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Prince William Sound
Geography states that a sound
could be a big sea or ocean inlet that is much bigger that a bay,
deeper than a bight, wider than a fjord and may also be connected
with a narrow sea or ocean channel that flows between two bodies of
land; for example a strait. The Prince William Sound sits off the
coast of Alaska and the Gulf of Alaska on its south coastline and on
the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. The biggest port on this side
is Valdez, where 18 holding tanks contain oil for shipping to other
ports in the country. The other towns on the sound include Cordova,
Whittier and the Alaskan native villages of Tatitlek and Chenega.
The majority of the land that encompasses the sound belongs to the
Chugach National Forest, which is the second biggest forest in the
nation. The sound itself is surrounded by glaciated and high
dangerous cliffs that make up the Chugach Mountains, and the
coastline is full of islands and fjords, many holding tidewater
glaciers. The main barrier islands here include Hawkins Island,
Hinchinbrook Island and Montague Island. Way back in 1778, James
Cook came to the Prince William Sound and decided to call it
Sandwich Sound, which was his patron's name, the Earl of Sandwich,
but the people who edited his maps changed it to Prince William
Sound in honor of their prince, later becoming King William IV. In
1964, just after the Good Friday Earthquake, a tsunami rushed the
lands and killed many Chugach villagers in the village of Chenega
and demolished the settlement of Valdez. It was here in the sound
that the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in 1989,
that caused a catastrophic oil spill, that not only damaged the
present and future environment, but killed 22 killer whales, 250,000
seabirds, 250 bald eagles, 3000 sea otters and 300 harbor seals.
The sound contains over 3000 miles of shoreline that is outlined by
the Chugach Mountains to the north, east and west, with Montague
Island being 50 miles long, and many smaller ones that have formed a
kind of natural barrier from the breakwaters of the sound and the
Gulf of Alaska. After millions of years, glaciations has slowly worn
away the coastal plateau which in turn created the sound with all
its numerous tributary fjords, rocky shores, islands and
passageways; all of which have in turn created one of the most
magnificent kayaking tours in the world. Less than 10,000 people
live in the towns and villages mentioned above, without any roads to
connect them. Just recently, glaciologists that have examined the
sediments in the gulf found that the glaciations has been happening
here for the past 5 million years; and they believe that the region
has been glaciated for the past 15 million years. There aren't too
many other areas on this earth that have had such a long period of
glaciations, which retreat to the mountains in the summer and cover
all of the coastal plateau in the winter. Some 20,000 years ago, the
earth's climate cooled down and the final Pleistocene ice age
glaciers came down from the Chugach Mountains and formed in the
streambeds of the plateau and began to carve deep valleys. The
glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago and carved the planet's crust
down to the granite roots of the Chugach Mountains and also scoured
out deep fjords that created the sound and the treacherous glacially
sculpted mountains. The Prince William Sound that lies in the
coastal arc of the Chugach Mountain range, contains more than 20
glaciers that end at the sea, with many others clinging to the
precipitous mountainsides. It is a spectacular area to visit, by
water, by air or by ship, with many beautiful sea creatures and land
marks that will stay in your memory for the rest of your life. The
awe inspiring beauty that lies in the sound and within it is more
majestic than any other arctic place on this earth. Always worth the
visit, and you will always discover more treasures and secrets each
and every time you go.
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