Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage, this is the
region of Alaska closest to the rest of the United States. As such, this
was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the
years following the
Alaska Purchase. The region is dominated by the
Alexander Archipelago as well as the
Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States. It contains the state capital
Juneau, the former capital
Sitka, and
Ketchikan, at one time Alaska's largest city.
[11] The
Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital surface transportation link throughout the area, as only three communities (
Haines,
Hyder and
Skagway) enjoy direct connections to the contiguous North American road system.
[12] Officially designated in 1963.
[13]
Interior
Denali is the highest peak in North America.
The Interior is the largest region of Alaska; much of it is uninhabited wilderness.
Fairbanks is the only large city in the region.
Denali National Park and Preserve is located here.
Denali is the highest
mountain in North America.
Southwest
Southwest Alaska is a sparsely inhabited region stretching some 500
miles (800 km) inland from the Bering Sea. Most of the population lives
along the coast.
Kodiak Island is also located in Southwest. The massive
Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, one of the largest river deltas in the world, is here. Portions of the
Alaska Peninsula are considered part of Southwest, with the remaining portions included with the Aleutian Islands (see below).
North Slope
The North Slope is mostly
tundra peppered with small villages. The area is known for its massive reserves of crude oil, and contains both the
National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska and the
Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.
[14] Barrow, the northernmost city in the United States, is located here. The
Northwest Arctic area, anchored by
Kotzebue and also containing the
Kobuk River valley, is often regarded as being part of this region. However, the respective
Inupiat of the North Slope and of the Northwest Arctic seldom consider themselves to be one people
[citation needed].
Aleutian Islands
More than 300 small volcanic islands make up this chain, which
stretches over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) into the Pacific Ocean. Some of
these islands fall in the Eastern Hemisphere, but the
International Date Line was drawn west of
180° to keep the whole state, and thus the entire North American continent, within the same legal day. Two of the islands,
Attu and
Kiska, were occupied by Japanese forces during World War II.
Natural features
With its myriad islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of tidal shoreline. The
Aleutian Islands chain extends west from the southern tip of the
Alaska Peninsula. Many active
volcanoes are found in the Aleutians and in coastal regions.
Unimak Island, for example, is home to
Mount Shishaldin,
which is an occasionally smoldering volcano that rises to 10,000 feet
(3,048 m) above the North Pacific. It is the most perfect volcanic cone
on Earth, even more symmetrical than Japan's
Mount Fuji. The chain of volcanoes extends to
Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland. Geologists have identified Alaska as part of
Wrangellia, a large region consisting of multiple states and Canadian provinces in the
Pacific Northwest, which is actively undergoing
continent building.
One of the world's largest tides occurs in
Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage – tidal differences can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m).
[15]
Alaska has more than three million lakes.
[16] Marshlands and wetland
permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,747 km
2) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Glacier ice covers some 16,000 square miles (41,440 km
2) of land and 1,200 square miles (3,110 km
2) of tidal zone. The
Bering Glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon covers 2,250 square miles (5,827 km
2) alone. With over 100,000 glaciers, Alaska has half of all in the world.
Land ownership
Alaska has more public land owned by the federal government than any other state.
[17]
According to an October 1998 report by the
United States Bureau of Land Management, approximately 65% of Alaska is owned and managed by the
U.S. federal government as public lands, including a multitude of
national forests, national parks, and
national wildlife refuges.
[18] Of these, the
Bureau of Land Management manages 87 million acres (35 million hectares), or 23.8% of the state. The
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is the world's largest wildlife refuge, comprising 16 million acres (6.5 million hectares).
Of the remaining land area, the state of Alaska owns 101 million acres (41 million hectares), its entitlement under the
Alaska Statehood Act.
A portion of that acreage is occasionally ceded to organized boroughs,
under the statutory provisions pertaining to newly formed boroughs.
Smaller portions are set aside for rural subdivisions and other
homesteading-related opportunities. These are not very popular due to
the often remote and roadless locations. The
University of Alaska, as a
land grant university, also owns substantial acreage which it manages independently.
Another 44 million acres (18 million hectares) are owned by 12
regional, and scores of local, Native corporations created under the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971.
Regional Native corporation Doyon, Limited
often promotes itself as the largest private landowner in Alaska in
advertisements and other communications. Provisions of ANCSA allowing
the corporations' land holdings to be sold on the open market starting
in 1991 were repealed before they could take effect. Effectively, the
corporations hold title (including subsurface title in many cases, a
privilege denied to individual Alaskans) but cannot sell the land.
Individual Native allotments can be and are sold on the open market, however.
Various private interests own the remaining land, totaling about one
percent of the state. Alaska is, by a large margin, the state with the
smallest percentage of private land ownership when Native corporation
holdings are excluded.
Climate
Map depicting the climate zones of Alaska.
The climate in Southeast Alaska is a mid-latitude
oceanic climate (
Köppen climate classification:
Cfb) in the southern sections and a subarctic oceanic climate (Köppen
Cfc)
in the northern parts. On an annual basis, Southeast is both the
wettest and warmest part of Alaska with milder temperatures in the
winter and high precipitation throughout the year. Juneau averages over
50 in (130 cm) of precipitation a year, and
Ketchikan averages over 150 in (380 cm).
[19]
This is also the only region in Alaska in which the average daytime
high temperature is above freezing during the winter months.
The climate of
Anchorage
and south central Alaska is mild by Alaskan standards due to the
region's proximity to the seacoast. While the area gets less rain than
southeast Alaska, it gets more snow, and days tend to be clearer. On
average,
Anchorage
receives 16 in (41 cm) of precipitation a year, with around 75 in
(190 cm) of snow, although there are areas in the south central which
receive far more snow. It is a subarctic climate (
Köppen: Dfc) due to its brief, cool summers.
The climate of
Western Alaska is determined in large part by the
Bering Sea and the
Gulf of Alaska.
It is a subarctic oceanic climate in the southwest and a continental
subarctic climate farther north. The temperature is somewhat moderate
considering how far north the area is. This
region has a tremendous amount of variety in precipitation. An area stretching from the northern side of the Seward Peninsula to the
Kobuk River valley (i. e., the region around
Kotzebue Sound) is technically a
desert, with portions receiving less than 10 in (25 cm) of precipitation annually. On the other extreme, some locations between
Dillingham and
Bethel average around 100 in (250 cm) of precipitation.
[20]
The climate of the interior of Alaska is subarctic. Some of the
highest and lowest temperatures in Alaska occur around the area near
Fairbanks.
The summers may have temperatures reaching into the 90s °F (the
low-to-mid 30s °C), while in the winter, the temperature can fall below
−60 °F (−51 °C). Precipitation is sparse in the Interior, often less
than 10 in (25 cm) a year, but what precipitation falls in the winter
tends to stay the entire
winter.
The highest and lowest recorded temperatures in Alaska are both in the Interior. The highest is 100 °F (38 °C) in
Fort Yukon (which is just 8 mi or 13 km inside the arctic circle) on June 27, 1915,
[21][22] making Alaska tied with Hawaii as the state with the lowest high temperature in the United States.
[23][24] The lowest official Alaska temperature is −80 °F (−62 °C) in
Prospect Creek on January 23, 1971,
[21][22] one degree above the lowest temperature recorded in continental North America (in
Snag, Yukon, Canada).
[25]
The climate in the extreme north of Alaska is
Arctic (
Köppen: ET) with long, very cold winters and short, cool summers. Even in July, the average low temperature in
Barrow is 34 °F (1 °C).
[26]
Precipitation is light in this part of Alaska, with many places
averaging less than 10 in (25 cm) per year, mostly as snow which stays
on the ground almost the entire year.
Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for selected locations in Alaska[27]
| Anchorage |
65/51 |
18/10 |
22/11 |
−5/–11 |
| Juneau |
64/50 |
17/11 |
32/23 |
0/–4 |
| Ketchikan |
64/51 |
17/11 |
38/28 |
3/–1 |
| Unalaska |
57/46 |
14/8 |
36/28 |
2/–2 |
| Fairbanks |
72/53 |
22/11 |
1/–17 |
−17/–27 |
| Fort Yukon |
73/51 |
23/10 |
−11/–27 |
−23/–33 |
| Nome |
58/46 |
14/8 |
13/–2 |
−10/–19 |
| Barrow |
47/34 |
8/1 |
−7/–19 |
−21/–28 |
