This earthcache is handicap accessible and is a great World Geography and earth science lesson for kids and students. Take a stretch and learn simultaneously!
There is adequate parking during the summer in the nearby wayside for most modes of recreational travel, especially since the pull over is also a pull through. If you decide to use the wayside rather than the road shoulder, it is suggested that you approach the pull off from the north if pulling something or if in an RV, so as not to need to make a turn across traffic.
The location on which you are parked is about 20 feet from a location that has been commemorated since 1934, though the current signage was installed in 2000. It states in part that: "THE 45th PARALLEL RUNS THROUGH A POINT LESS THAN ½ MILES (SOUTH) FROM THIS POINT. But is the 45th parallel really half way if you had to travel to both the pole and then to the equator?
Geology: Along the roadside and in the accompanying seasonal wayside, you can view rock exposures of a grayish white rock that looks like it is "layered" into a variety of sandstone layers. Some might even have thought that this is part of a "fault line" that might run through this area. Actually, the rock you are viewing is layers of dolostone and sandstone, a fossil rich level of sediment rock (you can view several shell/crinoid/coral (webbed like structures) fossils at "eye level" about 100' feet northwest of GZ cords, at least during the summer when the wayside is open). The layers you see represent long periods of time where erosion and sedimentation combined to form dark and light layers of dirt that metamorphized into the rock you see here. At one time, this area was covered with a warm shallow sea, called the Silurian Sea. In fact, this sea contained thousands of varieties of shells as well as several varieties of coral. Over time, the coral and shells were buried in sedimentation and the animals' calcium structures were replaced by minerals in the water, creating the fossils you see around you. The "cap rock," dolostonethat is see near the top of the "stack" is harder than the underlying layers and thus is resistant to erosion.
The resulting geology that you are viewing is called the Niagra Escarpment and contains many of the same rocks and minerals that you see near Niagra Falls and other places across the northern part of the US and in southern Canada.
Latitude and Longitude: Every time you go geocaching you make use of the same absolute location markers that have been used by travelors for centuries. Latitude gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps. Technically, Latitude is an angular measurement in degrees (marked with °) ranging from 0° at the Equator (low latitude) to 90° at the poles (90° N for the North Pole or 90° S for the South Pole). Thus, the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England divides the globe (as does the date line extension of the line on the opposite side) divides the globe into a West and East option. Further, the Equator encircles the globe at 0 degrees North / South. Combined, these marks of absolute position divide the globe into four quadrants: N/W; N/E; S/W; and S/E. If you have gone geocaching on another continent you've experienced the need to change your default "N/W" locaton marks! We can be thankful that our position can be absolutely designated on the planet. If instead all caches were positioned by "relative position," since that is dependent on comparing a location to a known location, we would have to say "2.82 miles southeast of Egg Harbor" rather then simply being able to designate a series of numbers that assist in discovering the 6' square that contains this earthcache. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find a cache - Virtually impossible! When the metric system was set up, the meter was defined so that the distance from the equator to the pole so that it would be exactly ten million meters or 10,000 kilometers, making the circumference 40,000 kilometers.
Let's have some fun with these numbers! If the globe was entirely mathematical, halfway between the equator and pole would be 5000 km. But the earth spins creating centrifigual force pressure on the poles, thus causing it to bulge around the center. This, which when coupled with the fact that the original calculations were done over 200 years ago leaves some room for error. So while the 45th parallel is the halfway mark by angle it is not the halfway mark by distance. Thus the earth is a tad wider (25 miles / 41 km) than it is tall, giving it a slight bulge at the equator. This shape is known as an ellipsoid or more properly, geoid (earth-like).
Congrads to Peach107 for being FTF (First to Finish logging requirements).
Logging Requirements: Send the answers to me using my profile or message center.
1. List the name "GC22YCO Half Way Where? Earthcache" in the first line of your email, already done if you use message center
2. Enter the following coordinates into your GPS. Once entered, discover how far it is to the north pole from this point. N 00 00.000 W 087 09.976, then use your waypoints manager to determine the distance between where you are right now and the north pole and this longitude. Another option is to read the signage at the GZ.
3. Determine how far you are from the mathmatical "half way point" (N45 00.000 W 087 19.064). Are you closer to the North Pole or the Equator (mathmatically) from the point on which you're standing?
4. Describe the structure of the Dolostone formation in the cliff (if its not snowed in). Describe texture, size of pockets/fossils, and granularity.
5. (Re-allowed since 2019) Take a picture of yourself with your GPS (or simply your GPS) showing the stone marker in the background. If you are anti-photo, quote the stone marker in your email to my profile. I will only respond if you have incomplete logging requirements. Go ahead and log your cache
References: Signage at GZ; Wikipedia.org; About.com “Prime Meridian”