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This geocache is a large, camouflaged box, filled with rocks to identify. It is located along Cheeney Creek. A log book & pens are included.
It is easiest to park in Lantern Woods Apartment complex's parking lot, which is located off of Lantern Road in Fishers between 106th & 116th Street. Park in the lot on the south side of the office & enter the woods by a little path behind the southwest corner of the pond. Be careful of old, fallen, metal fencing on the ground in a couple of areas.
In the cache are 18 different types of rocks, most are polished. Each type is in a separate zipper-lock bag. The bags are numbered 1 to 18. Some bags have more than one example of the type of rock. To log this cache, you must email us & identify at least 10 of the 18 rocks. Go ahead & log your find when you submit your list to us - if you flunked this mock geology class final exam, we'll contact you!
Following are brief descriptions to help you identify.
DESCRIPTIONS:
AGATE - Agate forms when traces of iron, manganese & other chemicals create bands of chalcedony. Agates come mostly from cavities in basalt. There are scores of varieties of agate, including tree agate, which is white with green, wavy bands & crazy lace agate, which has many bands of white, tan & dark brown.
Amazonite – Amazonite is a name given to the only type of microline with a green color. Microline is a variety of feldspar, which constitutes one of the most abundant groups of minerals. It is brittle & has a glassy luster.
Amethyst – Amethyst is one of the most attractive forms of quartz. Tiny traces of iron in the quartz give it a color varying from pale mauve to deep violet. It is found in most places where granite is exposed on the surface.
Calcite – Calcite is one of the world’s most common minerals. It is a sedimentary mineral and the main element of limestone, marble, chalk, etc. It ranges from clear to opaque & is usually white or colorless. HINT: With a clear piece of calcite, you can make an optical illusion called double refraction. Calcite has unique optical properties that split a ray of light into two beams that are bent at different angles because they travel at slightly different speeds. This splitting of light means that you see double when you look through a calcite crystal.
Carnelian – Carnelian is an orange-red to reddish-brown, translucent variety of chalcedony. It gets its reddish color from traces of hematite (iron oxide). It has a dull, greasy finish.
Citrine – Citrine is a semi-precious yellow, orange or brown variety of quartz. Its name comes from citrus, the Latin for “lemon,” & the yellow color comes from tiny particles of iron oxide suspended within it. It is the most valued quartz gem, but is sometimes thought of as “imitation” topaz, which it resembles but is slightly softer than.
Hematite – Hematite is the most common ore or iron, containing 70% of the metal. It is steel gray to black color as crystals (or red to brown in earthy or massive forms) with a metallic luster. If soil or sedimentary rocks have a reddish color, it is usually due to hematite, which is why the planet Mars is red.
Jasper – Jasper is commonly sedimentary rock & a type of fine-grained quartz. It is an opaque stone found with earthy reds, yellows, browns & greens caused by the presence of iron or other impurities. Spotted jasper is commonly called bullseye or leopardskin.
Kyanite – Kyanite is typically found in aluminum rich rocks and in quartz veins that cut through them. It forms under conditions of high pressure as elongated, slightly pearly crystals usually in shades of blue or black. It is used in the manufacture of fireproof & acid-proof materials.
Moonstone – Moonstone is cream colored. Moonstone is often used as a stand in for pearl, when pearl is not available. Its name is derived from a visual effect, or sheen, caused by light reflecting internally in the moonstone from layer inclusions of different feldspars.
Mugglestone – Tiger Iron is sometimes called mugglestone. It is a combination of hematite, red jasper, &, sometimes, yellow jasper or golden tiger eye. All properties of either hematite & red jasper can be applied to mugglestone as well.
Ocos – Geodes are rounded rocks or nodules with crystals inside. Tiny geodes are called ocos. They are formed by fluids that seep into the rock cavity & crystallize. The interior may be filled with a banded quartz-like striped agate, or lined with groups of crystals.
Pyrite – Pyrite has the nickname “fool’s gold” because the brassy yellow color and chunky appearance have fooled a lot of prospectors looking for gold. It is a brittle, metallic mineral & is more than 50% sulfur in composition The surface of pyrite is often grainy, although cubes are common.
Rose Quartz – Rose quartz is translucent pink. Rose Quartz is generally not popular as a gem as the mineral is generally too cloudy and not clear enough to be cut into a gem. The better quality stones are collectible for their sheer beauty & rarity.
Sandstone – Sandstone is a sedimentary rock formed by the action of wind, water & ice on older rocks. It is composed of sand-like crystals of quartz cemented together by silica, lime or iron oxide. Formed in or near ancient seas, sandstone may contain fossilized sea animals. It can also be cut into blacks & used for construction.
Snowflake Obsidian – Obsidian forms from the same magna that solidifies as granite deep underground. It is glassy & usually jet black. Snowflake Obsidian has white snowflake patches of the mineral christobalite. Sometimes “snowflakes” can form through devitrification as moisture alters silica in the obsidian.
Sodalite – Sodalite is a feldspathoid mineral that occurs with nepheline syenites & cancrinite in basic igneous rocks. Its color ranges from royal blue to light blue & white. Rich blue masses of granular Sodalite are found near Bancroft in Ontario, Canada.
Tiger Eye – Tiger’s eye is a quartz with fibers of asbestos & other minerals trapped inside. Tiger’s eye is typically golden brown with bands of color shimmer across the surface with a mysterious light like the eye of a tiger.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Arkg gb ovt EBPX ol n snyyra gerr.