Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Aug 7, 2026

Mackenzie Mountains

The Mackenzie Mountains are a Canadian mountain range forming part of the Yukon–Northwest Territories boundary between the Liard and Peel rivers. The range is named in honour of Canada's second prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie. Nahanni National Park Reserve and Nááts'ihch'oh National Park Reserve are in the Mackenzie Mountains.

Last revised
Aug 7, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
706 w
Citations
6
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Mackenzie Mountains
Keele Peak, 2005
Highest point
PeakKeele Peak
Elevation2,952 m (9,685 ft)
Coordinates63°25′53″N 130°19′26″W / 63.43139°N 130.32389°W / 63.43139; -130.32389
Geography
[[File:|272px|Mackenzie Mountains is located in Northwest Territories|class=notpageimage noviewer]]
Mackenzie Mountains
Location within Northwest Territories
Show map of Northwest Territories
[[File:|272px|Mackenzie Mountains is located in Yukon|class=notpageimage noviewer]]
Mackenzie Mountains
Location within Yukon
Show map of Yukon
Mackenzie Mountains
Location within Canada
Show map of Canada
Country
Canada
Territories
  • Yukon
  • Northwest Territories
Range coordinates
64°19′10″N 131°25′28″W / 64.3194444°N 131.4244444°W / 64.3194444; -131.42444441

The Mackenzie Mountains are a Canadian mountain range forming part of the Yukon–Northwest Territories boundary between the Liard and Peel rivers. The range is named in honour of Canada's second prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie.2 Nahanni National Park Reserve and Nááts'ihch'oh National Park Reserve are in the Mackenzie Mountains.

The mining town of Tungsten, site of the Cantung Mine, is in the Mackenzie Mountains. Only two roads lead into the Mackenzie Mountains, both in Yukon: the Nahanni Range Road leading to the townsite of Tungsten and the Canol Road leading to the Macmillan Pass.

The highest mountain in this range is Keele Peak at 2,952 m (9,685 ft), in Yukon. The second-highest mountain is Mount Nirvana. It is, at 2,773 m (9,098 ft), the highest mountain in the Northwest Territories.

The Silurian fish family Archipelepididae has been described from specimens found in the Mackenzie Mountains.3

What most distinguishes the Mackenzie Mountains from a geological standpoint is their anomalous tectonic setting. The range lies approximately 700 km east of the nearest plate boundary, yet it is actively uplifting and generating earthquakes today — a behaviour unexpected so deep within the interior of a continent.4 There is currently no scientific consensus explaining how or why the range formed and continues to grow at such a distance from a plate boundary.5 Geophysical evidence suggests the uplift may be linked to the collision of the Yakutat terrane with Alaska, transmitting stress through weak lower crust hundreds of kilometres into the continent's interior, though this hypothesis remains under investigation.6

  • Topographic map of the Alaska Panhandle with Mackenzie Mountains circled in red
    Topographic map of the Alaska Panhandle with Mackenzie Mountains circled in red
References

References

  1. "Mackenzie Mountains". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  2. Mackenzie Mountains
  3. Soehn, K. L.; Märss, T.; Caldwell, M. W.; Wilson, M. V. H. (2001). "New and biostratigraphically useful thelodonts from the Silurian of the Mackenzie Mountains". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21. Northwest Territories, Canada: 651–659. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0651:NABUTF]2.0.CO;2.
  4. Schutt, Derek L.; et al. (2023). "Lithospheric S Wave Velocity Variations Beneath the Mackenzie Mountains and Northern Canadian Cordillera". Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. doi:10.1029/2022JB025517.
  5. "Mackenzie Mountain Project". Colorado State University Warner College of Natural Resources. 2017.
  6. Klein, Kerry (Winter 2016). "Mackenzie Mountains Mystery: New EarthScope Project Peers Underneath an Unlikely Mountain Range". EarthScope.
Further reading

Further reading

  • Aitken, J. D. (1991). The Ice Brook Formation and post-Rapitan, Late Proterozoic glaciation, Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories. [Ottawa]: Energy, Mines and Resources Canada. ISBN 0-660-13838-7
  • EXCELeration Corp. (2000). Benefits of outfitted hunting in the NWT Mackenzie mountains. Calgary: EXCELeration Corp.
  • Hanke, G. F., Wilson, M. V., & Lindoe, L. A. (2001). New species of Silurian acanthodians from the Mackenzie Mountains, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 38 (11), 1517.
  • James, N., Narbonne, G., & Kyser, T. (2001). Late Neoproterozoic cap carbonates: Mackenzie Mountains, northwestern Canada: precipitation and global glacial meltdown. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 38, 1229–1262.
  • Keele, J. (1910). A reconnaissance across the Mackenzie mountains on the Pelly, Ross, and Gravel rivers, Yukon, and North West territories. Ottawa: Government printing bureau.
  • Latour, Paul B. A Survey of Dall's Sheep in Zone E/1-1, Northern Mackenzie Mountains. Norman Wells, NWT: Dept. of Renewable Resources, Govt. of the Northwest Territories, 1992.
  • Miller, S. J., Barichello, N., & Tait, D. E. N. (1982). The grizzly bears of the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, N.W.T.: N.W.T. Wildlife Service.
  • Morrow, D. W., & Cook, D. G. (1987). The Prairie Creek Embayment and Lower Paleozoic strata of the southern Mackenzie Mountains. Ottawa, Canada: Energy, Mines and Resources Canada. ISBN 0-660-12516-1
  • Porsild, A. E. (1940). The Alpine flora of the east slope of Mackenzie mountains, Northwest territories. Ottawa: E. Cloutier, Printer to the King.
External links