Kuparuk River


The Kuparuk River is a river in Alaska's North Slope that enters a bay on the Beaufort Sea between Beechey Point and Prudhoe Bay. The north-flowing river is about long, and its delta is about wide. Its Eskimo name appeared on a map drawn in 1901 by a prospector who spelled it Koopowra, which he translated as Big River.
Kuparuk Mound, a pingo about southeast of Beechey Point, is named after the river. Arctic explorer Ernest de Koven Leffingwell named the mound, which he used as a triangulation station in 1911.
The Kuparuk River oil field, the second largest oil field in North America, is centered about west of Prudhoe Bay. Discovered in 1969, it covers about.