Jasper Puddingstones EarthCache
Hidden : 5/5/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

-- THIS IS AN EARTHCACHE, READ BELOW FOR LOGGING REQUIREMENTS --

When settlers first reached this area in the 1840s - they saw boulders along the shorelines which resembled Christmas pudding, as it seemed to contain cherries and currants in boiled suet pudding.

Jasper Puddingstone is Unique to the Bruce mines and St. Joseph island Area, and is also known as a Lorrain Conglomerate rock. Puddingstones are made up of Red gems called Jasper, white quartz, as well as other stones and crystals, all cemented together with quartzite. The boulders found on the beaches of Bruce mine have been erroded by over a billion years of weather and ice, to form smooth, hard and durable "conglamorate" stones.

The Term Conglomerate is a name for rocks that consist of rounded to semi-rounded fragments (pebbles, cobbles and boulders) surrounded by a finer grained matrix, such as sandstone, or in this case quartzite.


Texture of the Puddingstone boulder, one of many on this beach


These rocks were formed in the Huronian Period of the Proterozoic Era about 1 billion years ago. Ancient seas were depositing extensive sediments along the shores eroded from even older rocks of the Canadian shield. The Jasper stones come from the Lorrain Formation 70km north of Bruce mines, and were formed nearly 2.4 billion years ago. Sand and pebble beaches became compressed and heated over time by even further depositions of rock and sand. Further heat and pressure from volcanic activity melted the sand between the rock into quartzite.

Quartzite is extremely erosion resistant, and has maintained the Conglomerate with the Quartz and Jasper gemstones embedded for a billion years. The Bruce Mines Puddingstone is a highly sought after collectible for geology buffs, and gemologists.

TO LOG A FIND:



Go to the posted coordinates, which will take you to a large puddingstone boulder (as well as a number of other interesting geological occurrences!).

1) post a picture of yourself with the boulder in your found log

2) post a close-up picture of the boulder showing a few different types of rock embedded in it. Try and identify or describe these rocks in the found log (Jasper is the obvious red stone, but there are others!)


Click the logo to visit the COG website!

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