Check out the summary from our September 2023 trip below:
About Kong
The village is home to 470 (±112) native Yup’ik people and is one of the only villages on the YK Delta with a growing population (U.S. Census, 2023). The village is governed by two entities – the Tribal Council of Kongiganak and Qemirtalek Coast Corporation. Kongiganak’s primary concerns are safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as permafrost thaw that is destabilizing infrastructure.
Hillshaded watershed map of the of the YK Delta, created using a 2m Digital Elevation Model (Polar Geospatial Center). Note the elevated landscape of the on the modern YK Delta.
Preliminary Shoreline Change map near the village of Kongiganak, AK.
Locations were samples were collected during the August 2022 field expedition.
Geologic Context
Kongiganak is situated on the southwest corner of the YK Delta, 4 km inland of the Bering Sea. The region is made up of Quaternary alluvial deposits from the Kuskokwim, Kongnignanohk, and Ishkowik Rivers and aeolian sediments from river flood plains sourced in the Ahklun and Alaskan Mountain Ranges. The uplands around the village are composed primarily of deposits consisting of mud to silt with lenses of fibrous peat. The village’s primary waterway to the ocean is the Kongnignanohk River (estimated watershed of 179 km2). Permafrost is discontinuous across the local tundra (Jorgenson et al., 2008), creating hummocky topography dominated by thermokarst lakes. These lake systems are shallow (~0.75m), and some are potentially eutrophic, as evidenced by the lake sediments producing sulfur rich smells and black organic deposits. It is the rapidly changing themokarst terrain surrounding Kongiganak that is now a primary concern for management of community infrastructure (Tracy Lewis, 2022 personal comment).
References
Jorgenson, T., Yoshikawa, K., Kanevskiy, M., Shur, Y., Romanovsky, V., Marchenko, S., Grosse, G., Brown, J., Jones, B., 2008. Permafrost Extent by Surficial Deposit. Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks December update to July NICOP map.