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Data release for the Geologic Map of the Denali Park Road Corridor, Denali National Park, Alaska

Metadata Updated: October 29, 2023

Denali National Park and Preserve (DENA), located in central Alaska, is home to iconic and dynamic landscapes surrounding the tallest mountain range in North America, the Alaska Range. DENA preserves over 6 million acres of wild land that provides opportunities for recreation, subsistence hunting and gathering, preservation of cultural resources, and scientific research. Despite its size and popularity, DENA has only one road—the dead-end, 92-mile Denali National Park Road (hereafter referred to as the Park Road). The Park Road is mostly gravel; only the first 15 miles are paved. It is the only access for most DENA infrastructure, including visitor centers, staff facilities, campgrounds, and businesses. The Park Road crosses a steep, constantly changing landscape, shaped by actively deforming and uplifted bedrock, glacier and meltwater erosion, and various permafrost processes. Geologic hazards (geohazards) such as rockfall, debris flows, and landslides cause significant damage to the Park Road every year, requiring periodic closure, and costing millions of dollars in repair and maintenance. For the first time in the park’s history, the Park Road is closed near its midpoint for an entire season due to displacement caused by the Pretty Rocks rock glacier and landslide complex. In addition, DENA is situated along a major fault system and experiences numerous earthquakes every year. Most are too weak to be felt, but a 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook the region in 2002, and at least one major landslide, which formed Bergh Lake along the Park Road corridor, was caused by seismic shaking in 1953. In response to the threat posed by geohazards, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Park Service (NPS) have partnered to produce a new, high-resolution geologic map to help identify basin sediments and bedrock geology, active faults, unstable slopes, and hazardous geologic substrates along the Park Road corridor and other areas that contain administrative infrastructure. This new geologic map augments previous broad scale, bedrock-focused maps and uses detailed, updated imagery and elevation data to provide a digital framework for future research, hazard identification, and infrastructural development.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2023
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/2a2a23b3e77e899f50992cb3c59ca101
Identifier USGS:63a1fe97d34e0de3a1f27d0a
Data Last Modified 20230206
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id da1782c3-5fbf-4c98-a8c9-a0951f5fed06
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -151.1034,63.3713,-148.846,63.7768
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0b97a97bc60a9a3e66fdc1eff7a37049d7d549076cd014520fafc91fd3562072
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -151.1034, 63.3713, -151.1034, 63.7768, -148.846, 63.7768, -148.846, 63.3713, -151.1034, 63.3713}

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