Mt Iron Roche moutonnee EarthCache
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Start at the bottom and walk up to the top. Recommend doing the loop (its no longer) to best see all the features of a Roche moutonnee.
Roche moutonnee are created by the passage of glaciers over rock leaving a distinctive asymmetrical rock shape with one side being a gentle slope and the other a much sharper angle. Roche moutonnées are aligned roughly parallel to ice flow so the layout of Mt Iron clearly indicates which way the glaciers where flowing in this location, the makeup of the bedrock however influences the rate of erosion so the direction maybe skewed.
Both the abraded stoss side and the plucked lee side of roche moutonnee require the former presence of sliding ice and meltwater. The presence of roches moutonnées means therefore that the ice masses that progressively shaped these bedrock hills were warm based, with ice at the glacier bed above its pressure melting point. The stoss side is the side that faced the direction of ice flow while the plucked lee side is the opposite side. Plucked lee is the downstream side of the roche moutonnee.
To best view the plucked lee be sure to walk the eastern slope, on this walk you will see the erosive process of particle detachment by moving glacial ice. In this process, basal ice freezes in rock surface cracks. As the main body of the glacial ice moves material around the ice in the cracks is pulled and plucked out. Also called quarrying.
GZ is at the bottom of the roche mounnee. Access to the top is via a public walking track that does cross private land. The track up isn't too steep but takes an hour or so. Visiting the top is required to log this Earthcache.
Tasks:
At starting coords: What is the change in elavation between this sign and the summit.
WP2 - S44 41.584 E169 09.900
1) 80000 years : Depth of ice
2) 2000 years : burnt ??? logs
3) 500 years : ??? and his Waitaha people
4) 100 years : first painting date?
Email answers to us, there is no need to await confirmation email before logging find.
Additional Hints
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