Glacial Lake Agassiz Beaches: Beaches near the GF Air Base. Beaches basically account for all natural linear features running southeast to northwest in the Red River Valley. In Canada the beach direction may be variable. It should be noted that there are often multiple beaches in the Northern Red River Valley that correlate to a single beach in the Southern Valley. This has been attributed to rapid uplift taking place as the glacial ice receded. Presentation I did for a class on the topic. Presentation I did for class on the Beaches of Glacial Lake Agassiz (Worth a look)
I had to make a digital copy of this so I might as well make it available. I don’t think it is copyrighted. Let me know if you think it is.
Southern Spillway: One of several catastrophic outflow points of Lake Agassiz. Note: The outflow points change overtime depending on the level of the lake and ice conditions farther north. & Large Scale braded stream cause by the one of the lake Agassiz floods.
Other Points of interest:
Pembina Escarpment: The Pembina Escarpment marks the edges of the prehistoric Red River Valley (pre glaciation) Note: Try to have your Eye alt around 20000 ft. To my knowledge there is no documentation on the joints in the Pierre formation in this region. (I looked) It could make a really good senior project for someone at UND or NDSU.
Logical Devils Lake Outlet Locations: I lived in the Devils Lake area so I still keep track of the area.
Dahlen Esker: Grand Forks County If you are looking for more information on Eskers try: https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/Eskers/Eskers.asp
Originally, this post was quite lengthy, but I have since decided that I was rather uninformed when I wrote it back in July. Currently, I work for an institution conducting CO2 Sequestration research, and I’m still not fully convinced that the technology will be useful anytime soon. CO2 sequestration is far more likely but be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it does put more CO2 in the ground than it generates (or it will). Furthermore, oil companies kick in money for the infrastructure and research, and without their data it would be almost impossible to generate accurate models of injection sites.
Personally, I still think modeling sequestered CO2 is BS, but progress will be made. Feel free to comment or ask questions. I’m not exactly an expert on sequestration, but I will defiantly have more knowledge than your average Joe. Be wary of information regarding CO2 sequestration because there is not a lot of real data on the subject. Within the next few years, we should have a much better idea of the long term storage potential and economic sustainability of sequestration. Regardless of what some groups would like you to think safe storage is not a problem. We can already make it work. It really boils down to infrastructure and economics.
I will be happy to try to provide legitimate scientific papers to anyone who would like to them. If you want to know more about the topic you should really watch this video first. It does a decent job of outlining a lot of the current issues, and explains where we are at on the research side of things.
I just check the models and things are looking pretty likely for a storm to develop next week. It is too early to tell how strong it is going to be, but it looks like it could be another big one for the central states out to the east coast.
The great blizzard of 2009?
Edit: #1 Dec 19
Jumped the gun a bit. It looks like the storm will likely track farther south so it shouldn’t become a major snow event.
Edit: #2 Dec 22
It appears as though the storm track will now fall farther north and will impact North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota. As much as a foot of snow is expected in some areas. The following day high winds will cause it to blow around.
Christmas Blizzard of 2009
Edit #3
It now looks like the parts of Minnesota can expect as much as 20 inches of snow from this system. South Eastern North Dakota and North Eastern South Dakota might get about a foot. It looks to me like the warnings extend too far to the west, but the storm path could likely shift that direction since the bulk of the system is in Utah right now.
Edit#4 Dec 25 12:36 a.m.
Well, unfortunately it looks like I was right. I had no idea how big the storm was going to be, and I originally expected it to impact areas farther south rather than north. It looks like I’ll have some time to blog since I wont be able to leave my house for the next 2 or 3 days.
Current weather from the Christmas blizzard
I will have pictures from through out the storm and after. The first of which I’m going to go take now.
Edit 5: Dec 25 11:03 P.M
Christmas Blizzard Wind Map
Christmas Blizzard 2009 Land Hurricane (Click to see gif in motion ~6MB)
1. It flows north which makes the river prone to ice dams. If the answer isn’t obvious from that statement simply think about spring warming trends in the northern states especially North Dakota and Minnesota. The thaw can come weeks earlier in the southern Red River Valley compared to the Northern. Large amounts of water moving North forces itself under the still frozen ice which causes rapid breakup. Large amounts of free floating ice bond together and forum ice jams which forces the river out of its banks.
2. Farm drainage causes the river flooding to be worse because the water is able to get to the river rapidly rather than dissipating over a longer period of time.
3. Climate change and cyclical climate change. As most people know the whole region in and around the Red River basin experience cyclical changes in precipitation. From about 1993 on we have been in a wet cycle and will continue to be for several more years. (Yes, there can be dry years within the wet cycle.)
