Check out the summary from our September 2023 trip below:
About Mekoryuk
The village is situated on a peninsula, surrounded by coastal waters and a bay, fed by the Mekoryuk River with an estimated watershed of 313 km2. Mekoryuk is the primary residence of 327 (±75) Cup’ik people, a subgroup of Yup’ik peoples occupying much of the YK Delta (U.S. Census, 2023). Fish camps and small shelters are dispersed across the island and used during peak salmon runs, muskox and reindeer hunts, and herding. The village is composed of three leadership groups – the Tribal Council of Mekoryuk, the City of Mekoryuk, and the Nunivak Island Mekoryuk Alaska (NIMA) Corporation. Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game acts as a regulatory and hunting permit entity for large portions of the island. The community’s primary concerns revolve around coastal erosion, secure and safe drinking water and sanitation systems.
Hillshaded map of Nunivak Island, created from a 2m Digital Elevation Model (Polar Geospatial Center).
Preliminary Shoreline Analysis of Mekoryuk, AK.
Sampling locations from August 2022 field work.
Geologic Context
Mekoryuk is located on Nunivak Island, situated 50km west of the YK Delta. The island is made of young alkali basalt [6~0.15 million years ago (mya)] (Roden et al., 1984; Mukasa et al., 2007) and is a part of the Tertiary to recent volcanism complex encircling the Pribilof Islands, St. Lawrence Island, and Seward Peninsula (Woods et al., 1990). Nunivak Island’s volcanism has gone through multiple eruptive episodes during the Pleistocene, most recently depositing material between 300,000 and 150,000 years before present [300-150ka] (Woods, et al., 1990; Mukasa et al., 2007). Cinder cones, craters, and columnar basalt strata can be observed across the island. Tall (10-25m) dune sequences are located in many places across parts of Nunivak.
References
Roden, M.F., Frey, F.A., Francis, D.M., 1984. An Example of Consequent Mantle Metasomatism in Peridotite Inclusions from Nunivak Island, Alaska. J. Petrol. 25, 546–577. https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology/25.2.546
Mukasa, S.B., Andronkov, A.V., Hall, C.M., 2007. The 40Ar/39Ar chronology and eruption rates of Cenozoic volcanism in the eastern Bering Sea Volcanic Province, Alaska. Journal of geophysical research, VOL. 112, B06207, doi:10.1029/2006JB004452, 2007
Wood C A, Kienle J (eds), 1990. Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ Press, 354 p.