Your Path to Platinum EarthCaching

 

earthcache platinum

Written by: Gary Lewis, Senior Director of Education and Outreach, The Geological Society of America

EarthCaching is different – while part of your geocaching experience, it involves a lot more than finding, logging and replacing a physical geocache.  A visit to an EarthCache involves a lesson, a opportunity to think, discuss and ponder and a chance to be rewarded with achievements beyond your number of finds.

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Garden of the Gods Earthcache GCND0E

EarthCaching started in January 2004 when I placed the first EarthCache with my daughter on a headland in southern Australia.  My goal was to teach geocachers more about the wonderful geology of our planet.  So Earthcaches involve you visiting a site and undertaking a logging task that teaches you some aspect of geology related to what you see.   There are now over 18,000 active EarthCaches around the globe – and at least one on every continent!

Can you name this EarthCache? Do so in comments below!
Can you name this EarthCache? Do so in comments below!

I realized early on that the effort required to place an EarthCache needed to be rewarded.  On top of the normal geocache needs, an  EarthCaches require some research and planning to meet the guidelines. Out of that realization was born the EarthCache Masters Program – which rewards caters for visiting and placing EarthCaches.

The genius of the EarthCache Masters Program is that it’s quite simple.

  • The first level, Bronze, requires you to visit and log three EarthCaches.  The trick is, those three EarthCaches  cannot be in the same state/province/country. We want you to travel to experience the geology away from your home location.
  • The next level, Silver, requires you to visit and log six EarthCaches and develop and have published one EarthCache. So after you have visited a handful of EarthCaches you get rewarded for the effort you put into having your very own EarthCache published by the Geoaware team.
Can you name this EarthCache? Do so in comment below!
Can you name this EarthCache? Do so in comment below!

 

  • Beyond this the levels are Gold (visit 12, create 2)
  • Platinum (visit 20, create 3).

You record your efforts via the EarthCache website here and are rewarded by an icon you can place on the profile page.  You can even buy Masters coins.

Being an EarthCache Master shows the community that you are not only committed to learning about our Earth, but committed to having even more fun geocaching!

Here’s my challenge. Lets see if we can’t double the number of people who are at each of the EarthCache Masters levels by International EarthCache Day (Sunday 11 October)  this year. You have more than 18,000 EarthCaches to choose from to start!

Current Number of EarthCache Masters by Level

Bronze     = 14122

Silver        = 3731

Gold          = 2086

Platinum  = 1678

 

TOTAL = 21617

 

Can you guess this EarthCache location? Do so in comments below.
Can you guess this EarthCache location? Do so in comments below.