ANALYSIS OF NOOKSACK RIVER DELTA PROGRADATION INTO BELLINGHAM BAY, WASHINGTON USING ARCHIVAL DATA SOURCES

The Nooksack River delta, located in Whatcom County, Washington, is one of the fastest developing sedimentary features in the Puget Sound basin. Archival materials, including maps and survey notes, were used to create bathymetric surfaces of Bellingham Bay from 1855 to 1992. The resulting raster surfaces were used to estimate the volume and distribution of sediment filling Bellingham Bay. Volume estimates on the order of 120,000 cubic yards per year were generated over the 137-year period, with the sediment deposition in some areas exceeding 25 feet. This study lends further evidence to the hypothesis that the Nooksack delta is a relatively young, rapidly developing feature resulting from the recent (within the last several centuries) Nooksack River avulsion from the Sumas Valley into a remnant glacial outwash channel leading to Bellingham Bay.