Elk Falls Earthcache EarthCache
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
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The trails to this cache are fully accessible from the new parking lot area. The cache page coordinates do not take you to the new suspension bridge or any of the new viewing platforms. You must go to the old viewing area
Please take extreme care when stepping onto the rock formations. It is possible to examine and observe from the trail
From the cache page coordinates you will view Elk Falls and then continue upriver to Moose Falls. Along the way please take note of the smaller Deer Falls and the geological processes
Vancouver Island was formed in the deep eastern Pacific Ocean along an undersea island arc of volcanism. Volcanic eruptions in the Devonian Period built up undersea mountains that were subject to massive rockslides. The island arc was part of ancient Wrangellia which forms present-day Vancouver Island, Queen Charlottes Island and SE Alaska and Yukon. Tectonic forces in the Cretaceous Period carried Wrangellia eastward on its crustal plate, where it collided eventually with the North American plate.
The Karmutsen and Quatsino Formations are part of the Vancouver Group. The Karmutsen is dominated by sea-floor basalt (mostly pillow-basalt), while the Quatsino is primarily limestone. These rocks are Triassic in age. The Karmutsen is the most common rock type exposed on Vancouver Island
The Karmutsen Formation is a Late Triassic volcanic sequence of pillow basalt. It is perhaps the thickest accreted section of an oceanic plateau worldwide. The widespread succession of basalts are part of the Insular Mountains, a large volcanic mountain range that forms Vancouver Island. Pillow basalt is the most abundant rock unit. Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. Unweathered basalt is black or grey. When basalt erupts underwater or flows into the sea, contact with the water quenches the surface and the lava forms a distinctive pillow shape, through which the hot lava breaks to form another pillow. This pillow texture is very common in underwater basaltic flow.
Pillow basalt
Elk Falls Provincial Park and Elk Falls itself is fed by a large watershed comprising of several inland lakes and their systems. Below the John Hart Dam there are two smaller falls, Moose Falls and Deer Falls, before the larger more majestic Elk Falls which feeds the Campbell River. The lookout provides a scenic view of Elk Falls, where the water falls some 50m into Elk Falls canyon.
To log this please email the following information:
1. Are there any undercuts and/or caves above Elk Falls?
2. Are there any at Moose Falls?
3. Is the river (terrain/shore/exposed area) between the falls a good example of pillow basalt?
Why?
4. In order to ensure that this cache has been visited what is the information at the coordinates? NOT the new Suspension Bridge Plaque
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)