Northwest Arctic Borough, AK Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
8,070 ft 2,460 m6,050 ft 1,845 m5,040 ft 1,535 m3,030 ft 920 m1,010 ft 305 m0 ft 0 m
Zoom in for contour lines
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- Borough area
- Fades everything outside the official borough boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Northwest Arctic Borough averages about 980 ft (300 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from sea level on Ekichuk Lake to 8,070 ft on Mount Igikpak.
Average elevation
980 ft 300 m
all land inside the borough
Highest
8,070 ft 2,460 m
on Mount Igikpak
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Ekichuk Lake
Northwest Arctic Borough spans about 8,070 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 980 ft300 m |
| Highest point Inside the borough, on Mount Igikpak (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 8,070 ft2,460 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Ekichuk Lake | 0 ft0 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
237 mi west to east through Kotzebue.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Borough in Alaska, United States
- Population
- 7,134 2024 est.
- Land area
- 35,672.3 sq mi + 4,947.5 sq mi water
- Density
- 0.2 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Alaska UTC−9 / −8
- Drains to
- Norton Sound
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring boroughs and census areas sharing a border, by average
- North Slope Borough1,460 ft
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area1,240 ft
- Northwest Arctic Borough980 ft
- Nome Census Area590 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Boroughs and census areas in Alaska18th highest of 26
- Counties in the United States1,440th highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Mount Igikpak8,070 ft
- Oyukak Mountain7,140 ft
- Shulakpachak Peak6,460 ft
- Mount Papiok6,410 ft
- Mount Chitiok6,280 ft
How we measure
- Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census borough boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 8 arc-second (≈810 ft, 247 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −5 ft at 66.0701° N, 162.0399° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
- Nearby Places: neighboring boroughs and census areas and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the borough with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the borough.
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Alaska: much of Alaska's 3DEP comes from airborne radar (IfSAR), good to a few meters.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.