Utqiaġvik

Utqiaġvik
Barrow in the short ice-free period, June 2005
Location in Alaska
Utqiaġvik
Basic data
Foundation :	June 8, 1959
State :	United States
State :	Alaska
Borough :	North Slope Borough
Coordinates :	71 ° 18 ′  N , 156 ° 46 ′  W Coordinates: 71 ° 18 ′  N , 156 ° 46 ′  W
Time zone :	Alaska ( UTC − 9 / −8 )
Residents :	4,212 (as of 2010)
Population density :	88.5 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	55.2 km 2  (approx. 21 mi 2 ) of which 47.6 km 2  (approx. 18 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	3 m
Area code :	+1 907
FIPS :	02-05200
GNIS ID :	1398635
Website :	www.utqiagvik.us

Utqiaġvik (until 2016: Barrow ) is a city in the North Slope Borough in the state of Alaska in the United States . It is the administrative seat ( Borough Seat ) of the North Slope Borough, the northernmost city in the USA and one of the northernmost in the world. It is a little further north than the European North Cape . The population at the 2010 census was 4,212.

In October 2016, a citizens' referendum decided to rename the town of Barrow Utqiaġvik. This is the traditional name of the place in Inupiaq , the language of the Eskimo who have lived here for thousands of years , and means something like "place where owls are hunted". The previous name of the city is derived from Cape Point Barrow , the northernmost point of the United States 15 km away, which in turn was named after Sir John Barrow in 1825 .

The airport Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport connects the city with the rest of the country.

Since the city is west of Point Barrow, it is still on the Chukchi Sea . Point Barrow is the border point to the Beaufort Sea in the east .

Utqiaġvik archaeological site

Sign pointing to the archaeological site

Utqiaġvik was a winter camp of Iñupiat , who hunted and fished in summer in the wider area. In July 1982, the remains of five people were found in what is now the archaeological site of 60 historical and prehistoric houses, who were trapped in their house by a sudden ice wave (Inupiaq: ivu ) and killed immediately under the weight of the ice. The event could be dated to the year 1510 ± 70 years using the radiocarbon method. The bodies of a 20-year-old woman, a 13-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl were skeletonized. In contrast, a woman in her mid 20s and a 40 year old woman were mummified. They were probably lower than the others and frozen in the penetrating meltwater. The autopsy of the mummies revealed that both suffered from anthracosis , the older also from arteriosclerosis and trichinellosis . In addition, she had given birth to a child a few months before her death, but it was not found. The empty stomachs and stretched bladders suggest that the family was surprised by the misfortune at night. Artifacts such as snow goggles , ice axes , harpoons, and cookware were also found on the bodies .

Town twinning

• Ushuaia , Argentina
• Nuuk , Greenland

Popular culture

• The horror film 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett, is set in Barrow.
• In the novel, World's End by TC Boyle flying protagonist Walter Van Brunt to Barrow, where supposedly be disappeared 19 years ago Father Truman lives.
• The 2012 feature film The Call of the Whales (Original title: Big Miracle ), with Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, revolves around the rescue of three gray whales from the ice of the Beaufort Sea north of the Point Barrow headland (15 km from Barrow), which took place in October 1988 when Operation Breakthrough actually happened there.

Climate table

Satellite image comparison from July 2006 and July 2007

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Barrow Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) −22.2 −24.8 −22.6 −14.2 −4.3 2.8 6.8 5.6 0.8 −6.6 −14.8 −21.3 O −9.5 Min. Temperature (° C) −29.6 −31.4 −29.9 −22.3 −10.0 −1.7 0.6 0.6 −2.7 −12.0 −21.3 −27.8 O −15.5 Precipitation ( mm ) 4th 4th 5 5 4th 7th 25th 23 14th 11 6th 5 Σ 113 Rainy days ( d ) 1 1 1 1 1 2 5 6th 5 4th 2 1 Σ 30th Humidity ( % ) 68 67 67 74 86 89 89 91 90 85 77 70 O 79.5 Source: wetterkontor.de

Web links

Commons : Utqiagvik, Alaska  - Collection of Images

• Alaskan Municipalities Database: Utqiaġvik (detailed information )
• Alaskan Municipalities Database: Utqiaġvik (English)
• Alaskan North Slope climate change outran Tools (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Barrow voters support name change to 'Utqiagvik' . Notification of Alaska Dispatch News , October 14, 2016th
2. ↑ Aidan Cockburn, Eve Cockburn, Theodore A. Reyman: Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures . Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-521-58060-9 , pp. 143 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ^ Paul G. Bahn: Graves, Mummies and Scholars. Searching for traces with archaeologists. Orbis Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-572-01362-3 , pp. 174-177.
4. ↑ Tom Rose: Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event . Carol Publishing Corporation, 1989, ISBN 978-1-55972-011-3 .