Creation of Crater Lake EarthCache
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As you travel south of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada, you will encounter a small unusual circular lake along side #9 highway. Not many people know about this lake or how it originated. It is just over 280 meters across and 15-30 meters deep. This lake was named "Crater Lake".
Crater Lake is located within the Parkland Region of Saskatchewan. The Parkland Region which was formed by glacial activity, got its name from the fact that it looks like a park, with broad open spaces, originally covered mostly with bluegrass, interspersed with groves of trees, mostly aspen and bur oak. This is due to its relatively dry, warm climate and richer soils. The terrain is relatively flat but is well dotted with small lakes and potholes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Crater Lake is unique as there is no other like it nearby.
The Province of Saskatchewan's current landscape ranges from rolling hills, to table-flat prairie, to the rocks and lakes of the north. About 3.1 to 4.5 billions years ago Saskatchewan was down around the equator but the continental drift had shifted the land mass to its present location. At first it was mostly underwater until a series of volcanic islands formed. These eventually became mountains, which eroded away to shallow, tropical seas. The seas covered the province for much of the time from 1.7 billion to 65 million years ago. Toward the end of that period, the seas retreated, leaving forested land. About 50 million years ago until the beginnings of the Ice Age, Saskatchewan's climate changed and forests gave way to grassland. It was due to these periods that Saskatchewan gained its rich resources such in coal, oil, and potash.
Saskatchewan was plagued with five huge sheets of ice (glaciers) that shaped today's landscape. That last glacier scraped across Saskatchewan between 17,000 and 10,000 years ago. The retreating glacier produced a huge lake of melt water known as Lake Agassiz. At one time Lake Agassiz stretched from Prince Albert to Lake Superior. Sediment from that lake gave Saskatchewan its vast, flat plains. The Parkland Region was part of this plain as it once was the bottom of Lake Agassiz. All that is left of Lake Agassiz now are the three main lakes (Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Manitoba, & Lake Winnipeg) in Manitoba. The melt water carved valleys, such as the Frenchman River Valley and the Qu'appelle Valley. As glaciers melted they left behind gravelly hills and created the knobby "prairie pothole" terrain. These potholes were formed when ice blocks broke off the retreating glacier and were buried in the other debris that the melting glacier left behind. When the buried ice blocks finally melted, the weight of the rocks and soil piled on top of them collapsed, leaving behind potholes. Today these potholes, so abundant in the Parkland Region of Saskatchewan, fill with water each spring when the snow melts and are the major breeding habitat for waterfowl. Agriculture (growing of cereal grains and oilseeds and raising cattle) is the main industry in the region. Just southeast of Crater Lake there is a potash mine in Esterhazy.
Crater Lake has no access or services for the general public. It may only be viewed from the roadside turnout with a historical marker. This marker has all the details on the formation of the lake. There is no need to enter any private property.
To log this earth cache, one MUST e-mail me (through my profile) the answers to the following questions:
1- On first line, give me the name of the earthcache, the GC code, and your caching name(s).
2- What was thought to have formed Crater Lake?
3- What lies about 915 meters beneath Crater Lake?
4- Explain how Crater Lake was actually formed?
5- How many times did this happen?
6- (Optional) Post a picture of yourself with your GPS beside the historical marker.
NOTE: Do NOT post your answers in your logs. Do NOT post photos of the marker so that the written details are visible. Such logs and photos will be deleted! Please be sure to submit your answers to me or your log will be deleted.
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