The perks
Research into the Earth's past takes you wherever the Earth decides to hide its history. With no consideration given to human boundaries or limitations, it can be anywhere. Anywhere my work takes me, I try to stay a few extra days and visit near the ship's port-of-call. If I hadn't gone to graduate school in oceanography, I probably could not have traveled as much as I have. On previous working trips, I have gone to Tahiti, New Zealand, Angola, South Africa, France, and Mexico. Not your garden-variety destinations. The places I have gone are not all on my vacation list, but the luck-of-the-draw has given me a more complete view of the world, of the Earth and its people. This is one of the best parts of life as a scientist in the field.
Today I am in Kodiak Island, Alaska. This time, I have arrived two days early in the town of Kodiak, on the northeast coast of Kodiak Island. Let me point out that there are three geographic features called Kodiak - an island, a town, and an underwater mountain. The travel from San Diego to Kodiak Island was easy because the time difference is only an hour. Without a time difference there is no jet lag. The hotel was comfortable and I got a decent night's sleep last night.
  Figure 1: Where Kodiak Island is located.
I love to travel so these days before we board the Atlantis are entirely for fun. Early this morning, a few of us got together for breakfast, decided where to go, rented a car, and drove to our first hiking destination, Pillar Mountain. The rental agent sent us off with a dire warning, that we had a 50% chance of getting a flat on the gravel roads. With that sendoff, we set off to visit to the green island locals call the "Emerald Isle".
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A C T I V I T I E S
• Activity 2.1a
Around the world
The graduate students participating in the expedition have been to exotic places in their pursuit of scientific knowledge. Check out this map to see where they have gone.
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