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Snow: Spatial Dendrite Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

weathernowcast: My favorite logs from this cache:

"I was out with a group of explores looking over the Dupont area when we all decided to hike the trails( no cache coords). The group stopped by this rock formation not far from the the trail and while a boy was going to the bathroom or at least trying to in the woods i wondered of the trail and started to check the area for a cache. Why not i thought ,not a bad place to park one and i just didnt want to stand around, I started poking around and spotted the lock-lock container!!!! WOW a cache with out coords and not enen knowing one was in the area! The others where inpresed but i know it was a cachers eye for hideing locations and mostly luck. Thanks for unexpected find." Treequest

"This was a tricky one but I got it after a few minutes. It was about 40 degrees out by the time I got here. Great day in the park. Thanks again Brian."macatac1961

"Great for kids to climb in." GeoCATS<3

"Another nice hide as we made our way up the orange trail. Found it without any problems. Thanks for showing us this great area." TeamLundr

"Great series! Enjoying the woods near my new home and decided to put a few out here myself." Nocturnalnavigators

"You know that you are in trouble when you arrive at the cache location and discover that there are many possible hiding spots. You know that you are in real trouble when the cache owner is with you and HE CAN'T REMEMBER where he placed it. We all searched for a while for this one and ended up covered with dirt and snow, but we did have a lot of fun working as a team on this one. TFTC!" citicar1976

Followed ATV tracks to the cache but the last 100 ft. Was not damaged by humans. Memorable rock formation. No impact by geocaching observed. Cache removed for failing to comply with new NJDEP requirements.

This entry was edited by weathernowcast on Monday, 23 March 2015 at 16:17:12 UTC.

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Hidden : 12/27/2007
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

lock-n-lock. thousands of places to look for this in an interesting rock formation


Spatial Dendrites

Spatial Dendrites are three dimensional stellar crystals with branches growing on more than a single plane. Branches (or arms) connect randomly to a central structure. These complex critters form under extremely cold conditions (-20 to -25 degrees C) when high levels of atmospheric moisture are present.

The series is based on the 1951 International Commission on Snow and Ice classification system. The commission produced a fairly simple and widely used classification system for solid precipitation. This system defines the seven principal snow crystal types as plates, stellar crystals, columns, needles, spatial dendrites, capped columns, and irregular forms. To these are added three additional types of frozen precipitation: graupel, ice pellets, and hail. The classification is the least complicated in a series of snow classification systems. The most complex classification scheme, an extension of Ukichiro Nakaya's work, was published by meteorologists C. Magono and C. W. Lee in 1966. Their system included 80 different snow crystal types.

Twenty years ago I used the international classification in an Independent Physics Field Study where I observed snowflakes for the winter and developed correlations with surface and lower atmospheric conditions. Today, the classification system is used here to find structures in nature that look similar to the snow referenced in the cache name.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

1> lbh unir gb or fxvaavre guna zr ohg bayl tb va n sbbg 2> gb gur yrsg jura lbh ragre gur perivpr (gur 2aq bar abg gur obggbz bar) 3> nccebnpu sebz gur abegu

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)