Mackenzie Mountains
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The Keele Peak in the Mackenzie Mountains
The Mackenzie Mountains are a mountain range in northwestern Canada.
Topography
The Mackenzie Mountains extend for about 950 km in north-south direction and about 800 km in east-west direction between the Liard River and the Peel River. Adjacent Mountains are the Franklin Mountains beyond the Mackenzie River to the east and the Selwyn Mountains to the west.
The Mackenzies form the border between the Northwest Territories, which comprise over 60 % of the Mountains and the Yukon Territory, located in the approximately 35 % of the mountain. About 4% are in British Columbia. The Nahanni National Park is located in the south of the Mackenzie Mountains.
The highest mountain in the Mackenzie is the 2972 m high Keele Peak, the second highest in the Mount Sir James MacBrien with 2762 m. With the Nahanni Range Road to Tungsten and the Canol Road to Macmillan Pass there are only two roads that lead into the sparsely populated mountains, both from the Yukon.
Geology
The Mackenzie Mountains are composed mainly of Proterozoic, Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks, mainly limestone and siliciclastic. In addition, shale, sand and siltstone and carbonate sediments found from the Cretaceous.
The present morphology of the mountain is due by the Mische Lara orogeny between Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene.
The mountain range contains about 55 % of known world reserves of tungsten. The mining town of Tungsten with the Cantung mine is located in the Mackenzie Mountains.
Climate and vegetation
The climate in the Mackenzie is characterized by relatively mild summers and cold winters ( to below -50 ° C). The eastern slopes of the Mackenzie Mountains include with annual rainfall up to 750 mm with the wettest areas in the Yukon Territory. The Mackenzie Mountains form a weather divide between the Pacific air masses dominated by Southwest and the Northeast, which is strongly influenced by the Beaufort Sea.
The vegetation of the Mackenzie Mountains is marked in the deeper layers of white spruce and subalpine fir forests at higher elevations follows shrub tundra.