With its myriad islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles of tidal shoreline. The Aleutian Islands chain extends west from the southern tip
of the Alaska Peninsula. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians. Unimak Island, for example, is home to Mount Shishaldin,
which is an occasionally smoldering volcano that rises to 10,000 feet above the North Pacific. It is the most perfect volcanic
cone on Earth, even more symmetrical than Japan's Mount Fuji. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland. Alaska has more volcanoes than any other state.[10] Geologists have identified Alaska as part of Wrangellia, a large region consisting of multiple states and Canadian provinces in the Pacific Northwest which is actively undergoing continent building.
One of the world's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage - tidal differences can be more than 35 feet.
(Many sources say Turnagain has the second-greatest tides in North America, but several areas in Canada have larger tides.)
Alaska has more than three million lakes. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles,
(mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Glacier ice covers some 16,000 square miles of land and 1,200 square miles
of tidal zone. The Bering Glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon covers 2,250 square miles alone.
With over 100,000 of them, Alaska has half of the world's glaciers.
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