DESCRIPTION:
Mount Baker Volcano, Washington

Baker01_mount_baker_washington_03-21-01.jpg
Mount Baker, Washington.
USGS Photograph taken March 21, 2001, by Ken McGee.
[medium size] ... [large size]

Mount Baker Volcano

Location: Washington State

Latitude: 48.786 N

Longitude: 121.82 W

Height: 3,285 Meters (10,778 Feet)

Type: Stratovolcano

Number of eruptions in past 200 years: 1 (?) ²

Latest Eruptions: 1820(?); 1843; 1846; 1853-54; 1858; 1859-60; 1863; 1870 ³

Present thermal activity: Steaming fumaroles at flank and crater locations.

Remarks: Increased heat output and minor melting of summit glacier in 1975; some debris flows not related to eruption. History of extensive pyroclastic flows ² ... Heat emission increased markedly in crater area in 1975 and produced warm, acidic meltwater and effusive emissions of steam containing occasional traces of ash and sulfur dust. Activity had diminished somewhat by 1978 ³.

Mount Baker (3,285 meters; 10,778 feet) is an ice-clad volcano in the North Cascades of Washington State about 50 kilometers (31 miles) due east of the city of Bellingham. After Mount Rainier, it is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade volcanoes: the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker (about 1.8 cubic kilometers; 0.43 cubic miles) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. Isolated ridges of lava and hydrothermally altered rock, especially in the area of Sherman Crater, are exposed between glaciers on the upper flanks of the volcano: the lower flanks are steep and heavily vegetated. The volcano rests on a foundation of non-volcanic rocks in a region that is largely non-volcanic in origin.

Mount Baker is approximately 50 kilometers east of Bellingham, Washington. The best view of the mountain is from the Glacier Creek Road off of Highway 542. A 10-kilometer hike, taking off from Dead Horse Road (No.3907) affords closer views of Baker's north side. On the south side of the mountain Forest Service Road 372, taking off from Baker Lake Road, ends near the Schreibers Meadow cinder cone.

Mount Baker is a large stratovolcano in northwestern Washington about 30 kilometers east of Bellingham and 25 kilometers south of the International Boundary. The glacier-covered cone of andesite lava flows and breccias rises 2 kilometers above adjacent mountains carved from a complex of older sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The present cone was formed prior to the last major glaciation (Fraser Glaciation), which occurred between about 25,000 and 10,000 years ago, and probably is considerably older. The cone overlaps rocks of an earlier eruptive center from which two radiometric dates of about 400,000 years have been obtained. ...

In 1791, the renowned British explorer George Vancouver left England. His mission was to survey the northwest coast of America. After sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and wintering in the Hawaiian Islands, Vancouver and his crew reached the Pacific Northwest coast in 1792. While anchored in Dungeness Bay on the south shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, third lieutenant Joseph Baker made an observation which Vancouver recorded in his journal:

"About this time a very high conspicuous craggy mountain ... presented itself, towering above the clouds: as low down as they allowed it to be visible it was covered with snow; and south of it, was a long ridge of very rugged snowy mountains, much less elevated, which seemed to stretch to a considerable distance ... the high distant land formed, as already observed, like detached islands, amongst which the lofty mountain, discovered in the afternoon by the third lieutenant, and in compliment to him called by me Mount Baker, rose a very conspicuous object ... apparently at a very remote distance."

The Spanish were the first to record Mount Baker's existence although they, quite possibly, were not the first whites to see the mountain. In 1790, Ensign Manuel Quimper of the Spanish Navy set sail from Nootka, a temporary settlement on Vancouver Island, with orders to explore the newly discovered Strait of Juan de Fuca. Accompanying Quimper was first-pilot Gonzalo Lopez de Haro who drew detailed charts during the six-week expedition. Although Quimper's written journal of the voyage makes no reference to the mountain, one of Haro's manuscript charts includes a sketch of a prominent peak in the area of Mount Baker.

One year later, in 1791, the renowned British explorer George Vancouver left England. His mission was to survey the northwest coast of America. After sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and wintering in the Hawaiian Islands, Vancouver and his crew reached the Pacific Northwest coast in 1792. While anchored in Dungeness Bay on the south shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, third lieutenant Joseph Baker made an observation which Vancouver recorded in his journal:

"About this time a very high conspicuous craggy mountain ... presented itself, towering above the clouds: as low down as they allowed it to be visible it was covered with snow; and south of it, was a long ridge of very rugged snowy mountains, much less elevated, which seemed to stretch to a considerable distance ... the high distant land formed, as already observed, like detached islands, amongst which the lofty mountain, discovered in the afternoon by the third lieutenant, and in compliment to him called by me Mount Baker, rose a very conspicuous object ... apparently at a very remote distance."

Six years later the official narrative of this voyage was published, including the first printed reference to the mountain.

By the mid-1850s, Mount Baker had become a well-known feature on the horizon to the various explorers and fur traders traveling in the Puget Sound region. Isaac I. Stevens, the first governor of Washington Territory, wrote about Mount Baker in 1853:

"Mount Baker ... is one of the loftiest and most conspicuous peaks of the northern Cascade range; it is nearly as high as Mount Rainier, and like that mountain, its snow-covered pyramid has the form of a sugar-loaf. It is visible from all the water and islands ... [in Puget Sound] and from the whole southeastern part of the Gulf of Georgia, and likewise from the eastern division of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is for this region a natural and important landmark ..."

Mount Baker (3,285 meters; 10,778 feet) is an ice-clad volcano in the North Cascades of Washington State about 50 kilometers (31 miles) due east of the city of Bellingham. After Mount Rainier, it is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade volcanoes: the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker (about 1.8 cubic kilometers; 0.43 cubic miles) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. Isolated ridges of lava and hydrothermally altered rock, especially in the area of Sherman Crater, are exposed between glaciers on the upper flanks of the volcano: the lower flanks are steep and heavily vegetated. The volcano rests on a foundation of non-volcanic rocks in a region that is largely non-volcanic in origin.

The present-day cone is relatively young, perhaps less than 30,000 years old, but it sits atop a similar older volcanic cone called Black Buttes volcano which was active between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. Much of Mount Baker's earlier geologic record was eroded away during the last ice age (which culminated 15,000- 20,000 years ago), by thick ice sheets that filled the valleys and covered much of the region. In the last 14,000 years, the area around the mountain has been largely ice free, but the mountain itself remains heavily mantled with snow and ice.

Deposits which record the last 14,000 years at Mount Baker indicate that Mount Baker has not had highly explosive eruptions like those of Mount St. Helens or Glacier Peak, nor has it erupted frequently. During this time period only four episodes of magmatic eruptive activity can be definitively recognized. Magmatic eruptions have produced tephra, pyroclastic flows, and lava flows from summit vents and from the Schriebers Meadow cinder cone. However, the most destructive and most frequent events at Mount Baker have been debris flows and debris avalanches, many, if not most, of which were not related to magmatic activity but may have been induced by steam emissions, earthquakes, heavy rainfall, or in some other way.

Historical activity at Mount Baker includes several explosions during the mid-19th century, which were witnessed from the Bellingham area, and since the late 1950s, numerous small-volume debris avalanches. In 1975, increased fumarolic activity in the Sherman Crater area caused concern that an eruption might be imminent. Additional monitoring equipment was installed and several geophysical surveys were conducted to try to detect the movement of magma. The level of Baker Lake was lowered and people were restricted from the area due to concerns that an eruption-induced debris avalanche or debris flow might enter Baker Lake and displace enough water to either cause a wave to overtop the Upper Baker Dam or cause complete failure of the dam. However, few anomalies other than the increased heat flow were recorded during the geophysical surveys nor were any other precursory activities observed to indicate that magma was moving up into the volcano. An increased level of fumarolic activity has continued at Mount Baker from 1975 to the present, but there are no other changes that suggest that magma movement is involved.

Mount Baker is the northernmost and most isolated of the Cascade volcanoes in the USA. The andesitic cone rises nearly 2 kilometers above the older metamorphic and sedimentary rocks at its base and it is almost completely covered by glaciers -- hence its original Nooksack Indian name "White Steep Mountain".

Knowledge of Mount Baker is limited to those parts of its history not covered by glaciers or later volcanic rocks. Thus, the different eruptive centers that have not been recognized do not necessarily represent the most significant phases of its activity. The oldest (0.4 million years ago) known flows are from the Black Buttes, two strongly eroded remnants of a predecessor stratovolcano 3 kilometers west of Mount Baker. Although most of these rocks are andesitic lava flows, like nearly all of the exposed parts of Mount Baker, some of these ancient rocks are hypersthene basalt. The earliest eruptions from the present location of Mount Baker produced widespread, fluid lava flows which traveled down canyons previously eroded in the older basement rocks. The existence of large glacially carved cirques on the north slopes of the volcano demonstrate that its construction was largely completed by the time of the last major Pleistocene glaciation, some time between 25,000 and 10,000 years ago.

From deposits mapped around the volcano it has been recognized that during the last 10,000 years there were one pyroclastic flow, at least four small tephra units, two or more lava flows, and at least eight mudflows. A 760-meter-wide, 100-meter-high cinder cone and its 11-kilometer-long lava flow at Schreibers Meadow is one of the more recent satellitic cones on Mount Baker. Mudflows remain the most likely hazard from Mount Baker.

It is unclear how all of the distally mapped eruption products relate to activity at Baker's summit, which is totally covered by snow and ice. However, Sherman Crater, a 450-meter-wide vent, 350 meters lower and 800 meters south of the summit, may have formed in the 18th or early 19th century, based on Indian traditions of drastic changes near the summit area of the volcano.

There are various accounts of activity at Mount Baker in the mid-1800's. An 1843 eruption resulted in a major fish kill in the Baker River, a large forest fire, and a dusting of volcanic ash over the adjacent countryside. Further eruptions occurred in the 1850's and the first expedition to Sherman Crater in 1868 reported active fumarole fields. Steam activity continued at Sherman Crater and at the Dorr fumarole field on Baker's north flank until the 1940's and 1950's, by which time steaming was uncommon. After resumption of mild activity in the 1960's, a major episode of steam activity persisted at Sherman Crater from March 1975 to early 1976. A large jet shot pressurized steam to 760 meters, new fumaroles were active, crevasses developed in the ice concentric to the crater walls, a 70-meter-wide plug of ice collapsed to form a warm water lake, and minor amounts of non-juvenile tephra were spread around the crater area.

USGS Research in the last decade shows Mount Baker to be the youngest of several volcanic centers in the area and one of the youngest volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Volcanic activity in the Mount Baker area began more than one million years ago, but many of the earliest lava and tephra deposits have been removed by glacial erosion. The pale-colored rocks northeast of the modern volcano mark the site of ancient Kulshan Caldera that collapsed after an enormous ash eruption one million years ago. Subsequently, eruptions in the Mount Baker area have produced cones and lava flows of andesite, the rock that makes up much of other Cascade Range volcanoes like Mounts Rainier, Adams, and Hood. From about 900,000 years ago to the present, numerous andesitic volcanic centers in the area have come and gone, eroded by glaciers. The largest is the Black Buttes edifice, active between 400,000 and 300,000 years ago and formerly bigger than today's Mount Baker.

Mount Baker is a large stratovolcano in northwestern Washington about 30 kilometers east of Bellingham and 25 kilometers south of the International Boundary. The glacier-covered cone of andesite lava flows and breccias rises 2 kilometers above adjacent mountains carved from a complex of older sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The present cone was formed prior to the last major glaciation, which occurred between about 25,000 and 10,000 years ago, and probably is considerably older. The cone overlaps rocks of an earlier eruptive center from which two radiometric dates of about 400,000 years have been obtained. ...

Mount Baker is drained on the north by streams flowing into the North Fork Nooksack River, on the west by the Middle Fork Nooksack River, and on the southeast and east by tributaries of the Baker River, which empties into the Skagit River about 14 kilometers southeast of Mount Baker. The Baker River is impounded by two dams; the upper dam is near the mouth of the Sulphur Creek valley and forms Baker Lake, and the lower dam is about 12 kilometers farther downvalley and forms Lake Shannon.

[Map,34K,InlineGIF]
Mount Baker Area, Washington
-- Modified from: Hyde and Crandell, 1978, USGS Professional Paper 1022-C

Mount Baker's summit crater is covered by snow and ice, and little is known of its nature or age. A prominent crater partly filled with ice, known as Sherman Crater, is 350 meters lower than, and about 800 meters south of, the summit. Its east rim, above the head of Boulder Glacier, is breached by a notch about 150 meters deep. Another low point, about 100 meters deep, is on the southwest rim above Deming Glacier. Fumaroles and thermal springs are concentrated in the crater, where solfataric and hydrothermal activity has produced clay minerals and other alteration products. Avalanches of snow, firn, and hydrothermally altered rock debris from the rim of Sherman Crater have swept down Boulder Glacier at least six times since 1958.

Most hydrothermal activity at Mount Baker is concentrated within Sherman Crater, although a small area of fumaroles, known as the Dorr Fumarole Field, is present on the north flank of the volcano at an altitude of 2,300 to 3,500 meters. The activity at Sherman Crater increased significantly in March 1975 and caused concern that an eruption might be imminent. As a result, various kinds of geophysical and geochemical monitoring were undertaken in the expectation that if an eruption occurred it would be preceded by other kinds of events. ...

Mount Baker was active on several occasions during the 19th century, but no volcanic deposits which could definitely be attributed to historic eruptions were identified during the present investigation.

Eyewitness reports of small ashy plumes and active steam vents on Mount Baker dating as far back as the mid-1800's were clear evidence that the ice-covered volcano had one of the most active geothermal systems among Cascade volcanoes. When new fumaroles and unusually dark vapor plumes appeared abruptly in March 1975, however, people in the Northwest became concerned about an impeding eruption and possible avalanches and lahars from Sherman Crater, a vent just south of Mount Baker's summit. Despite a tenfold increase in the release of heat by the volcano during the next 12 months, which resulted in extensive changes to the ice cover in Sherman Crater and produced minor releases of ash, no eruption occurred. The thermal activity was not accompanied by earthquakes, which generally precede most eruptions, and since 1976, the volcano has not showed additional signs of activity.

The increased thermal activity between 1975 and 1976 prompted public officials and Puget Power to temporarily close public access to the popular Baker Lake recreation area and to lower the reservoir's water level by 10 meters. Significant avalanches of debris from the Sherman Crater area could have swept directly into the reservoir, triggering a disastrous wave that would have caused loss of life and damage to the reservoir.

Mount Baker is a large stratovolcano in northwestern Washington about 30 kilometers east of Bellingham and 25 kilometers south of the International Boundary. The glacier-covered cone of andesite lava flows and breccias rises 2 kilometers above adjacent mountains carved from a complex of older sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The present cone was formed prior to the last major glaciation (Fraser Glaciation), which occurred between about 25,000 and 10,000 years ago, and probably is considerably older. The cone overlaps rocks of an earlier eruptive center from which two radiometric dates of about 400,000 years have been obtained. ...

Mount Baker's summit crater is covered by snow and ice, and little is known of its nature or age. A prominent crater partly filled with ice, known as Sherman Crater, is 350 meters lower than, and about 800 meters south of, the summit. Its east rim, above the head of Boulder Glacier, is breached by a notch about 150 meters deep. Another low point, about 100 meters deep, is on the southwest rim above Deming Glacier. Fumaroles and thermal springs are concentrated in the crater, where solfataric and hydrothermal activity has produced clay minerals and other alteration products. Avalanches of snow, firn, and hydrothermally altered rock debris from the rim of Sherman Crater have swept down Boulder Glacier at least six times since 1958.

[Map,12K,InlineGIF]
Glaciers of Mount Baker, Washington
-- Modified from: Hyde and Crandell, 1978, USGS Professional Paper 1022-C, and USGS Mt. Baker 15' Quadrangle, 1952

Mount Baker is drained on the north by streams flowing into the North Fork Nooksack River, on the west by the Middle Fork Nooksack River, and on the southeast and east by tributaries of the Baker River, which empties into the Skagit River about 14 kilometers southeast of Mount Baker. The Baker River is impounded by two dams; the upper dam is near the mouth of the Sulphur Creek valley and forms Baker Lake, and the lower dam is about 12 kilometers farther downvalley and forms Lake Shannon.

Baker81_gas_sampling_fumarole_mount_baker_1981.jpg
Sampling gases, fumarole, on top of Mount Baker, Washington.
USGS Photograph taken in 1981 by W. Chadwick.
[medium size] ... [large size]

Mount Baker's summit crater is covered by snow and ice, and little is known of its nature or age. A prominent crater partly filled with ice, known as Sherman Crater, is 350 meters lower than, and about 800 meters south of, the summit. Its east rim, above the head of Boulder Glacier, is breached by a notch about 150 meters deep. Another low point, about 100 meters deep, is on the southwest rim above Deming Glacier. Fumaroles and thermal springs are concentrated in the crater, where solfataric and hydrothermal activity has produced clay minerals and other alteration products. Avalanches of snow, firn, and hydrothermally altered rock debris from the rim of Sherman Crater have swept down Boulder Glacier at least six times since 1958.

Most hydrothermal activity at Mount Baker is concentrated within Sherman Crater, although a small area of fumaroles, known as the Dorr Fumarole Field, is present on the north flank of the volcano at an altitude of 2,300 to 3,500 meters. The activity at Sherman Crater increased significantly in March 1975 and caused concern that an eruption might be imminent. As a result, various kinds of geophysical and geochemical monitoring were undertaken in the expectation that if an eruption occurred it would be preceded by other kinds of events.

Mount Baker is the northernmost and most isolated of the Cascade volcanoes in the USA. The andesitic cone rises nearly 2 kilometers above the older metamorphic and sedimentary rocks at its base and it is almost completely covered by glaciers -- hence its original Nooksack Indian name "White Steep Mountain". ...

It is unclear how all of the distally mapped eruption products relate to activity at Baker's summit, which is totally covered by snow and ice. However, Sherman Crater, a 450-meter-wide vent, 350 meters lower and 800 meters south of the summit, may have formed in the 18th or early 19th century, based on Indian traditions of drastic changes near the summit area of the volcano.

There are various accounts of activity at Mount Baker in the mid-1800's. An 1843 eruption resulted in a major fish kill in the Baker River, a large forest fire, and a dusting of volcanic ash over the adjacent countryside. Further eruptions occurred in the 1850's and the first expedition to Sherman Crater in 1868 reported active fumarole fields. Steam activity continued at Sherman Crater and at the Dorr fumarole field on Baker's north flank until the 1940's and 1950's, by which time steaming was uncommon. After resumption of mild activity in the 1960's, a major episode of steam activity persisted at Sherman Crater from March 1975 to early 1976. A large jet shot pressurized steam to 760 meters, new fumaroles were active, crevasses developed in the ice concentric to the crater walls, a 70-meter-wide plug of ice collapsed to form a warm water lake, and minor amounts of non-juvenile tephra were spread around the crater area.

Eyewitness reports of small ashy plumes and active steam vents on Mount Baker dating as far back as the mid-1800's were clear evidence that the ice-covered volcano had one of the most active geothermal systems among Cascade volcanoes. When new fumaroles and unusually dark vapor plumes appeared abruptly in March 1975, however, people in the Northwest became concerned about an impeding eruption and possible avalanches and lahars from Sherman Crater, a vent just south of Mount Baker's summit. Despite a tenfold increase in the release of heat by the volcano during the next 12 months, which resulted in extensive changes to the ice cover in Sherman Crater and produced minor releases of ash, no eruption occurred. The thermal activity was not accompanied by earthquakes, which generally precede most eruptions, and since 1976, the volcano has not showed additional signs of activity.

Modern Mount Baker formed during and since the last ice age, which ended about 15,000 years ago. Lava flows from the summit vent erupted between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago and, during the final stages of edifice construction, blocky pyroclastic flows poured down most of the volcano's drainages. An eruption 6,600 years ago produced a blanket of ash that extended more than 20 miles to the northeast. This eruption probably occurred from the presently ice-filled summit crater. Subsequently, sulfurous gases have found two pathways to the surface -- Dorr Fumaroles, northeast of the summit, and Sherman Crater, south of the summit. Both these area are sites of pervasive bedrock alteration, converting lavas to weak, white-to-yellow material rich in clays, silica, and sulfur-bearing minerals. At Sherman Crater, collapses of this weakened rock created lahars in 1843 and as recently as the 1970's.

The present shape of Sherman Crater originated with a large hydrovolcanic explosion. In 1843, explorers reported a widespread layer of newly fallen rock fragments "like a snowfall" and the forest "on fire for miles around." Rivers south of the volcano were clogged with ash, and Native Americans reported that many salmon were killed. A short time later, two collapses of the east side of Sherman Crater produced two lahars, the first and larger of which flowed into the natural Baker Lake, rising its level at least 10 feet. The location of the 19th-century lake is now covered by waters of the modern dam-impounded Baker Lake. Similar but lower level hydrovolcanic activity at Sherman Crater continued intermittently for several decades afterwards.

Beginning in March 1975, the rate of gas and steam emission from Sherman Crater increased significantly. Heat flow increased more than tenfold. The activity gradually declined over the next 2 years but stabilized at a higher level than before 1975. Several small lahars formed from material ejected onto the surrounding glaciers. Acidic water was discharged into Baker Lake for many months.

Mount Baker is drained on the north by streams flowing into the North Fork Nooksack River, on the west by the Middle Fork Nooksack River, and on the southeast and east by tributaries of the Baker River, which empties into the Skagit River about 14 kilometers southeast of Mount Baker. The Baker River is impounded by two dams; the upper dam is near the mouth of the Sulphur Creek valley and forms Baker Lake, and the lower dam is about 12 kilometers farther downvalley and forms Lake Shannon.

Between 1980 and 1984, the U. S. Geological Survey's David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) established baseline geodetic networks at Mount Baker, Mount Rainer, and Mount St. Helens in Washington, Mount Hood and Crater Lake in Oregon, and Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak in California. To this list of potentially active volcanoes, CVO extended its monitoring program in 1985 to include Newberry and South Sister volcanoes in central Oregon. The Newberry and South Sister networks were re-measured in 1986 and will be measured periodically in future years. Improvements since 1984 in the recording of endpoint and flightline temperatures resulted in better overall data than obtained previously. The improvements included: calibration of all the sensors and precision thermistors, installation of a new recording system for flightline data, and recording of endpoint temperatures 6 meters above ground level. The data collected in 1985 and 1986 indicate little or no apparent deformation at either volcano between surveys.

In addition to locating regional earthquakes, the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network (PNSN), in cooperation with the Cascades Volcano Observatory, is also responsible for monitoring seismic activity at volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest. The PNSN currently operates seismometers on or near Mount Adams, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood, Mount Baker, Three Sisters, and Crater Lake.

Black Buttes

Mount Baker's present-day cone is relatively young, perhaps less than 30,000 years old, but it sits atop a similar older volcanic cone called Black Buttes volcano which was active between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. -- Excerpt from: Gardner, et.al., 1995, Potential Volcanic Hazards from Future Activity of Mount Baker, Washington: USGS Open-File Report 95-498

Knowledge of Mount Baker is limited to those parts of its history not covered by glaciers or later volcanic rocks. Thus, the different eruptive centers that have not been recognized do not necessarily represent the most significant phases of its activity. The oldest (0.4 million years ago) known flows are from the Black Buttes, two strongly eroded remnants of a predecessor stratovolcano 3 kilometers west of Mount Baker. -- Excerpt from: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press, 354p., 155-156, Contribution by Charles A. Wood

USGS Research in the last decade shows Mount Baker to be the youngest of several volcanic centers in the area and one of the youngest volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Volcanic activity in the Mount Baker area began more than one million years ago, but many of the earliest lava and tephra deposits have been removed by glacial erosion. The pale-colored rocks northeast of the modern volcano mark the site of ancient Kulshan Caldera that collapsed after an enormous ash eruption one million years ago. Subsequently, eruptions in the Mount Baker area have produced cones and lava flows of andesite, the rock that makes up much of other Cascade Range volcanoes like Mounts Rainier, Adams, and Hood. From about 900,000 years ago to the present, numerous andesitic volcanic centers in the area have come and gone, eroded by glaciers. The largest is the Black Buttes edifice, active between 400,000 and 300,000 years ago and formerly bigger than today's Mount Baker. -- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 2000, Mount Baker -- Living With An Active Volcano: USGS Fact Sheet 059-00

Dorr Fumarole Field

Modern Mount Baker formed during and since the last ice age, which ended about 15,000 years ago. Lava flows from the summit vent erupted between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago and, during the final stages of edifice construction, blocky pyroclastic flows poured down most of the volcano's drainages. An eruption 6,600 years ago produced a blanket of ash that extended more than 20 miles to the northeast. This eruption probably occurred from the presently ice-filled summit crater. Subsequently, sulfurous gases have found two pathways to the surface -- Dorr Fumaroles, northeast of the summit, and Sherman Crater, south of the summit. Both these area are sites of pervasive bedrock alteration, converting lavas to weak, white-to-yellow material rich in clays, silica, and sulfur-bearing minerals. At Sherman Crater, collapses of this weakened rock created lahars in 1843 and as recently as the 1970's. -- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 2000, Mount Baker -- Living With An Active Volcano: USGS Fact Sheet 059-00

Grant Peak

Grant Peak is the main summit peak of Mount Baker, elevation 10,778 feet in central Whatcom County. It was named by Edmund T. Coleman for President Ulysses S. Grant in August of 1868. Mr. Coleman chose the names of American Civil War heroes for most of the prominent natural features of the mountain although he was a native of England. He was an enthusiastic mountain climber in Europe before tackling Mount Baker which he ascended upon his third attempt. -- Excerpt from: Tacoma Public Library Online Database, 2007, "Washington Place Names"

Kulshan Caldera

USGS Research in the last decade shows Mount Baker to be the youngest of several volcanic centers in the area and one of the youngest volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Volcanic activity in the Mount Baker area began more than one million years ago, but many of the earliest lava and tephra deposits have been removed by glacial erosion. The pale-colored rocks northeast of the modern volcano mark the site of ancient Kulshan Caldera that collapsed after an enormous ash eruption one million years ago. Subsequently, eruptions in the Mount Baker area have produced cones and lava flows of andesite, the rock that makes up much of other Cascade Range volcanoes like Mounts Rainier, Adams, and Hood. From about 900,000 years ago to the present, numerous andesitic volcanic centers in the area have come and gone, eroded by glaciers. The largest is the Black Buttes edifice, active between 400,000 and 300,000 years ago and formerly bigger than today's Mount Baker. -- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 2000, Mount Baker -- Living With An Active Volcano: USGS Fact Sheet 059-00

Mazama Ash

Volcanic ash (tephra) layers on Mount Baker's south flank. Lower white band is from an eruption of Crater Lake, Oregon (7,700 years ago); upper yellow band is from a hydrovolcanic eruption of Mount Baker (6,600 years ago). Above the yellow band is a black ash from a magmatic eruption of Mount Baker (also about 6,600 years ago). Tephra hazards at Mount Baker are less significant than at neighboring Glacier Peak volcano to the south. -- USGS Photo by Kevin Scott
-- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 2000, Mount Baker -- Living With An Active Volcano: USGS Fact Sheet 059-00

Schriebers Meadow Cinder Cone

Although numerous in Oregon and southern Washington, cinder cones formed of the rock type called basalt are rare around Mount Baker. A cinder cone that formed 9,800 years ago in Schriebers Meadow produced a widespread tephra layer, and lava flows that reached the Baker River. -- Excerpt from: Scott, et.al., 2000, Mount Baker -- Living With An Active Volcano: USGS Fact Sheet 059-00

From deposits mapped around the [Mount Baker] volcano it has been recognized that during the last 10,000 years there were one pyroclastic flow, at least four small tephra units, two or more lava flows, and at least eight mudflows. A 760-meter-wide, 100-meter-high cinder cone and its 11-kilometer-long lava flow at Schreibers Meadow is one of the more recent satellitic cones on Mount Baker. Mudflows remain the most likely hazard from Mount Baker. -- Excerpt from: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press, 354p., 155-156, Contribution by Charles A. Wood

Sherman Crater

Mount Baker's summit crater is covered by snow and ice, and little is known of its nature or age. A prominent crater partly filled with ice, known as Sherman Crater, is 350 meters (1,150 feet) lower than, and about 800 meters (2,625 feet) south of, the summit. Its east rim, above the head of Boulder Glacier, is breached by a notch about 150 meters (493 feet) deep. Another low point, about 100 meters (330 feet) deep, is on the southwest rim above Deming Glacier. Fumaroles and thermal springs are concentrated in the crater, where solfataric and hydrothermal activity has produced clay minerals and other alteration products. Avalanches of snow, firn, and hydrothermally altered rock debris from the rim of Sherman Crater have swept down Boulder Glacier at least six times since 1958. Most hydrothermal activity at Mount Baker is concentrated within Sherman Crater, although a small area of fumaroles, known as the Dorr Fumarole Field, is present on the north flank of the volcano at an altitude of 2,300 to 3,500 meters. -- Excerpt from: Hyde and Crandell, 1978, PostGlacial Volcanic Deposits at Mount Baker, Washington, and Potential Hazards from Future Eruptions: USGS Professional Paper 1022-C, p.C1.

Sherman Peak

Sherman Peak is on Mount Baker at the 10,613 foot level on the south rim of Summit Crater in central Whatcom County. In August, 1868, the peak was named by Edmund T. Coleman, for Gen. William T. Sherman, then Commanding General of the United States Army. -- Excerpt from: Tacoma Public Library Online Database, 2007, "Washington Place Names"

Summit Cone

Mount Baker (3,285 meters; 10,778 feet) is an ice-clad volcano in the North Cascades of Washington State about 50 kilometers (31 miles) due east of the city of Bellingham. After Mount Rainier, it is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade volcanoes: the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker (about 1.8 cubic kilometers; 0.43 cubic miles) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. Isolated ridges of lava and hydrothermally altered rock, especially in the area of Sherman Crater, are exposed between glaciers on the upper flanks of the volcano: the lower flanks are steep and heavily vegetated. The volcano rests on a foundation of non-volcanic rocks in a region that is largely non-volcanic in origin. -- Excerpt from: Gardner, et.al., 1995, Potential Volcanic Hazards from Future Activity of Mount Baker, Washington, USGS Open-File Report 95-498

Mount Baker's summit crater is covered by snow and ice, and little is known of its nature or age. A prominent crater partly filled with ice, known as Sherman Crater, is 350 meters lower than, and about 800 meters south of, the summit. Its east rim, above the head of Boulder Glacier, is breached by a notch about 150 meters deep. Another low point, about 100 meters deep, is on the southwest rim above Deming Glacier. -- Excerpt from: Hyde and Crandell, 1978, PostGlacial Volcanic Deposits at Mount Baker, Washington, and Potential Hazards from Future Eruptions: USGS Professional Paper 1022-C

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