Down South - any place in the lower 48
Dryas - Alaskan version of dandelion. It starts off as a white daisy-like flower, with a yellow center but when it is time for seed dispersal, it transforms first into a pink twisted bundle of feather-like seeds. Then it opens like a dandelion, dispersing its seeds with the brush of a passing animal or the wind. The dryas don't need much to grow and grow in islands. A beautiful flower.
Erratics- rocks that have been carried and dropped by glaciers. They can be any size but the ones most often called erratic are huge isolated rocks, noticeably different from the surrounding geography.
Glacier Flour (aka rock flour) - fine grained silt that comes from the glacier which turns the waters a milky gray. Can be rubbed onto hands, pants, shoes from any gravel deposited from glaciers. It would appear this is what currently coats all my clothing.
Katabatic - a word that describes the winds that come off of the glacier. They are cold and fast because the wind has been forced down the glacier slope.
Moraine - an accumulation of rock and soil formed by the glacier. Many tourists asks why the glaciers are so dirty and this inevitably prompts guides to explain the different types of moraines. There are lateral moraines on the sides of glaciers, terminal moraines at the ends of glaciers, medial moraines that form in the middle where two glaciers meet, and ground moraines that form underneath the glacier. The more I look, the more fascinating these features of the glacier are...you can see so many different types of rock and it gives a whole different sense of the age and force of glaciers.
Ptarmigan - Alaskan state bird. A bit like a chicken but found in the tundra.
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