Born From Ice - Coire Lairige EarthCache
Born From Ice - Coire Lairige
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(not chosen)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Earth Cache site is approx an hour walk good boots are reccomended
Coire Lairige has formed over ten of thousands of years, as there is very little agriculture in the Glen to destroy the topography. The land has changed little since the last ice age. The whole Glen has signs of Glacial action.
The above coordinates take you to a waymark post overlooking the corrie where a Glacier finished its life, e a Ghearraig, with a deep gully cut by the melting water from the Glacier running North East.
Below is an explanation of Moraine types
Moraine is material transported by a glacier and then deposited. There are eight types of moraine, six of which form recognisable landforms, and two of which exist only whilst the glacier exists.
The types of moraine that form landforms are Ground, Lateral, Medial, Push, Recessional and Terminal.
Ground Moraine
Ground moraine is till deposited over the valley floor. It has no obvious features and is to be found where the glacier ice meets the rock underneath the glacier. It may be washed out from under the glacier by meltwater streams, or left in situ when the glacier melts and retreats.
Lateral Moraine
Lateral moraine forms along the edges of the glacier. Material from the valley walls is broken up by frost shattering and falls onto the ice surface. It is then carried along the sides of the glacier. When the ice melts it forms a ridge of material along the valley side.
Medial Moraine
Medial moraine is formed from two lateral moraines. When two glaciers merge, the two edges that meet form the centre line of the new glacier. In consequence two lateral moraines find themselves in the middle of the glacier forming a line of material on the glacier surface. The existence of a medial moraine is evidence that the glacier has more than one source. When the ice melts it forms a ridge of material along the valley centre.
Push Moraine
Push moraines are only formed by glaciers that have retreated and then advance again. The existence of a push moraine is usually evidence of the climate becoming poorer after a relatively warm period. Material that had already been deposited is shoved up into a pile as the ice advances, and because most moraine material was deposited by falling down not pushing up, there are characteristic differences in the orientation of rocks within a push moraine. A key feature enabling a push moraine to be identified is individual rocks that have been pushed upwards from their original horizontal positions.
Recessional Moraine
Recessional moraines form at the end of the glacier so they are found across the valley, not along it. They form where a retreating glacier remained stationary for sufficient time to produce a mound of material. The process of formation is the same as for a terminal moraine, but they occur where the retreating ice paused rather than at the furthest extent of the ice.
Drumlins
This is a large elongated mound of glacial till. Drumlins often occur in groups ... hence the terms 'drumlin swarm' and 'drumlin field'. This landform is created by ice moulding the ground moraine as it passes over it. The drumlin has an aerodynamic shape with the rounder end pointing in the direction the ice flowed from.
To log this cache.
1. Take a photograph with your your gps pointing north east, taking in Ben Gulabin
2. Look at the Waymark post! there are 2 arrows! using your compass you did bring one? work out the angle in degrees that both arrows point and email me the answers!
3. Look across the corrie to the west using your compass as a clinometer and work the angle of the wall and email the answer.
4. If Edinburgh was demolished would all the rubble fit in the corrie! again email me the answer.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures