Whatcom residents are nuts about volcanoes. I mean, in a good way. Public interest in Mount Baker is strong. So are citizens' concerns about the potential for an eruption at the steaming, active, and under-monitored volcano 30 miles east of Bellingham. I'm frequently asked "When's she gonna blow?" Many remember the near miss in 1975. There was no eruption, but Baker hasn't settled down to pre-1975 conditions yet.
Sherman Crater, the active vent 1,000 feet below the summit on the south side, has uncountable steam vents, spewing boiling gases into the atmosphere; sometimes the rotten egg odor of hydrogen sulphide carries to the Mount Baker ski area, or down to Baker Lake. Measurements by the U.S. Geological Survey show that 180 tons of carbon dioxide vent from the crater every day. The gases come from the hot magma lying beneath the volcano.
Public curiosity about Baker research is no surprise given the level of scientific literacy around here. I once helped with a radar survey across the summit to measure ice thickness in the old crater; how much melt water might flow out in an eruption? So many passing climbers asked about our work we had to designate a public relations person. Any time a hiker meets me measuring volcanic ash in a mountain meadow, an impromptu Volcanology 101 lesson results.
To address this interest, I and other volcano scientists working at Mount Baker formed the Mount Baker Volcano Research Center in 2007. The research center is an all-volunteer, non-profit research and education organization. Our goal is to explain Mount Baker volcanic hazards and eruptive history to Whatcom and Skagit residents, and to raise funds for our grant program in support of further research into the volcano's past and present condition.
The Mount Baker Volcano Research Center raises funds by hosting educational field trips for the public to geologic sites at Mount Baker. The next trip is Sept. 24, repeated on Oct. 1. I will be guiding a two-mile hike to the cinder cone in Schreibers Meadow on the south side of Mount Baker. The cone is a forested mini-volcano about 9,500 years old. The trip costs $75. No geology background is necessary. For more information and to register, visit the field trips page at our blog: http://mbvrc.wordpress.com/. Space is limited, so don't delay. Your fees build our research grant program, and are tax deductible.
We offer talks to groups and the public in communities around the two-county area; future topics will include volcano monitoring methods and the shrinking glaciers on our backyard volcano, which are the source of Bellingham's water. Subscribe to our blog via email to receive advance notice of presentations about Baker and other Cascade volcanoes, and to stay abreast of the latest research.
I am an unabashed volcanophile. Practically every volcanologist I know started out that way. My fascination began as a Boy Scout in Tacoma, hiking and climbing on Mount Rainier. After graduating from Western in 1973, I had a variety of jobs including guiding on Mount Baker for American Alpine Institute and Whatcom County Parks. In 1994, I volunteered to guide United States Geological Survey scientists who were making the first detailed eruptive history and geologic map of Mount Baker.
So began a six-year bout of bushwhacking and climbing all over the mountain, looking at old lava flows and lahars and piecing together the surprisingly long and intricate volcanic history in the Baker area. That's how I began to follow my passion for geology.
We learned many new things about Mount Baker during those studies. It is the youngest stratovolcano in the Cascades, only 40,000 years old. There was a huge Crater Lake-style caldera eruption 1.15 million years ago, 100 times larger than Mount St. Helens in 1980. There have been over a dozen former volcanoes in the Mount Baker area, now deeply eroded by Ice Age glaciers. Field work has shown that the young Mount Baker volcano has not had large eruptions, but periodic gigantic landslides have spawned destructive volcanic mudflows, or lahars, that have reached the Whatcom lowlands.
There is more to learn about Mount Baker. How deep is the magma beneath the mountain? Why have there been so many volcanoes there? Are we willing to pay for more monitoring in the current budget crisis?
ABOUT WINDOW ON MY WORLD
Window On My World is an occasional essay in Monday's Bellingham Herald that allows Whatcom County residents to share their passion for what they do, an idea or cause they support. Send your Window On My World, which must be no more than 700 words, to Julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com. All submissions become the property of The Bellingham Herald.
