DeSotoSky
Gold Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2011
- Messages
- 6,777
Hello and welcome to the Sunday Picture Show. Share your Buck knives with others by posting pictures of them here. New or old, plain or custom, user or safe queen, one or a collection, we love to see them all. This weekly tradition was started in 2010 by ItsTooEarly (Armand Hernandez) and Oregon (Steve Dunn). Help keep the tradition alive. Feel free to click that 'LIKE' but lets not let it replace discussing and complimenting each others knives. DeSotoSky (Roger Yost)
.
On the Day, November 16th, 1973, President Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law.
The Inuit people had known of and had been mining oil saturated pete to use for heat and light, probably for millenia. Whalers had also known of the petroleum oil seeps along the northern Alaskan coast and it was reported in 1836 by an officer of the Hudson Bay Company. After WWI as the Navy converted ships from coal to oil there was an interest in identifying oil resources for strategic reserves and 23 million acres was set aside along the North Slope of Alaska, The area North of the Brooks Range extending to the coast. There was some exploration in the 40's and 50's, and Atlantic Richfield drilled exploratory wells in the 60's that were highly productive. The problem of exploiting the rich reserves was how to get it to market. What followed was many years of political wrangling and fighting lawsuits brought by both Conservationist as well as Native interests. The task was immense costing $8 billion. 60% of the pipeline is above ground because the wam pipeline would melt the surrounding permafrost if buried. The pipeline simply rests on its supports; it is not actually welded or otherwise affixed in place. This is necessary because the air temperature swings by over 150 °F from winter to summer, causing extreme heat expansion: the length of the pipeline changes by over 5 miles over the course of a year. A parallel road also had to be built, access for construction and maintenance. (Dalton Highway). The pipeline is a 4 foot diameter pipe 800 miles long extending from Prudhoe Bay in the North to the ice free port of Valdez in the South where the oil can be loaded on tankers. No American steel company had the capability to manufacture the pipe so it came from several Japanese steel company's. In total 70,000 people had worked on the pipeline project between 1969 and 1977 with 28,000 at its peak in 1975. Pipe construction began in spring of 1974. !2 pumping stations, 3 mountain ranges crossed reaching a highest elevation of 4,739 feet., over 500 river and stream crossings. 78,000 vertical pipe supports. It was a huge project in some of the most inhospitable conditions. The first oil reached Valdez in July 1977. The fill capacity of the pipe alone is over 9 million barrels (x42 gallons). Capable of delivering a maximum of 2 million barrels per day, it currently operates at a fraction of that but oil always needs to be moving within the pipe to keep from freezing. Approaching 50 years old there are the challenges of ageing infrastructure, climate change impacts, and oil production cost effectiveness. The future of the North Slope looks to be leaning towards its huge gas reserves.
.
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System - Wikipedia
.
25th Anniversary Alaskan Statehood 1959-1984. Documented on the 1985 Special Projects List. 426 drop point blade on a brass frame. Mirror polished with an Aurum Gold etching. There are 3 handle Variations. Wine (250). Black (500), and Orange (250).
Last edited:
