VOLCANO MADNESS: [Geology2] Baker lahars, outburst floods, and future hazards: July 16 MBVRC field trip to the Middle Fork Nooksack

Thursday, July 7, 2011

[Geology2] Baker lahars, outburst floods, and future hazards: July 16 MBVRC field trip to the Middle Fork Nooksack

For those interested:

Baker lahars, outburst floods, and future hazards: July 16 MBVRC field trip to the Middle Fork Nooksack

magmatist | July 6, 2011| URL: http://wp.me/pOOM7-df

It isn't too late to sign up for the guided field trip up the Middle Fork Nooksack, on Mount Baker's west flank. This trip will be led by Dave Tucker (WWU) and Kevin Scott (USGS-CVO). We will examine deposits of the largest lahar to come off Baker. The Middle Fork lahar occurred around 6500 years ago, filled the Nooksack valley with a thick layer of mud, boulders, and logs, and probably went all the way to the Fraser River. We will also see deposits from the 1927 glacial outburst flood from the Deming Glacier, which coursed for miles down the river, carrying garage- sized boulders and large chunks of ice. Also, remarkable recent flood deposits from the 2009 rain-on-snow floods, and the dam that diverts water from the Middle Fork to Lake Whatcom for Bellingham's water supply- under severe risk from the next lahar in the Middle Fork. We will discuss the consequences to Whatcom County (and Canada?) of a repeat occurrence of the Middle Fork lahar, one of those 'low probability, high consequence' events.

This is a fundraiser field trip for the Mount Baker Volcano Research Center.

Cost $75, $50 students and members of MBVRC. Full details here:

http://mbvrc.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/mbvrc-field-trip-july-16-middle-fork-lahar/

Saturday July 16, leave Bellingham at 9 AM.