ConocoPhillips Alaska Head Killed in Avalanche

Since nature protects Earth against external threats, does it follow that it’s also on-guard for threats from within?

The president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, Jim Bowles, was killed in an avalanche near Spencer Glacier.

Jim Bowles, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., who was killed in an avalanche on Saturday, seen taking to reporters at a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday Dec. 3, 2008 where Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced an agreement between the state of Alaska and the oil industry to extend the federal export license for the LNG plant on the Kenai Peninsula. Steven Hinchmann, senior VP of worldwide production for Marathon Oil Corp. , back, left, Tom Irwin Department of Natural Resources commissioner, and Gov. Sarah Palin, right, listen in the back. On the campaign trail, Palin says repeatedly that America must tap its own natural gas and oil reserves to become energy independent. But she has pushed the federal government to allow a liquefied natural gas plant to continue exporting to Asia, the only such plant in the United States that sends the product overseas. AP Photo/Al Grillo. Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice.

Another employee of the company who was part of the snowmobiling party was missing and presumed dead, Alaska State Troopers said, Reuters reported.

Mr Bowles’s body  was recovered on Saturday, trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters was reported as saying.

“Bowles was pulled from the avalanche debris and CPR was given for about 30 minutes before they stopped the effort,” Peters said.

Mr Bowles, 57, is believed to have been with “a group of about a dozen snowmobilers when the avalanche hit the Grandview wilderness area on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage.”

The missing man was identified as Alan Gage, “presumed buried, presumed dead,” Peters said. “Gage was a member of ConocoPhillips’ capital projects team.”

Bowles became the president of ConocoPhillips Alaska in 2004.  “ConocoPhillips is Alaska’s largest oil producer and one of the two major oil-field operators on the North Slope.” Reuters reported.

An Oil Rig in Alaska. Source. Mineral Management Services.

On Friday (Feb 12), Fire-Earth warned “the ongoing seismicity and the prospect of enhanced volcanic activity in Alaska bode ill for the oil companies that are operating in the face of the fragile ecosystems in the region.”

Related Links:

• Alaska Shaking and Rattling Like a Popcorn Pan
• Earthquake Monitoring Centers and EQ links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links
• Powerful Quake Strikes Queen Charlotte Islands Region
• Two Powerful Quakes Strike Fox Islands, Alaska

• Jupiter’s ‘Protective Role’ Revisited
• Jupiter Bombarded

Image of the Day: Austrian Avalanche

Aerial view of an avalanche in Eisenerz, Austria

Aerial view of an avalanche in the town of Eisenerz in Austria’s Styria province February 25, 2009. No injuries were reported. REUTERS/www.fotoflieger.at. Image may be subject to copyright.

Avalanches, rapid flows of snow down mountain slopes, result from either natural triggers or human activity. Avalanches can mix air and water with the descending snow. Powerful avalanches have the capability to entrain ice, rocks, trees, and other material on the slope; however avalanches are always initiated in snow, are primarily composed of flowing snow, and are distinct from mudslides, rock slides, rock avalanches, and serac collapses from an icefall. In mountainous terrain avalanches are among the most serious objective hazards to life and property, with their destructive capability resulting from their potential to carry an enormous mass of snow rapidly over large distances. —Wikipedia.