Hagan Mountain is a multi-peak mountain located in the
North Cascades
The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Casca ...
, in
Whatcom County
Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington, bordered by the Canadian Lower Mainland (the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts of British Columbia) to the north, Okanogan ...
of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
state.
[
] It is situated north of
Marblemount
Marblemount is a census-designated place in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The population was 203 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Mount Vernon–Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Present-day Mar ...
, within
North Cascades National Park. Its nearest higher peak is
Mount Blum, to the north, with
Bacon Peak
Bacon Peak is a mountain located in North Cascades National Park, in the Cascade range in the U.S. state of Washington. Its glaciers cover ; the three main glaciers are Diobsud Creek Glacier (southeast, wide), Green Lake Glacier (northeast, ...
to the south.
Precipitation
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...
and glacier
meltwater from the large Hagan Glacier and smaller
Hidden Creek Glacier on the mountain drains into tributaries of the
Skagit River
The Skagit River ( ) is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000& ...
.
Climate
Hagan Mountain is located in the
marine west coast
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
climate zone of western
North America.
[Beckey, Fred W. Cascade Alpine Guide, Climbing and High Routes. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2008.] Most
weather front
A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For in ...
s originate in the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
, and travel northeast toward the
Cascade Mountains
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, a ...
. As fronts approach the
North Cascades
The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Casca ...
, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the Cascades (
Orographic lift
Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...
). As a result, the west side of the North Cascades experiences high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall.
Due to its temperate climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, areas west of the Cascade Crest very rarely experience temperatures below or above .
During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer.
Because of
maritime influence, snow tends to be wet and heavy, resulting in high
avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain.
Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and eart ...
danger.
Geology
The North Cascades features some of the most rugged topography in the
Cascade Range with craggy peaks, ridges, and deep
glacial valley
U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...
s. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences.
The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...
Epoch.
With the
North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacif ...
overriding the
Pacific Plate, episodes of
volcanic igneous activity persisted.
[ In addition, small fragments of the ]oceanic
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
and continental lithosphere
A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years or ...
called terrane
In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust (geology), crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and Accretion (geology), accreted or "Suture (geology), sutured" to crust lying on another pla ...
s created the North Cascades
The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Casca ...
about 50 million years ago.[
During the ]Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating repeatedly scoured and shaped the landscape.[ The "U"-shaped cross section of the river valleys are a result of recent glaciation. Uplift and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the North Cascades area.
]
Gallery
File:Hagan Mountain, North Cascades.jpg, Northwest aspect
File:Cascades panorama from the upper meadow below Park Butte.jpg, Northern Pickets, Mount Blum, and Hagan (right) from the upper meadow below Park Butte
File:Hagan Mountain, taken from near Mt Baker.jpg, Hagan Mountain
See also
* Geography of the North Cascades
The geography of the North Cascades describes a range of rugged mountains in British Columbia, Canada and Washington (U.S. state), Washington, United States. In Canada, the range is officially named the Cascade Range, Cascade Mountains but is commo ...
* Geology of the Pacific Northwest
The geology of the Pacific Northwest includes the composition (including rock, minerals, and soils), structure, physical properties and the processes that shape the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The region is part of the Ring of F ...
References
External links
Weather forecast
National Park Service
{{Geographic Location
, Center = Hagan Mountain
, North = Mount Blum
, Northeast = Middle Peak
, East = Mount Despair
, Southeast = Berdeen Lake
, South = Bacon Peak
Bacon Peak is a mountain located in North Cascades National Park, in the Cascade range in the U.S. state of Washington. Its glaciers cover ; the three main glaciers are Diobsud Creek Glacier (southeast, wide), Green Lake Glacier (northeast, ...
, Southwest = Mount Watson
, West = Baker Lake
, Northwest = Mount Shuksan
Mount Shuksan is a glaciated massif in the North Cascades National Park. Shuksan rises in Whatcom County, Washington immediately to the east of Mount Baker, and south of the Canada–US border. The mountain's name ''Shuksan'' is derived from t ...
Mountains of Washington (state)
Mountains of Whatcom County, Washington
Cascade Range
North Cascades
North Cascades National Park
North American 2000 m summits