Gulf of Alaska

Information about Gulf of Alaska

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Map showing the Gulf of Alaska


The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.

The entire shoreline of the Gulf is a rugged combination of forest, mountain, and a number of tidewater glaciers. Alaska's largest glaciers, the Malaspina Glacier and Bering Glacier spill out onto the coastal plain along the Gulf of Alaska. The coast is also heavily indented, with Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound the two largest connected bodies of water, but also including Yakutat Bay and Cross Sound. Lituya Bay, is the site of the largest recorded tsunami in history, and is a popular sheltered anchorage for fishing boats.

Meteorologically, the Gulf is a great generator of storms. In addition to dumping vast quantities of snow and ice on southern Alaska, resulting in some of the largest concentrations south of the Arctic Circle, many of the storms move south along the coasts of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Much of the seasonal rainfall in the Pacific Northwest comes from the Gulf of Alaska.

Coordinates:
Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean


The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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Alaska

Flag of Alaska Seal
Nickname(s): The Last Frontier
Motto(s): "North to the Future"

Official language(s) None[1]
Spoken language(s) English 85.7%,
Native North American 5.
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Alaska Peninsula is a peninsula extending about 800 km (500 miles) to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. The peninsula separates the Pacific Ocean from Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea.
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Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. It is the largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago and at 8975 km² (3465 square miles) in area is the largest island in Alaska and the
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Alexander Archipelago is a three-hundred-mile-long archipelago, or group of islands, off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean.
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Glacier Bay is a bay in south-eastern Alaska, United States. It runs north northwest to south south-east for about 105 km (65 miles) between two peninsulas of Alaska. It ranges from 5-30 km (3-20 miles) wide.
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Inside Passage of the Alaska Panhandle and coastal British Columbia is a coastal route for oceangoing vessels along a series of passages between the mainland and the coastal islands.
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Malaspina Glacier in southeastern Alaska is the largest piedmont glacier this far south in North America. It is about 65 km (40 mi) wide and 45 km (28 mi) long, with an area of some 3,900 km² (1,500 sq mi).
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Bering Glacier is a glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It currently terminates in Vitus Lake south of Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, about 10 km (6 mi) from the Gulf of Alaska.
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Cook Inlet or Nuti is a large estuary stretching 180 miles from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska.[1] It separates the Kenai Peninsula from mainland Alaska and branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm
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Prince William Sound is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
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Yakutat Bay is a 29-km-wide (18 mi) bay in the U.S. state of Alaska, extending southwest from Disenchantment Bay to the Gulf of Alaska.

"Yakutat" is a Tlingit name reported as "Jacootat" and "Yacootat" by Yuri Lisianski in 1805.
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Cross Sound is a passage in the Alexander Archipelago in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Alaska, located between Chichagof Island to its south and the mainland to its north. It is 48 km (30 miles) long and extends from the Gulf of Alaska to Icy Strait.
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Lituya Bay is a fjord located at in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is 14.5 km (9 mi) long and 3.2 km (2 mi) wide at its widest point.
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tsunami (IPA: /(t)sʊˈnɑːmi/) is a series of waves created when a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced.
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storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by strong wind, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation, such as ice (ice storm), or wind transporting
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Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It is the parallel of latitude that (as of 2000) runs 66° 33′ 39″ (or 66.56083°) north of the Equator.
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British Columbia
Colombie-Britannique

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour Without Sunset (diminishment))

Capital Victoria
Largest city Vancouver
Official languages English
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State of Oregon

Flag of Oregon (front) Seal
Nickname(s): Beaver State
Motto(s): Alis volat propriis

Official language(s) (none)[1]

Capital Salem
Largest city Portland

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Pacific Northwest, abbreviated PNW, or PacNW is a region in the northwest of North America. There are several partially overlapping definitions but the term Pacific Northwest should not be confused with the Northwest Territory (aka the Great Northwest) or the
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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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