Canada's Mount Logan is growing!

Mount Logan, Canada's tallest mountain, on the Yukon-Alaska border, view from the southwest. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Canada's tallest mountain had a growth spurt in the past 15 years, and this majestic mountain may still be growing, according to an aerial survey of the ice-covered Mount Logan on the Yukon-Alaska border.

The University of Alaska aerial survey, conducted with a laser altimeter by Fairbanks-based geoscientist Sandy Zirnheld pegged Canada's highest point at 5,966 metres (19,574 feet), which is seven metres (23 feet) higher than the official height of 5,959 metres (19,551 feet) determined in 1992 after a celebrated climb to the top by a Canadian team of researchers led by Mike Schmidt of the Geological Survey of Canada. The new Zirnheld measurement prompted a second aerial reading with the same result of 5,966 metres.

This variation (in height) could be the result of errors in surveying, a thickening snow pack or tectonic uplift, according to the team's research article on the University's website.

Chris Larsen, lead scientist on the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute research on the continent's northwest mountain ranges, said "snow and ice accumulation is the most likely explanation," speculating that warmer, wetter weather linked to global warming has resulted in higher than average snowfalls on mountaintops in the area. He said, "That could be what's going on with Alaska, and the high peaks would be a perfect place to measure it."

Larsen added that "it is very unlikely that the difference of seven metres is due to a difference in the accuracy of the two surveys" and geological pressures "could explain--at most--5 to 10 millimetres per year."

Mount Logan is Canada's highest peak as well as the world's "largest" mountain because of its 20-kilometre (12.5-mile) long plateau and massive footprint in the St. Elias-Wrangell mountain range.

Mount Logan was named for the 19th-century scientist William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada. Mount Logan is the landmark centrepiece of Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. The mountain's true height has been debated for almost a century, since it was first surveyed in 1913.


Official Parks Canada link for Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada

Official Parks Canada link to Archives article "Conquering Mount Logan"

» Sources: Agence France-Presse and Canwest News Service