This EarthCache provides you with an opportunity to view the
exposed materials of glacial till. The materials are viewable
partly because someone dug into the hill side to mine some gravel.
A gravel “cliff” can be seen here. More evidence of a
long gone ice age is revealed due to the erosion from a small
stream that leads to Marindahl Lake. The location, near the
intersection of 298th Avenue and 446th Street, is a fine specimen
of a cutaway view of glacial till.
Ice age glaciers were huge sheets of ice hundreds of feet thick.
They covered most of northern North America as far south as the
Missouri River about four to six thousand years ago. When they
melted they left behind glacial till. Glacial till is a geological
jumble of clay, gravels, sands, and rocks of various sizes and type
picked up and carried along by a glacier then dumped when the ice
melted. Moraines are hills of glacial till that usually are seem as
large, rolling, mounds of land with many sizes of rounded stones.
What’s under those hills? Go to the location of this
EarthCache to see.
This is your opportunity to view more than just the surface of
glacial till. One could read about glaciers, ice ages, moraines,
kames, and glacial till, and one could look at photographs of
glacial features, but seeing the features in person truly provides
a better impression of the great ice ages.
The glacial features can be viewed from the roadside. No
property owner/manager permission is necessary if you stay on the
road and roadside. Do not cross the fence.
Your assignment – for counting this as an EarthCache find
– is to:
1/ Observe the area. Send me an email in which you describe the
evidence of past glaciers in the area. Do not publish that info in
your log. You do not need to wait for me to answer your email
before logging the cache.
2/ Post (in your log) a photograph that shows you were indeed at
the location.