The Brooks Range (
Gwich'in: ''Gwazhał'') is a
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
in far northern
North America stretching some from west to east across northern
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. ...
into
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
's
Yukon Territory
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
. Reaching a peak elevation of on
Mount Isto
Mount Isto is the highest peak in the Brooks Range, Alaska, USA. Located in the eastern Brooks Range, in what are known as the Romanzof Mountains, Mount Isto is south of Mount Hubley, the second tallest peak in the Brooks Range. Mount Isto is wi ...
, the range is believed to be approximately 126 million years old.
In the United States, these mountains are considered a subrange of the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
, whereas in Canada they are considered separate, as the northern border of the Rocky Mountains is considered to be the
Liard River far to the south in the province of
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
.
While the range is mostly uninhabited, the
Dalton Highway
The James W. Dalton Highway, usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as Alaska Route 11), is a road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse (an unincorporated community within the ...
and
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is an oil transportation system spanning Alaska, including the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one o ...
run through the
Atigun Pass (1,415 m, 4,643 ft) on their way to the
oil fields at
Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's
North Slope. The
Alaska Native villages of
Anaktuvuk and
Arctic Village, as well as the very small communities of
Coldfoot,
Wiseman,
Bettles, and
Chandalar, are the range's only settlements. In the far west, near the
Wulik River
The Wulik River is a stream, about long, in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. Originating in the De Long Mountains in the North Slope Borough, it flows southwest to Kivalina Lagoon in the Chukchi Sea, east of Kivalina. It head ...
in the De Long Mountains is the
Red Dog mine, the largest zinc mine in the world.
The range was named by the
United States Board on Geographic Names in 1925 after
Alfred Hulse Brooks, chief
USGS
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
geologist for Alaska from 1903 to 1924.
Various historical records also referred to the range as the Arctic Mountains, Hooper Mountains, Meade Mountains and Meade River Mountains. The Canadian portion of the range is officially called the
British Mountains.
Ivvavik National Park is located in Canada's British Mountains.
Peaks
*
Mount Isto
Mount Isto is the highest peak in the Brooks Range, Alaska, USA. Located in the eastern Brooks Range, in what are known as the Romanzof Mountains, Mount Isto is south of Mount Hubley, the second tallest peak in the Brooks Range. Mount Isto is wi ...
*
Mount Hubley
*
Mount Chamberlin
*
Mount Michelson at 8,855 ft (2,699 m)
* The Gates of Kiev at 7,775 ft (2,370 m), the highest point in the central part of the range
* Black Mountain at 5,020 ft (1,530 m), the highest point in the far western part of the range.
*
Mount Doonerak
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.
Mount or Mounts may also refer to:
Places
* Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
* Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...
*
Mount Igikpak
*
Frigid Crags West Gate
*
Boreal Mountain East Gate
* Limestack Mountain
*
Cockedhat Mountain
Cockedhat Mountain is a mountain in the U.S. state of Alaska, and is one of the tallest mountains in the central Brooks Range. Located in the midst of the protected wilderness of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Cockedhat Mountai ...
History
Bob Marshall explored the
North Fork Koyukuk River area of the range in 1929. He named Mount Doonerak, explaining "the name Doonerak I took from an Eskimo word which means a spirit or, as they would translate it, a devil." Marshall described the mountain as, a "towering, black, unscalable-looking giant, the highest peak in this section of the Brooks Range."
Ecology
The Brooks Range forms the northernmost drainage
divide in North America, separating streams flowing into the Arctic Ocean and the North Pacific. The range roughly delineates the summer position of the Arctic front. It represents the northern extent of the
tree line
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...
, with little beyond isolated
balsam poplar
''Populus balsamifera'', commonly called balsam poplar, bam, bamtree, eastern balsam-poplar, hackmatack, tacamahac poplar, tacamahaca, is a tree species in the balsam poplar species group in the poplar genus, ''Populus.'' The genus name ''Populu ...
stands occurring north of the continental drainage divide.
Trembling aspen and
white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce ('' Picea'') and may refer to:
* ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States
* '' Picea engelmannii'', native to the ...
also occur north of the Brooks Range, though they are limited to sites that have been disturbed by human activity. Southern slopes have some cover of
black spruce, ''
Picea mariana
''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Labr ...
'', marking the northern limit of those trees. As the global mean temperature increases, tree line has been observed to move further north, changing the boundaries of where these trees are found. An increase in shrub abundance is also being experienced in areas which were previously dominated by tundra, impacting the ecology of the area.
As one of the most remote and least-disturbed wildernesses of North America, the mountains are home to
Dall sheep,
grizzly bears,
black bear
Black bear or Blackbear may refer to:
Animals
* American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species
* Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species
Music
* Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...
,
gray wolf,
moose
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
and
porcupine caribou
The Porcupine caribou ''(Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus'') is a herd or ecotype of barren-ground caribou, the subspecies of the reindeer or caribou found in Alaska, United States, and Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Canada. A recent revisio ...
.
In Alaska, the
Western Arctic Caribou herd (490,000 strong in 2004) traverses the Brooks Range in its annual migration. The smaller Central Arctic
herd (32,000 in 2002), as well as the 123,000 animal Porcupine Caribou herd, likewise migrate through the Brooks range on their annual journeys in and out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The migration path of the Porcupine Caribou herd is the longest of any terrestrial mammal on earth.
Paleontology
Because the rocks of the range were formed in an ancient seabed, the Brooks Range contains
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s of
marine organisms. In addition to the
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and ...
fossils shown,
trilobite
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...
s and
brachiopod
Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...
s from the middle
Cambrian have been found in the sandy
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
s of the Central Brooks Range.
Remains of a
woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
that died about 17,100 years ago were found north of the Brooks Range. A research report on its movement range was published in 2021.
Woolly mammoth walked far enough to circle Earth twice, study finds
theguardian.com 12 Aug 2021
Climate
While other Alaskan ranges to the south and closer to the coast can receive to of snow, the average snow precipitation on the Brooks Range is reported at to . Due to a changing climate, between the years 1969–2018 the Eastern and Western portions of the Brooks Range have experienced a 17.2% increase in annual precipitation.[Thoman, R. & J. E. Walsh. (2019)]
Alaska’s changing environment: documenting Alaska’s physical and biological changes through observations.
H. R. McFarland, Ed. International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
As measured at the Anaktuvuk Pass weather station (elevation ), the average summer temperatures are as a high and as a low. During the winter the average high is while the average low is . Polar amplification is a force experienced in this region as global temperatures are rising. The northern and western regions of Alaska, where the Brooks Range lies, is experiencing a warming rate twice that of southeastern Alaska. The Brooks Range has experienced an increase in average summer temperature between 4.2 °F and 5.8 °F between the years 1969–2018.
In certain areas of the Brooks Range, year round snow cover or "perennial snowfields", can be found. In 1985, 34 square miles of snowfields were recorded, where as that number has dropped to under four square miles in 2017.
Films
*2007 - ''Gates of the Arctic: Alaska's Brooks Range''
*2008 - ''Alone Across Alaska: 1,000 Miles of Wilderness''
*2011 - ''The Edge of the Earth'' (short film)
*2014 - ''The World Beyond the World'' (short film)
See also
*Philip Smith Mountains
The Philip Smith Mountains are a mountain range in the Brooks Range within the state of Alaska. They extend from the Sagavanirktok River and North Fork Chandalar River on the southwest to Canning River and East Fork Chandalar River on the north ...
*Richardson Mountains
The Richardson Mountains are a mountain range located west of the mouth of the Mackenzie River in northern Yukon, Canada. They parallel the northernmost part of the boundary between Yukon and Northwest Territories.
Although some sources conside ...
Notes
Further reading
*Allan, C. (2013). ''Arctic citadel : a history of exploration in the Brooks Range region of Northern Alaska.'' Washington, D.C,: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
*Witmer, Dennis "Far to the North: Photographs from the Brooks Range" Far to the North Press (2008)
*Kauffmann, John M. "Alaska's Brooks Range: The Ultimate Mountains" (Second Edition) Mountaineers Books (2005)
*Brown, William E. "History of the Central Brooks Range: Gaunt Beauty, Tenuous Life" University of Alaska Press (2007)
*Cooper, David "Brooks Range Passage" Mountaineers Books (1983)
*Dover, J.H., I.L. Tailleur, and J.A. Dumoulin. (2004). ''Geologic and fossil locality maps of the west-central part of the Howard Pass quadrangle and part of the adjacent Misheguk Mountain quadrangle, Western Brooks Range, Alaska'' iscellaneous Field Studies; Map MF-2413 Reston, Va.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*Krumhardt, A.P., A.G. Harris, and K.F. Watts. (1996). ''Lithostratigraphy, microlithofacies, and conodont biostratigraphy and biofacies of the Wahoo Limestone (Carboniferous), eastern Sadlerochit Mountains, northeast Brooks Range, Alaska'' U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1568. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*Marshall, R. (1970). ''Alaska wilderness; exploring the Central Brooks Range'' 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Mayfield, C.F. et al. (1984). ''Reconnaissance geologic map of southeastern Misheguk Mountain quadrangle, Alaska'' iscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1503 Reston, Va.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*Morin, R.L. (1997). ''Gravity and magnetic maps of part of the Drenchwater Creek stratiform zinc-lead-silver deposit, Howard Pass quadrangle, northwestern Brooks Range, Alaska'' pen-file report 97-705 Menlo Park, CA: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*Morin, R.L. (1997). ''Gravity models of Abby Creek and Bion barite deposits, Howard Pass quadrangle, northwestern Brooks Range, Alaska'' .S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 97-704 Menlo Park, CA: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*Mull, C.G. et al. (1994). ''Geologic map of the Killik River quadrangle, Brooks Range, Alaska'' .S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 94-679 Reston, Va: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*Nelson, P.H. et al. (2006). ''Potential tight gas resources in a frontier province, Jurassic through Tertiary strata beneath the Brooks Range foothills, Arctic Alaska'' U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 2006–1172. Reston, VA: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
*U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. (2003). ''The natural dispersal of metals to the environment in the Wulik River-Ikalukrok Creek area, western Brooks Range, Alaska'' U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 107–03. Reston, VA: author.
*U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. (1995). ''Natural environmental effects of silver-lead-zinc deposits in the Brooks Range, Alaska'' U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 092–95. Reston, VA: author.
{{Authority control
Landforms of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska
Mountain ranges of Yukon
Mountains of North Slope Borough, Alaska
Mountains of Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska
Mountains of Unorganized Borough, Alaska