Arbuckle Anticline EarthCache

This cache has been archived.

CampinCrazy: Sad! I could not find a better way to this lot and it appears that the sign is gone too. So thanks to all that passed this way but it is time to say goodbye. CC

More
Hidden : 9/13/2007
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:


This cache is located in a public scenic turnout along Interstate 35 in the Arbuckle Mountains of Southern Oklahoma. This is one of the most dramatic views of the mountain range and was marked by a sign explaining its formation. Storms took that sign out so I have pasted it below. The Granite Seismograph marker is still there.


Arbuckle Mountains

Geologically the Arbuckles are an elongate anticline; a fold in the earth’s surface that is convex up. They contain a core of Precambrian granite and gneiss formed about 1,300 million years ago; in the western Arbuckles, Precambrian rocks are overlain by at least 5,000 feet of Cambrian rhyolites formed about 525 million years ago. Most of the Arbuckles consist of 15,000 feet of folded and faulted limestones, dolomites, sandstones, and shales deposited in shallow seas from Late Cambrian through Pennsylvanian time (515-290 million years ago). Folding and uplift of the mountains occurred during several mountain-building episodes in the Pennsylvanian Period. The complex mountain area probably was never more than several thousand feet above the surrounding plains and seaways. Relief in the area now ranges from 100 to 600 feet, and the highest elevation, about 1,415 feet, is in the West Timbered Hills, about 9 miles west-southwest of Davis. Although the relief in this mountain area is low, it is still impressive because it is six times greater than any other topographic feature between Oklahoma City and Dallas, Texas. Just as you enter the Scenic turnout, notice the cut made to make the road. You’ll see that years of erosion have worn down a hill that was much taller once (N34 25.569 W097 08.080).


Tilted Entrance

The Arbuckles contain the most diverse suite of mineral resources in Oklahoma: limestone, dolomite, glass sand, granite, sand and gravel, shale, cement, iron ore, lead, zinc, tar sands, and oil and gas; all these minerals are, or have been, produced commercially.

To get credit for this cache, do the following:
1. Take a picture with your GPS in front of the granite seismogarph sign.
2. Email the answers to both of these questions:
a. What process folded the strata into a high mountain range?
b. What is the origin of the igneous center of the anticline?


Arbuckle Anticline Sign


Don’t forget to visit Turner Falls, see the Tombstone Topography, and experience the incredible formations along Interstate 35.


I35 - Pushed Up!


CONGRATS to Luke911 and Blazzik for FTF!

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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