The area I visited in Alaska was Fairbanks, just outside of Denali National park which is the home of Mount McKinley, or Denali as the native Athabaskans call it.
Mount McKinley was formed by the converging Pacific Plate and North American Plate, the plates are moving by convection to redistribute heat underneath Earth's surface. The Pacific Plate is being subducted underneath the North American Plate; this process pushes up the continental crust of the North American plate and forms mountains, volcanoes, and oceanic trenches.
While in Alaska I didn't know of the Denali fault, but I was informed by lecture that I missed something substantial. The fault snapped in 2002 from tension that had complied on it, causing an earthquake rated to a 7.9 on the Richter scale.
This picture shows a road affected by the fault; this looks like a right lateral strike slip fault even though it isn't the direct site of the Denali fault.
As shown by the previous picture, the faults in this area have the ability to inflict serious damage on the civilization built around them, which is something that the residents have to think about since their homes are along the Ring of Fire. The local economy surrounding Denali national park also owes most of its livelihood to Mount McKinley since most of the tourism brought in is based upon seeing the massive mountain.
Images (in order of appearance) provided by:
Photo taken by Jon Stuck while in Alaska
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1187/images/fig05.jpg
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/geology/features/denalifault.html
Some information on plate tectonics was from:
http://www.nps.gov/dena/naturescience/index.htm
As shown by the previous picture, the faults in this area have the ability to inflict serious damage on the civilization built around them, which is something that the residents have to think about since their homes are along the Ring of Fire. The local economy surrounding Denali national park also owes most of its livelihood to Mount McKinley since most of the tourism brought in is based upon seeing the massive mountain.
Images (in order of appearance) provided by:
Photo taken by Jon Stuck while in Alaska
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1187/images/fig05.jpg
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/geology/features/denalifault.html
Some information on plate tectonics was from:
http://www.nps.gov/dena/naturescience/index.htm
