Stimulation - Knowledge - Interaction - Fun |
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Happy Spring everyone!
This month we offer you several online events, a report from the Membership and Volunteers Committee, and a new geology article on the Glacial Sculpting of MDI. And don't forget to submit your artist's agreement if you want to exhibit in the May art show.
Upcoming Events (read more below and join us):
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Friday, April 15th at noon - The Underwater World of Diver Ed
- Wednesday, April 27th at noon - Maine's Role in the Atlantic Slave Economy
- Friday, April 29th at noon - The Biden Administration Impact on Maine and Our Workers
Watch for more information about the Members' Art Show and several important and exciting presentations coming in May. Check the website for updates.
Janice Kenyon, ASC Administrator
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Friday, April 15, 2022 at Noon
Free online presentation
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Please join Diver Ed as he shares incredible stories and shows you the beautiful underwater world from his summer in Eastport, the eastern-most city in the US.
Diver Ed and Captain Evil (Edna) have operated the Dive-In Theater since 2000, running from the College of the Atlantic, where Ed is an alum.
In 2021, the lack of marine life around the Porcupine Islands forced the Dive-In Theater to find an alternate location. Ed and Edna’s good friends operate the whale watching and deep-sea fishing tours in Eastport, and they offered to help. Diver Ed’s favorite Maine dive sites are in Eastport, so he was very excited. They had a great time even though the diving there was extremely challenging. Diver Ed will share his fine sense of humor, vast knowledge, and experiences from this past summer in Eastport. Ed’s dive buddy, Mini-Ed, may even make an appearance.
This event is free and open to everyone. Don't miss it!
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Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at Noon
Free online presentation
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Join Luke Gates-Milardo from the Maine Maritime Museum in a discussion of Maine's role in the Atlantic slave economy, and an overview of the Museum's collaboration with Bowdoin College in curating the exhibit Cotton Town: Maine's Economic Connections to Slavery.
This event is free and open to the public.
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Friday, April 29, 2022 at Noon
Free online presentation
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Garrett Martin has dedicated his career to connecting the dots between the daily struggles of working people and policies that can alleviate those struggles. A generation removed from poverty, Garrett made his way to Maine after working in community economic development in the Mississippi Delta, southern India, and Latin America.
Garrett combines his commitment to providing credible and rigorous economic analysis with his passion for advancing economic justice as President and CEO of the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP). MECEP has been at the forefront of successful efforts to boost incomes and increase access to health care for hundreds of thousands of Mainers.
This event is free and open to the public.
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The annual ASC Members' Art Show will be held during the month of May at the Northeast Harbor Library.
This year's suggested theme is "Together" which may be interpreted as you wish. All forms of art are encouraged - watercolor, oil paintings, mixed media, wood carvings, photographs, fiber art, and more. What have you been working on this past year? Did you create something in one of your ASC classes?
Each member may display up to two pieces and must submit the artist's agreement form. If you plan to exhibit, please take a moment to send in your form so the art show committee can plan the show! The deadline to submit your form is Friday, April 22nd.
The show is open to all current ASC members. Log in to check your membership or contact us.
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Fall 2022 Course Proposals |
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Thinking about teaching a course?
It's time to submit Fall 2022 course proposals. Both in-person and online class ideas are welcome. The deadline to submit course proposals for the Fall 2022 term is May 27th.
New to ASC or have questions? Contact us.
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Membership and Volunteers Committee |
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Report from Ann Caswell, M&V Committee member
I had taken a few ASC courses when a friend who volunteered with the Membership and Volunteers Committee suggested I might join them. I was more than willing to make some modest contribution to the organization, so I made and served mulled cider at the Fall Party at Seal Cove Auto Museum.
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The title of this committee is rather cumbersome, and reflects its founding mandate: to integrate new members into the activities of ASC, increase members' participation beyond taking courses, coordinate volunteers as needed, and help out in the office. And we do help with mailings and brochure distribution. But our central work is “increasing participation beyond taking courses.” We take seriously the aspect of ASC's mission to promote Interaction and Fun. In other words, we organize ASC's PARTIES!
M&V is a well-oiled machine. Four times a year, we meet to take inventory of our supplies, from wine to cocktail napkins. Then we set up plans, logistics, entertainment and publicity for the upcoming gathering. When required, a crew goes out to shop, and later gathers to prep and cook. We set up and decorate the venues, host the events, and clean up after. It's a fun and rewarding way to provide a service to our members and build our organization.
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Over time, we have settled on four regular social events: The Fall Party, held at Seal Cove Auto Museum near Halloween. The Cabin Fever Potluck, which has been held in recent years in February at the Dorr Nature Museum on COA campus. An Opening Reception at the ASC Members' Art Exhibit at NEH Library in May. And to wind up the “school year,” a potluck dinner makes a fun and tasty accompaniment to our Annual Meeting. |
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In the last couple of years, Covid restrictions have kept us from enjoying these customary gatherings. We did, nevertheless, manage to provide the décor, food, and beverages for a very successful outdoor celebration of ASC's twentieth anniversary last September. We are hoping to return in some form to a festive reception to open our annual Art Show this May. Watch this Newsletter for details. |
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The Glacial Sculpting of MDI |
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By Ruth and Duane Braun
Note: this is the latest in a series of articles on the geology of MDI. Previous articles appeared in the February, March, April, May, June, and September 2021, and January 2022 issues of the newsletter that can be found here on our website.
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At around 2.5 million years ago the climate on earth cooled enough so that large areas of the Northern Hemisphere were cold enough to accumulate snow that then crystalized to glacial ice. As the ice thickened it began to flow outward from its accumulating areas. Here in North America the ice started accumulating in the Hudson Bay region. From there the ice flowed outward in all directions, retreating during warmer periods (Map below). Starting around one million years ago the cold periods deepened and at least 5 times the ice accumulated enough to flow southward over Maine. |
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Above: North America 25,000 years ago when the last continental glacier was at its maximum extent. Some earlier glaciations extended a bit farther south. |
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Each time the ice advanced it took advantage of the topography and was concentrated in valleys running North/South - the direction of movement of the continental glacier. East/West valleys tended to be filled with glacial debris. Each advancing glacier followed the same path, removing more material each time from these North/South trending valleys, forming deep U-shaped valleys.
By 2.5 million years ago here on MDI, long term stream erosion had formed a low 1000 to 1500 ft high linear ridge running NE/SW that was a drainage divide with streams flowing north and east or west to join Frenchman’s or Blue Hill stream valleys. Streams on the south side of the low ridges flowed south. The several ice advances eventually cut through the saddles in the divide and formed deep troughs. Somes Sound was once a stream valley flowing south and was lengthened and deepened by these repeated glaciations. (The stream originally took advantage of the more closely fractured rock to carve a shallow valley prior to glaciation.) The valleys that present-day Long Pond, Jordan Pond, and Hadlock Pond lie in are some of the MDI stream valleys the glacier followed, carving them deeper each time.
Glaciers are always flowing away from their accumulation areas regardless of whether the ice edge or terminus is advancing or retreating. As they move over the landscape embedded rocks in the ice scour away the underlying material. When the glacial budget is such that more melts than accumulates, the glacier terminus retreats although the ice is still flowing toward the terminus. As the ice front retreats (melts back) material carried in the glacier accumulates. This material is a mixture of finely ground material and rocks that the glacier picked up as it moved over the landscape. This unsorted debris is called glacial till.
At times the glacier slowed or stopped its retreat, remaining in one place for one or more years. This resulted in an accumulation of debris called a moraine. A small moraine can result from one winter’s halt in retreat or minor readvance of the ice front. These moraines can be used like tree rings to show annual retreat periods. A large moraine is formed when the glacier remains at one point for longer periods of times, decades or more.
Here on MDI we have yearly moraines called push moraines that mark the glacier’s winter readvance. There are about 300 of them on MDI, each 10-15 ft. high, 50-100 ft. wide, and spaced 50 to 500 ft. apart. Larger accumulations resulting from longer periods of ice front stability often block valleys. Long Pond, Jordon Pond, Echo Lake have valley blocking moraines on their south ends. Prior to glaciation these valleys were much shallower and drained south on the south side of the preglacial drainage divide. The glacial scour deeply cut through saddles in the preglacial divide leaving a lake basin behind. Those basins now drain north rather than south due to the large moraines at their south ends.
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The movement of the glacier is shown by scratches, fractures, and gouges in the underlying bedrock surface (Pictures above). Rocks embedded in the ice are pressed down and dragged across the bedrock surface. The scratches so formed are called striations and give the direction of ice movement. (Technically a striation can be formed by motion in either direction; here on the south side of the continental glacier it is assumed the ice is moving south). Rocks embedded in the ice that are dragged in a repeated stick-slip motion form concentric fractures in the rock surface. (The same thing happens when metal is milled, the cutting tool skips if too much down pressure is put on it.) Sometimes the pressure from a rock imbedded in the ice actually pops off a piece of the bedrock forming a concentric gouge. These cresentic marks give a single unique direction of glacial movement.
Striations trend to weather quickly when a bedrock surface is exposed to the atmosphere. These can be seen mainly on new exposures only decades to centuries old. Concentric fractures and gouges take longer to be weathered and eroded from the rock surface, lasting 1000’s of years. Some of the best places to see these features are along Park foot trails where erosion has recently exposed the scoured bedrock surface. The cresentic fractures and gouges are evident on the top of Sargent Mtn. and the top of the Bee Hive (pictures above).
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