Professor Co-Leads Alaska STEMSEAS Voyage
PVCC associate professor of geology Callan Bentley co-led a group of twelve college students on a great adventure through the waters of coastal Alaska this summer. STEMSEAS, a federally funded initiative, selected Bentley along with Georgia Tech professor of biology Joseph Montoya to lead the expedition. STEMSEAS (“Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Student Experiences Aboard Ships”) is a long-running initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (award: RISE-2325637). The program utilizes otherwise-underutilized time and space aboard the nation’s fleet of academic research vessels, and fills the berths with eager students and their mentors.
In this case, the research vessel Sikuliaq had finished one expedition in Seward, Alaska, but its next expedition was scheduled to depart from Nome, three-quarters of the way around that largest state in the union. STEMSEAS placed Bentley, Montoya, their students, and a trio of other mentors aboard the ship for this six-day transit of 1300 nautical miles (1500 statute miles). Bentley and Montoya were joined by Kris-An Hinds, an anthropology PhD student at the University of South Florida, Amanda Williams, a maritime geographer at the U.S. State Department, and Sandy Lucas, the Arctic program director of the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing arm of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Participating students hailed from universities and community colleges across the nation, including one who was a recent graduate of PVCC, Mara Cox (now at William & Mary). STEMSEAS covered all travel costs for all participants.
The group convened in Anchorage on July 28, and spent our first full day commuting south into the Kenai Peninsula and Seward. We made geology stops at Earthquake Park (where a suburban Anchorage suburb slid into Cook Inlet during the 1964 Good Friday earthquake), Beluga Point and Indian Creek (to look at bedrock exposures), and Portage Glacier. We also visited the Alaska Wildlife Center, which offered close looks at grizzlies, wolves, muskoxen, moose, and caribou. That evening, Bentley took a group of students out in a hired water taxi across Resurrection Bay to examine coastal outcrops of uplifted seafloor. This offered an unparalleled way to view the structure of the oceanic crust.
The next day, the group hiked to see Exit Glacier, a famous valley glacier that drains the Harding Icefield. Exit’s terminus has been steadily eroding away for fifty years, and it was sobering to see signs showing the glacier’s past positions and compare them to its modern situation. We enjoyed a tour of the Alaska SeaLife Center that afternoon, learning from its many amazing displays of marine creatures. That evening, we all moved aboard the Sikuliaq, an 80 m (261 ft) vessel operated by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
The next morning, the Sikuliaq weighed anchor and got underway. For the next three days, the vessel motored southwest, past Kodiak Island and the Aleutian volcanic arc. Then the ship crossed into the Bering Sea and headed north for three more days, arriving in Nome on August 5. Along the way, we did three oceanographic “stations,” where the ship stopped for a short time to lower water sampling equipment and do a plankton tow. In the ship’s laboratory, students examined the varieties of zooplankton in these samples.
The group also enjoyed watching wildlife. Dozens of whales fed within sight of the ship, as well as a few sea lions. Pelagic seabirds were frequent sights. These included storm-petrels, murres, fulmars, jaegers and two kinds of albatross. The students’ favorite birds were puffins, of both horned and tufted varieties.
Disembarkation in Nome was delayed for half a day due to rough waters. By the time it was safe to dock, the group had to head straight to the Nome airport to begin the long journey home. Student blog posts from the trip can be read at stemseas.wordpress.com/blog.
This was Bentley’s second STEMSEAS voyage, and his first as a leader. Overall, it was an amazing experience, and he hopes to make STEMSEAS a regular part of his summer schedule.