25 feet!

Upcoming weather?  You'll rarely see this, and never in Hawaii:

Anchorage tonight:       SUNNY, with low of 50 F
Anchorage tomorrow:  mostly cloudy and high of 61 F.

This was Anchorage at 11PM last night.

No Denali.

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