Echo Canyon EarthCache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(not chosen)
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When I was a kid I remember thinking this canyon was one of the
coolest places I had ever seen. I hope everyone who visits enjoys
it as much as I have.
Echo Canyon is located in a limestone rich area of Carter County.
This area is host to many cave networks that have been formed by
the natural drainage of this area. Echo Canyon is a good example of
what just a small stream can do to bed rock. The canyon that you
see has taken millions of years to form and it is still growing to
this very day. If you look into the canyon you will see the typical
geology of any box canyon located throughout the world. Read on to
find out more about the formation of canyons and the different
types.
Canyons are steep,
V-shaped valleys incised in rock, commonly in plateaus.
Although the rock that forms a plateau is usually a
sedimentary sequence of lime stone, sandstone, shale, or
conglomerate, layers formed by basaltic lava flows are also
common, particularly as protective cap rocks. Canyons cut in
flat-lying rocks have steep side walls composed of alternating
cliffs and slopes with a step like profile . The cliffs are
formed by the harder, more resistant rock strata, and the
slopes by softer, less resistant layers. Canyons in
crystalline rock tend to have less regular cross-sectional
profiles. Most canyons have narrow to nonexistent floodplains
between their channel and the side walls. Canyons with near
vertical headwalls are called box canyons, from which there
are no upstream exits. Canyon floors can be fairly level for
long stretches, particularly near their mouths. They have a
depositional cover of sand, gravel, and boulders. Boulders and
large talus fragments predominate in their upper reaches but
are sparse and scattered in their lower sections. Cap rocks
composed of lava flows commonly contain columnar basalt, which
forms layers of closely packed, vertically oriented, polygonal
shaped columns. Where such layers are present, fallen rock
debris on the canyon floor consists of a jumble of loglike
rock columns of different lengths. If the channel is incised
into a sequence of layered rocks, the channel typically takes
on a flat-bottomed, boxy shape, more like an arroyo. A canyon
may contain a perennial river (e.g., the Grand Canyon of
Arizona contains the Colorado River), ephemeral water, or
intermittent water. In the arid to very arid deserts, most
canyons are dry. All, however, are subject to flash flooding
after rain falls in the watershed, which can be the
surrounding highlands or a distant mountainous area.
To claim this cache answer the following questions and post a
picture of yourself at the canyon with your GPS. (No handshots
please)
1. What type of canyon do you think this is? (The answer can be
found in the above text)
2. What is the predominate rock that forms this canyon?
3. How deep do you estimate this canyon to be.
4. How wide do you estimate this canyon to be
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe gur chyy bss orfvqr gur ebnq.