View of Franz Josef Glacier EarthCache
A cache by E71 Message this owner
Hidden : 4/8/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

This will take you to the parking lot. From there you go to Sentinel Rock Walk & up to the viewing platform. It is on a gravel pathway with some incline to get to the viewing platform.

Glaciers, perennial accumulations of ice, snow, sediment, rock and water, respond to changes in temperature, snowfall and geologic forces. Several components make up a glacial system: the ice and sediment contained in the glacier; the valleys, fiords and rock features it flows over, on, or around; and the deposits left by its retreat or advance. New snow layers create pressure on existing layers of snow and ice. This process, "firnification", changes snow to firn, a dense granular snow (like corn snow). After the first season's melt, snow becomes firn. As it is compressed further, firn becomes ice. As the snow collects over many years, an ice field forms. Ice flows down the valleys and slopes of the mountains to the lower elevations, and glaciers are born. Glaciers form where more snow falls than melts. A glacier's accumulation area, located at higher elevations, accrues a wealth of snow and ice. The ablation area, located at lower elevations, loses ice through melting (downwasting) or calving. A glacier's terminus or face advances when more snow and ice amass than melt, and it retreats when melt exceeds accumulation. When melt equals accumulation, a glacier achieves equilibrium and its face remains stationary. Whether the glacier's face is advancing or retreating, glacial ice persistently glides down-valley. Coerced by gravity, ice pursues the path of least resistance. Ice depth and bedrock angle influence the rate of glacial flow. Glaciers contain two zones of ice flow. The zone of plastic flow, ice closest to the bedrock, experiences extreme pressure from the weight of the ice above and conforms to the anomalies in the bedrock. The zone of brittle flow, the upper 150 feet of glacial ice, lacks this pressure and reacts inelastically to the bedrock features, forming elongated cracks called crevasses which fluctuate with the glacier's flow. Tubular chutes or moulins drain surface meltwater, and formidable spires of ice called seracs reach skyward. Ice plummets over particularly steep terrain creating ice falls. One theory suggests that differences in seasonal flow rates over an icefall create the convex bands called ogives at the base of the falls, which undulate down glacier. The erosive power of glacial flow changes the landscape and scrapes much of the soil and rock from the valley walls that channel its irrepressible flow. Glaciers leave an impressive footprint on the landscape, carving the rock as they retreat and leaving behind steep topography and fiords where the ice once held sway. Flooded seacoasts and rising water levels are the legacy of their retreats, as are the ecological changes on the landscapes around the glacier's edge. Glaciers also have cultural impacts, in that their activity has affected human settlement, migration, and subsistence over thousands of years. The landscape around a glacier clearly illustrates the effects of Pleistocene and Holocene glaciation. Ice excavates the bedrock, forming bowl-shaped cirques, pyramidal horns, and a series of jagged spires called arête ridges that separate glacial valleys. As glaciers carve U-shaped valleys, rocks plucked from the bedrock and frozen in the ice etch grooves and striations in the bedrock. Rocks scoured from surrounding valley walls create dark debris lines called lateral or medial moraines along the edges and down the center of glaciers. Pulverized rock called rock flour, ground by the glacier to a fine powder, escapes with glacial meltwater producing the murky color of glacially fed rivers and lakes. Glacial recession unmasks trimlines, slightly sloping changes in vegetation or weathered bedrock on the valley walls that indicate a glacier's height at its glacial maximum. Meltwater transports glacially eroded material to the outwash plain, an alluvial plain at the edge of retreating glaciers. Icebergs break away or calve from the faces of glaciers ending in lakes or the ocean.Cracked pieces of rock, plucked or torn from the bedrock, are carried with other debris in and on the glacier. This debris scrapes the valley walls and floors, leaving grooves and striations. Rock debris is crushed and ground into fine grains, called rock flour. Each episode of glacial advance and retreat also shuffles the mix of flora and fauna. Fragile vegetation ventures into a seemingly barren wasteland. Carried by the wind, seeds and spores of pioneering plants cling tenaciously to life in the hostile environment. Plants As lichen and moss clothe the exposed rock, the rebirth of the temperate rainforest begins, with alder, willow, cottonwood, spruce and hemlock systematically reclaiming the land they inhabited before the most recent glacial advance. Glacial debris, poor in nutrients, depends on flowering lupine, decomposing alder leaves, and alder root nodules to fix nitrogen into the developing soil. Overshadowed by cottonwood and spruce, decaying alder adds additional fertilizer to the forest floor, while hemlock ultimately rises to close the canopy, shading out most spruce and creating an old growth stand or climax forest. Encompassing almost 350 years, this sequence of plant succession nurtures the development of the forest community and provides habitat for an increasing number of plant and animal species. Franz Josef Glacier Julius von Haast, geologist and explorer, named Franz Josef Glacier in 1863, after the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Approximately 7000 years old, and a remnant of a much older and larger glacier which originally swept right to the sea, Franz Josef Glacier extends 12 kilometres from its three feeder glaciers in the high snow fields of the Alps. Today the terminal face is a mere 19 kilometres from the sea and just 5 kilometres from the township. The 1946 New Zealand Peace Stamp issue which commemorated the end of World War II, featured on its nine penny stamp the view of Franz Josef Glacier from the altar window of St James Anglican Church. This historic church was dedicated in 1931. By 1954 the glacier had retreated so that it was no longer visible from the church. The advance of the glacier brought it back into view in 1997. Maori Legend Early Maori called this place Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere - The Tears of the Avalanche Girl (Hinehukatere). Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Tawe, to climb with her. Tawe fell from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears froze to form the glacier. To log this cache you need to Email me the answers to the following questions. 1. On the sign at the platform what is the year the ice is the highest? 2. About how far is it to the base of the glacier from the platform? 3. What does the riverbed mostly consist of? 4. How many wood steps are there at the look out including the levels of the platforms? 5. Post a photo of you with glacier in the background. (pic optional of course)free counters

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