Photo Journal

Sediment cores reveal an archive of environmental change going back hundreds to thousands of years

The remote Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean are being dramatically impacted by rising sea-levels providing valuable lessons to Arctic coastal communities facing similar challenges in the future.

Tern Colony at Cape Espenberg, Alaska. Photo by Juliet

Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park

Cape Espenberg, Alaska

Transporting sediment coring equipment up a barrier beach surge channel, Cape Espenberg, Alaska

A dramatic ice push event locally referred to as an “Ivu” left piles of eroded sediment high up on the bluff at Cape Espenberg in 2017.

Goodnews Bay at sunset

RTK-GPS base station set up at Goodnews Bay, Alaska

Glacial erratic in along the tide flats of Homer, Alaska

Local environmental coordinator in Pilot Point, Alaska measures bluff erosion from a fixed stake position

Students learn about sediment stratigraphy in the ACGL

Local environmental coordinator Alice Julius teaches how to clean fish on the Goodnews River

Community members in Dillingham, Alaska measure erosion from a recent storm

Nancy Bigelow show’s off a sediment core collected at Cape Espenberg

2017 Coastal dynamics field trip to Homer, Alaska

Coring crew at Lanes Delight Blue Hole in the Bahama’s attempting to bring in an 12 m sediment core.