Papago Buttes EarthCache
Hidden : 4/20/2010
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:


Many of the rock formations visible around the Valley of the Sun are very, very old. They date from nearly 2 billion years ago, from what geologists call the Precambrian era. Prior to that, our planet was a fiery, violent ball of rock with thin crustal layers.

Surface rocks developed from a great basin of sediment. Intermittently, up until around 1.4 billion years ago, these rock formations buckled up, and molten rock from deeper in the earth intruded them and mountain chains and valleys formed.

Twenty million years of quiet times then passed, before more mountain masses began their violent growth to the east of the present day Phoenix area, during the Tertiary period (1.6 - 65 million years ago). In places they became so steep that mud and rock and even catastrophic landslides rushed from their slopes. The evidence of these is the fragment-laden reddish rocks that are visible in many areas around Phoenix, including the Papago Park buttes and the western end of Camelback Mountain. These previously mentioned formations set the stage for a few final geologic episodes that give the Valley its distinctive look.

Driven by giant convection cells in the mantle of the Earth below, the crust began to rip apart in a roughly east-west direction about 20 to 15 million years ago. From Montana to Mexico, great blocks of crustal rock started to settle downward and form vast valleys -- the Valley of the Sun is one. Among the mountains left to stand between them are what we see today as the Phoenix Mountains, the Sierra Estrella, and the McDowell Mountains. Geologists call this immense zone the Basin and Range Province.

In Arizona, the edge of the great continental rift is the Mogollon Rim, north and east of Phoenix. Beyond it lies the still relatively undisturbed and flat-lying rocks of the Colorado Plateau, visible to all in the magnificence of the Grand Canyon.

From this point, you can see a couple of buttes, one to the northeast and a smaller one to the southwest. These sandstone and conglomerate formations are of Tertiary period. Looking northeast towards the larger butte you can observe the angle of tilt of the rock formation. The tilt of the buttes resulted from fault activity associated with the uplift of the South Mountain metamorphic core complex, which is located 8 miles southwest. The rocks seen here are the same as that found on the west end of Camelback Mountain.

To Log this EarthCache, looking at the larger butte to the northeast answer the following:
  1. Estimate the degrees of tilt of the butte across the paved trail to the northeast. This is not the same as the slope. Rather it is the angle that the previously horizontal rock formation has been lifted and titled by tectonic action.
  2. How many creases/ravines are visible in the butte from this spot?
  3. Approximately how many cave-like holes can you see in the butte?
  4. Estimate the height of the butte.
  5. Post a photo of your party and/or your GPSr with the butte in the background.Take the photo such that it doesn't encompass the entire butte so that others can't determine all answers from the photos posted.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



Advertising with Us

Inventory

There are no Trackables in this cache.

View past Trackables

What are Trackable Items?

Bookmark Lists

View all 13 bookmark lists...