Druim EarthCache
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End of Chebogue Point Road. Park to the right. Wear solid shoes for beach and rocks. Must visit within about 2 hours either side of low tide for best appreciation. Stay on roads, paths and shoreline, not across fields. Dairy cows present in fields.
You are about to enter a DRUMLIN field with one of them as our point of focus. Our reference here is Roland, Albert E., Geologial Background and Physiography of Nova Scotia, NS Institute of Science, 1982.
A drumlin (from the Gaelic, “druim”, referring to a mound or rounded hill) is a deposit of glacial till - a collection of rocks, stones, and earth picked up by the glacier as it moved across the land surface. Drumlins usually occur in groups and appear as a number of oval shaped hills between 15 and 30 meters high and up to a kilometer long, all pointing in the same direction. (See the drumlin field illustration.) There are an estimated 2300 drumlins in Nova Scotia.
Drumlins are more or less streamlined. Many theories exist regarding their formation. Most agree that they were formed by moving ice and that that they are more elongated where the ice was thick and moving rapidly. However, till material must be available so the process of the moving ice has something to shape. They are common in areas with slate, as here in southwest Nova Scotia, as the slate was easily ground up for till material. Glacial material can be carried for great distances so what we find on the surface may not be related to its immediate substrata.
Our drumlin, and its neighbors you will observe, is a special case of a coastal drumlin. These formations were created during the Wisconsin glaciation at its maximum extent about 19,000 years ago. By 12,000 years ago it is estimated that sea level was some 100 meters below its present level so our drumlin would have been an upland feature with a fully rounded and streamlined “whale shaped” form.
What happened? As sea level rose it modified the coastline and our drumlins were there for the taking. A mass of glacial till doesn’t have the resistance of a rocky headland so erosion gradually takes place. An estimate of the extent of erosion can be charted by the debris pile left to the seaward end of the drumlin. Some material is too large or not exposed long enough to be moved by wave action, even during our big winter storms, so at low tide the original footprint of the drumlin can still be seen.
As you head east from the parking area toward the coordinate location you can walk on the stone farm road or the beach. If you are on the road, when you reach the field drop down to the beach and continue. When you reach the coordinates, our target drumlin is directly east at the end of a steep shingle (stone) beach. You can walk out to it if you wish but it is not required.
What you need to provide to log:
Do not answer in cache page, except for 1.
1. A photograph of the drumlin with one or your party or a GPS included.
2. You are at the base of a steep embankment. What type of glacial formation is it part of? What is the compostion of the material in the embankment?
3. Looking across at our target drumlin, how much of the original would you estimate is left?
4. Looking east, how many other landforms can you identify as coastal drumlins.
Roland, Albert E., Geologial Background and Physiography of Nova Scotia, NS Institute of Science, 1982.
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