St. Paul Island, Alaska, April 20-21, 2008

On April 20th 12 of us onboard the Healy were flown by helicopter from the ship to the airport on St. Paul Island. The ship was about 2 miles from the island so it was a short flight. We were to fly at 9 am that morning but low clouds and snow flurries prevented us from getting airborne until about 4 pm.

Here are some links to info about St. Paul:
http://www.naturescapes.net/012004/hf0104.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul,_Alaska
About 500 people here.

Flying into town. Those are water tanks in the background. A well about 2 miles away supplies the city's water. All the water/sewage pipes are buried as well as the power lines. Power is supplied by diesel generators. Electricity is around 50 cents/kW. Heating fuel is near $5/gallon.
Here are some prices of items at the local grocery store:
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream: $7.15/pint
Loaf of Whole Wheat Bread: $5.75
Bananas: $2.50/lb
Tomatoes: $5/lb
Apples: $3.50/lb
Iceberg Lettuce: $4/head

Many of the houses are of different colors, a nice diversion from the grey that is so prevelant most of the year. In the summer the island must be so beautiful with the green grasses and multitudes of flowers, over 100 species.

An old relic sitting in a warehouse out at the airport.

The older half of town with the newly refurbished Russian Orthodox Church in the background.

The church was built in 1830 and is actively used by the community for services.

New National Weather Service housing. Families are able to come out here. The tour of duty is 3 years. There is a Loran station run by the Coast Guard also. 14 people run that but no families are allowed. That duty is only 1 year.

A walk along a black sand beach. It was interesting to see marine vegetation washed up on the ice.

Chilled seaweed.

Ice and sand all frozen/mixed together.

As I was exploring the shore here, the town is just behind me, these waves would periodically sweep in and curve due to the
curved nature of the small bay. At the head of this bay is one of the Fur Seal rookeries. No seals on the island. They don't show up until June.

Smoothed basalt. The island was created when this part of the ocean's crust passed over a hot spot, like Hawaii, about 300,000 years ago. Active volcanism ceased about 3,300 years ago. The surface of the island is littered with cool looking red scoria and black vesicle basalt.

Some of the rocks on the shore were Vesicular Basalt. When the lava came to the surface, gases in it expanded and created the voids. The lava had to be cooled just enough so as not to have collapsed around the voids.

Along the same beach there were examples of pahoehoe or ropey lava. Fun for this rock hound.

Many of the houses are pretty weathered looking.

The landscape out near the airport. The hills are vegetated sand dunes.

Out by the airport there are 3 wind turbines.
They are owned by the village tribe. Only one is working and powering the villages offices by the airport. They are not linked into the city's power grid because of some kind of politics/bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. With 50 cent/kilowatt prices you would think that kind of crap would be thrown out the window to just get the things producing power. This country is in an energy crisis. Acts of war on energy independence/sustainability need to be declared. Politics and the interests of large corporations need to be squashed and the interests of the nations citizens need to be addressed.