The Arctic region is home to vast and rugged mountain systems. These mountains are distinct from their temperate counterparts, sculpted by extreme cold, ancient geological processes, and heavy glaciation. This environment shapes the landscape into some of the most remote and dramatic terrain on Earth.
Where Arctic Mountains Are Located
Arctic mountain ranges are distributed across the northern edges of North America and Eurasia, as well as the major islands of the high north. In North America, the Brooks Range spans over 1,100 kilometers across northern Alaska and the Yukon Territory, forming an arc that separates the Arctic Slope from the interior. Further east, the Arctic Cordillera extends along the eastern edge of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, covering Baffin Island, Devon Island, and much of Ellesmere Island. The highest peak in eastern North America, Barbeau Peak, is found within the Arctic Cordillera on Ellesmere Island, reaching an elevation of 2,616 meters.
The mountains of Greenland also form part of this extensive system, creating a rugged rim around the massive inland ice sheet. Across the Atlantic, parts of the Scandinavian Mountains, known locally as the Scandes, stretch into the Arctic Circle in northern Norway and Sweden. The northernmost section of this range includes glaciated peaks that rise to over 2,000 meters. Other significant Arctic mountain systems include the Ural Mountains in Russia, which run north-south and have their northern terminus near the Arctic coast.
How Arctic Mountain Ranges Formed
The origins of these Arctic mountains are rooted in ancient tectonic plate activity, often resulting from continental collision and uplift. The Brooks Range, for example, is a Mesozoic fold and thrust belt that formed roughly 145 million years ago during the collision and convergence of the continental Arctic Alaska terrane with oceanic terranes. This process created complex layers of folded and faulted sedimentary rock, including vast amounts of limestone that were once on the ocean floor.
In contrast, the Scandinavian Mountains are largely composed of rocks formed during the Caledonian Orogeny, a major mountain-building event occurring about 400 million years ago. These ancient rocks, which include granite and gneiss, were subsequently eroded into a relatively flat landmass. The mountains seen today were uplifted much later, about 50 to 66 million years ago, due to tectonic stresses that caused the lithosphere to fold and rise. The Arctic Cordillera also displays evidence of multiple ancient orogenic events, resulting in a system of heavily dissected and glaciated crystalline rock formations.
Features of Arctic Mountain Environments
The extreme cold of the Arctic dictates the unique physical features of these mountain environments, with permafrost and glaciation acting as powerful sculpting agents. Continuous permafrost, ground that remains permanently frozen for at least two years, underlies much of the Arctic mountain terrain. This frozen ground affects drainage, leading to the formation of shallow lakes and causing the seasonal thawing of the surface layer to flow slowly downslope, a process known as solifluction.
Glaciation has profoundly shaped the appearance of these ranges, carving sharp, angular peaks and deep, U-shaped valleys through erosion. On the coastlines of Greenland, Svalbard, and the Arctic Cordillera, these glacial valleys have been flooded by the sea, creating the dramatic, steep-sided inlets known as fiords.
Where the bedrock is exposed, frost action breaks up the rock into angular fragments, leaving behind a “sea of rock” or Felsenmeer covering the uplands. Vegetation is limited by the treeline, which is absent in the high Arctic, meaning the mountains are characterized by bare rock, permanent ice caps, and low-lying tundra plants.