Alaska, AK

Alaska is an exclave and a state of the United States of America located west of Canada in the extreme northwest portion of North America.

A state of superlatives, it has the largest area, the highest mountain and greatest difference in elevation, the most extensive wilderness, and the most lakes, shoreline, and wetlands of any state. Conversely, it has the lowest population density.
 

The area that became Alaska was purchased from Russian interests on October 18, 1867, for $7,200,000 in gold bullion. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory in 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. The name "Alaska" is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland", or more literally "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed".

Geography

Alaska does not border any U.S. state; it borders the Yukon and British Columbia, Canada, to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, a Alaska has the largest land area of any U.S. state at 570,380 square miles (1,477,277 km²) that extend west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula contain many active volcanoes.

The North Slope is known for its oil reservoirs and extreme climate. The Alaskan Bush is a general term encompassing any remote part of the state. With its numerous islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of tidal shoreline (the most shoreline in the United States).

Alaska is home to 3.5 million lakes of 20 acres (8 ha) or larger. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,747 km²) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Frozen water, in the form of glacier ice, covers some 16,000 square miles (41,440 km²) of land and 1,200 square miles (3,110 km²) of tidal zone.

Climate

Alaska is a land of contrasts. The climate in southeast Alaska is similar to that of Seattle, with a mid-latitude oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) in the southern sections and a subarctic oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc) in the northern parts.

This is both the wettest part of Alaska as well as the warmest; it is the only part of the state in which the average daytime high temperature is above freezing during the winter. The climate in southcentral Alaska, is generally mild by Alaskan standards, due in large part to its proximity to the coast. It is a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) due to its short, cool summers.

The climate of Western Alaska is a subarctic oceanic climate in the southwest and a continental subarctic climate farther north. Precipitation in this area varies widely: the northern side of the Seward Peninsula receives 10 inches (250 mm) of precipitation annually, while some locations between Dillingham and Bethel receive around 100 inches (2,540 mm).

Alaska's interior has an extreme subarctic climate. Summer temperatures may reach into the 80s°F (near 30 °C), while winter temperatures can fall below −60 °F (-51 °C). Interior locations often receive less than 10 inches (250 mm) precipitation annually

The climate in the extreme north of Alaska is a polar climate (Köppen ET) with long, very cold winters and short, cool summers. Even in July, the average low temperature is barely above freezing in Barrow, at 34 °F (1 °C).

Precipitation is light in this part of Alaska, with many places averaging less than 10 inches (250 mm) per year, mostly in the form of snow which stays on the ground almost the entire year
 

History

At the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period (around 12,000 BCE), Asiatic groups crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what is now western Alaska.

At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups. The first European contact with Alaska occurred in 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter.

After his crew returned to Russia bearing sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia towards the Aleutian islands.

The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784, and the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early to mid-1800s.

Despite these efforts, the Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, engineered the Alaskan purchase in 1867 for $7.2 million, a transaction for a short while called Seward's folly. Seward's payment was made to Tsarist Russia from gold bullion stocks at the US Treasury and transported by armed wagons to the Russian Embassy (the value of $7.2 million in 1867 gold is equivalent to $1.67 billion in 2006 $USD).

The payment for Alaska went into Alexander II's treasury which was largely plundered for the continued opulence of the Tsarist state which led to further unrest and eventual assasination of Alexander II,. In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. According to September 27, 1903, NY Times article, the gold rush paid back the initial purchase investment within its first two years. Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912. During World War II, three of the outer Aleutian Islands (Attu, Agattu and Kiska) were the only part of North America occupied by the Japanese.

The battle to recover the islands became a matter of national pride. The wartime construction of military bases and the Alaska Highway also contributed to the population growth of some Alaskan cities. Alaska was granted statehood on January 3, 1959. In 1964, the massive "Good Friday Earthquake" killed 131 people and leveled several villages.

Alaska is the most seismically active state in the Union, although it has not attracted as much attention as California due to its much lower population. The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline led to an oil boom.

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the Prince William Sound, spilling between 11 and 35 million US gallons (42,000 and 130,000 m³) of crude oil over 1,100 miles (1,600 km) of coastline. Today, the battle between philosophies of development and conservation is seen in the contentious debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alaska".