Water Divided EarthCache
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This EarthCache will take you to the Eastern Continental Divide
where it crosses US Hwy 21 near Roaring Gap in Alleghany County,
NC.
The informational sign is located beside the southbound travel
lane. There is ample parking for southbound travelers on an old,
side service road on the right, just before the Divide. For
northbound travelers, you can park in the large gravel pull-out lot
at the crest of the hill and across the street from the posted
coordinates and view the sign from there, or turn left onto the
service road near the posted coordinates.
Alleghany County is shaped by the
land. The Crest of the Blue Ridge -- the Eastern Continental Divide
-- forms the eastern and southern border and is home to the Blue
Ridge Parkway. The county is principally drained by the New River,
which flows along the western and northern border, and its main
tributary, the Little River, which runs through the central portion
of the county. The North Carolina portion of the New River is
designated a National Scenic River and offers camping and other
recreational opportunities along its shore.
The Eastern Continental Divide is
a line of elevation dividing two massive watershed areas. It runs
along the high ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, and it
separates land draining east and northeast to the Atlantic Ocean
from that draining west and southwest to the Mississippi River and
Gulf of Mexico. The divide is aligned in a general southwest to
northeast direction following the course of the Appalachian
Mountains over both peaks and high valleys.
A watershed is a drainage basin.
The drainage basin acts like a funnel - collecting all the water
within the area covered by the basin and channeling it into a
waterway. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from
adjacent basins by a ridge, hill or mountain, which is known as a
water divide. Topography determines where the water will flow. The
continental divides are named as such because they are super long
divides covering large areas of land over the continent.
The rocks at the core of the
Appalachian Mountains formed more than a billion years ago. At that
time, all of the continents were joined together in a single
supercontinent surrounded by a single ocean. About 750 million
years ago, the crust of the supercontinent began to thin and pull
apart. As the crust expanded, a deep basin -- the Ocoee -- formed
in what is now the western Carolinas, eastern Tennessee, and
northern Georgia. Seawater filled the basin. Sediments, formed by
the weathering of surrounding hills, were transported by water and
deposited in layers on the floor of the basin. Over a long period
of time, a great thickness of sediments accumulated. These
sediments now form the bedrock of the Great Smoky Mountains. Within
these sediments, minerals like pyrite and metals like copper were
deposited. At the same time that the sediments were being laid down
volcanoes were erupting in present-day Virginia, the Carolinas, and
Georgia. Lava from some volcanoes flowed in slow moving sheets, but
some eruptions were explosive.
Then, about 540 million years ago, the supercontinent split into
pieces that drifted away from each other. Seawater spread into low
areas between crustal plates and,in time, formed new oceans. A
shallow sea covered most of what is now the United States.
About 470 million years ago, the motion of the crustal plates
changed, and the continents began to move toward each other.
Eventually the continents ancestral to North America and Africa
collided, about 270 million years ago. Huge masses of rock were
pushed west-ward along the North American plate and piled up to
form the mountains that we know as the Appalachians. This was the
final uplift of the Blue Ridge Province. Erosion, over the extended
time, revealed what we now see of the mountains. Evidence of the
varied history can be found in the rock. Look closely, you may even
small sea shells.
The Eastern Continental Divide was
formed by the folding and breaking (faults) of the earth’s
crush. It originates from a triple divide on an unnamed peak near
the town of Gold, Pennsylvania down the Appalachian Mountains
through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and
Georgia, through the City of Atlanta, then down through the tip of
Florida. Every continent except Antarctica has a continental
divide, and like North America, a few have more than one. North
American has 5: Eastern, St. Lawrence, Northern, Great, and the
Great Basin.
In short, continental divides are created by the folding
of the Earth’s crust, which created the mountain
ranges.
Enjoy the views in the Appalachians. Thank you for your interest in
this EarthCache!
Developed
by a Platinum EarthCache Master
To claim credit for
this EarthCache you must meet the following requirements:
The picture MUST be uploaded immediately after
posting your log AND the answers to the questions MUST be sent
within a reasonable amount of time on the same day as you claim
your smiley. All logs not complying will be deleted without notice.
As of 7-30-09, I will no longer send out reminder emails asking for
the information.
1. Post a picture of yourself with your GPSr in front of the
Eastern Continental Divide sign with the elevation numbers obscured
from view. Please do not post pictures showing the elevation!
2. Email me answers to the following questions:
A. What is the elevation listed on the sign?
B. What is the elevation reading on your GPSr? Why do you think
there is a difference?
C. What direction did you approach the Divide? If you poured water
on the ground before you reached the Divide, what body of water
would it eventually reach?
D. If a rain drop hits the Divide directly on the peak of divide,
what do you think happens to that droplet?
E. Look around the area of the Eastern Continental Divide. What
kind of rock formations do you see?
F. Do you see any evidence of folding or faults. If so,
what?
DO NOT
post the answers to the questions in your log, not even encrypted.
Your log will be deleted if you do.
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