[Rockhounds] There's a massive fault hidden under America's highest mountain — and we finally know how it formed News

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

We finally know how a fault that gave rise to Denali, North America's
highest mountain, first formed.

According to new research, the Denali Fault is actually an ancient suture
mark where two land masses once joined together. Between 72 million and 56
million years ago, an oceanic plate called the Wrangellia Composite Terrane
bumped into the western edge of North America and stuck there.

"Our understanding of lithospheric growth, or plate growth, along the
western margin in North America is becoming clearer," *Sean Regan*
<https://www.uaf.edu/geosciences/our-team/faculty.php>, a geoscientist at
the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the lead author of a paper
published in October in the journal *Geology*
<https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/52/12/933/649182/Orogen-scale-inverted-metamorphism-during?redirectedFrom=fulltext>
detailing
the fault's history, said in a *statement*
<https://www.uaf.edu/news/denali-fault-tore-apart-ancient-joining-of-two-landmasses%20.php>
.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/theres-a-massive-fault-hidden-under-americas-highest-mountain-and-we-finally-know-how-it-formed