This project addresses the uplift of the central Alaska Range using apatite fission track analysis. The sampling strategy is to collect one vertical profile, over 4000m in extent off the McKinley massif, as well as samples on a north-south traverse across the width of the central Alaska Range, placing particular emphasis on sampling across the McKinley segment of the Denali fault system that bounds the central Alaska Range to the north. Apatite will be separated and processed for counting by the external detector method in the fission track dating laboratory at Arizona State University. Track length studies will also be performed. The project will determine the time of initiation of uplift, uplift rates, and whether more than one period of uplift has occurred. The central Alaska Range lies at the apex of a mega-arc that stretches across Alaska and British Columbia. It lies south of the Denali fault system where estimates of vertical offset remain unconstrained. A sampling transect across this fault system will determine vertical offsets across the various strands and will place the uplift history of the central Alaska Range in context with the tectonic development of southern Alaska.
