Staff report

Homer geologist Ed Berg gives an exploratory talk on his observations of Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet beaches from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at the Kachemak Bay Campus, Kenai Peninsula College. His talk includes his observations on the beach over the past several years starting at the Anchor River, along to Diamond Creek, a look up the Diamond Creek canyon, and then to the Bluff Point landslide. The focus will then shift to the Homer Spit and the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake.

“Along the way, we’ll examine far-traveled glacial boulders on the beach, bacteria-generated concretions, and petrified or coalified stumps,” Berg said in a press release. “I will present evidence suggesting that the Homer Spit is simply a product of longshore-current deposition during a period of rising sea level over the past 6,000–8,000 years, rather than a glacial moraine as originally proposed.”

Berg also teaches his Geology of Kachemak Bay class at the Kachemak Bay Campus. That class meets 6-8:45 p.m. Tuesday evenings from March 2 to April 21, with Saturday field trips on April 11 to the Kachemak Drive beach and April 25 at Diamond Creek. A separate, non-credit field trip will visit Grewingk Glacier Lake on April 18.

“I believe Kachemak Bay is one of the best places on the planet to teach geology,” he wrote in his press release. “It is an open book, where processes operating across every scale and timespan can be observed —f rom landslides and collapsing bluffs to plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes. I hope you can join us for some of these explorations of our beautiful Bay and Cook Inlet.”



For information on Kachemak Bay Campus-Kenai Peninsula College programs, visit https://kpc.alaska.edu.