Demonstration of the glacial sequence in the Kigulaik Mountains turned out to be crucial to forging a new understanding of the differences between Russian geomorphological mapping and American surficial mapping. In the field we discussed at length the purpose and rationale of our surficial maps as well as the use of relative-dating and the morphometric analysis of landforms. This exercise was extremely important because many Russians like Dr. Glushkova were trained to analyze landscapes in a different way. We determined for ourselves that many differences stem from the Russian preference to assess landscape assemblages and create geomorphology maps. On the other hand, USGS policy and academic training emphasizes the mapping of surficial deposits and their relative age, a tact that produces a fundamentally different style of map. Glushkova's glacial maps of northeast Russia contain a great deal of information but the mapping units consist of landform assemblages different from what we are accustomed. In the field we argued, for example, over the fundamental mapping of cirques vs. the mapping of nivation hollows. The discussions were extremely constructive in generating an open dialog toward respecting each others point of view and training without the language and cultural barriers. We sought out the common ground and discovered a great deal that all we agreed upon. All of this was facilitated by having excellent translators, Ramon Azatov (Univ. AK -Anchorage) and Sonja Benson (USGS-Fairbanks). In Russia in 1995, we worked much of the time without a translator and found that my terrible Russian skills and Olga's weak English kept us from having substantive science discussions.
We sampled moraines mapped by Darrell Kaufman et al (1989) in the Kigluaik Mountains including sites at David Creek (long Nome River), Salmon Lake, Crater Creek and Homestake Creek along the south side using the road as easy access. We were then set out to camp along the Cobblestone Creek by local helicopter hire and worked for six days in two unnamed valleys directly west of Mt. Osborn (the highest peak) and along the lower Cobblestone and Grand Union tributaries along the northcentral part of the range. We obtained good to excellent coverage of the Steward River, Salmon Lake, Mt. Osborn- age deposits as well as a few of the inner cirque sequences; we were unable to collect viable material from middle Pleistocene Nome River-age surfaces due to the lack of erratics at the surface. Because Kirk Yuengling ( MSc at UAF) is studying tor formation inside and outside the Nome River limit in the Kigluaik Mountains using cosmogenic isotopes for this purpose, we did not attempt to duplicate his efforts.
One of the surprising observations we made along the north side of the Kigluaik Mountains was the amount of offset expressed by the northern range-front fault. This fault offsets moraines of different ages along the front, including some Holocene deposits (Kaufman et al., 1989). We observed clear fault scarps in the Salmon Lake moraines on either side of Cobblestone Creek and younger (?) moraines at the mouth of Grand Union Creek are offset as much as ~6 m. Kaufman et al. (1989) report measuring as much as 2- 6 m of offset in moraines at the eastern end of the range. These observations clearly indicate that this large fault system continues to be active at the present time and could be the source of notable earthquakes in the future.
Of special note to regional land managers, we wish to report that we discovered archeological remains likely to be more than 100 years old in the Cobblestone River valley. The outermost terminal moraine segment at the mouth of the unnamed valley directly west of Mt. Osborn Peak is mantled by several circular tent rings, a campfire ring, and a possible meat pit. The tent rings are 3.7 m and 3.8 m in diameter and undisturbed. The stone hearth is 1.4 m in diameter with inner stones that show some fire reddening. The meat pit measures about 90 cm in diameter and is 25 cm deep. The site is marked by an upright slab of rock some 50 cm in height surrounded by 6 boulders. Elsewhere on a high moraine at the mouth of Grand Union valley, we discovered a man-made pile of rocks holding up a large cottonwood branch, perhaps marking the position of a cache or animal kill. The age of this feature is unknown.