MT. BAKER, WASHINGTON

Mt. Baker, WA: Steam Vents and Sulphur Formation

Mount Baker is a large stratovolcano in northwestern Washington 20 miles east of Bellingham. The glacier-covered cone of andesite lava flows and breccias rises 10,778 ft 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 10,000 and 25,000 years ago. The cone overlaps rocks of an earlier eruptive center from which two radiometric dates of about 400,000 years have been obtained.

Vulcan lease applications of approximately 9,000 acres lie on the eastern flank near Baker Lake.