Based on the changed guidlines, it isn´t any longer necessary to ad a photo to your log!!
This Earthcache will guide you to one of the oldest and biggest limestone quarry in europe.
The "Roemersteinbruch" insn´t only famous for it´s limeston which was used for many buildings across Austria, (like the "Stephansdom" and "Schloss Schoenbrunn" in Vienna) there are also the biggest jackdaw-colony of europe. And you can find the two biggest caves of Burgenland at this area too.
Behind the limestone quarry you can find the "Skulpturengarten". The sculptures are made of the neaby limestone by sevaral sculptors between 1959 and 1970.
The whole area is under nature protection! So please be carefull there!
If you want to dig fossils of your own, it´s possible at the limestone-querry museum. The museum is open from 9am to 6pm (april-october) and from 10am to 4pm (november-march) Roemersteinbruch For logging the cache, it´s not necessary to enter the museum!
History/Geology:
The core of the "Ruster Huegelland" is made of crystalline prehistoric rock covered with maritime limescale. The first founds in this area are documented from 2000 years in the past.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO3). The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record. Calcium (along with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) is a key mineral to plant nutrition: soils overlying limestone bedrock tend to be pre-fertilized with calcium. Limestone is an important stone for masonry and architecture, vying with only granite and sandstone to be the most commonly used architectural stone. Limestone is a key ingredient of quicklime, mortar, cement, and concrete. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to important phenomena. Regions overlying limestone bedrock tend to have fewer visible groundwater sources (ponds and streams), as surface water easily drains downward through cracks in the limestone. While draining, water slowly (over thousands or millions of years) enlarges these cracks; dissolving the calcium-carbonate and carrying it away in solution. Most well-known natural cave systems are through limestone bedrock.
To log the cache you have to poste a photo from you (in front of a special sculpture in the sculpture-garden, at N47 48.460 E16 37.879 you will find the Photopoint) and answer the following questions:
1.) At this Point ( N 47° 48.181 E 016° 38.187 ) there is an info Table. On page 9 of the Info-Book you will see a picture of a fossil. Which animal has left it´s "fingerprint" here in the limestone?
The stage have been repaired and the book is renewed! Thanks to asterix471 for the information!
2.) What do you think is the weight of the sculptur beside you? (position of the sculpture: N 47° 48.460 E 016° 37.879)
3.) Which two names are over the entrance from the nearby chapel? ( the chapel is at: N 47° 48.507 E 016° 37.933 )
Send me the answers. You don´t need to wait fore logpermission. If there is something wrong, I´ll contact you!
~~~ happy caching!! ~~~