 Sudbury Astrobleme!
A cache by The Mighty Canadian Juicepig Hidden: 7/15/2008
Size:  (Not chosen) Difficulty:  Terrain:  (1 is easiest, 5 is hardest)
|
|
Please note: To use the services of geocaching.com, you must agree to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.
|
1.85 billion years ago, this was not a friendly place. Welcome to
the crater rim of the second largest confirmed impact crater on
earth.
The Sudbury Basin was created 1.85 Billion years ago when a 10km
wide spacerock travelling 75 kilometers per second, gently nudged
the area, causing this 250km wide crater, that was at one point
15-20km deep. Magma from the earths mantle filled the crater,
creating the rich mineral deposits of Nickle, Copper, Platinum,
Palladium, Aluminum and gold that Sudbury is best known for.
Astrobleme : "Star Wound", an ancient weathered
impact structure
The impact was thought to be equivalent to 10 Billion Hiroshima
Bombs, vaporizing the asteriod, and melting a large swath of the
Canadian shield. Debris from the impact was spread over an area of
1.6 million square kilometers, and flung over 800 kilometers from
the impact. If a similar incident were to happen today, the impact
would instantly destroy all people, places and things within 800km
of the impact, cause the earths atmosphere to be flooded with
several thousand cubic miles of volcanic gas, sulpher, Carbon
Dioxide and Monoxide, before igniting and wiping clean the entire
continent in a bath of fire.
The impact crater is much smaller today (roughly 60km long, and 30
km wide). After 1.85 billion years of erosion, mountain building, a
few hundred ice ages, and other natural events only the north-west
rim of the crater remains fully intact. The formation of the
Grenville and LaCloche mountains to the south pushed the southern
rim of the crater northward, giving the crater and Oval shape. A
subsequent meteorite impact 35 million years ago deformed the
north-east section of the ridge - creating Lake Wanepeti.
On the eastern side of the Sudbury Astrobleme is the Wanapitei
impactor site - Another impact crater left by a much smaller impact
only 37 million years ago. Local myths suggest that the lake is
actually bottomless, but renowned oceanographer Jacques Cousteau
determined that was not the case in various case studies of the odd
lake. Contained within the lake is a gravitational anomaly called
the Temagami Magnetic Anomaly, that generates a magnitude of over
ten thousand nanoteslas - making it the strongest magnetic anomaly
in North America. Some geologists believe the anomaly to be the
original Wanepeti meteorite, while others believe it to be
unrelated. One of many unanswered geology questions about the
area.
The Sudbury Astrobleme is the second largest crater verified impact
site on earth after the "Vredefort" in South Africa. It is larger
then the much younger 3rd place contender "Chicxulub", the Dinosaur
Killer in Yucatan Mexico.
Today the remenants of this impact run a 3 billion dollar a year
mining industry in the area, producing over 900 million kilograms
of Nickel, more then 10% of the world's consumption.
TO LOG THIS CACHE
Go to the Coordinates listed above. You will find a parking lot
with many different types of stones, minerals and metal ores, with
a description of how they were formed. Use the trail to travel down
into the "High falls" area, and locate a "Wild" rock (there are
plenty to choose from)
Take a picture of this "wild" rock, then identify it using the
plaques and examples in the parking lot.
Your found log will need to contain:
- A picture of the "wild" rock (a rock in the wild) and
coordinates
- A picture of the "captive" rock (a rock with a plaque in the
parking lot)
- A brief description of what the rock is, use your own words! The
plaque will help you with this, just put it into simple
terms!
|
|
1 user(s) watching this cache.
|
