- Geography of Alaska
Alaska is one of two U.S. States not bordered by another state;
Hawaii the other. Alaska has more sea front than all of the other US states combinedFact|date=June 2007. It is one of two non-contiguous states inNorth America ; Hawaii the other. About convert|500|mi|km|-1 of Canadian territory separate Alaska from Washington State. Alaska is thus anexclave of the United States that is part of the continental U.S. but is not part of the contiguous U.S. [The other three exclaves of the United States are theNorthwest Angle of Minnesota,Point Roberts, Washington , andAlburgh, Vermont .] Alaska is also the only state whosecapital city is accessible only via ship or air. No roads connect Juneau to the rest of the state.The state is bordered by
Yukon andBritish Columbia ,Canada to the east, theGulf of Alaska and thePacific Ocean to the south, theBering Sea ,Bering Strait , andChukchi Sea to the west, and theBeaufort Sea and theArctic Ocean to the north. Alaska is the largest state in the United States in terms of land area at 570,380 square miles (1,477,300 km²), over twice as large asTexas , the next largest state. If the state's westernmost point were superimposed onSan Francisco, California , its easternmost point would be inJacksonville, Florida . Alaska also has morecoastline than all of the contiguous U.S. combined. It is larger than all but 18 sovereign nations.One scheme for describing the a state's geography is by labeling the regions:
*South Central Alaska is the southern coastal region and contains most of the state's population. Anchorage and many growing towns, such as Palmer, and Wasilla, lie within this area.Petroleum industrial plants, transportation,tourism , and twomilitary base s form the core of the economy here.
*TheAlaska Panhandle , also known as Southeast Alaska, is home to many of Alaska's larger towns including the state capitalJuneau , tidewaterglacier s and extensive forests. Tourism, fishing, forestry and state government anchor the economy.
*Southwest Alaska is largely coastal, bordered by both thePacific Ocean and theBering Sea . It is sparsely populated, and unconnected to the road system, but incredibly important to the fishing industry. Half of all fish caught in the western U.S. come from theBering Sea , andBristol Bay has the world's largestsockeye salmon fishery.Southwest Alaska includes Katmai and Lake Clark national parks as well as numerous wildlife refuges. The region comprises westernCook Inlet ,Bristol Bay and its watersheds, theAlaska Peninsula and theAleutian Islands . It is known for wet and stormy weather, tundra landscapes, and large populations ofsalmon ,brown bears ,caribou , birds, andmarine mammals .
*TheAlaska Interior is home to Fairbanks. The geography is marked by largebraided river s, such as theYukon River and theKuskokwim River , as well asArctic tundra lands and shorelines.
*TheAlaskan Bush is the remote, less crowded part of the state, encompassing 380 native villages and small towns such as Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue and, most famously, Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States.The northeast corner of Alaska is covered by the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge , which covers convert|19049236|acre|km2|0|lk=on. Much of the northwest is covered by the largerNational Petroleum Reserve–Alaska , which covers around 23,000,000 acres (93,000 km²). The Arctic is Alaska's most remote wilderness. A location in theNational Petroleum Reserve–Alaska is convert|120|mi|km|-1 from any town or village, the geographic point most remote from permanent habitation in the USA.With its numerous islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (55,000 km) of tidal shoreline. The island chain extending west from the southern tip of the
Alaska Peninsula is called theAleutian Islands . Many activevolcano es are found in the Aleutians. For example,Unimak Island is home toMount Shishaldin , a moderately active volcano that rises to convert|9980|ft|m|0|lk=on abovesea level . The chain of volcanoes extends toMount Spurr , west of Anchorage on the mainland.One of North America's largest tides occurs in
Turnagain Arm just south of Anchorage. Tidal differences can be more than convert|35|ft|m|1. (Many sources say Turnagain has the second-greatest tides in North America, but it has since been shown that several areas in Canada have larger tides, according to anAnchorage Daily News article dated 6/23/03. [cite journal | author = Porco, Peter|date =June 23 ,2003 | title = Long said to be second to Fundy, city tides aren't even close | journal = Anchorage Daily News | pages = A1] )Alaska is home to 3.5 million
lake s of 20 acres (80,000 m²) or larger [ [http://www.knls.org/English/akfact.htm Alaska Facts ] ] .Marshland s and wetlandpermafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,750 km²) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Frozen water, in the form ofglacier ice, covers some 16,000 square miles (41,000 km²) of land and 1,200 square miles (3,100 km²) of tidal zone. TheBering Glacier complex near the southeastern border withYukon ,Canada , covers 2,250 square miles (5,830 km²) alone.The Aleutian Islands cross longitude 180°, so Alaska can be considered the easternmost state as well as the westernmost. Alaska and, especially, the Aleutians are one of the
extreme points of the United States . TheInternational Date Line jogs west of 180° to keep the whole state, and thus the entire continental United States, within the same legal day.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 national forests,national park s, andnational wildlife refuge s. Of these, theBureau of Land Management manages 87 million acres (350,000 km²), or 23.8% of the state. TheArctic National Wildlife Refuge is managed by theUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service .Of the remaining land area, the State of Alaska owns 24.5%; another 10% is managed by thirteen regional and dozens of local Native corporations created under the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act . Various private interests own the remaining land, totaling less than 1%.Alaska is administratively divided into "
boroughs ," as opposed to "counties." The function is the same, but whereas some states use a three-tiered system of decentralization — state/county/township — most of Alaska only uses two tiers — state/borough. Owing to the state's low population density, most of the land is located in theUnorganized Borough which, as the name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government. Currently (2000 census) 57.71 percent of Alaska's land area has this status; however, its population comprises only 13.05 percent of the state's total. For statistical purposes theUnited States Census Bureau divides this territory intocensus area s. Anchorage merged the city government with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1971 to form the Municipality of Anchorage, containing the city proper, and the bedroom communities of Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek, Girdwood, Bird, and Indian. Fairbanks, on the other hand, has a separate borough (theFairbanks North Star Borough ) and municipality (the City of Fairbanks)ee also
*
Alaska census statistical areas
*Alaska Peninsula
*Bristol Bay
*List of Alaska National Parks
*List of Alaska rivers
*List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska
*Mountain peaks of Alaska References
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