A geologic guide to Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska: A tectonic collage of northbound terranes
Winkler GR, MacKevett EM, Plafker G, Richter DH, Rosenkrans DS, Schmoll HR. 2000. A geologic guide to Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska: A tectonic collage of northbound terranes. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Professional Paper. 1616. US Government Printing office. Region No. 8
Wrangell–Saint Elias National Park and Preserve (fig. 6), the largest unit in the U.S. National Park System, encompasses nearly 13.2 million acres of geological wonderments. Furthermore, its geologic makeup is shared with contiguous Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Kluane National Park and Game Sanctuary in the Yukon Territory, the Alsek-Tatshenshini Provincial Park in British Columbia, the Cordova district of Chugach National Forest and the Yakutat district of Tongass National Forest, and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve at the north end of Alaska’s panhandle—shared landscapes of awesome dimensions and classic geologic features. In 1978, the United Nations recognized the global importance of Wrangell–Saint Elias and Kluane by designating them as “World Heritage” sites; Glacier Bay and Alsek-Tatshenshini were similarly designated in 1992, unifying some 24 million acres of international parklands. The array of geologic features makes these parklands an impressive outdoor laboratory. Within Wrangell–Saint Elias are displayed features that indicate (1) how the southern Alaskan continental margin has more than doubled in size in approximately the past 200 million years by incremental addition of far-traveled geologic fragments; (2) how underthrusting by the Pacific oceanic plate has prompted rapid uplift, voluminous volcanism, and powerful earthquakes; and (3) how uplift of the coastal mountains adjacent to the storm-brewery of the Gulf of Alaska has engendered large and scenic systems of alpine, piedmont, and tidewater glaciers. In 1892, glaciologist Israel C. Russell, writing of one of the earliest scientific probes of the Wrangell–Saint Elias region—his explorations of Malaspina Glacier and Mt. St. Elias—characterized the vast mountains and glaciers whose realms he invaded with a sense of astonishment. His descriptions are fi lled with superlatives. In the ensuing 100+ years, earth scientists have learned much more about the geologic evolution of the parklands, but the possibility of astonishment still is with us as we unravel the results of continuing tectonic processes along the south-central Alaska continental margin. Russell’s superlatives are justified: Wrangell–Saint Elias is, indeed, an awesome collage of geologic terranes. Most wonderful has been the continuing discovery that the disparate terranes are, like us, invaders of a sort with unique trajectories and timelines marking their northward journeys to arrive in today’s parklands. This geologic guide includes six parts: the first part briefly notes the 150-year history of exploration in the Wrangell–Saint Elias region that preceded the 20th century and summarizes the ensuing 100-year history of earth-science investigations that have brought us to our present understanding of the geologic makeup of the parklands.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Winkler, Gary; MacKevett, Edward; Plafker, George; Richter, Donald; Rosenkrans, Danny; Schmoll, Henry
- Date of Issue
- 2000
- Publisher
- US Government Printing office
- Units
- HIST , WRD , WRST
- Keywords
- Alexander Terrance, Bagley Ice Field, Bisenchantment Bay, Chitistone Gorge, Chugach Terrance, Copper, Copper Pass, Copper River Basin, Copper River Canyon, Earthquakes, ehistory, Exploration, Geochronology, Geologic Probes, Geology, glacial-marine deposition, Glaciation, Glaciers, Goat Trail, Gold, Gravina-Ntuzotin Belt, History, Hubbard Glacier, Icy Bay, Kennicott Glacier, Kennicott River, Lakes, Malaspina Glacier, McCarthy Road, Minerals, Prince William Terrane, Rivers, Russell Fiord, Skolai Pass, Stratigraphy, Tebay Lakes, Tectonic, The Nabesna Road, tidewater glaciers, Totschunda Fault System, Volcanoes, Water Resources, Windy Terrane, Wrangelia, WRBIB, Yukutat Terrane