The Erratic Slide...Slide To The Left...One Hop EarthCache
Hidden : 1/22/2008
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

This earthcache is located on the public right of way. No need to leave the road to get your pic or answers. Handicapped accessible.

What is It?

A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that is not native to the area, but was delivered there by glacial ice. The erratic differs from the sizes and types of rocks in the area in which it rests. They can vary in size from light pebbles to tens of thousands of tons.

Where are They?

Randomly found throughout Illinois are boulders lying alone or with others in the corner of a field or someone's yard, on a courthouse lawn or a schoolyard. Many are colorful and glittering granites, or banded gneisses, and some have intricately veined and streaked patterns in igneous and metamorphic rocks. They may seem out of place in the grassy knolls and prairies of our state. Their "erratic" occurrence is the reason for their interesting name.

Where Did They Come From?

These exotic, erratic, rocks came from the North: Canada and the states north of us. The continental glaciers of the Great Ice Age scraped the land surface as they moved down the continent, pushing up chunks of bedrock and grinding them against each other or the ground surface. Sometimes you can tell where the erratic originally came from by determining the kind of rock it is.
  1. Granite, gneiss, or other igneous or metamorphic rock large boulders may have come from Canada.
  2. Those with flecks of copper were probably transported here from the "Copper Range" of the upper peninsula of Michigan.
  3. Light gray to white quartzite boulders with round pebbles of red jasper came from Ontario, Canada.
  4. Purplish pieces of quartzite, some with bands, probably originated in Wisconsin.
  5. Glacial till and is unsorted and unlayered mixture of clay, sand, gravel that vary widely in size and shape that produced Canadian Tillite. This glacial till has been around so long that it has hardened into a gray to greenish gray rock containing a mixture of grains of different sizes and scattered pebbles of various types and sizes


Uses

Many erratics are of notable size and beauty. Some are used as monuments in courthouse squares and parks, or along highways. Many are marked with metal plaques to indicate an interesting historical spot or event.

Logging Requirements

Email me the answers (Do Not Post Them In You Log)
1. Estimate the width of the boulder
2. Estimate the height of the boulder
3. Determine the type of rock based on its color.
4. Where you think the rock originated.
And DO Post in Your Log:
5. A picture of you in front of the erratic from the road.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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