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Cook Inlet stretches from the Gulf of Alaska
Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found....
 to Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a consolidated city-Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 279,671 municipal residents in 2007 , it is Alaska's largest city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population....
 in south-central Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage.

The watershed
Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean....
 covers about 100,000 kmē of southern Alaska, east of the Aleutian Range
Aleutian Range

The Aleutian Range is a major mountain range of southwest Alaska, extending from Chakachamna Lake to Unimak Island, at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula....
 and south of the Alaska Range
Alaska Range

The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 650-km-long mountain range in the Southcentral Alaska of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest end to the White River in Canada's Yukon Territory in the southeast....
, receiving water from its tributaries the Knik River, the Little Susitna River, and the Susitna
Susitna River

The Susitna River is a long river in the Southcentral Alaska region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the 15th largest river in the United States of America, ranked by average discharge volume at its mouth....
 and Matanuska
Matanuska River

The Matanuska River is a river, approximately 75 miles long, in Southcentral Alaska Alaska, United States. It drains a broad valley south of the Alaska Range known as the Matanuska-Susitna Valley....
 river
River

A river is a natural stream of water, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, or another stream. In some cases a river flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water....
s.






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Wpdms Shdrlfi020l Cook Inlet With Arms
Cook Inlet stretches from the Gulf of Alaska
Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found....
 to Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a consolidated city-Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 279,671 municipal residents in 2007 , it is Alaska's largest city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population....
 in south-central Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage.

The watershed
Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean....
 covers about 100,000 kmē of southern Alaska, east of the Aleutian Range
Aleutian Range

The Aleutian Range is a major mountain range of southwest Alaska, extending from Chakachamna Lake to Unimak Island, at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula....
 and south of the Alaska Range
Alaska Range

The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 650-km-long mountain range in the Southcentral Alaska of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest end to the White River in Canada's Yukon Territory in the southeast....
, receiving water from its tributaries the Knik River, the Little Susitna River, and the Susitna
Susitna River

The Susitna River is a long river in the Southcentral Alaska region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the 15th largest river in the United States of America, ranked by average discharge volume at its mouth....
 and Matanuska
Matanuska River

The Matanuska River is a river, approximately 75 miles long, in Southcentral Alaska Alaska, United States. It drains a broad valley south of the Alaska Range known as the Matanuska-Susitna Valley....
 river
River

A river is a natural stream of water, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, or another stream. In some cases a river flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water....
s. The watershed includes the drainage areas of Mount McKinley
Mount McKinley

Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska is the Extremes on Earth mountain peak in North America, at a height of approximately . It is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve....
. Within the watershed there are several national park
National park

A national park is a reserve of land, usually declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution....
s and four historically active volcano
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
es. Cook Inlet provides navigable access to the port
Port

||-||-|-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake....
 of Anchorage at the northern end, and to the smaller Homer
Homer, Alaska

Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364....
 port further south. Approximately 400,000 people live within the Cook Inlet watershed. Before the growth of Anchorage, Knik was the destination for most marine traffic in upper Cook Inlet.

Geography

Cook Inlet contains active volcanoes, including Augustine Volcano. Volcano eruption has been associated with earthquake
Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph....
s and tsunami
Tsunami

A is a series of ocean surface wave that is created when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. The Japanese term is literally translated into " harbor wave."...
s, and debris avalanche
Avalanche

An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, from either natural triggers or human activity. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the descending snow....
s have resulted in tsunamis also. There was an earthquake of the magnitude of 7.1 on December 31, 1901 generated by an eruption that caused several tsunamis.

History

Turnagainarm From Girdwoodak
The inlet was first explored and settled by Dena'ina natives. In the 18th century, Russian fur hunters (promyshlenniki)were among the first European visitors. The Lebedev Lastochkin Company leader Stepan Zaikov established a post at the mouth of the Kenai River, Fort Nikolaev, in 1786. These fur trappers used Siberian Native and Alaska Natives, particularly Aleuts from the Aleutian Islands and Koniag natives from Kodiak, to hunt for sea otters and other marine mammal species for trade with China via Russia's then-exclusive inland port of trade at Kiakhta.

Other Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
ans to visit Cook Inlet include the 1778 expedition of James Cook
James Cook

Captain James Cook Royal Society Royal Navy was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy....
 who sailed into it while searching for the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. Cook received maps of Alaska, the Aleutians, and Kamchatka during a visit with Russian fur trader Gerasim Izmailov in Unalaska, and combined these maps with those of his expedition to create the first Mercator projection of the North Pacific. The inlet was named after Cook in 1794 by George Vancouver
George Vancouver

Captain George Vancouver Royal Navy was an officer in the Royal Navy, best known for his Vancouver Expedition, including the shores of the modern day Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon....
, who had served under Cook in 1778. Turnagain Arm was named by William Bligh
William Bligh

Vice-Admiral William Bligh Fellow of the Royal Society Royal Navy was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The notorious Mutiny on the Bounty occurred during his command of HMS Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift by the mutineers in the Bounty's l...
 of HMS Bounty
HMS Bounty

HMS Bounty , famous as the scene of the Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789, was originally a full rigged ship cargo ship the Bethia, purchased by the British Admiralty, then modified and commissioned as His Majesty's Armed Vessel the Bounty for a botanical mission to the Pacific Ocean....
 fame. Bligh served as Cook's Sailing Master on his 3rd and final voyage, with the aim to discover the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

Upon reaching the head of Cook Inlet, Bligh was of the opinion that both Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm were the mouths of rivers and not the opening to the Northwest Passage. Under Cook's orders Bligh organized a party to travel up Knik Arm, which quickly returned to report Knik Arm indeed led only to a river.

Afterwards a second party was dispatched up Turnagain Arm and it too returned to report only a river lay ahead. As a result of this frustration the second body of water was given the disingenuous name "Turn Again". Early maps label Turnagain Arm as the "Turnagain River".

Few white people visited upper Cook Inlet until construction of the Alaska Railroad
Alaska Railroad

The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad which extends from Seward, Alaska and Whittier, Alaska, in the south of the state of Alaska, in the United States, to Fairbanks, Alaska, and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state....
 along the eastern shores of Turnagain Arm and Knik Arm of Cook Inlet around 1915. The natives of the Eklutna
Eklutna, Alaska

Eklutna is a native village within the Anchorage, Alaska in the U.S. state of Alaska. The Tribal Council estimates the population at 70; many tribal members live in the surrounding communities....
 village are the descendants of the residents of eight native villages around upper Cook Inlet.

Communities

Most of Alaska's population surrounds Cook Inlet, concentrated in the Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a consolidated city-Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 279,671 municipal residents in 2007 , it is Alaska's largest city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population....
 area and in communities on the Kenai Peninsula
Kenai Peninsula

The Kenai Peninsula is a large peninsula jutting from the southern coast of Alaska in the United States. The name Kenai is possibly derived from Kenayskaya, the Russian name for Cook Inlet, which borders the peninsula to the west....
. The more remote west side of the inlet is not connected to the road system, and is home to the village of Tyonek, Alaska, and a number of oil camps.

Resources

The Cook Inlet basin contains large oil and gas deposits including several offshore fields. As of 2005 there were 16 platforms in Cook Inlet, the oldest of which is the XTO A platform first installed by Shell in 1964, and newest of which is the Osprey platform installed by Forest Oil in 2000. Most of the platforms are operated by Union Oil which was acquired by Chevron in 2005. There are also numerous oil and gas pipelines running around and under the Cook Inlet. The main destinations of the gas pipelines are to Kenai where the gas is primarily used to fuel commercial fertilizer production and a liquified natural gas (LNG) plant and to Anchorage where the gas is consumed largely for domestic uses.

Alaska has approximately half the known coal reserves in the U.S. For decades, there has been a proposal to build a large coal mine (the Chuitna Coal Mine) on the west side of Cook Inlet near the Chuitna River, and the native village of Tyonek, Alaska. American Rivers has placed the Chuitna River on its list of the 10 most endangered rivers for 2007, based on the threat of this mine.

Turnagain Bore
Turnagain Arm is one of only about 60 bodies of water worldwide to exhibit a tidal bore
Tidal bore

A tidal bore is a tide phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travel up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the current....
. The bore may be more than six feet high and travel at 15 miles per hour on high spring tides. Turnagain Arm sees the largest tidal range
Tidal range

The tidal range is the vertical difference between the highest high tide and the lowest low tide. In other words, it is the difference in height between high and low tides....
 in United States, with an mean of 30 feet (9.2 m), and the fourth highest in the world, behind Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy

The Bay of Fundy is a Headlands and bays on the Atlantic Ocean coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canada Provinces of Canada of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the United States U.S....
 (11.7m), Ungava Bay
Ungava Bay

Ungava Bay is a large headlands and bays in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik from Baffin Island. The bay is shaped like a rounded square with a side length of about 180 km and has an area of approximately 33,000 km? ....
 (9.75m), and Bristol Channel
Bristol Channel

The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England, and extending from the lower Severn Estuary of the River Severn to that part of the North Atlantic Ocean known as the Celtic Sea ....
 (9.6m). The ocean's natural 12-hour 25-minute tidal cycle is close to Turnagain Arm's natural resonance frequency, which then reinforces the tide similar to water sloshing in a bathtub. Tidal fluctuations in the main body of Cook Inlet, while not as extreme as the shallow and narrow Turnagain Arm, regularly reach and exhibit currents in excess of at full tidal flow. The inlet and its arms have been proposed as a potentially attractive site for the generation of tidal power
Tidal power

Tidal power, sometimes called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into electricity or other useful forms of power....
.

Turnagain Arm and Knik Arm are known for their abundance of silt
Silt

Silt is soil or Rock derived granular material of a Particle size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body....
. At low tide, much of the arms' silty bottoms are exposed, making marine navigation difficult. Historically ships and boats designed for the area had a relatively flat bottom with a modest centerboard and absence of a large keel because the boats would occasionally become beached at low tide either on purpose or by accident. This design allowed the craft to support its weight on land without sustaining any serious damage to its structure. An example of this design is the Nomad, a much photographed fishing boat once owned by Joe Reddington which has sat on a mudflat near Knik for several decades.

These mudflats are also dangerous to walk on, exhibiting quicksand
Quicksand

Quicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter , clay, and brine. In the name, as in that of Mercury , "quick" does not mean "fast," but "living" ....
-like characteristics, and have claimed the limbs and lives of several beach explorers who have wandered out on them.

Cruise ships dock at Seward
Seward, Alaska

Seward is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 3,016....
 on the Gulf of Alaska
Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found....
 or Whittier
Whittier, Alaska

Whittier is a city in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the United States Census, 2000, the population was 182....
 in Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound

Prince William Sound is a Sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula....
 and transport passengers via bus or train to Anchorage. However, over 95% of freight entering Alaska comes through the Port of Anchorage
Port of Anchorage

The Port of Anchorage is the most active port in the U.S. state of Alaska, through which 95% of all cargo in and out of Alaska passes. It is located just north of Ship Creek near downtown Anchorage, Alaska on the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet of the Pacific Ocean....
, which is served by major container ship
Container ship

Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport....
 companies and other carriers.

Conservation

The Cook inlet Beluga whale is a genetically distinct and geographically isolated stock. The population has fallen to around 400 due to hunting by Alaska Natives, though a recent article in the Anchorage Daily News questioned this conclusion.

Cook Inlet activities include commercial fishing, oil and gas development, municipal discharges, noise from aircraft and ships, shipping traffic, and tourism. However, it is not known what impact these activities had on the beluga whale population.

In 2000, the US National Marine Fisheries Service listed the Cook Inlet beluga whale population as depleted and began development of a conservation plan. On October 22,2008 the Cook Inlet beluga whale was put onto the endangered species list.

The Coastal Marine Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks's School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences working with the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS), began a three year project in 2003 focusing on the water circulation in Cook Inlet.

See also

  • Augustine Volcano
  • Lake Clark National Park
  • proposed Knik Arm Bridge
    Knik Arm Bridge

    The Knik Arm Bridge is one name for a controversial proposed bridge to cross the Knik Arm portion of Cook Inlet, north of Anchorage, Alaska, Alaska....


External links

  • Hosted by the
  • / author[s], Brian Polagye and Mirko Previsic ; contributor, Roger Bedard. Hosted by the .