Top of Chicago EarthCache
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Very easy Earthcache. A quick earth science lesson that everyone passing here should know. Parking lots very close to the cache coordinates and the walk to the posted coordinates is on sidewalks but it is a little steep for some.
Do not post answers in your logs, please.
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/display/2e07025d-5e25-4e45-b8f8-2f6f24eb2da1.jpg
Chicago is a flat city, but when you come here you'll agree this feature is not flat. The average elevation in Chicago is 579 feet while the elevation at the lakeshore is only two feet lower. That means we live in a flat city. When you arrive at the posted coordinates, you will be standing at the highest elevation in the city of Chicago. There are man-made features in Chicago that dwarf the elevation of where you are headed, but this is the highest natural formation within the city limits. The actual highest spot by a couple of feet is most likely on the golf course nearby, but this spot is just as high.
You are sitting on Blue Island. No, not the town south of here though it was named for this geologic feature. During the last Ice Age Lake Michigan once filled the lower areas with water. Scientists called it Ancient Lake Chicago. Blue Island, where you are standing, was an over 5 mile island in the middle of this ancient lake that is now found several miles east of here. You are standing on the northern end of Blue Island. The southern end is in the town of Blue Island just before Western Ave. crosses the Cal Sag Channel. You are also standing on one of the few glacial moraines within the city limits. A moraine is a hill of very different soils and sizes of rocks debris that has been left there in an unorderly pattern. The moraine contains debris that the glacial ice destroyed most likely of rock formations north of Chicago, and when that glacial ice melted from the bottom the flowing water transported the broken rocks of various sizes and shapes called erratics, large boulders, and glacial till, smaller rocks or different shapes and sizes and clay soils, into a pile or hill called a moraine. This moraine is here, because the glacier must have been melting at this place for a long period of time allowing the debris to pile into this two mile moraine. Those who have cached in the nearby forest preserves near Palos Hills, IL would agree to seeing those same features.
The nearby Beverly neighborhood contains many small and large homes on the bluffs of Blue Island. I encourage you to go south and east of here to Longwood Dr. and see the well decorated homes along this winding street that borders the eastern edge of the moraine. You'd swear you weren't in Chicago.
In order to log a find:
1. Find the elevation at the posted coordinates.
Hope you enjoy your visit.
Congratulations to NightWanderer14 and PowerWurst for the FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gnxr lbhe gvzr pyvzovat gb gur fhzzvg