Volcano Information

    Mount Baker
    Volcanic Alert Level: NORMAL Aviation Color Code: GREEN

    • Status: Mount Baker is monitored by the Cascade Volcano Observatory and is at a background level of activity.
    • Volcanic History Overview: Mount Baker, the northernmost of Washington's volcanoes, is a 3285-m-high glacier-clad andesitic stratovolcano constructed above the east flank of the eroded mid-Pleistocene Black Buttes volcano and SW of the early Pleistocene 4.5 x 8 km rhyodacitic Kulshan caldera. With the exception of the Schreibers Meadow cinder cone on the SE flank, which formed about 9800 years ago, Holocene volcanism has been confined to the central conduit. A major magmatic eruption at Mount Baker about 6500 years ago was the largest eruptive event at the volcano during the Holocene and was accompanied by a major collapse event that produced a lahar that reached Bellingham Bay. Mount Baker was observed in eruption by the crew of a Spanish exploring vessel in 1792. Early settlers in the Puget Sound region as far away as Victoria, British Columbia observed 19th-century activity, all of which consisted of relatively minor phreatic eruptions. Sherman Crater, the historically active crater immediately south of the summit, has been the site of increased steam emission since 1975.
    • Location: Western US, WA

      Latitude: 48.777
      Longitude: -121.813
      Elevation: 3285 m

      Recent Eruption: Historical
    • Hazard Assessments: Gardner, et.al., 1995, Potential Volcanic Hazards from Future Activity at Mount Baker, Washington, USGS Open-File Report 95-498.
    • Link to monitoring data: The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network