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LiveScience
LiveScience
Stephanie Pappas

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

Snow-capped Denali with clouds and flowers in foreground.

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.

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