ANCHORAGE, Alaska — North America’s tallest mountain doesn’t just have a new name. It also has a new elevation.
Denali, the Alaska mountain formerly known Mount McKinley, is now officially 10 feet shorter, measuring 20,310 feet at its highest point, the U.S. Geological Survey announced Wednesday.
The previous measurement of 20,320 feet stemmed from a 1953 survey that used the technology of the time, officials said. The new elevation is the result of data collected from the mountain by climbers in June using technology that didn’t exist in the earlier survey, such as GPS instruments.
The change is part of an ongoing USGS program to update elevations in Alaska and elsewhere.
The agency has a program that uses radar to collect more elevations over large areas in Alaska, but the Denali survey was unusual because it involved actual ground measurements, said Kari Craun, director of the USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center.
“It’s a very visible and important point for North America,” she said.
