Dori J. Kovanen
Ralph A. Haugerud
2020
Database for "Geomorphic map of western Whatcom County, Washington"
vector digital data
U.S. Geological Survey, Scientific Investigation Map
3406
https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406
Dori J. Kovanen
Ralph A. Haugerud
Don J. Easterbrook
2020
Geomorphic map of western Whatcom County, Washington
vector digital data
U.S. Geological Survey, Scientific Investigations Map
3406
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.
https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406
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.
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).
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.
20060515
Dataset covers Whatcom County, Washington, west of -122 degrees 15 minutes longitude, and is derived from a lidar survey acquired in May 2006.
None planned
-123.1185
-122.2390
49.0156
48.6169
ISO 19115 Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
None
geology
glaciation
stratigraphy
None
Whatcom County
Washington
Fraser Lowland
Salish Lowland
Pacific Northwest
USA
Bellingham
None
ground surface
None
Quaternary, Pleistocene, Holocene
None
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.
U.S. Geological Survey
Ralph Haugerud
mailing
University of Washington, Box 351310
Seattle
Washington
98195
US
206-713-7453
rhaugerud@usgs.gov
Prepared in cooperation with Whatcom County and Washington State Department of Natural Resources
Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.4.1.5686
NAD 1983 HARN StatePlane Washington North FIPS 4601 Feet
47.5
48.73333333333333
-120.8333333333333
47.0
1640416.666666667
0.0
coordinate pair
0.0001
0.0001
foot_us
D North American 1983 HARN
GRS 1980
6378137.0
298.257222101
Confidence that a feature exists and confidence that a feature is correctly identified are described in per-feature attributes ExistenceConfidence and IdentityConfidence.
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 <Null> (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.
Interpretation is complete across area of map. Quality of interpretation may be limited by accuracy of lidar topography.
Per-feature estimated horizontal accuracy is recorded in field LocationConfidenceMeters in feature class ContactsAndFaults
Puget Sound Lidar Consortium
2010
2010 supermosaic 6-foot version
raster digital data
Supermosaic includes the 4 lidar surveys used for interpretation of western Whatcom County geomorphology and (in Whatcom County) no newer data.
http://pugetsoundlidar.ess.washington.edu/lidardata/restricted/filegeodatabase/supermosaic/index.html
10000
onLine
2005
2009
observed
2010 supermosaic 6-foot version
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".
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.
20110501
Ralph A Haugerud
U.S. Geological Survey, SOUTHWEST REGION
Research Geologist
mailing address
University of Washington
Seattle
WA
98195
US
206-713-7453
rhaugerud@usgs.gov
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.
"GeMS (Geologic Map Schema)--a standard format for digital publication of geologic maps", available at http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/standards/GeMS/
U.S. Geological Survey
USGS Store
mailing
Denver Federal Center
Denver
CO
80225-0046
United States
1-888-275-8747
16 MB ArcGIS file geodatabase; shapefile versions also available
See access and use constraints information.
ArcGIS file geodatabase
primary version of dataset
https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3406.
None
20200713
U.S. Geological Survey
Ralph Haugerud
mailing
University of Washington, Box 351310
Seattle
Washington
98195
US
206-713-7453
rhaugerud@usgs.gov
FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
local time