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     from Wikipedia

    Alaska

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Jump to: navigation, search
    State of Alaska
    Flag of Alaska State seal of Alaska
    Flag of Alaska Seal
    Nickname(s): "The Last Frontier" and "Land of the Midnight Sun"
    Motto(s): North to the Future
    Map with Alaska highlighted
    Official language(s) English
    Spoken language(s) English 85.7%,
    Native North American 5.2%,
    Spanish 2.9%
    Demonym Alaskan
    Capital Juneau
    Largest city Anchorage
    Area  Ranked 1st in the US
     - Total 663,267 sq mi
    (1,717,854 km²)
     - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)
     - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)
     - % water 13.383
     - Latitude 51°20'N to 71°50'N
     - Longitude 130°W to 172°E
    Population  Ranked 47th in the US
     - Total 626,932
     - Density 1.06/sq mi 
    0.41/km² (50th in the US)
     - Median income  US$54,627 (6th)
    Elevation  
     - Highest point Mount McKinley[1]
    20,320 ft  (6,193.7 m)
     - Mean 1900 ft  (580 m)
     - Lowest point Pacific Ocean[1]
    0 ft  (0 m)
    Admission to Union  January 3, 1959 (49th)
    Governor Sarah Palin (R)
    Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell (R)
    U.S. Senators Ted Stevens (R)
    Lisa Murkowski (R)
    Congressional Delegation Don Young (R) (list)
    Time zones  
     - east of 169° 30' Alaska: UTC-9/DST-8
     - west of 169° 30' Aleutian: UTC-10/DST-9
    Abbreviations AK US-AK
    Website www.alaska.gov
    [show]Alaska State Symbols
    Living Symbols
     -Bird Willow Ptarmigan
     -Fish King Salmon
     -Flower Forget-me-not
     -Insect Four-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly
     -Mammal Moose, Bowhead whale
     -Tree Sitka Spruce
    Fossil Woolly mammoth
    Mineral Gold
    Rock Jade
    Slogan(s) Beyond Your Dreams, Within Your Reach
    Soil Tanana
    Song(s) Alaska's Flag
    Sport Mushing
    Route Marker(s)
    Alaska Route Marker
    Quarter
    Alaska quarter
    2008
    See Also

    Alaska (IPA: /əˈlæskə/, Russian: Аляска Alyaska) is a sparsely populated state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest (per capita).[2][3]

    The area that became Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for 7.2 million dollars (at 2 cents per acre, about 5 ¢/ha) after Congress concluded its resources could be vitally important to the nation's future growth. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. The name "Alaska" was already introduced in the Russian colonial time, when it was only used for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland," or more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed."[4] It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.

    Geography

    Alaska is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state, Hawaii being the other. Alaska has more coastline than all the other U.S. states combined.[5] It is the only non-contiguous U.S. state on continental North America; about 500 miles (800 km) of Canadian territory separate Alaska from Washington State. Alaska is thus an exclave of the United States, part of the continental U.S. but is not part of the contiguous U.S.[6] Juneau, Alaska's capital city, though located on the mainland of the North American continent, is inaccessible by land—no roads connect Juneau to the rest of the North American highway system.

    The state is bordered by the Yukon Territory and British Columbia, Canada, to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

    Alaska is the largest state in the United States in land area at 570,380 square miles (1,477,277 km²), more than twice as large as Texas, the next largest state. It is larger than all but 18 sovereign nations.

    Alaska is larger than the combined area of either:

    or

    • Also, comparing with territory outside the United States, Alaska is larger than:

    Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom combined.

    Near Little Port Walter in Southeast Alaska.
    Near Little Port Walter in Southeast Alaska.

    One scheme for describing the state's geography is by labeling the regions:

    The northeast corner of Alaska is covered by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which covers 19,049,236 acres (77,090 km²). Much of the northwest is covered by the larger National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, which covers around 23,000,000 acres (93,100 km²). The Arctic is Alaska's most remote wilderness. A location in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska is 120 miles (190 km) miles from any town or village, the geographic point most remote from permanent habitation in the USA.

    With its myriad islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of tidal shoreline. The Aleutian Islands chain extends west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians. Unimak Island, for example, is home to Mount Shishaldin which is a moderately active volcano that rises to 9,980 feet (3,042 m) above sea level. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland.

    One of North America's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage - tidal differences can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m). (Many sources say Turnagain has the second-greatest tides in North America, but several areas in Canada have larger tides.[7])

    Alaska has more than 3 million lakes [8][9] 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. The Bering Glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon, Canada, covers 2,250 square miles (5,827 km²) alone.

    The Aleutian Islands cross longitude 180°, so Alaska can be considered the easternmost state as well as the westernmost. Alaska, and especially the Aleutians, are one of the extreme points of the United States. The International Date Line jogs west of 180° to keep the whole state, and thus the entire continental