Brooks Range

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Mountain range in Alaska, United States

title: "Brooks Range" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["brooks-range", "landforms-of-yukon–koyukuk-census-area,-alaska", "mountains-of-north-slope-borough,-alaska", "mountains-of-northwest-arctic-borough,-alaska", "mountains-of-unorganized-borough,-alaska"] description: "Mountain range in Alaska, United States" topic_path: "general/brooks-range" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Range" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mountain range in Alaska, United States ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

FieldValue
nameBrooks Range
native_namegwi
photoCaribou with brooks range mountains in background.jpg
photo_captionBrooks Range from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
country
subdivision2_typeState/Territory
subdivision2
length_mi700
length_orientationEast-west
width_mi150
width_orientationNorth-south
highestMount Isto
elevation_ft8976
coordinates
ageCretaceous
orogenyLaramide
range_coordinates
map_imageRelief-map-of-Brooks-Range.png
::

| name = Brooks Range | native_name =gwi | photo = Caribou with brooks range mountains in background.jpg | photo_caption = Brooks Range from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge | country = | subdivision2_type = State/Territory | subdivision2 = | length_mi = 700 | length_orientation= East-west | width_mi = 150 | width_orientation = North-south | highest = Mount Isto | elevation_ft = 8976 | coordinates = | geology = | age = Cretaceous | orogeny = Laramide | range_coordinates = | range_coordinates_ref = | map = | map_caption = | map_image = Relief-map-of-Brooks-Range.png The Brooks Range (Gwich'in: Gwazhał) is a mountain range in far northern North America stretching some 700 mi from west to east across northern Alaska into Canada's Yukon Territory. Reaching a peak elevation of 8976 ft on Mount Isto, 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, 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.

While the range is mostly uninhabited, the Dalton Highway and Trans-Alaska Pipeline System 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 in the De Long Mountains is the Red Dog mine, the largest zinc mine in the world.

In America, the range is federally protected as a series of national wildernesses and refuges, including Gates of the Arctic National Park, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Noatak National Preserve.

The range was named by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1925 after Alfred Hulse Brooks, chief USGS 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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Brooks_Range_Mountains.jpg" caption="Brooks Range Mountains"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Limestack_Mountain._Gates_of_the_Arctic_National_Park,_Brooks_Range,_Alaska.jpg" caption="Limestack Mountain, in the central Brooks Range" alt="Limestack Mountain, a tall limestone fin with sheer cliffs in the central Brooks Range"] ::

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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Brooks_Range_Mountains_ANWR.jpg" caption="Area of the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]] coastal plain, looking south toward the Brooks Range"] ::

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, with little beyond isolated balsam poplar stands occurring north of the continental drainage divide. Trembling aspen and white spruce 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, 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, gray wolf, moose and porcupine caribou.

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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Coral_fossils_high_in_the_Brooks_Range,_Alaska.jpg" caption="Fossilized corals in the Brooks Range, near Limestack Mountain" alt="Fossil corals in the Brooks Range"] ::

Because the rocks of the range were formed in an ancient seabed, the Brooks Range contains fossils of marine organisms. In addition to the coral fossils shown, trilobites and brachiopods from the middle Cambrian have been found in the sandy limestones of the Central Brooks Range.

During the middle of the Cretaceous, the Brooks Range thrust belt underwent significant regional extension.

Remains of a woolly mammoth 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.

Climate

While other Alaskan ranges to the south and closer to the coast can receive 250 in to 500 in of snow, the average snow precipitation on the Brooks Range is reported at 30 in to 51 in. 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.

As measured at the Anaktuvuk Pass weather station (elevation 770 m), the average summer temperatures are 16 °C as a high and 3 °C as a low. During the winter the average high is -22 °C while the average low is -30 °C. 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)

Notes

References

  1. "GNIS Account Login".
  2. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ygo1AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Columbia+Mountains%22+and+%22Brooks+range%22 The Encyclopedia Americana], Volume 23, page 618 (Grolier 2000).
  3. Safire, William. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-BIGv9vIoqcC&dq=%22Brooks+range%22+and+%22Arctic+rockies%22&pg=PA623 The New York Times guide to essential knowledge: a desk reference for the curious mind], page 623 (Macmillan 2007 ).
  4. (2011-06-02). "Download Geographical Names Data".
  5. (1956). "Arctic Wilderness". University of California Press.
  6. (2016-06-06). "Infrastructure Development Accelerates Range Expansion of Trembling Aspen ( Populus tremuloides , Salicaceae) into the Arctic". Arctic.
  7. (2009-09-11). "White Spruce Seedling ( Picea glauca ) Discovered North of the Brooks Range Along Alaska's Dalton Highway". Arctic.
  8. link. (October 5, 2011)
  9. Larsen, J.N., O.A. Anisimov, A. Constable, A.B. Hollowed, N. Maynard, P. Prestrud, T.D. Prowse, and J.M.R. Stone, 2014: Polar regions. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Barros, V.R., C.B. Field, D.J. Dokken, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1567-1612. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap28_FINAL.pdf
  10. Anisimov, O.A., D.G. Vaughan, T.V. Callaghan, C. Furgal, H. Marchant, T.D. Prowse, H. Vilhjálmsson and J.E. Walsh, 2007: Polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic). Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 653–685. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ar4-wg2-chapter15-1.pdf
  11. Ramsayer, Kate. (August 6, 2017). "NASA Studies Details of a Greening Arctic".
  12. [https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/home/library/pdfs/wildlife/porcupine_caribou_news/porcupine_caribou_news_summer_2017.pdf "Porcupine Caribou News" (PDF)]. ''Alaska Department of Fish and Game''. Summer 2017.
  13. (Summer 2017). "Porcupine Caribou News".
  14. (November 1984). "Middle Cambrian Fossils from the Doonerak Anticlinorium, Central Brooks Range, Alaska". Journal of Paleontology.
  15. Miller, Elizabeth L.. (August 1991). "Mid-Cretaceous extensional fragmentation of a Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Compressional Orogen, Alaska". [[Tectonics (journal).
  16. (12 Aug 2021). "Woolly mammoth walked far enough to circle Earth twice, study finds".
  17. (2007-12-15). "The Climate of Alaska". University of Alaska Press.
  18. Gallant, Alisa L.. (1998-05-01). "EcoRegions of Alaska". DIANE Publishing.
  19. Thoman, R. & J. E. Walsh. (2019). [https://uaf-iarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alaskas-Changing-Environment_2019_WEB.pdf 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.

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brooks-rangelandforms-of-yukon–koyukuk-census-area,-alaskamountains-of-north-slope-borough,-alaskamountains-of-northwest-arctic-borough,-alaskamountains-of-unorganized-borough,-alaska