Identification_Information: Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Dori J. Kovanen Originator: Ralph A. Haugerud Publication_Date: 2020 Title: Database for "Geomorphic map of western Whatcom County, Washington" Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data Series_Information: Series_Name: U.S. Geological Survey, Scientific Investigation Map Issue_Identification: 3406 Online_Linkage: https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406 Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Dori J. Kovanen Originator: Ralph A. Haugerud Originator: Don J. Easterbrook Publication_Date: 2020 Title: Geomorphic map of western Whatcom County, Washington Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data Series_Information: Series_Name: U.S. Geological Survey, Scientific Investigations Map Issue_Identification: 3406 Other_Citation_Details: Suggested citation: Kovanen, D.J., Haugerud, R.A., and Easterbrook, D.J., 2020, Geomorphic map of western Whatcom County, Washington: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 3406, pamphlet 42 p., scale 1:50,000, https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406. Online_Linkage: https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406 Description: Abstract: The landscape of western Whatcom County preserves evidence of a rich history of glaciation, sea-level change, fluvial erosion and deposition, landsliding, nearby volcanic activity, and human modification. This map, produced by analysis of a lidar-derived digital elevation model, documents this landscape and interprets its history. The landscape record largely begins with the Vashon stade of the last glaciation, when the south-flowing Cordilleran ice sheet covered the area. The weight of the ice depressed the land, resulting in local sea level at least 200 m higher than at present. As the ice melted and thinned, it floated, broke up, and was replaced by marine water which flooded much of the map area. Relative sea level fell as a consequence of ice unloading, followed by at least one ice re-advance of the Sumas stade. Terminal moraines, ground moraines, deltas, alluvial flats, inset channels, dunes, and other landforms document retreating Sumas ice. Cross-cutting relations allow division of this glacial history into 9 phases. When glacial ice left the area about 12,000 years ago the Nooksack River appears to have discharged northeast through Sumas Valley to the Fraser River. Details of the switch to its modern course are speculative; archaeological and sediment-supply arguments suggest that the modern Nooksack delta south of Ferndale formed within the last 5,000 years. Hills in the eastern part of the map area are decorated with abundant deep-seated landslides. These landslides are largely a consequence of glacial steepening of slopes underlain by weak bedrock, perhaps abetted by occasional large earthquakes and abundant rainfall. There are no clear signs of earthquake-related surface rupture within the map area, although there are anomalously high late Holocene beaches at several locales. These beaches may have been uplifted by earthquakes that did not rupture the surface. The low-relief landscape shaped by the Cordilleran ice sheet, along with fluvial infilling of low areas, resulted in abundant wetland. In the last century and a half much wetland has been diked and (or) drained to control flooding and facilitate farming. Our mapping, which may underestimate the extent of drained wetland, shows loss of at least 39 square km (15 square miles), 68% of pre-1860 wetland. Purpose: This map was created to inventory landforms and thereby interpret and document the geologic history of western Whatcom County since the peak of the last glaciation. The results will support improved analysis and management of earth resources (including aggregate, groundwater, wetland, soil) and earth hazards (including earthquake, landslide, subsidence, flood). Supplemental_Information: SIM3406.gdb is a composite geodataset that conforms, with exceptions, to "GeMS (Geologic Map Schema)--a standard format for digital publication of geologic maps", available at http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/standards/GeMS/. The geodatabase contains the following elements: non-spatial table DataSources; non-spatial table Glossary; non-spatial table DescriptionOfMapUnits; non-spatial table MiscellaneousMapInformation; feature dataset CorrelationOfMapUnits which contains feature classes CMULines, CMUMapUnitPolys, and CMUText; feature dataset GeologicMap which contains feature classes ContactsAndFaults, MapUnitPolys, GeologicLines, C14Points, MapUnitPolysAnno, MoraineCrestAnno, C14PointsAnno, and Leaders. Non-spatial tables DataSources, DescriptionOfMapUnits, Glossary, and MiscellaneousMapInformation store metadata. All spatial features and some non-spatial features have related entries in table DataSources. Table DescriptionOfMapUnits defines and describes geologic map units that are delimited in feature class MapUnitPolys. Most technical terms used as feature attributes (including all TYPE terms and all CONFIDENCE terms) are defined in table Glossary. Most features have explicit internal feature-level metadata, including LocationConfidenceMeters, one or more Source attributes, and--as appropriate--ExistenceConfidence and IdentityConfidence. Two shapefile versions of the dataset are also available. The OPEN shapefile version consists of shapefiles, DBF files, and delimited text files and retains all information in the native geodatabase, but has limited usability. The SIMPLE shapefile version consists only of shapefiles and is easily used, but lacks some information present in the native geodatabase. Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 20060515 Currentness_Reference: Dataset covers Whatcom County, Washington, west of -122 degrees 15 minutes longitude, and is derived from a lidar survey acquired in May 2006. Status: Progress: Complete Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: None planned Spatial_Domain: Bounding_Coordinates: West_Bounding_Coordinate: -123.1185 East_Bounding_Coordinate: -122.2390 North_Bounding_Coordinate: 49.0156 South_Bounding_Coordinate: 48.6169 Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO 19115 Topic Category Theme_Keyword: geoscientificInformation Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Theme_Keyword: geology Theme_Keyword: glaciation Theme_Keyword: stratigraphy Place: Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Place_Keyword: Whatcom County Place_Keyword: Washington Place_Keyword: Fraser Lowland Place_Keyword: Salish Lowland Place_Keyword: Pacific Northwest Place_Keyword: USA Place_Keyword: Bellingham Stratum: Stratum_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Stratum_Keyword: ground surface Temporal: Temporal_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Temporal_Keyword: Quaternary, Pleistocene, Holocene Access_Constraints: None Use_Constraints: Dataset reviewed and published at 1:50,000 scale. Most features located more accurately than typical of this scale, see feature-level metadata for details. Users must assess fitness of these data to their particular uses. Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey Contact_Person: Ralph Haugerud Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing Address: University of Washington, Box 351310 City: Seattle State_or_Province: Washington Postal_Code: 98195 Country: US Contact_Voice_Telephone: 206-713-7453 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: rhaugerud@usgs.gov Data_Set_Credit: Prepared in cooperation with Whatcom County and Washington State Department of Natural Resources Native_Data_Set_Environment: Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.4.1.5686 Spatial_Reference_Information: Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Map_Projection: Map_Projection_Name: NAD 1983 HARN StatePlane Washington North FIPS 4601 Feet Lambert_Conformal_Conic: Standard_Parallel: 47.5 Standard_Parallel: 48.73333333333333 Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -120.8333333333333 Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 47.0 False_Easting: 1640416.666666667 False_Northing: 0.0 Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: coordinate pair Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: 0.0001 Ordinate_Resolution: 0.0001 Planar_Distance_Units: foot_us Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: D North American 1983 HARN Ellipsoid_Name: GRS 1980 Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.0 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 298.257222101 Data_Quality_Information: Attribute_Accuracy: Attribute_Accuracy_Report: Confidence that a feature exists and confidence that a feature is correctly identified are described in per-feature attributes ExistenceConfidence and IdentityConfidence. Logical_Consistency_Report: Internal logical consistency and completeness of the database were checked with the GeMS_Tools ValidateDatabase script. Table, feature class, and attribute names and formats conform to the GeMS standard. All Type values (in ContactsAndFaults, GeologicLines, and other feature classes) are defined in table Glossary. All _ID values are unique. There are no empty DataSourceID (or DefinitionSourceID, or AnalysisSourceID, or xxSourceID) values, and all such values are defined in table DataSources. All intentionally-null attributes are labeled with (for text attributes) or -9 or -9999 (for numeric attributes); there are no empty string values. MapUnit values in feature class MapUnitPolys correspond with those in defined in DescriptionOfMapUnits and shown in CorrelationOfMapUnits. Completeness_Report: Interpretation is complete across area of map. Quality of interpretation may be limited by accuracy of lidar topography. Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Per-feature estimated horizontal accuracy is recorded in field LocationConfidenceMeters in feature class ContactsAndFaults Lineage: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Puget Sound Lidar Consortium Publication_Date: 2010 Title: 2010 supermosaic 6-foot version Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: raster digital data Other_Citation_Details: Supermosaic includes the 4 lidar surveys used for interpretation of western Whatcom County geomorphology and (in Whatcom County) no newer data. Online_Linkage: http://pugetsoundlidar.ess.washington.edu/lidardata/restricted/filegeodatabase/supermosaic/index.html Source_Scale_Denominator: 10000 Type_of_Source_Media: onLine Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 2005 Ending_Date: 2009 Source_Currentness_Reference: observed Source_Citation_Abbreviation: 2010 supermosaic 6-foot version Source_Contribution: The lidar DEM is a composite of four airborne lidar surveys: (i) 2005 Puget Sound Lidar Consortium survey, at 1 pulse/m2, funded by the Lummi Nation, that covered the Lummi Indian Reservation and adjoining areas; (ii) 2006 North Puget Sound survey, at 1 pulse/m2, acquired under contract to the U.S. Geological Survey, that covered most of western Whatcom and Skagit counties; (iii) 2009 Puget Sound Lidar Consortium survey, at 8 pulse/m2, funded by the Nooksack Tribe, of the Nooksack valley bottom upstream of Everson; and (iv) 2009 Puget Sound Lidar Consortium survey, at 8 pulse/m2, funded in part by Washington Department of Natural Resources, that covered Lummi Island and Point Roberts. The North Puget Sound survey was acquired in leaf-on conditions. The other surveys were in leaf-off conditions. All data are available online from the Puget Sound Lidar Consortium (http://pugetsoundlidar.ess.washington.edu), most usefully as the "2010 supermosaic 6-foot version". Process_Step: Process_Description: Map-unit contacts were digitized on-screen in a GIS using backdrop images calculated from the DEM. These images included northwest- and northeast-illuminated hillshades (gray-scale images that simulate point-source illumination of the DEM); a vertically-illuminated hillshade calculated with a 6X vertical exaggeration; a color image in which hue corresponds to local slope; and 1-ft and 2-ft contours of some areas. Much of our interpretation was of an image with hue calculated from elevation and darkness calculated as a non-linear function of local slope in order to enhance small variations of slope at low slopes. Digitizing scale generally was between 1:1,000 and 1:12,000. Many map-unit boundaries are drawn at breaks in slope (e.g., top of bluff, edge of alluvial flat, base of highway-fill prism). Additional contacts are drawn at textural changes (e.g., lumpy melt-out terrain or wave-smoothed marine-modified surfaces, lumpy landslide surface or smooth glaciated surface). We chose geomorphic map units to emphasize both the process by which the surface was formed and the age of the surface-forming event. For the most part we mapped our interpretation of the earth surface as it was prior to human modification and without the artifacts imposed by the lidar survey. In heavily modified areas, where the pre-modification surface cannot be reliably inferred, we mapped modified surfaces. We also mapped modified surface along some transportation corridors and wherever artificial fill is evident. Process_Date: 20110501 Process_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Person: Ralph A Haugerud Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey, SOUTHWEST REGION Contact_Position: Research Geologist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing address Address: University of Washington City: Seattle State_or_Province: WA Postal_Code: 98195 Country: US Contact_Voice_Telephone: 206-713-7453 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: rhaugerud@usgs.gov Entity_and_Attribute_Information: Overview_Description: Entity_and_Attribute_Overview: Entity descriptions follow those given in the GeMS documentation.See metadata records for constituent tables, feature datasets, and feature classes for detailed entity-attribute information. Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: "GeMS (Geologic Map Schema)--a standard format for digital publication of geologic maps", available at http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/standards/GeMS/ Distribution_Information: Distributor: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey Contact_Person: USGS Store Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing Address: Denver Federal Center City: Denver State_or_Province: CO Postal_Code: 80225-0046 Country: United States Contact_Voice_Telephone: 1-888-275-8747 Resource_Description: 16 MB ArcGIS file geodatabase; shapefile versions also available Distribution_Liability: See access and use constraints information. Standard_Order_Process: Digital_Form: Digital_Transfer_Information: Format_Name: ArcGIS file geodatabase Format_Information_Content: primary version of dataset Digital_Transfer_Option: Online_Option: Computer_Contact_Information: Network_Address: Network_Resource_Name: https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406. Fees: None Metadata_Reference_Information: Metadata_Date: 20200713 Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey Contact_Person: Ralph Haugerud Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing Address: University of Washington, Box 351310 City: Seattle State_or_Province: Washington Postal_Code: 98195 Country: US Contact_Voice_Telephone: 206-713-7453 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: rhaugerud@usgs.gov Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998 Metadata_Time_Convention: local time