Trailside Geology EarthCache
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This is Columbia's first Earthcache. It is located along the 1.2 mile-long MKT trail, an all-weather crushed limestone surface provides opportunities for walking, jogging, running, and bicycling. Access is via the MKT Nature & Fitness Trail parking lot.
Congrats to Crazy Armadillo for being FTF on 9 Dec 2009.
This 10-foot wide trail built on the old railbed of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad passes through many "cuts" that have exposed layers of rock strata. To a geologist, these layers are like the pages in a book, and each tells a part of the geologic story of Boone County. The rock exposed along this trail is the upper part of a 2000 foot column of marine sedimentary rock which represents about 400 million years of time during which the seas invaded and retreated over most of what is now the state of Missouri. The particular formation exposed nearby represents the Mississipian, the Devonian, and the Ordovician time periods. Similar rock layers are also widely exposed around Columbia in road cuts and old quarries. The same section can be seen in road cuts along Highway 63 south to Jefferson City and can also be seen in the bluffs of the KATY trail along the Missouri River.
The particular formation exposed nearby represents many beds of limestone and sandstone. The layers are described as followed:
* Burlington: mostly light brown to gray limestone, some massive beds, many cherty layers and nodules, some layers very fossiliferous
* Bushberg: sandstone, thin-bedded, light gray to greenish gray
* Callaway: limestone, mostly light gray to dark blue, thin some fossiliferous layers with brachiopods and coral fragments
* Chouteau: lighter gray limestone, mostley even bedded, some dolomitic, some shaly and silty
* Jefferson City: dolomite limestone, most evenly beded, light brown to gray with greenish thin muddy layer in lower part, very few fossils
* St. Peter: pure quartz sandstone, mostly white to light gray, some cross-bedding
This limestone is also soluble in acidic waters and is the host of many caves, sinkholes and underground streams. Such areas are designated as KARST areas. Several karst areas can be found in Boone County.
The Columbia Audubon Society Trailside Museum is located adjacent to the Martin Luther King Memorial. Admission is free and open to the public. Exhibits include bird nests and eggs, mammal skulls, butterflies, and rocks and fossils.
This earthcache was developed with the help of the USGS, the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department, and the Friends and Family of Wm. B Nowell, Jr.
Posted coords will lead you to an excellent example of layers of rock strata. To get credit for this Earth Cache
A. Visit the nearby information board (N38 56.118 W092 21.090) and email me the answers to the following questions:
1) What is the order of the limestone/sandstone beds from youngest to oldest?
2) What is the height of a typical trail cliff face?
3) What is the age range of the exposed rock?
4) What are the two major KARST areas in Boone County?
B. Post a picture of yourself "in front of" the limestome cut" to your log showing you and a unquie feature you find.
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Treasures
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