The Chuckanut Mountains (from "Chuckanut", an indigenous word meaning "long beach far from a narrow entrance"), or Chuckanuts, are located on the northern

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

state coast of the

Salish Sea The Salish Sea ( ) is a List of seas on Earth #Terminology, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean located in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia and the States of the United States , U.S. state of Washingto ...

, just south of

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

, United States. Being a part of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

, they are the only place where the Cascades come west down to meet the sea. The Chuckanuts are considered to be a part of the Puget Lowland Forest Ecoregion. The range contains Larrabee State Park, the first State Park to be designated in Washington (1923). Its mountains include: *Anderson Mountain * Blanchard Mountain * Chuckanut Mountain (including North Chuckanut Mountain, South Chuckanut Mountain, and Chuckanut Ridge) * Galbraith Mountain (also known as North Lookout Mountain) * King Mountain *

Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "La ...

Sehome Hill Sehome is a neighborhood in Bellingham, Washington, United States. It was the first town on Bellingham Bay and was founded in May 1858 by coal mine manager Edmund C. Fitzhugh, who named the settlement for his father-in-law, Klallam people, S'Kl ...

* Squalicum Mountain * Stewart Mountain * Toad Mountain

Geology

The Chuckanut Mountains were formed by the folding of the Chuckanut Formation (which is predominantly made up of layers of 55-million-year-old

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, conglomerate,

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

, and bituminous and sub-bituminous coal) and the later

Huntingdon Formation Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

(predominantly shale and sandstone) on top, as well as an exposed section of pre-Jurassic-age

phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliation (geology), foliated metamorphic rock formed from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. I ...

. The Chuckanuts are well known for their Tertiary Period leaf fossils. In 1988, an outcrop of

metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...

phyllite, green chert, and milk quartz on Blanchard Mountain was exposed by a construction crew. The outcrop is unique for its unusually large chunks of

stilpnomelane Stilpnomelane is a phyllosilicate mineral. It has the chemical formula . Stilpnomelane occurs associated with banded iron formations. It is a metamorphic mineral associated with the blueschist and greenschist facies. It was first described in 18 ...

References

External links

* Mountain ranges of Washington (state) North Cascades of Washington (state) Landforms of Whatcom County, Washington Washington (state) placenames of Native American origin {{WhatcomCountyWA-geo-stub