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Denali National Park and Preserve
Credit from www.nps.gov
Credit from pixdaus.com
Credit from IQuit @ wall.alphacoders.com
Denali National Park and Preserve is located in Interior Alaska, in the central area of the Alaska Range, a mountain chain extending 600 miles across Alaska. The park is known for Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America (20,320 feet) and also a wonderful lake scenery. Denali's landscape is a mix of forest at the lowest elevations, including taiga and tundra at middle elevations, and glaciers, rock, and snow at the highest elevations. The longest glacier is the Kahiltna Glacier. There are many activities to do in Denali such as wildlife watching (caribou, moose, dall sheep and grizzly bear), camping, canoeing, sport hunting which is only permitted in the national preserve and also in winter people usually do dog-sledding, cross-country skiing and snowmachining.
This area is characterized by intense subduction tectonics between the North American and Pacific Plates creating the E-W direction Denali fault system which is 720 mile-long right-lateral strike-slip fault and can cause earthquakes in Alaska. These earthquakes did not cause a significant loss of life or damage property, but they activated many landslides.
There are three major rock provinces in this area: metamorphic rocks caused by regional metamorphism, Sedimentary rocks which deposited in marine environment, Plutonic rocks and also Volcanic rocks.
Mt. Mckinley continues gaining height at a rate of 1 millimeter per year due to the continuous convergence. The mountain is mainly granite which does not erode easily.
Credit from www.nature.nps.gov
Credit from Christian Pondella
Credit from Jacob W. Frank
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