Westover Drumlin Field EarthCache
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This earthcache is on the Lafarge 2000 trail,there is no reason to go on private farm land.You will need to do a short but steep hike to the top of the drumlin.Roadside parking near the trail head.
Drumlin, come from a Gaelic word-“druim” meaning a little rounded hill. Is an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Its long axis is parallel with the movement of the ice, with the blunter end facing into the glacial movement. Drumlins may be more than 45 m (150 ft) high and more than 0.8 km (½ mile) long, and are often in drumlin fields of similarly shaped, sized and orientated hills. Drumlins usually have layers indicating that the material was repeatedly added to a core, which may be of rock or glacial till. Glacial till make the drumlin a great farming area.
It is common to find several drumlins grouped together. Areas with swarms of drumlins are sometimes referred to as 'basket of eggs' topography because of the rounded bumps that remind people of a box containing eggs.
There is still some debate about how drumlins are formed, but the most widely accepted idea is that they were formed when the ice became overloaded with sediment. When the competence of the glacier was reduced, material was deposited, in the same way that a river overloaded with sediment deposits the excess material. The glacier may have experienced a reduction in its competence for several reasons, including melting of the ice and changes in velocity. If there is a small obstacle on the ground, this may act as a trigger point and till will build up around it.
It is difficult to understand how the material could have been directly deposited in the characteristic shape of a drumlin unless the ice was still moving at the time, but it may also have been reshaped by further ice movements after it was deposited.
The Westover Drumlin Field area encompasses a group of drumlins which have been modified by wave-action in glacial Lake Whittlesey and Lake Warren. These rounded hills have been cleared of most natural vegetation for farming.
The drumlins, comprised of Wentworth Till, rise to an elevation of some 295 m, some ?m(see logging requirements) above the inter-drumlin valleys. During two stages of the last glaciation these high hills formed islands in proglacial lakes. Wave-action in these lakes modified the drumlins which now exhibit distinctive shoreline features, including wave-cut benches and wave-built gravel bars. These features are best-developed on the southern drumlins which were exposed to waves generated across the open water to the south. Erosion features on the southern side of the drumlins include wave-cut benches and bluffs. Depositional features consist of wave-built sand and gravel bars and cones. The most interesting feature is a tombolo, a gravel bar created between two islands. This feature was created by a combination of erosion of material from the exposed southern drumlin, and deposition of this re-worked material on the sheltered northern side. The result of this process is a bevelled drumlin joined to a second drumlin by a tombolo bar. Mapping of the present elevations of the stranded shoreline features on these and other drumlins scattered throughout northern Hamilton-Wentworth Region and vicinity permits scientists to unravel the chronology of events in this region during part of the last glaciation period. The highest shoreline features, at a present elevation of 275 to 277 m, have been attributed to Lake Whittlesey, an extensive lake formed between the Ontario ice lobe and the Paris Moraine some 13,000 years ago. A second set of shoreline features, at about 265 m elevation, have been assigned to Lake Warren, which existed about 12,700 years ago and reached its northern limit near this site. A third set of shoreline features at about 262 m elevation, may represent a lower Lake Warren strand line. The unique combination of features at this site has been identified as representative of Lakes Whittlesley and Warren in the Erie basin. This area has been used as an earth science interpretative site by universities and various geological organizations.
The trailhead is at N43 20 299 W 080 03 246
To log this cache you must e-mail these 3 answers, do not post them in your log:
1:Record the elevation at the trailhead. Then record the elevation at cache site, what is the change in elevation?
2:How many drumlins can be seen from the top of this drumlin?
3:What direction does the drumlin run?
Also, with your log post a picture of your gps and/or group near the trail plaque or use the Christmas tree farm as a backdrop
If you continue on the trail to the next drumlin, there is another cache GCJ4HP-
Marching to a Different Drumlin. Nearby are caches GCXAD3-IMC No. 3 P-Ca-Looking Westover the Drumlin and GC15Q4T-Working the Field. All these relate to drumlins
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)