One unique feature in Lytton is really easy to get close to. The Lytton Jelly Roll, is (a cast of) a large sand and silt structure mounted on a wall facing the Caboose Park (across from the Visitor Info Center). This rolled layer of silt encased in coarser sands and gravel was uncovered in a gravel pit south of Lytton.
Formed during a glaciation period, this specimen is rare because of its size. Usually measured in centimeters, this one measures in meters and is one of the largest, if not the largest, formation of this type in the world!
Earthcaches are an educational type of Virtual Cache. There is no log book - though you might want to sign the vistor center logbook across the street since they love company.
To claim this cache as a find, and prove you were actually here, email the owner (linked above) with:
1. Estimated size of the jellyroll (you can step it off and estimate the height);and
2. What is the building the jelly roll is mounted on used for?
We hope you enjoyed learning more about your earth.
See here for details of how the copy was created http://pme.ubc.ca/exhibits/jelly-roll/
Quoted from The 432, UBC's student science newsletter, as found on the internet. No named writer credited.
Every now and again nature produces a curiosity, an exaggerated feature far removed from the norm. One local geological feature is so unusual that the BC government recently stepped in to make a life-sized impression of it. The four by seven metre cast has just been installed in UBC's M.Y. Williams Geological Museum.
The Lytton jellyroll is not, as its name suggests, a tasty local dessert. It's a sedimentary formation of sand and clay that geologists call a turbidite, and is open to view in a Ministry of Highways gravel pit two kilometers south of Lytton. Structures such as the jellyroll are usually measured in centimeters, rarely in meters. The Lytton jellyroll is one of the largest, spreading (this you need to estimate). "Such structure give scientists a considerable amount of informa- tion about the physical processes of sedimentation," said Joe Nagel, Curator of UBC's Geological Museum. "The Lytton jellyroll is special because of it's size ."
Scientists speculate the jellyroll was formed in an ice- bound lake during the last glaciation of the area. An underwater landslide disturbed the sedimentary deposits on the lake bottom causing them to slump away. Instead of breaking up and dispersing, the layers rolled up like a jellyroll. Subsequent deposits covered and protected the anomaly.
Mr. Nagel was a key figure in negotiations with the BC government several years ago to mark and protect the jellyroll site. Working with The Lytton Heritage Society, and the Lytton Chamber of Commerce, he prompted the Heritage Conservation Branch to step in to preserve this unique feature of BC's natural heritage before it was lost to erosion.
The Heritage Conservation Branch called in PML Exhibit Services, a Calgary company which has developed a specialized process for this kind of project. Technicians first sprayed the jellyroll with a mixture of laytex rubber to hold the loose grains of sand in place. They then covered it with more than 1,000 patches of burlap dipped in rubber to take the impression, and backed the mould with fibergalss to sitffen it. The process takes a negative "copy" of the jellyroll ; a positive reconstruction was then made from the mould.
It was a timely move, three days after work was completed, part of the Lytton jellyroll slumped away. In addition to the jellyroll replica at UBC's Geological Sciences Museum, a second casting will go on display at the Lytton Heritage Park Museum. (the one at the coordinates)