Landforms on Atka or Let's Go For a Walk

The newer, taller mountains are covered
with snow year-round.

Sometimes the taller mountains are
hidden by clouds or fog.

My students are studying Earth Science and World Geography this year. I chose those courses because they have some overlap in content. This past week was one of those overlaps. Both classes were talking about landforms such as mountains, plains, and plateaus, as well as sub-types of each form.

It's easy to see where pressure has
folded the mountains.

I decided that I wanted the kids to write about the landforms on Atka (or create a map with the forms indicated), so we went on a "field trip." It mostly consisted of standing in the gravel parking lot and walking along the gravel roads, seeing what we see every day. They recognized folded mountains with no trouble. They had a harder time understanding that the taller, mostly bare, mountains are younger than the rounded, grass-covered ones. We ended up having an introduction to geologic time the next day.

The stream now doubles back instead
emptying into the bay.

We also walked down to the beach. Cody had to go with us so that I could have his help walking back up from the beach. The stream that used to empty into the bay was rerouted and now runs parallel to the shore. I hadn't planned on seeing signs of human interference. So much for showing them a delta! I looked around and saw some boulders near the beach. Expecting to hear something about erosion, I asked the students how the boulders might have gotten there. The city put them there. Drat! More human interference!

After the meander, the stream runs
parallel to the shore.

We had great weather for taking a walk. I wish there had been more we could have seen right in our vicinity, but we would have to ride on ATV's to get to the volcano or pretty much anywhere else. I did manage to get some decent pictures. Enjoy!

P.S.--The mountains now have fresh snow on them. We'll probably get snow before the month is out!