Overview of Novasolan Biogeography

 

At roughly 494,586 square miles, Novasola is the world’s second largest island, behind Greenland, and almost the size of Alaska. It is located in the north Pacific Ocean, roughly 450 miles southwest of Kodiak Island in Alaska or 255 miles south of Unimak Island in the Aleutians and 1400 miles north of Hawaii. It sits between the latitudes of 52°N and 38°N, and longitudinally between 145°W and 167°W at about 990 miles across. It is bordered by the Ricci Strait to the north, the Gulf of Alaska to the east, and otherwise surrounded by vast ocean.

General outline of Novasola overlayed atop the continental US, for scale.

Plate tectonics of Pacific Ocean. Novasolan and Alaskan plates meet and form Novasola's central mountain range. They, along with Juan de Fuca Plate, are all that remains of the ancient Farallon plate.

Novasola sits atop two tectonic plates, specifically the Novasolan and Alaskan plates. The collision of these two plates formed Novasola’s central mountain range and prairie, forming one large landmass connecting two major island chains on either side of the fault. It is theorized by most scientists that the Novasolan and Alaskan Plates were both originally part of the larger Farallon Plate which has since mostly subducted under North America. According to this theory, the Morning Mountains were originally formed by hotspot volcanic activity in the pacific ocean that created a chain of islands on the Farallon tectonic plate during the late Jurassic period, sometime between 160-145 million years ago. The Angelics were also formed as a chain of pacific islands. Eventually the newly forming Pacific plate began pushing the Farallon plate eastwards and as a result the Farallon plate broke into smaller plates, including the Alaska plate, which included the islands that would eventually become the Morning Mountains, and the Novasola plate, which included what would become the Angelic Mountains. As the two plates were pushed east into the North American plate, the island chains moved with them. When the Alaska plate collided with the North American plate it began to subduct under the North American plate, but at a slower rate than the Novasola plate was pushing it. As a result, the Novasola and Alaska plates collided and formed the Paramounts during the Cretaceous period. The uplift associated with this collision and the Paramount formation raised both the Morning and Angelic islands, connecting all three and creating what is now Novasola.    

There are three major mountain chains on the island: an eastern chain of mountain ranges collectively called the Morning Mountains, the tallest of which reaches about 9,100 feet, a western chain called the Angelics which peaks at 7,700 feet, and the interior chain, called the Paramounts, where most of Novasola’s tallest mountains can be found, maxing at 15,855 feet. This interior chain forms a line from north to south which divides Novasola into two major climatic systems and watersheds. This line is called the Novasolan Mountain Divide, and often this term, or just "divide", is used when discussing east/west direction. Warm ocean currents pass south and east of Novasola, while the north and west sides face colder northern currents. Novasola is constantly battered by westerly winds which dump rain over Novasola’s western half as they meet the mountains, resulting in a cold and wet climate of mostly temperate rainforest and taiga. East of the divide the island is warmer and mostly dry, with grasslands, shrublands, and mixed conifer and deciduous forests. High elevations see alpine climates of tundra. The island is steep, with many fast-flowing rivers which create gorges, canyons, and wetlands. Novasola has many glaciers, though most are receding quickly, mostly located in the central mountain ranges and along the north coast.

Isolated from any mainland, Novasola is home to many unique organisms and endemic life. Many species on the island show strong genetic relationships with both North American and Asian species, perhaps unsurprising given its location between North America and northern Asia, specifically Siberia, Korea, and Japan. It is now generally accepted that Novasola was connected via land-bridges to Alaska and Russia during the last major ice age 20,000 years ago, which may have allowed many groups of flora and fauna, possibly including humans, to colonize the island.  

Though most species on Novasola are closely related to others from mainland North America, many species are more closely related to Asian groups, like this pheasant.