The Bitterroot Angle EarthCache EarthCache
The Bitterroot Angle EarthCache
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The coordinates take you to a great view of the Bitterroot Mountains as you are looking West. As you look at the Bitterroots you will notice that they are tilting down to the east. Also the surface is smooth.
Educational Info - According to Roadside Geology of Montana by David Alt and Donald W. Hyndman, a zone of rock called the Bitterroot mylonite lies beneath the smooth range front. It is a thousand feet thick, looking platy and streaky. The book describes mylonite as a “distinctive type of rock that forms where rocks deep below the surface are strongly sheared, typically in a deep fault zone.” To get a closer look at the Bitterroot mylonite zone go to any canyon south of Stevensville.
They claim that the mylonite sheared off the Bitterroots, pushing down the side of the metamorphic rock. That in turn pushed up the granite that was still weak enough to shear easily creating the Sapphire Mountains in the East.
In order to claim this cache, please estimate the angle in the Bitterroots tilt down towards the East. Email the answer to the cache owner. Then take a picture of you and the Bitterroots in the background from the coordinates and post with your log.
Failure to send the CO your answer within 24 hours of logging this cache, will result in your log being deleted!
Additional Hints
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