Dendrochronological Evidence of Variations of Coleman Glacier, Mount Baker, Washington, U.S.A.

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Abstract
Coleman Glacier is situated on the ice-clad Mount Baker volcano in the Pacific northwest of North America. It is fronted by several forested terminal moraines, minimum ages of which were determined by tree ring counts. Nine of the 150 conifers studied were trees damaged by glacial advances; others were the oldest trees found on the moraines themselves. The tree ring patterns of the former set of conifers revealed the years when glacier readvances reached their maxima; the number of tree rings in the latter group only provided minimum ages for moraine stabilization. With historical records, the tree ring counts date moraines to the following years: 1978-1979, .apprx. 1922, .apprx. 1908-1912, 1886-1887, .apprx. 1855-1856, .apprx. 1823, .apprx. 1740 and the early 1500''s. Excluding the last 2 dates, the ages date the maximal glacier readvances relatively closely. The moraine chronology over the past 2 centuries developed for Coleman Glacier has great similarity to chonologies on Mount Rainier, Washington and in Scandinavia. Because of the short response time of Coleman Glacier to climatic changes, the obtained dates of glacial readvances are consistent with the climatic information available.