Hunt for SubTropolis EarthCache
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BE ADVISED YOU MAY NOT ENTER THE TUNNELS ANYMORE! EVERYTHING NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE CACHE CAN BE FOUND ON THE PAGE LISTING AND WITH PHOTOS OUTSIDE OF THE TUNNELS.
WE'VE ALREADY HAD A FEW CACHERS RUIN THE BROADER PERMISSION, AFTER SOME EFFORT, WE'VE GOTTEN A PROBATIONARY SECOND CHANCE WITH LESS ACCESS RIGHTS.
ANY ADDITIONAL INTRUSIONS BEYOND PERMITTED AREAS WILL RESULT IN A PERMANENT SHUTDOWN OF THE CACHE.
What to do with an area full of old limestone mines?
Fill it -- with people, supplies, offices, and warehouses. In the greater Kansas City area, an estimated 20 million square feet of business and industrial space lies below the ground, squirreled away in space created by the mining of the Bethany Falls and Argentine limestone. That accounts for over 10 percent of the business and industrial space in the area.
There are about 30 distinct underground business parks, led by the mammoth SubTropolis, a 913-acre world in itself with 6.5 miles of roads and 2.1 miles of rail corridors. This is the destination of our earthcache.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of calcite, calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica or siliceous skeletal fragment, as well as varying amounts of clay, silt and sand sized terrestrial detritus carried in by rivers.
Most crushed stone is limestone and dolomite. It is used mostly for construction purposes, although much of it is also used in shoreline protection. In construction, crushed limestone is used as an aggregate in concrete mixes. The limestone binds the mix together when it hardens. Almost 60% of all crushed limestone is used as aggregate in highway concrete and asphalt. Drilling and blasting are necessary.
Below are some common uses of limestone:
1.The manufacture of quicklime (calcium oxide) and slaked lime (calcium hydroxide);
2.Cement (concrete) and mortar
3.An excellent building stone for humid regions;
4.Common in architecture
5.Pulverized limestone is used as a soil conditioner to neutralize acidic soil conditions;
6.Crushed for use as aggregate—the solid base for many roads;
7.Glass making, in some circumstances;
8.Added to paper, plastics, paint, tiles, and other materials as both white pigment and a cheap filler.
9.Toothpaste
10.Added to bread and cereals as a source of calcium
11.Used in blast furnaces to extract iron from its ore
12.Medicines
13.Cosmetics
When mining began in the area in the late 1800's, limestone was mainly quarried. But starting in the 1940's, mining began to take place with an aim to leaving usable subterranean space behind.
Tunneling into the hills and bluffs in the area, miners carefully extracted stone in a grid-shaped pattern, leaving behind large rooms with massive, evenly spaced pillars holding up the "roof" of the mine. Miners remove a 12 to 16-foot thick layer of rock some 100 to 150 feet underground, leaving a thick ceiling between the underground space and the outside world. Today's pillars are typically 25 feet in diameter and spaced 60 to 65 feet apart, center to center. More than 10,000 massive whitewashed pillars support the 16-foot-high ceilings. This provides several benefits -- especially important as we begin to see the 'green' trend in business and society expand.
The relatively constant temperature makes the old mines a useful place for long-term archival storage. Costs for insurance, taxes, heating and cooling, and security are also less underground.
Food companies use the space, saving on refrigeration costs. The US Postal Service,the largest tenant of underground space in the area, uses minespace for fulfilling orders for stamps for collectors. A massive duty-free warehouse holds goods from around the world. Other uses for the space have included a college library, health center, and computer lab.
PERMISSION WAS OBTAINED FOR THIS PLACEMENT. ONLY SEARCH FOR IT DURING THE FOLLOWING HOURS:
MONDAY - FRIDAY -- 8AM -- 6PM.
To log this cache, we request that you post a photo of yourself and/or the GPSr at the given coordinates for the waypoint below. Since there is no physical logbook to sign, it creates a form of digital signature.
To demonstrate the educational value of this Earthcache, you must email me the answers to these five questions.
DO NOT PUT THEM IN YOUR LOGS.
1. What is the constant temperature of the underground location?
2. Name the type of limestones (hint: brochure link in hint #2 lists 3) found in the area.
3. How old is the limestone deposited in this area?
4. How wide are the typical pillars found in SubTropolis? Also, how far are they spaced between?
5. What is the method of mining used to create facilities like SubTropolis?
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
OEBPUHER JVGU NAFJREF PNA OR SBHAQ NG:
uggcf://uhagzvqjrfg.pbz/vaqhfgevny-fcnpr-sbe-yrnfr/jung-vf-fhogebcbyvf/