Largest U.S. City

More trivia. Name the largest city in the United States. Notice I did not say the most populous city. What I am after here is the largest in area. If you named Oklahoma City, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Antonio as your top five you would have been correct as far as cities are concerned. But what if we also include consolidated city-counties (city-borough in AK and city-parish in LA)? In this case it turns out the the largest city is Sitka, AK at 4811 mi². (See wikipedia.)

The Lynn Canal

"The Lynn Canal is an inlet (not an artificial canal) into the mainland of southeast Alaska. The Lynn Canal runs about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the inlets of the Chilkat River south to Chatham Strait and Stephens Passage. At over 2,000 feet in depth, the Lynn Canal is the deepest fjord in North America and one of the deepest and longest in the world as well. The northern portion of the canal braids into the respective Chilkat, Chilkoot, and Taiya Inlets. Lynn Canal was explored by Joseph Whidbey in 1794 and named by George Vancouver for his birthplace, King's Lynn, Norfolk, England."

Lynn Canal connects to Stephens Passage via Favorite Channel, on which lies Juneau, AK. At the entrance to Favorite Channel from Lynn Canal is the Sentinel Island Lighthouse.

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Dee and Cal reported seeing six bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) on Thursday. Although bald eagles have flourished in Alaska and Canada, the species was on the brink of extinction in the continental US late in the twentieth century. Thanks to conservation efforts (and to banning of DDT) stable populations have recovered.

"The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve was created by the State of Alaska in June of 1982. The preserve was established to protect and perpetuate the world’s largest concentration of Bald Eagles and their critical habitat. It also sustains and protects the natural salmon runs and allows for traditional uses; provided such uses do not adversely affect preserve resources. The Preserve consists of 48,000 acres of river bottom land of the Chilkat, Kleheni, and Tsirku Rivers. The boundaries were designated to include only areas important to eagle habitation. Virtually every portion of the preserve is used by eagles at some time during the year."

The Inside Passage

Links: Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS, Inside Passage)

Outbound

Alaska!!

After 75 days en route, Dee and Cal are in Alaska! Here is what they accomplished.

Days en route:	75
Days on road:	60
Rides 10-29 miles:	4
Rides 30-49 miles:	27
Rides 50-69 miles:	20
Rides 70-89 miles:	6
Rides 90-129 miles:	3
Miles total:	3207
Miles/day mean:	43
Miles/ride mean:	53
Miles/ride median:	49

Also, the Google map has been updated. :-)

Tagish Lake Meteorite

By latest report, Dee and Cal are not going to Whitehorse, but were to spend the night last night in the town of Tagish, which gives me the chance to write a little about the Tagish Lake Meteorite.

"On the morning of January 18, 2000, a 150-ton space rock plunged into the earth's atmosphere, landing between the Yukon Territory and British Columbia in a remote vacation village, Tagish. The rare Tagish Lake fireball left an orange-white and blue contrail that lingered for 10 to 15 minutes as hundreds of observers witnessed the early morning events.

"The first aerial over-flights showed no crater or fragments left to demark the fireball or its impact. But fortunately for the science community, one week later on January 25th, a nearby resident, Jim Brook, found the first meteorite fragments while driving homewards on the ice of Taku Arm in Tagish Lake. He knew the frozen lake well, and had the presence to pick up the dark icy rocks with his hand inside a plastic bag. What Brook had uncovered was an extraterrestrial clue from the early solar system, a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite.

"To date, 500 more fragments have been found near Tagish Lake and hundreds have been recovered from the site - many still encased in ice. The space events of January 18th were the largest ever recorded over land by the Defense Department satellite systems. Scientifically, ;[Tagish Lake] is the find of a lifetime,' says Peter Brown, meteor scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Western Ontario and co-leader of the meteorite recovery investigation. 'The entire process of recovery of the material and determination of where it comes from makes this the scientific equivalent of an actual sample-return space mission - at a thousandth of the cost.' " (From AstroBiology Magazine.)