In 1968 they discovered oil in Prudhoe Bay. Prudhoe Bay is North America's biggest oil field. Prudhoe Bay is on the north slope of Alaska, on the Arctic Ocean. It is 1300 miles south of the North Pole and 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle. An English explorer named Sir John Franklin named Prudhoe Bay after his friend Baron Prudhoe.
The pipeline was made because the oil tankers could not get to Prudhoe Bay in the winter. During the winter water is frozen in Prudhoe Bay. They decided to send the oil through the pipeline to the port of Valdez. The port of Valdez does not freeze in the winter so the oil tankers could get the oil all year.
Prudhoe Bay is in the arctic climate zone. In the arctic the winters are long and cold. The winds can be very strong. The coldest temperature it has ever reached is minus 62 degrees Fahrenheit. This happened on January 27, 1989. During the winter they don't have sunlight for two months. The sun sets on November 24th, and rises on January 18th.
In the summer it is cool, the temperature usually doesn't get higher than 50 degrees. The warmest temperature on record is 83 degrees Fahrenheit. It reached that temperature on June 21, 1991.
|
It is light outside all day and night for two months. After the sun rises on May 20th, it doesn't set until July 22nd. |
|
Here is milepost "0", or the beginning of the pipeline. This picture shows a sundog, which can happen when there are ice crystals in the air. |
|