August 5, 2012 First on, then above, then by the Karst for the second to last time.

It is actually Monday night that this journal is making its way to the web because upon return from a glorious Sunday on the tundra, Isfjord Radio was silent. Not silent in that there weren't terns cawing and swooping at your head or certain students giggling over gestures/quotes somehow making their way straight from the 90's 'Encino Man.' Rather, it was the lack of noise you only register when you've become accustomed to the background. That lack of noise being our diesel electrical generator. So long story short, we ended up eating at 9, the power was eventually restored, and the internet is now back on Monday evening. Nothing to feel sorry for because as field camps go, we still had it pretty good (omg…they over-starched my long-johns…).

So, in honor of the outage today's 8/5 (or 5/8 depending on your euro dating preference…that just totally came out wrong but am leaving it) journal will be short and filled with pictures to do the talking.

The day started with Mike and I somewhat unassigned to projects but headed to 'oversee' operations in the AG212 karst project area. This meant I only was on the working end of the shovel for one hole and thus generally of a happy disposition. We started over with Hanna and Elin and then worked our way over to Lukas and Lauren's lake area. Please see captions for more detail on the science taking place in the following pictures...

Mike's long arm school of correlation at work in the karst.

Neither shovel in my hands...only Hanna and Elin's...excellent...

Lauren and Lukas digging in the karst lake delta, recently dry from a lowered lake level...the karst is draining.

The pit stratigraphy in the delta. Layers within the pit can allow researchers to glean information on lake level, sediment input, and many other parameters as students make their way down to the permafrost with a shovel...

We came, we saw stratigraphy, and then beat feet to spend the afternoon trying to gain a better perspective on the Holocene sequence of events that lead to the geomorphology of the karst area. At times we both found ourselves at odds with making sense of the periglacial landscape but happily puzzled and in search of arm-waving hypothesis that would put the appetite to ease. The following is a picture tour of the karst area that I hope you enjoy at least a tenth I did.

Mike strides across the tundra...

A view atop the rock glaciers. These mixtures of rock and ice show evidence of flow and do not look like your normal glacial ice. They are located toward the eastern flank of the karst area just removed from the carbonate cliffs that they are derived from...

This view allows one look over the northern part of the karst area out to sea. The island out in the distance is called Prince Karls Forland and is actually one long island separated by a long strandflat though it looks like two.

This view is again from the rock glaciers but looking more toward the southern end of the karst area, just north of Linnevatnet. The hunter orange ribbon is one well known to those at CVA that lives in my jacket. Thoughts of Josh Waldron follow us long and far.

Large Reindeer on the marine terrace in between the cliffs and on the way to the outlet, Linneelva

On the way up the banks of Linneelva to the lake we came across this bank outcropping. Being derived from marine sediments earlier in the Holocene (that's many thousands of years ago), whale bones and shells are constantly eroding out of the bank walls (prime for radiocarbon dating!)

Our final view on circumnavigating the karst area: a view of geese in full 'v' headed east down Isfjord.