Boundary Ranges | |
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Alaska Boundary Range | |
![]() View of the Juneau Icefield. | |
Highest point | |
Peak | Mount Ratz, British Columbia |
Elevation | 3,090 m (10,140 ft) |
Coordinates | 57°23′35.2″N132°18′11.2″W / 57.393111°N 132.303111°W Coordinates: 57°23′35.2″N132°18′11.2″W / 57.393111°N 132.303111°W |
Dimensions | |
Area | 87,101 km2 (33,630 sq mi) |
Geography | |
Countries | Canada and United States |
States/Provinces | Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon |
Parent range | Coast Mountains |
The Boundary Ranges, also known in the singular and as the Alaska Boundary Range, are the largest and most northerly subrange of the Coast Mountains. They begin at the Nass River, near the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle in the Canadian province of British Columbia and run to the Kelsall River, near the Chilkoot Pass, beyond which are the Alsek Ranges of the Saint Elias Mountains, and northwards into the Yukon Territory flanking the west side of the Yukon River drainage as far as Champagne Pass, north of which being the Yukon Ranges. To their east are the Skeena Mountains and Stikine Plateau of the Interior Mountains complex that lies northwest of the Interior Plateau; the immediately adjoining subregion of the Stikine Plateau is the Tahltan Highland. To their northeast is the Tagish Highland, which is a subregion of the Yukon Plateau. Both highlands are considered in some descriptions as included in the Coast Mountains. The Alexander Archipelago lies offshore and is entirely within Alaska.
The Boundary Ranges include several large icefields, including the Juneau Icefield, between the Alaskan city of the same name and Atlin Lake in B.C.; and the Stikine Icecap, which lies between the lower Stikine River and the Whiting River. Some of the highest mountains in the Boundary Ranges are: Mount Ratz, 3,090 m (10,138 ft); Chutine Peak, 2,910 m (9,547 ft); and Devils Thumb, 2,766 m (9,075 ft), all in the Stikine Icecap region; and Devils Paw, 2,593 m (8,507 ft), in the Juneau Icefield. (Other peaks in the Stikine Icecap are higher than 2,600 m (8,530 ft), but they have relatively low topographic prominence.)
Despite the height of Mount Ratz and its neighbours, most of the Boundary Ranges are considerably lower than the Pacific Ranges of the southern Coast Mountains. The larger icefields of the Boundary Ranges are at a much lower elevation than their southern counterparts in the Pacific Ranges because of the difference in latitude.
Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division.
The granitic intrusions that form the Boundary Ranges are remnants of a Late Cretaceous volcanic arc system called the Coast Range Arc.
Rivers draining or transiting the Boundary Ranges include the:
The Coast Mountains are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia south to the Fraser River. The mountain range's name derives from its proximity to the sea coast, and it is often referred to as the Coast Range. The range includes volcanic and non-volcanic mountains and the extensive ice fields of the Pacific and Boundary Ranges, and the northern end of the volcanic system known as the Cascade Volcanoes. The Coast Mountains are part of a larger mountain system called the Pacific Coast Ranges or the Pacific Mountain System, which includes the Cascade Range, the Insular Mountains, the Olympic Mountains, the Oregon Coast Range, the California Coast Ranges, the Saint Elias Mountains and the Chugach Mountains. The Coast Mountains are also part of the American Cordillera—a Spanish term for an extensive chain of mountain ranges—that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western backbone of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica.
ThePacific Coast Ranges, are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although they are commonly thought to be the westernmost mountain range of the continental United States and Canada, the geologically distinct Insular Mountains of Vancouver Island lie further west.
The Stikine River is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 kilometres (380 mi) long, in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and in southeast Alaska in the United States.
An ice field is a large area of interconnected glaciers, usually found in a mountainous region. They are often found in the colder climates and higher altitudes of the world where there is sufficient precipitation for them to form. The higher peaks of the underlying mountain rock that protrude through the icefields are known as nunataks. Ice fields are larger than alpine glaciers, but smaller than ice caps and ice sheets. The topography of ice fields is determined by the shape of the surrounding landforms, while ice caps have their own forms overriding underlying shapes.
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, bordered by the Pacific Ocean. With an area of 944,735 square kilometres (364,764 sq mi) it is Canada's third-largest province. The province is almost four times the size of United Kingdom and larger than every U.S. state except Alaska. It is bounded on the northwest by the U.S. state of Alaska, directly north by Yukon and the Northwest Territories, on the east by Alberta, and on the south by the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Formerly part of the British Empire, the southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty. The province is dominated by mountain ranges, among them the Canadian Rockies but dominantly the Coast Mountains, Cassiar Mountains, and the Columbia Mountains. Most of the population is concentrated on the Pacific coast, notably in the area of Vancouver, located on the southwestern tip of the mainland, which is known as the Lower Mainland. It is the most mountainous province of Canada.
The Pantheon Range is a subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia. It is located between the edge of the Chilcotin Plateau at Tatla Lake on its northeast and the Klinaklini River on its west, with a southeastern boundary along Mosley Creek, a major tributary of the Homathko River. The range is 5550 km² in area and extremely rugged, with many sharp, glaciated peaks.
The British Columbia Coast, popularly referred to as the BC Coast or simply the Coast, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is synonymous with being the West Coast of Canada, including the entire western continental coastline of Canada along the Pacific Ocean.
The North American Cordillera is the North American portion of the American Cordillera which is a mountain chain (cordillera) along the western side of the Americas. The North American Cordillera covers an extensive area of mountain ranges, intermontane basins, and plateaus in western North America, including much of the territory west of the Great Plains. It is also sometimes called the Western Cordillera, the Western Cordillera of North America, or the Pacific Cordillera.
Chutine Peak is one of the highest mountains in the Boundary Ranges, a group of subranges of the northern Coast Mountains of British Columbia and Alaska. Chutine Peak lies just east of the Stikine Icecap, and to the north and west of the Stikine River, and south of the basin of the Whiting River. It is notable for its huge west face: the drop to Chutine Lake is 2,600 m (8,530 ft) in 3.5 km (2 mi). Due to its remoteness, however, it is rarely visited.
The Skeena Mountains, also known as the Skeenas, are a subrange of the Interior Mountains of northern British Columbia, Canada, essentially flanking the upper basin of the Skeena River. They lie just inland from the southern end of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, and also of the northern end of the Kitimat Ranges. Their southern limit is described by the Bulkley River and the upper northwestern reaches of Babine and Takla Lakes, and on their northeast by the upper reaches of the Omineca River.
The Alsek Ranges are the southeasternmost subdivision of the Saint Elias Mountains of the Pacific Cordillera. They span the region between the Alsek River, Glacier Bay and the Kelsall River. Their western boundary is the Grand Pacific Glacier, beyond which is the Fairweather Range, another subdivision of the St. Elias Mountains. To their east is the northernmost section of the Boundary Ranges, the northernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains and which are also known as the Alaska Boundary Range, and which run south to the Nass River and form, as their name indicates, the spine of the boundary between the American state of Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Hazelton Mountains are a grouping of mountain ranges on the inland lee of the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, spanning the area of Hazelton south to the Nechako Reservoir. Defined by the British Columbia geographic names office, they span from the Nass River to the Nechako Plateau, and between the Coast Mountains and the Bulkley River, they are considered by geographers to be part of the Interior Mountains complex, though in local perspective they are considered to be part of the Coast Mountains. They are neighboured on the west by the Kitimat Ranges and on the east by the southernmost section of the Skeena Mountains; beyond the Nass River, which is their northern boundary, are the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. To their southeast is the Nechako Plateau, including the Quanchus Range on the near-island between Ootsa and Eutsuk Lakes of the Nechako Reservoir.
The Stikine Icecap is a large icefield straddled on the Alaska–British Columbia boundary in the Alaska Panhandle region. It lies in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. Within the United States, most of it is under the administration of the Tongass National Forest and is part of the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness within the national forest.
The Cassiar Mountains are the most northerly group of the Northern Interior Mountains in the Canadian province of British Columbia and also extend slightly into the southernmost Yukon Territory. They lie north and west of the Omineca Mountains, west of the northernmost Rockies and the Rocky Mountain Trench, north of the Hazelton Mountains and east of the Boundary Ranges. They form a section of the Continental Divide, that, in this region, separates water drainage between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Yukon-Tanana Uplands province, which in turn are part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division.
The Interior Mountains or Northern Interior Mountains are the semi-official names for an expansive collection of mountain ranges that comprises much of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia and a large area of southern Yukon.
Mount Ratz is a mountain located just west of the Stikine River, about 5 km (3 mi) east of the British Columbia-Alaska border. It is the highest peak in the Stikine Icecap and of the Boundary Ranges which in turn form part of the Coast Mountains. It is an extremely high-prominence summit, with a difference in elevation with its "key col" at Hyland Ranch Pass of 2,430 m (7,972 ft). Thus making it one of Canada's Ultra peaks.
Mount Nesselrode, also known as Boundary Peak 98, 2,474 metres (8,117 ft) prominence: 924 m (3,031 ft), is a peak in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, located on and in part defining the border between British Columbia, Canada and Alaska, United States. About 40 miles (64 km) north of Juneau to the west of the lower Stikine River and in the heart of the Stikine Icecap in Juneau Icefield southwest of Atlin Lake, it is also the corner point of Alaska's Haines Borough and Juneau Borough.
The Chutine River, originally named the Clearwater River, is a major right tributary of the Stikine River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located west of the Stikine Icecap and just inside the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia. The former settlement of Chutine or Chutine Landing is located at the confluence of the Chutine and Stikine. The name means "half-people" in the Tahltan language.
Stikine, meaning "great river" in the Tlingit language, may refer to: