Denali Gets a Height Reduction from the USGS

Denali, North America’s largest peak, is not quite as tall as common wisdom holds it to be.  That news, according to a press release from Lieutenant-Governor Mead Treadwell’s office, comes from the Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative.  The multi-million dollar project has resulted in over 400 new USGS topographical maps of Alaska.  The new maps are an update to data that is five-decades old, according to Lieutenant-Governor Treadwell and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

According to the new data, Denali is not 20,320 feet tall, as is commonly believed.  The new measurements show that the mountain is, in fact, 20,237 feet tall.  The eighty-three foot height reduction is not enough to remove Denali from its status as the tallest mountain on the continent.

The National Park Service estimates that Denali grows a millimeter per year, so it should reach the old estimate of 20,320 in about 36,000 years.