River basin east of Nome - aerial - P1040600

The Bendeleben (/ˈbɛn.dəˌleɪ.bɨn/) Mountains are a mountain range on the heart of the

Seward Peninsula The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska whose westernmost point is Cape Prince of Wales. The peninsula projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi S ...

Nome Census Area Nome Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska, mostly overlapping with the Seward Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,046, up from 9,492 in 2010. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore h ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, United States. This range forms a major divide between

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

s draining into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. The tallest peak,

Mount Bendeleben Mount Bendeleben ( Iñupiaq: ''Aniyaayuq'') is the highest peak in the Bendeleben Mountains of the Seward Peninsula in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. It is located on the western end of the range, southwest of Imuruk Lake. The mount ...

is at the summit, and is located on the west end. Bits of the range go into the

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is one of the most remote Protected areas of the United States, located on the Seward Peninsula. The National Preserve protects a remnant of the Bering Land Bridge that connected Asia with North America m ...

, but most of the peaks remain unclaimed. The

Tubutulik River The Tubutulik River is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. The long river is situated on the Seward Peninsula. It flows southeastwards to the Kwiniuk Inlet at the northwestern end of Norton Bay, southwest of Koyuk in the Bering Sea. Its ...

flows in the area. Mount Bendeleben is the highest point on the Seward Peninsula east of the

Kigluaik Mountains The Kigluaik Mountains (''Kiglawait'' in Inupiaq) are a mountain chain running east to west on western Alaska's Seward Peninsula. Its highest point is the summit of Mount Osborn, at above sea level. This remote range is home to numerous isolated ...

. According to the geologists who studied contiguous areas in 1900, the metamorphic schists of the Bendeleben Mountains were considered distinct from the other schists of the region and were therefore given a name and assigned to a more or less definite stratigraphic position. In 1908, the senior writer of this report made a cross section of the range along the western margin of the area, and in 1909 the party had the opportunity of studying the section north and west. of Death Valley, where rocks previously considered as belonging to the Kigluaik group are exposed. About the head of the Fish River, the mountains are chiefly granitic, but along their flanks and sometimes extending through them in belts of varying breadth which mark the passes are areas of schistose sediments. Similar to the Kigluaik Mountains, the Bendeleban Mountains are rugged, with sharply cut valleys, and many glacial cirques.

Flora

On the southern side of the Bendeleben Mountains, scattered spruce trees are reported in the valley of the

Niukluk River Niukluk River is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the north ...

as far west as Libby River, which rises on the west side of Mount Bendeleben. Eastward, spruce grows along all the streams. On the northern side of the Bendeleben Mountains, spruce is found in the valley of the

Koyuk River The Koyuk River (also spelled, Kuyuk) is a river on the Seward Peninsula of western Alaska, in the United States. The river originates in the interior of the peninsula, at the Lost Jim Lava Flow of the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, wher ...

, west to the vicinity of Timber Creek on the south, and to the tributaries heading toward Kiwalik Mountain on the north. Spruce extends considerably farther west on the south side of the Bendeleben Mountains than it does on the north.

References

* * * {{Authority control Landforms of the Seward Peninsula Mountain ranges of Alaska Mountains of Unorganized Borough, Alaska