Big Delta  

Location 

Spengler Lake

The pond that Kenna DuBois and Barb Parker have selected as the ALISON study site for Delta Cyber School is actually in Big Delta, about 13 miles north-northwest of Delta Junction and the school (64° 8.093' N, 145° 49.567' W). The pond has a very familiar appearance because it was obviously once a gravel pit that has flooded since excavation ceased – just like most of the ponds that we monitor at Poker Flat. Like the largest of those ponds, the longest axis of the Big Delta Pond is about 200 m and the shortest axis is about 75 m. The study site is located at the western end of the pond, well away from holes in the ice that we believe are due to melting by upwelling springwater.

As can be seen from the aerial view of the site below, the pond is shallow parallel to the road (red asterisk) and appears to drop of significantly away from the road (yellow asterisk). Unfortunately, we didn't know this until after the site was installed. See what impact this pond bathymetry had on the 2005-2006 transect.