To get credit for this cache:
1. Please send an e-mail to the cache owner of you showing
evidence that you are actually at the cache site.
2. You must explain how these erratic boulders differ from the bedrock native to the area and why.
3. You must explain where these erratic boulders came from and how they wound up here.
4. You must identify the direction from which the erratic came to the site based on the glacial scaring of the bedrock found in the area.
5. This information must be in the form of an e-mail to cache owner and not included in your actual log.
6. Please leave nothing that wasn't already here and take nothing you didn't bring with you.
Erratics of Willard Pond
Willard Pond is tucked away in the southwestern corner of the state of New Hampshire, a little off the beaten path. Even with thehigh price of gasoline, I would recommend making the trip to Antrim to enjoy Willard’s crystal clear water and quiet seclusion.
The pond is protected as part of the New Hampshire Audubon Society’s largest sanctuary. The entire property is well over
1,000 acres and includes two large hills: Bald Mountain and Goodhue Hill. The shoreline of Willard Pond is dotted with boulders. You'll also see boulders that appear to be just below the surface of the water, but they are actually submerged deep enough for you to paddle right over them. It’s an illusion created by the clear water. Willard Pond is around 100 acres with a maximum depth of about 15 feet. The giant boulders are glacial erratics left by the receding glaciers. The area in and around Willard Pond is covered with these glacial erratics (large boulders).
A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size
and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics"
take their name from the Latin word errare, and are carried by
glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of miles. Erratics
can range in size from pebbles to large boulders. Since they are
transported by glaciers, they are one of a series of indicators
which mark the path of prehistoric glacier movement. Their
lithographic origin can be traced to the parent bedrock, allowing
for confirmation of the ice flow route.
The Kinsman Granodiorite was formerly known as the Kinsman Quartz Monzonite of Billings (1955). It is described as a foliated granite, Granodiorite and Tonalite with minor amounts of quartz diorite. It characteristically possesses large potassium feldspar megacrysts and locally abundant garnet zones. It is an igneous body that is known as the Cardigan Pluton of the New Hampshire Plutonic Suite. The Cardigan Pluton of the New Hampshire Plutonic Suite is lower Devonian in age and has been dated approximately between 410 and 420 million years old.
The Spaulding Tonalite was formerly known in older literature as the Spaulding Quartz Diortie of Fowler-Billings (1949). It is presently described as a weakly foliated to non-folitated, spotted biotite diorite, tonalite, Granodiorite and granite. It is the dominant igneous rock type on the northeast side of Antrim. It is known as the Antrim Pluton of the New Hampshire Plutonic Suite and its age is lower Devonian, just slightly younger than the Cardigan Pluton.
The Littleton Formation is an undivided lower Devonian metamorphic rock body, which forms much of Riley Mountain on the northeast side of Antrim. The Littleton Formation is comprised of gray, coarse-grained metasedimentary rocks that can be described as mica schist.
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word igneus meaning of fire, from ignis meaning fire) is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. Igneous rock may form with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. This magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planet's mantle or crust. Typically, the melting is caused by one or more of three processes: an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition. Over 700 types of igneous rocks have been described, most of them having formed beneath the surface of Earth's crust. These have diverse properties, depending on their composition and how they were formed.
Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure (temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C and pressures of 1500 bars[1]) causing profound physical and/or chemical change. The protolith may be sedimentary rock, igneous rock or another older metamorphic rock. Metamorphic rocks make up a large part of the Earth's crust and are classified by texture and by chemical and mineral assemblage (metamorphic facies). They may be formed simply by being deep beneath the Earth's surface, subjected to high temperatures and the great pressure of the rock layers above it. They can form from tectonic processes such as continental collisions, which cause horizontal pressure, friction and distortion. They are also formed when rock is heated up by the intrusion of hot molten rock called magma from the Earth's interior. The study of metamorphic rocks (now exposed at the Earth's surface following erosion and uplift) provides us with information about the temperatures and pressures that occur at great depths within the Earth's crust.
Sedimentary rock is a type of rock that is formed by sedimentation of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles (detritus) to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution. Particles that form a sedimentary rock by accumulating are called sediment. Before being deposited, sediment was formed by weathering and erosion in a source area, and then transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, mass movement or glaciers which are called agents of denudation.
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granites usually have a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals (phenocrysts) are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic texture is sometimes known as a porphyry. Granites can be pink to gray in color, depending on their chemistry and mineralogy. By definition, granite has a color index, and is generally made up of dark minerals. Granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite is usually found in the continental plates of the Earth's crust. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a crystalline rock.
Congratulations to wemedge on FTF
Congratulations to Zambesiboy on GC find #2000. 6/20/2013