Alaska is located in northwestern North America, separated from the rest of the United States by Canada. At the tip of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska lies only a few miles from the far eastern tip of Russia across the narrow Bering Strait. The southern coast, extending from the Panhandle in the southeast to the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands in the southwest, is made up of numerous inlets and offshore islands. Mountains rise steeply inland. The Yukon flows through Alaska's interior wilderness, the Brooks Range to the north and the Alaska Range to the south.

Name

The name "Alaska" was introduced when the territory was under Russian rule. It comes from word Alaxsxaq (also spelled Alyeska) in the language of the Native Aleuts, who are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands. The word means, literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed”. This refers to the Alaska Peninsula, the “great land”, or “mainland”, as it might also be translated.

Climate

The climate of Alaska, a vast area about one fifth the size of the rest of the United States, varies from one region to another. The climate of south central Alaska (the area around Anchorage) and the southwest is subarctic, with brief, cool summers. Winter temperatures are milder than in areas farther north because of the region's proximity to the ocean. The same is true of the Panhandle in the southeast, which has higher precipitation throughout the year than other regions.

The interior of Alaska, away from the coast, has a continental subarctic climate: very cold winters and short, hot summers. The climate in the extreme north of Alaska is Arctic, with long, very cold winters and short, cool summers. Even in July, the temperatures in Barrow average just 34°F (1°C). Precipitation is low in the north, with many places averaging less than 10 inches (25 cm) per year, mostly as snow.

Economy

In 1968 vast reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered in northern Alaska, a region known as the Alaska North Slope (ANS), near Prudhoe Bay. The reservoir, which contains an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil and 27 trillion cubic feet of gas, is said to be twice as large as any other oil field in North America. The 800-mile (1300-kilometre) Trans-Alaska pipeline, leading from the North Slope to the ice-free port of Valdez opened in 1977, following controversy over its damaging effect on the environment. Since then, the oil and gas industry has dominated the Alaskan economy, although production has recently fallen behind that of Texas, North Dakota and California.

Alaska leads the nation in the value of its commercial fishing catch, chiefly salmon, cod, pollock and crab. Anchorage and Dutch Harbor are its major fishing ports. The freezing and canning of fish dominates the food-processing industry. Wood and wood products, furs and tourism are other important industries.

Alaska has very little agriculture, with the best arable land in the Matanuska Valley north of Anchorage and the Tanana Valley around Fairbanks. Greenhouse vegetables, dairy and potatoes are the main products.

Aleutian Islands

More than 300 small volcanic islands make up the Aleutian Island chain, which extends over 1200 miles (1900 km) from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula. The islands divide the Bering Sea to the north from the Pacific Ocean to the south. Some of them fall in the Eastern Hemisphere, but the International Date Line is angled west of 180° to keep the whole state in the same time zone (and the same day). At the extreme western end of the chain are the Commander Islands, which belong to Russia. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians.

Facts about Alaska

Area 570,641 sq miles (1,477,953 sq km)

Highest point Denali (Mount McKinley) 20,321 ft (6194 m)

Population 733,406

Capital Juneau

Largest cities Anchorage, 286,075; Fairbanks, 31,856; Juneau, 31,555

Nickname The Last Frontier

State bird Willow ptarmigan

State flower Forget-me-not

State tree Sitka spruce