CLEVELAND WAY EARTHCACHE 1: THE GLACIER HAS GONE EarthCache
CLEVELAND WAY EARTHCACHE 1: THE GLACIER HAS GONE
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One of a series of Earthcaches that can be completed by Geocachers walking The Cleveland Way.
About 2 million years ago a change in climatic conditions led to the North Polar ice cap spreading many miles beyond its present position and local ice caps becoming established in many mountain areas, such as Scotland, the Lake District and the Pennines. Because of their lower elevation, the North Yorkshire Moors became an area of snowfields and tundra and ice surrounded it on 3 sides. Because the North Sea was itself blocked with ice, meltwater could not flow seawards but drained away from the glaciers in a direction totally different to today’s drainage pattern.
Although the ice has long since disappeared (the most recent cold period ended around 10,000 years ago) the evidence for the existence of glaciers is very clear. Along the fringes of the N. Yorks Moors are high concentrations of glacial deposits, left behind when the ice melted. The sticky brown clay that plasters the coastline which forms the second half of The Cleveland Way is a good example of the debris left behind by the melting ice.
More evidence can be found in the meltwater channels formed as the water from the glaciers escaped from the ice front. These are now dry valleys as at 943005 on the Fylingdales Moor or dramatic gorges such as the one in Newton Dale ( 820929). Sometimes ice blocks get partially-buried under the glacial debris and rocks and once they melt they leave depressions that may fill with water.
Standing at the co-ordinates on the edge of the Hambledon Hills, it is difficult for us to imagine ice sheets, hundreds of feet in thickness, filling the area to the north and west in what is now the Vale of York but it was there. Try to imagine thousands of tons of ice and snow pushing down on the land with tremendous weight and force, grinding away at the rocks beneath. As the water drained away, it cut channels and scoured hollows between the edge of the ice and the adjacent hills. Lake Gormire below you has developed in a depression in one of these channels. It is the only natural lake in the North Yorks Moors National Park and the fact that it has no streams entering or leaving it gives strong indication of its glacial origin.
To log the earthcache you need to send me an e mail the answers to the following questions along with your email address.
You can log your visit as a "find" for your 'smiley' straight away and I will contact you asap to let you know any errors if there are any.
1) Which direction you think the glacier that filled the Vale of York drained out? Was it north, south, east or west?
2) What is the geological name of isolated bodies of water with no inflow or outflow of water?
By all means post a photo of yourself at the spot, looking out over the Vale of York.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh’yy zbfg yvxryl unir na ryrpgevp bar va lbhe xvgpura!
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