Dissected Till Plains EarthCache
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Waypoint #1: N 40 17’ 28.3’’ W 96 50’ 07.7’’
Welcome to Homestead National Monument of America! If you haven’t been here before, you may not know that you are standing on the first homestead claim in the United States. Today you are here to find Earth Cache waypoints and you will learn the geological story behind this landscape (physiographic area), the Dissected Till Plains. Dissected Till Plains is simpler than it sounds, so let’s break it down.
(see Dissected Till Plains range image)
When you dissect something in biology class, you cut it into pieces and looked at all of the parts. When land is dissected, it is “cut by irregular valleys and hills” (Free Dictionary.com quote). If you look at the map below, you can see that much of this area is cut up by different streams and rivers, all leading to the Missouri River. At Homestead National Monument of America there is one creek Cub Creek running through the land.
(See Gage and Jefferson county area map with rivers)
Waypoint#2: N 40 17’ 16.5’’ W 096 50’ 05.8
Question 1: What role did Cub Creek, a typical prairie stream, play in creating Dissected Till Plains at Homestead?
To explain what till is, we have to make sure we are all on the same page and know what a glacier is. A glacier is not simply a huge mass of ice, but a moving, changing river of ice, snow, and the rocks and sediments that it picks up as it moves. In the past, this land was covered with glaciers, but no longer. When glaciers retreat, they deposit the sediment and rocks they have carried. Till is the unsorted deposits that glaciers leave behind, so it's possible to find larger rocks in with fine clays. The terminal moraine (westernmost edge of the till) is west of the monument land, just east of Fairbury NE.
Question 2: What types of sediment and rocks do you see on the sides of the creek? (Describe the soil profile: color, texture, size of particles)
Waypoint #3: N 40 17’ 18.1’’ W 096 49’ 59.5’’
So far we have a landscape cut up by streams and containing glacial deposits of all shapes and sizes. “Plains” is the last piece of the name’s story. When you think of the Great Plains, what pictures come up in your mind? Flat or gently rolling, wide open land, perhaps… well, you are right. That’s exactly what it is and what you see in front of you. Unlike other topography types, the plains are characterized by broad, relatively level areas of land. Most often they are located in the interior of a continent.
Question 3: How is the land you see in front of you different from where you grew up?
Additional Hints
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