Kadleroshilik Pingo facts for kids

Kadleroshilik Pingo (also called Kadleroshilik Mound) is a special kind of hill found in Alaska, USA. It's located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of a place called Prudhoe Bay. This amazing hill is known for being the tallest pingo in the entire world!

What is a Pingo?

A pingo is a unique hill that grows in very cold places, like the Arctic. It's formed when a large core of ice pushes up the ground above it. Imagine a giant ice cube slowly lifting the earth into a mound. That's how a pingo forms over many, many years.

Kadleroshilik Pingo stands about 54 meters (178 feet) tall. This makes it the highest pingo ever discovered. It rises high above the flat land around it, which used to be a lake.

How Was Kadleroshilik Pingo Discovered?

People first learned about Kadleroshilik Pingo a long time ago. In 1911, an explorer named Ernest de Koven Leffingwell visited the area. He was exploring the northern parts of Alaska.

Leffingwell wrote about the pingo in a book published in 1919. He used the local name for the mound, which comes from the Iñupiaq language. This name might mean "possesses something on top" or "which seems to approach." Leffingwell also named the nearby Kadleroshilik River after this impressive mound.

Why is Kadleroshilik Pingo Important to Science?

Kadleroshilik Pingo is very important for scientists who study the Arctic. In the 1980s, a scientist named Marilyn Drew Walker studied pingos in Alaska. She chose Kadleroshilik Pingo as one of her main study sites.

She picked this pingo specifically because of its amazing size. Its height and unique features made it perfect for her research. Marilyn Drew Walker collected many plant samples from the pingo. These plant samples are now kept at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. They help scientists learn more about the plants that grow on pingos.