Stony Creek - Inside the Moraine EarthCache
Stony Creek - Inside the Moraine
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This earthcache is designed to let you see inside of a moraine. Parking for this earthcache is located in the West Branch parking area and the trail to the cache begins at N42° 43.515 W083° 06.530.
Before you set off on your quest for this or any of the other available caches at Stony Creek, stop in the office and pick up a copy of the park’s GEOTOUR of the Sheldon Estate. The tour allows your gps to take you through forests, gardens, walls and meadows. It will even direct you to the highest point in the Stony Creek Metropark.
The Huron-Clinton Metroparks are strong supporters of geocaching and earthcaching. Take note, if you want to place a cache within park boundaries you must have a permit. Visit the park office for more details.
Now, on to the inside of a moraine.
A moraine is formed as glaciers grow and retreat. A moraine may be comprised of sand and silt, known as glacial flour, up to large boulders. The debris left by a glacier is typically angular. Moraines may be on the glacier’s surface or deposited as piles or sheets of debris where the glacier has melted. Moraines fall into several categories the one you are looking at here is a ground moraine.
Ground moraines are covered areas with irregular topography and no ridges often forming gently rolling hills or plains. It is accumulated under the ice by lodgment, but may also be deposited as the glacier retreats.
Moraines of Michigan are largely a result of the activities of the extensive glaciers of the Pleistocene period. At the end of the latest ice age, about 12,000 years ago, the hills of Stony Creek were formed. There were several stages of ice advance and retreat.
The entire Pleistocene period covered about 2 million years, but it was the most recent ice advances during the Wisconsin stage that, by and large, sculptured the current Michigan landscape. The moraine is formed when the glacier stops and “relaxes” for many years and then retreats. As the glacier is at a “stoppage” its forward movement is at the same rate as its melting. While it is melting, the glacier is depositing the rocks, gravel and glacial flour that it carried as it advanced. The result: a moraine.
After parking at the posted co-ordinates follow the trail system to N42° 43.257 W083° 06.667. It is at these coordinates you will be able to take an inside look at a moraine. You will be able to see there are rocks many sizes, shapes and colors. Notice how smooth many of them are from the journey as the glacier carried them from general direction of Georgian Bay, Ontario to their present location. The glacier also carried sand, silts (remember – glacial flour) and clay as it pushed its way south and then retreated. If you look closely at the rocks you will see schist, granite, sandstone, and limestone. You may even be able to see some pieces of fossilized coral. Remember – Earthcache supports Leave No Trace ethics.
To complete this cache you will need to provide me some information from the site. After collecting this information you will not be posting them but rather e-mailing me with the answers. Only post the required pictured with your log.
1. With your log, post a picture of yourself/team with the moraine cutaway in the background.
2. Estimate the height to the moraine from ground level to its highest visible point. E-mail me your answer. DO NOT post your estimate with your log.
3. With your back to the cutaway section of the moraine as you face the trail that brought you to the moraine you will see some evidence of the glacier’s effort and work. What do you see? Don’t over think this question. Again, email me the answer to this question.
This Earthcache has been placed with permission of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks.
This cache is located within Stony Creek Metropark, a part of the
Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority park system. A Metropark Vehicle Entry Permit is required:
Annual Permit $25, Senior Permit $15, Daily Permit $5. For general information please call
1-800-47-PARKS, or visit our website at www.metroparks.com All park rules and regulations apply.
Park in parking lots only. Check the Metroparks website for park hours.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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Treasures
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