A New Identity for Denali

Physically, not too much has changed on Denali, North America’s highest peak. What did change in 2015 is how people describe and measure Alaska’s majestic mountain.
On August 30, 2015, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced that the mountain’s official name would be Denali, not Mount McKinley. Restoration of the traditional Koyukon Athabascan name of Denali, which means “the tall one,” resolved a request by former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond that dates back to 1975.

But the mountain’s name was not the only change. On September 2, its elevation was also revised. The U.S. Geological Survey announced that Denali’s summit had a new, official elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 meters)—10 feet shorter than surveyors had determined in the 1950s. The mountain has not shrunk. Instead, technology has improved.

The images on this page offer two views of Denali as observed on June 15, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. The natural-color Landsat 8 images were draped over an ASTER-derived Global Digital Elevation Model, which helps show the topography of the area.

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