Neoglaciation of Avalanche Gorge and the Middle Fork Nooksack River Valley Mt. Baker, Washington

• Main Author: Fuller, Steven Richard
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 1980
• Subjects: Neoglacial records; Neoglacial fluctuations; Demin Glacier; Rainbow Glacier; Geology; Deming Glacier; Pacific
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/793; https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1817&context=wwuet

The Neoglacial fluctuations of two of Mt. Baker's alpine glaciers were studied by tephrochronologic, dendrochronologic, and relative dating methods coupled with detailed geologic mapping. The earliest recognizable advance of the Deming Glacier occurred prior to deposition of Mazama tephra and after the Vashon Stade of Fraser Glaciation. The oldest recognizable Holocene advance of the Deming Glacier occurred >800 years B.P. and 16th, 17th, 18th(?), early 19th, late 19th, and 20th centuries. The Neoglacial record for the Rainbow Glacier is poorly preserved due to modification by two historic rock-debris avalanches, but the 20th century moraines of the Rainbow and Deming Glaciers disclose a close synchronism in their fluctuations. Glacier fluctuations on Mt. Baker during the past 500 years are broadly synchronous with those of glacier fluctuations elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.