Athro, Limited Gubik Field Trip Section 20 Fine Silt

You are standing near the top of the cliff (blue arrow), looking in the direction of the green arrow.

A Loess? Unstratified Fine Tan Silts.

Exposed here near the top of the cliff, is a fine uniform tan silt with no sign of layering. This could be a loess deposit. Large deposits of Loess are found associated with glacial ice sheet advances. A loess is an accumlation of windblown dust in areas in front of continental ice sheets, in areas that are not covered by ice. The windblown dust of a loess is derived from erosion resulting from changes in vegitation as ice sheets advance. Oddly enough, despite being so far North, this part of northern Alaska was not covered by the North American continental ice sheet during the Pleistocene glacial advances. Thus this is not an unreasonable place to find loess instead of glacial till.