Tory Rock Glacial Erratic
This area is typical of many Adirondack areas: a mixed forest of
deciduous and evergreen trees. An old and currently active logging
road will serve as your trail to the Tory Rock. As with much of the
landscape in this area, you will not feel as if you are deep in
woods as it is very similar to preserves and parks located
throughout New York. There is a stream that runs close to here.
Open toed shoes should be fine to get to the Tory Rock but a decent
hiking shoe with a sturdy sole will do much better. At times the
area may be a tad muddy so come prepared for the worse and hope for
the best!
Glacial erratics are boulders that seem to have been dropped out
of nowhere. They are called "erratic" because they are not like any
of the other native rocks in the surrounding area where they are
found and “glacial because they were transported from one
area to another by a glacier. Geologists identify erratics by
studying the surrounding rocks, the shape of the erratic and the
composition of the erratic itself. These rocks were often carried
over hundreds of miles and can range in size from pebbles to large
boulders such as Big Rock (16,500 tons) in Alberta and many
unlikely examples in Staten Island and Central Park.
As glaciers advance push and scrape anything in their path and
either grind them into pieces along the way or carry them along
within the great mass of ice. As a glacier begins to melt (recede)
it drops all of the material it has been carrying, similar to a
stream, its drops the heaviest items first. Often, the presence of
erratics is used to determine the leading edge or edge zone of the
glaciers advance.
Erratics were once considered evidence of a massive flood
approximately 10,000 years ago, similar to the legendary floods
described in the texts of ancient civilizations throughout the
world. Ancient legends of an epic flood come from many cultures
including Mesoamerican, Sumerian (Epic of Gilgamesh), Hebrew (Old
Testament) and Indian culture. In the 19th Century, many scientists
came to favor erratics as evidence for the end of the last glacial
maximum (ice age) 10,000 years ago, rather than a flood.
Some Geologists have suggested that landslides or rock falls
initially dropped the rocks on top of glacial ice. The glaciers
continued to move, carrying the rocks with them. When the ice
melted, the erratics were left in their present locations. The
commonly accepted theory is that these large pieces of rock were
broken off by mechanical weathering and/or the scouring action of
the glacier and carried along with the rest of the baggage. They
were eroded and rounded during the ride within the glacier and then
dropped at another location.
Please try to keep your environmental impact to a minimum. Stick
to the trails and keep off the moss!
In order to earn your smiley for this earth cache, you will need
to do a few things.
- Estimate the height of this erratic.
- Estimate the girth of this erratic. A fun way to do this is to
measure yourself from fingertip to finger tip. Work your way around
the erratic and then give me your estimate. Make some fun of the
event and use multiple people!
- Post a photo of somebody in front of the erratic who is either
sitting or kneeling. This will make it tougher for others to
estimate its height from just a photo!
Please visit my other Earth Caches:
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away!!!