North Slope
The North Slope is a region in the US state of Alaska with an area of 230,500 km². Much of the region is in the North Slope Borough . It is limited by the northern slopes of the Brooks range in the south and the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea , marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean , in the north.
The National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A) with the oil field in Prudhoe Bay is located in the region. The extracted oil is transported south with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline . The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge , the northernmost nature reserve in the USA, is located in the coastal plain of the North Slope. The Dalton Highway is the only road link into the region.
Only the top layers of the North Slope tundra thaw in summer. On this permafrost soil , rainwater and meltwater flow in broad, shallow streams to the sea or form large ponds and lakes. North of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, the tree line sinks to sea level, so the North Slope is tree-free. Tundra swans , arctic terns , hawk skuas , plush head ducks and snowy owls nest on the slopes of the Brook Range . The two largest herds of caribou in Alaska, the “Western Arctic” with up to 400,000 animals and the “Porcupine” with around 160,000 animals, wander through the North Slope.
The North Slope has a polar climate . The arctic air masses built up by the Brooks chain and the low annual energy irradiation caused by the shallow angle of irradiation do not allow the average temperature in the warmest month of July to rise above 10 ° C. However, the long phases of sunshine in summer are sufficient to create an ice-free belt on the Arctic coast. The amount of precipitation is around 120 mm per year, comparable to that in desert regions.
literature
- Geographic Society, Alaska; Rennick, Penny: North Slope Now (Alaska Geographic) . Alaska Geographic Society, Anchorage (Alaska) 1989, ISBN 0-88240-189-0 (English).
