Alaska Range Glory and Rocks and Minerals

Post date: Jan 12, 2016 9:44:22 PM

I was recently going through our photos of Alaska taken last September, looking for photos I can incorporate into a lecture about how the geology of the Alaska Range, interior Alaska, fits into the big picture of the rock cycle and plate tectonics. Looking at the photos reminded me of how beautiful the Alaska Range is, so here are a few of photos of it. These photos were taken from the train - Alaska Railroad.

The second, third, and fourth photos have a braided stream (river) in the foreground - streams braid when they are overloaded with sediment - carrying more than the hydraulics would allow. The fourth photo is a closer-up of Denali itself, the highest peak in the Alaska Range and the highest peak in North America. It is unusual, we were told, to see it not shrouded with clouds. We were very fortunate. Denali is made of granite, and I am still researching the bedrock composition of the rest of the Alaska Range. The research is for my class at Cal Poly, Rocks and Minerals, which I am teaching this winter quarter.