Denali National Park

Location

Denali National Park Preserve is located in the United States of America , in Alaska . The park entrance is 237 highway miles north of Anchorage and 125 miles south of Fairbanks . Mount McKinley itself is about 140 miles north of Anchorage as the raven flies . Denali covers more than 6 million acres and also has a complete sub-arctic eco-system This park was established as Mt . McKinley National Park on Feb . 26 1917 . In 1976 , the Park was designated as an international biosphere reserve . Figure 1 below shows the entire Denali Park and

Preserve area

Fig 1 Outline of Denali National Park reserve ( HYPERLINK "http /www .lib .utexas .edu /maps /national_parks /denali_park98 .pdf http /www .lib .utexas .edu /maps /national_parks /denali_park98 .pdf

Geologic History

Denali national Park lies amid the 600 miles long Alaska Range . The highest mountain peak in this range is Denali , about 20 ,320 feet . This mountain is also known as Mt . McKinley , which is its official name

About 60 million years ago during the Paleocene epoch , magma entered the earth 's crust and cooled underground to form the McKinley pluton Another pluton was formed some 38 million years ago , and this resulted in the formation of other peaks nearby Denali . With the passage of time the sea covered the area and deposited a lot of sediments in the area which is now the Denali Park . Various geological forces like heat pressure etc . caused the rocks to forcefully be transformed into metamorphic rocks . Hence , many of the peaks in Denali national Park such as Denali , Mt . Foraker , Mt . Hunter etc . are made up of granite rocks - an example of a metamorphic rock . About 5 million years ago , the Alaska Range began to be uplifted . This uplift resulted in erosion causing the outer layers of rock on the mountains to be eroded away this caused the granite to be exposed on the surface (Jonas , Pascale Thomas Hoefle 2007

Effects of Glaciers

Glaciers are a major feature in Denali National Park and Preserve (Denali , covering about 17 , 1 million acres , of the park . Glacier behavior in Denali varies from apparent steady flow glaciers to erratic surge-type glaciers (Guy , Brease , phil Buck 2003

According to a study by N .W . Brink and D .R . Ritter , about 25 ,000 years ago and till about 9 .500 years ago , there was a major occurrence of a glacial event with four major glacial advances . The inner earth material which was thrust up i .e . the magma was subsequently weighed down by these huge blocks of ice . There are numerous glaciers which still abound the area near Denali , where frigid temperatures prevent their melting (David Rick n .d

During the periodic glacial advances of the Pleistocene Epoch , the climate periodically turned colder and sea level dropped considerably as water was transferred from the ocean through the atmosphere into to terrestrial glaciers the size of continents . The effect of the concurrent formation of gigantic glaciers to the east and south of Alaska , and a parting of...