ALASKAN MOUNTAINS

three principal mountain groupsthe Brooks Range, Alaska Range, and Aleutian Rangefound in Alaska. The Alaskan mountain ranges and the Mackenzie and Yukon river basins and their drainage networks. The mountain ranges of Alaska give their state a rugged and beautiful terrain across its entire expanse. They include the highest peak in North America and are characterized by glaciers, earthquakes, and continuing volcanic activity. Structurally, the ranges are northwestward continuations of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific mountain system of North America. Still little explored for vast stretches, Alaska's mountains contain, or lie close to, largely untapped mineral resources. The most northerly of the three major Alaskan mountain groups are the Brooks Range and the Arctic foothills, which extend the Rocky Mountains in an east-west arc from the Canadian border across northern Alaska. Central Alaska is characterized by highlands and basins drained by the great Yukon and Kuskokwim river systems. This area has been likened by some to a moister version of the arid Great Basin region of the western United States. Alaska's southern coast and adjoining southeastern panhandle are dominated by an arc of mountain ranges that demark the Gulf of Alaska and make the state's Pacific coast one of the most spectacular on Earth. This Pacific mountain province is subdivided into several groups. The interior Alaska Range merges southwestward into the Aleutian Range and the Aleutian Islands. Separated from the Alaska Range by the Talkeetna and Wrangell mountains, the main mountains of the southern coast lie in the Kenai and Chugach mountains. These heavily glaciated ranges border the Gulf of Alaska, the Chugach Mountains adjoining, to the south and east, the St. Elias Mountains at the Canadian border. The St. Elias Mountains, in turn, merge to the southeast into the mountains of the coastal Boundary Ranges, which, with the mountainous islands of the Alexander Archipelago, constitute the Alaskan panhandle. Additional reading Information on the geology and physiography of the Alaskan mountains is found in Howel Williams (ed.), Landscapes of Alaska: Their Geologic Evolution (1958), a well-written description of all parts of the peninsula; Clyde Wahrhaftig, Physiographic Divisions of Alaska (1966), a detailed summary survey with good maps and illustrations; and George Plafker and Henry C. Berg, The Geology of Alaska (1994), a comprehensive work. Maynard M. Miller, Alaska's Mighty Rivers of Ice, National Geographic Magazine, 131(2):194217 (February 1967), surveys the glacial character of Alaska's mountainous coast. Plant and animal life is outlined in Leslie A. Viereck and Elbert L. Little, Jr., Alaska Trees and Shrubs (1972, reprinted 1986), a good field guide for identification; Jacob Peter Anderson, Anderson's Flora of Alaska and Adjacent Parts of Canada, new ed. edited by Stanley L. Welsh (1974); and Clarence J. Rhode and Will Barker, Alaska's Fish and Wildlife (1953), a brief nontechnical summary. Robert Marshall, Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range, 2nd ed. (1970), describes the physiography, flora, and fauna of this region. National Geographic Society (U.S.), Special Publications Division, Alaska's Magnificent Parklands (1984), provides general descriptions of the state's main parks. Maynard M. Miller