Don’t spit here! NOTE: This will take some time to get to because of recently posted requirements. To reach GZ legally, you will need to enter reach the shore via GC2PVPP, about a mile to the NE. From there walk along the shoreline. This can only be accomplished during low-tide. FYI, federal law provides that all land between the high and low water mark are public lands. Spits are a landmass feature that are commonly overlooked. They are formed when waves, as opposed to hitting the land head on, hit it at a more oblique angle. This hitting the land pushes sand and sediment like a broom into a line from the shore that will jut out into the water. This is different from the sandbars that we would all play on as kids; sand bars are just sand swept back out to where the waves break by counter-current underwater. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spit_(landform) Back in New York where I grew up, jetties were a common site. A jetty is a manmade spit that are often built along shorelines to prevent erosion. We would see these protecting harbors, in the form of breakwaters, where it is undesirable to have the harbor swallowed out by the flow of sand into the harbor. They would sometimes be built by towns at right angles to the shoreline to prevent sand from flowing down the beach to the next town. This is man preventing nature from taking its course, but the argument could be made that erosion is accelerated by man’s use of boats and the impacts on shore. A famous spit back east is Sandy Hook, NJ. About 6 miles long, it extends north from the mainland, flanked on the east by the Atlantic and protecting the slower waters of the Shrewbury and Navesink River estuary on the west. In fact, as the sands were pushed north up the Jersey Coast by the Atlantic, and sediment from the rivers were pushed towards the mouth of the rivers, the spit began to take shape. http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/parks/loc67.htm . While it has changed slightly over the years, the orientation remains constant. However, you do not have to go back east to see a spit of that magnitude. Washington has its own world class spit in Port Angeles, Ediz Hook. Formed about 15,000 years ago by the outflow of the Elwha River, it was buried under a mile of ice during the last ice age. As the glaciers retreated, the current coming from the Pacific Ocean and through the Strait of Juan de Fuca carried this sediment east. Erosion wore down sea cliffs carrying that debris eastward, sweeping it parallel to shore. Eventually it came to an area where there was no land, and jutted from west to east with the currents, to produce Ediz Spit http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/klallam/interactive/klallam_ivillage.html As man has built some spits, man has also destroyed some. The damning of the Elwha River has prevented the flushing of the river sediment by natural floods. The same damning has also harnessed the power of the river, creating electricity and water reserves. The trade off is the river now lacks the volume or velocity it needs to carry debris to the Strait, and east to the spit. The Army Corps of Engineers has had to drop boulders and sediment to stabilize the hook, protect the USCG air station that calls it home, and harbor of Port Angeles. And efforts are underway to eliminate two upriver dams. And so we come back to our local spit here in Dupont, call it the Nisqually Pirate Spit. At the given coordinates you will be able to observe the spit at low tide. Three things are required to log the cache.
1. Given the above geography lesson, email me whether you think the spit is man- made, natural or a combination.
2. And as with every good earth science question, explain your answer to question number 1
3. In accordance with revised GSA guidelines, I'm asking for a photo to be included to prevent "armchair" finds. Those without it after 31DEC23 will be deleted. Thank you.
Message me the answers; do not post it here! I'm sorry to say, but logs without the above requirements will be deleted. I hope you enjoyed this EC. Look for others coming in the Dupont area, an area rich in different ecological features. CONGRATS TO GEO-LMP FOR FTF.