“Between Kingston and Aylesford, Highway 101 crosses one of the few inland dunes in Nova Scotia. The dune forms a narrow ridge covered by pine trees and is composed of fine sand (called Loess) blown from glacial deposits to the west.”
[Excerpt from the Geological Highway Map of Nova Scotia, Special Publication Number 1 (Second Edition) produced by the Atlantic Geoscience Society]
This feature is visible along the mentioned stretch of highway, especially in areas where motorized recreational vehicle activity is common and wears away the top layer of soil, forever exposing the sand below.
This fine sand, or loess, is common throughout the Kingston-Greenwood and Aylesford areas. (Ask anyone trying to grow a lawn there.) On my property, it extended some 40+ feet down to the bedrock, part of the Blomidon and Wolfville Formation (consisting of red sandstone, siltstone, conglomerate, and shale indicated by the plain light orange area on the attached map).
The given coordinates are the intersection of Greenwood Rd. and a new road being cut into the popular Ravenwood sub-Division in Kingston. This construction gives an idea of the extent of the sand dune in this area. This feature is plainly visible from the road.
For a spectacular view before you visit, click on the View Larger Map link on the map at the bottom of this listing and select Google Satellite view. The orange area south of the cache icon is the exposed sand area.
Please obey the signs and stay out of the construction area!
These dunes are very unstable and could collapse at any time. Content yourself with observing from the safety of the road at this location!
Another example of this sand dune can be seen around exit 17E at Kingston, where motorized activity has eroded the topsoil and exposed the sand.
Feel free to forward any other location with a good view of the sand. The given coordinates are, at present, the most obvious view of this feature.
By the way, a sand point is a type of well consisting of a hardened point on a porous length of pipe. This is attached to the end of a solid pipe and driven into the ground (mine was about 20 feet). A pump is connected and voila, water. You can see where the sand makes it possible to use this form of well. You can no longer use this type of well for drinking, just irrigation.
In order to claim this EarthCache, e-mail me with the approximate height and width of the deposit. Also, please post a picture of you and/or your GPSr with the deposit in the background (although not a requirement, it is nice to see who visited.)
You may log your find before receiving confirmation from me, but any logs not meeting ALL the requirements mentioned will be deleted.
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