El Golfo EarthCache EarthCache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(other)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Lanzarote is a beautiful island of volcanic origin which was created about 35 million years ago along with other islands of the archipelago “Canary Islands” after the breakup of the African and the American continental plates.
At the south of the little fishing village El Golfo you will find one of the most splendid points of interest of this island which is also called El Golfo. It is a big volcanic crater which is half submerged in the sea, forming a beautiful black beach. This crater is one of the few and rare examples of hydrovolcanism, a phenomena produced by the interaction of magma or magmatic heat with an external source of water.
Inside this crater the lagoon “Charco de los Clicos” has emerged, an intense green lake whose remarkable colour is produced by the concentration of a special seaweed which blossoms pretty well due to the extreme high salt content of this lake. Unfortunately the green lagoon has evaporated more and more over the last years and its size has shrunk to a fractional amount of its original size. Normally the seawater runs through submontane connections into the lagoon and cares for a constant balance. But this balance of nature is disturbed for a few years now. Scientists are desperately looking for the cause, so this unique wonder of nature won’t disappear forever.
The cliffs behind the green lagoon still show the colourful structure of the volcanic wall, especially at sunset. And if you are lucky you might find stones with olivine in it at the black beach, a sparkling green mineral which is emerged by volcanism and often qualified as a semi-precious stone when it is used for gemstones.
To qualify for this EarthCache you have to
1. take a picture of the green lagoon and/or the colourful crater walls around it and add it to your log entry
(Please note that following the updated guidelines for Earthcaches from 1 January 2011 the requested photograph is related to an Earth Science logging activity and therefor no additional logging requirement which can be ignored! If you like to show your GPS or yourself in the picture, too, it would be appreciated but that is optional.),
2. tell us the name of the seaweed/algae that gives the lagoon the green colour (two words - you might need some internet research for this question) and
3. estimate the visible height of the single volcanic rock that is standing in the sea in front of the beach (rounded to the nearest 10 m). You pass it when you walk to the lagoon from the parking place in the south of El Golfo.
Please send your answers for task 2 and 3 per email to answer2answer3(at)geosoul.de, i.e. the name of the seaweed would be Phylum Charophyta and the rock would be 38 m high then your mail should go to phylumcharophyta40(at)geosoul.de (this is just an example!). Please enter your geocaching account name in the subject or in the mail, so we know who's got the answers right. And don't forget to add the required photo to your log entry after you got the log permission. (Please don't send it per mail, it would just fill up our mail entry even more.)
And please don't write or show any spoilers in your log entry!
We hope you enjoy this place as much as we did and we also hope that scientists will be able to stop the evaporation of this amazing lagoon at this extraordinary place of nature.
Many regards, Balla & Silly
Please note: we can highly recommend to visit the Timanfaya National Park which is in the north of El Golfo. You have to pay some entrance fee but you will see a fantastic region of fire mountains and you get a lot of geological and historical informations in the museum at the entrance of the park (N 29° 00.385 W 13° 45.279).
---==((( * ° * O * ° * )))==---
Attention: Due to people who continue to log this Earthcache without solving the three tasks we now have to say clearly that we will delete any found logs that don't fulfil the requirements without further comments.
---==((( * ° * O * ° * )))==---
Achtung: Da es immer wieder Leute gibt, die diesen Earthcache einfach als Fund loggen, ohne die drei Aufgaben gelöst zu haben, müssen wir nun leider klar und deutlich sagen, dass wir alle Foundlogs ohne weiteren Kommentar löschen werden, bei denen die Aufgaben nicht erfüllt sind.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)