Despite the variety of natural hazards facing Alaska, there is currently no comprehensive site available that addresses the geography of the state’s natural hazards. Yes, the Alaska Department of Geological and Geophysical Surveys comes close with its geohazards web page:  https://www.dggs.alaska.gov/sections/engineering/geohazards/

However, it does not include all natural hazards, e.g. climate related hazards and there is no comprehensive atlas.

The purpose of the following exercise is to give you the opportunity to pull together some of the information on natural hazards and make some judgments on what they mean geographically. (Refer back to Lesson 1 for the discussion on value judgments

Your specific assignment is to answer this question:  What is the most hazardous place in Alaska?  By place I mean an area roughly the size of the Seward Peninsula, Kenai Peninsula, or (say) the northern half of Southeast Alaska. I use these as examples. Just do not pick an area as small as a community. Since you will not be turning in a map, your answer will have to be descriptive such as “the area from Point Hope to Prudhoe Bay along the Arctic coastline’.

Justify your answer by indicating what hazards occur in the area, and why those hazards are particularly significant. Also note how the area compares to other areas of Alaska in terms of natural hazards.

We will compare all of the class answers and I will construct a map of the total results.

Create a new post to complete this assignment. Don’t forget to assign your post to the Blog 3 category.

Value: 20 Points