This article is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Larry Gedney and T. Neil Davis are seismologists with the Institute. View of the Tanana Valley from the south.
Drainage pattern suggests that area is being tilted to the north.
Just the fact that the Tanana River hugs the north side of its broad valley is a hint that something peculiar is going on. Add to that the observation that trees on the north side of the valley, in the Minto Flats show signs of drowning and one has the strong suggestion that the Tanana Valley is slowly tipping northward. Additional suggestion that the whole valley, and even the Alaska Range to the south, is tipping northward comes from the strange paths followed by the Nenana and Delta Rivers. Rivers are supposed to head in the summit valleys of mountain ranges and not cut across the mountains as these two rivers do. By rights, the summit near the head of the Delta River should be in the heart of the Alaska Range.