Due to recent changes in Earth
Caches, there are NEW RULES to log this as a find
10/10/2006.
To log this find, you MUST E-Mail me
the "Elevation" at the top and at the bottom of the "Inwood Trails
Kettle Hole." Include the difference between the two elevations in
your email.
DO NOT post them online, Send the
Email to: teamcoychev@gmail.com
We're taking you on an adventure down the Metroparks Inwood
Hiking Trails to view a "kettle hole" and to enjoy the surrounding
plants and wildlife. Inwood Trails is a five-mile hiking trail
system owned by the Metroparks. The many meandering trails are
located north of Inwood Road, between Mt. Vernon and Mound roads.
To access these trails, park only
in the parking lot at the beginning of the trails, off
Inwood Road, where you will find useful trail maps. The parking
coordinates are N42 45.831 W083 04.815. Hopefully, there will be
trail maps available at the sign shown below, near the parking
lot. Please stay on the
trails.
Kettle
Definition: a hollow created when buried blocks of
glacier ice melt out. The name derives from an old meaning of
'kettle', as in a deep iron basin for heating water over a
fire.
About twenty thousand years ago, the Wisconsinan
glacier covered much of North America. If the terminus of the
glacier remains in place for a few years (no net change in ice
deposits), a distinct ridge of sediment called a moraine forms
along the front edge of the ice.
As the front of the glacier retreats, it sometimes
leaves behind huge blocks of ice (Fig A) which becomes surrounded
by sediments (Fig B) carried by glacial melt water streams. As the
ice block melts, a depression forms called a kettle (Fig C). If the
bottom of the kettle is filled with fine-grained sediment or the
groundwater table intersects the bottom of the kettle, the kettle
may have standing water in it and it becomes a kettle lake or
kettle pond (Fig. D.)
As rain falls or snow melts some of the water
infiltrates the surface. At some depth the water fills the pore
spaces of the sediment or bedrock where it is called groundwater.
The top surface of the groundwater is called the water table. As
the water table or elevation of groundwater below the surface began
to rise along with the rising of sea level thousands of years ago,
it began to fill some depressions in the land surface such as
kettles.
Permission has been granted by the Metroparks to submit this
earthcache; it is located within Metroparks Inwood Trails, a part
of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority park system. A
Metropark Vehicle Entry Permit is not required for Inwood Trails,
but they are required at most other Metroparks: Annual Permit $20,
Senior Permit $12, Daily Permit $4. For general information please
call 1-568-781-4242, or visit our website at www.metroparks.com.
All park rules and regulations apply.
Park in
parking lot only. Inwood Trails close at dusk.