Q 01/05

Kobuk Valley National Park lies about 25 miles north of what line?

A) The Arctic Circle

B) The Alaska-Canada border

C) The 60th parallel

D) The Tropic of Cancer

Answer · why

A) The Arctic Circle

The sun never sets there for over a month in early summer and shows for only about an hour and a half on the winter solstice.

Q 02/05

What surprising feature was the park created in 1980 to preserve, along with caribou migration routes?

A) Sand dunes

B) Volcanic craters

C) Hot springs

D) Ice caves

Answer · why

A) Sand dunes

The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes are the largest active Arctic dune field in North America.

Q 03/05

How tall are the Great Kobuk Dunes?

A) About 25 feet

B) About 50 feet

C) About 300 feet

D) About 100 feet

Answer · why

D) About 100 feet

Two smaller fields, the Little Kobuk and Hunt River dunes, lie nearby, all on the south side of the Kobuk River.

Q 04/05

NASA has funded study of the Great Kobuk Dunes as an analog for what?

A) Polar sand seas on Mars

B) Regolith on the Moon

C) The plains of Venus

D) Asteroid surfaces

Answer · why

A) Polar sand seas on Mars

Glacial outwash and strong winds built the dunes after the Pleistocene ice retreated; forest and tundra have since buried most of the original 200,000...

Q 05/05

Roughly how much area do the park's active dune fields still cover?

A) About 2,000 acres

B) About 6,000 acres

C) About 90,000 acres

D) About 20,500 acres

Answer · why

D) About 20,500 acres

Right after the glaciers retreated the dunes covered as much as 200,000 acres; most has since been hidden under vegetation.