Natural features Alaska

augustine volcano erupting on january 12, 2006

with myriad islands, alaska has 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of tidal shoreline. aleutian islands chain extends west southern tip of alaska peninsula. many active volcanoes found in aleutians , in coastal regions. unimak island, example, home mount shishaldin, smoldering volcano rises 10,000 feet (3,048 m) above north pacific. perfect volcanic cone on earth, more symmetrical japan s mount fuji. chain of volcanoes extends mount spurr, west of anchorage on mainland. geologists have identified alaska part of wrangellia, large region consisting of multiple states , canadian provinces in pacific northwest, actively undergoing continent building.

one of world s largest tides occurs in turnagain arm, south of anchorage – tidal differences can more 35 feet (10.7 m).

alaska has more 3 million lakes. marshlands , wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,747 km) (mostly in northern, western , southwest flatlands). glacier ice covers 16,000 square miles (41,440 km) of land , 1,200 square miles (3,110 km) of tidal zone. bering glacier complex near southeastern border yukon covers 2,250 square miles (5,827 km) alone. on 100,000 glaciers, alaska has half of in world.