Saint Elias Mountains
Template:Short description Template:Infobox mountain The Saint Elias Mountains (Template:Langx) are a subgroup of the Pacific Coast Ranges, located in southeastern Alaska in the United States, Southwestern Yukon and the very far northwestern part of British Columbia in Canada. The range spans Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in the United States and Kluane National Park and Reserve in Canada and includes all of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. In Alaska, the range includes parts of the city/borough of Yakutat and the Hoonah-Angoon and Valdez-Cordova census areas.<ref name=gnis>Template:Cite gnis</ref>
This mountain range is named after Mount Saint Elias, which in turn was named in 1741 by the Danish-born Russian explorer Vitus Bering.<ref name=bcgnis>Template:Cite bcgnis</ref>
GeologyEdit
The Saint Elias Mountains form the highest coastal mountain range on Earth. It formed due to the subduction of the Yakutat microplate underneath the North American Plate. The Yakutat microplate is a wedge shaped oceanic plateau with a thickness of Template:Convert.<ref name="Christeson et al., 2010">Template:Cite journal</ref> Similar to the adjacent Pacific Plate, which has a crustal thickness of Template:Convert, the Yakutat plate is moving northwestward at a rate of Template:Convert per year with respect to North America.<ref name="Elliott et al., 2010">Template:Cite journal</ref> The Yakutat plate is transported northwards along the active Fairweather Fault, which probably started more than 35 million years ago.<ref name="Finzel et al., 2011" /> Due to its thickness, the Yakutat plate is buoyant, resulting in surface uplift of the overriding North American plate, which formed the Talkeetna Mountains and the Alaska Range in Southcentral Alaska, located above the subducted part of the Yakutat plate.<ref name="Finzel et al., 2011">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Saint Elias Mountains formed at the plate boundary between the Yakutat and North American plates. The up-to-Template:Convert-thick sediments that have been deposited on top of the Yakutat plate became imbricated and deformed as they were scraped off and compose today the southern (coastal) flanks of the St. Elias Mountains. In contrast the high elevated regions of the drainage divide (Bagley Icefield, Seward Glacier) and north of it are composed of rocks that are part of the North American plate.<ref name="Plafker and Berg, 1994">Template:Cite book</ref> The highest peaks of the St. Elias Mountains are located in the high ice field region of the Kluane National Park (Mount Logan, Mount Vancouver) and north of the Malaspina Glacier (Mount Saint Elias, Mount Cook), in the region known as the St. Elias syntaxis. At the syntaxis region the tectonic style changes from strike-slip motion along the Fairweather Fault to collision west of Malaspina Strait. This tectonic transition concentrates stress in the crust at the syntaxis that together with efficient glacial erosion results in positive feedback processes that through time forms extreme high mountain peaks and local relief, and rapid exhumation of rocks from up to Template:Cvt depths to the surface.<ref name="Enkelmann et al., 2009">Template:Cite journal</ref>
RangesEdit
The mountains are divided by the Duke Depression, with the shorter, more rounded Kluane Ranges to the east, and the higher Icefield Ranges to the west. Sub-ranges of the Saint Elias include the Alsek Ranges, the Fairweather Range, and the Centennial Range.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Highest mountainsEdit
The highest mountains of the range include:
ImageEdit
ReferencesEdit
- Sources