Whose Fault Is It Anyway?
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This is my 12th geology geocache designed to enlighten people about the geology of Staten Island, New York. Park where permitted along Victory Boulevard or along Clove Road. Parking at this popular park becomes a challenge on nice weekends, so be advised, and come early! Please be aware of the poison ivy and cat briers along the way, so DO NOT ATTEMPT this cache wearing shorts or flip flops!
Clove Lake Park is approximately 198 acres in area and its name is derived from the Dutch word “kloven” meaning cleft. Initially these lakes did not exist as they are today. Groundwater flowing through the cracks and fractures in the 425 million-year-old serpentinite bedrock highlands of Emerson Hill to the east (where the local residents have septic tanks and no sewers), eventually comes to the surface in Clove Valley behind the red brick water pumping plant on Victory Boulevard, just across from the park. Here a small artesian spring appears that local residents use, hopefully not for drinking. This natural spring feeds the lakes which initially began as a small stream that flowed directly into the Kill Van Kull to the north. The park contains three water bodies. From southeast to northwest they are Clove Lake, Martling Pond, and Brooks Pond. The latter pond was named after a local newspaper publisher, Erastus Brooks. As reported in the historical literature, this stream was dammed during colonial times at different locations to create three artificial lakes that served to power various grinding mills and wood cutting operations. In the area of Martling Pond during the mid-19th century, one dam was created in the winter months for an icehouse operation that supplied it to local residents. The icehouse and mills subsequently burned down, the dams eventually broke through, and were washed away. In the early 1930’s the city began to transform this natural area into a park which presently contains many wooded trails, paved pathways, picnic areas, ball fields, and wetlands. The bedrock geology, as previously mentioned, is the Staten Island serpentinite, which was formerly a piece of Earth’s upper mantle that got caught in the plate tectonic collision between a proto-North America and a series of volcanic islands to the east. This happened during the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era, approximately 425 million years ago. It eventually created the supercontinent of Pangaea, which contained all of the known continents today. On its upward journey, the initially igneous iron- and magnesium-rich silicate mantle peridotite rock containing the minerals olivine, pyroxene, chromite, and magnetite, came in contact with seawater under heat and pressure creating serpentinite rock. This metamorphic process makes the rock less dense and creates the new minerals of lizardite, chrysotile, antigorite, and talc, among others. As this hydration process continued, it caused the serpentinite bedrock to expand in volume creating many cracks and fractures, geologically known as joints. Later, when movement occurs along an initial joint, a fault is created. The chances of these old faults becoming re-activated and creating earthquakes on Staten Island are slim, but not zero! In California, this motion would create an earthquake, but millions years ago when the faults moved here, there were no humans present. In addition, Staten Island is not located along an active tectonic plate boundary, so earthquakes in the metropolitan area are indeed rare! Typically groundwater and surface water follow the path of least resistance along these joints and faults. The Clove valley topography and fairly linear path of the initial stream and subsequent water bodies suggest this area is underlain by a fault, known as the Clove Lake Fault. The broken rock within the valley became enlarged 12,000 years ago when the Pleistocene Epoch glacier covered this area. There are several major faults that exist in the serpentinite. Check out my nearby Silver Lake Graben geocache which contains a pair of gravity faults. In reality, three mutually perpendicular sets of joints and faults were formed in the serpentinite, whose outcrops within Clove Lake Park are rare. Every borough has its faults, but these are truly geologic in nature! Cache can ONLY contain very small items. PLEASE RE-SEAL THE CONTAINER AND REPLACE IT UPRIGHT WHERE YOU FOUND IT! Enjoy the finding this geocache, the park, its trails, and lakes.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe ynetr obhyqre ba rqtr bs teniry genvy npebff sebz pnpur ybpngvba. Pnpur vf haqre n tenavgr oevpx ng gur onfr bs ynetr gerr.