Minnekahta EarthCache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(not chosen)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
In order to count this Earthcache as a find, you must complete the following tasks and email the answers to me.
1. Describe the color of the water.
2. What is the temperature of the water?
3. What is the pH of the water?
4. What rock outcroppings can be seen in the area?
5. Go to N43º 20.116, W103º 33.105 (about a mile north at another picnic area). Describe the spring located here, including appearance, color, temperature, and pH.
This Earthcache is located at the Cascade Falls picnic area about nine miles south of Hot Springs and about one mile south of the ghost town Cascade Springs. Cascade Springs is the largest single springs in the Black Hills. In the past, bath houses sprung up around this hot spring and other such hot springs in the area. Because of the high mineral content of the water and its sterility, the hot springs were associated with medicinal properties. Advertisements from the late 1800s claimed the waters “relieved and cured rheumatism, gout, stiff joints, contractions of muscles and skin, old wounds, skin diseases, scrofula, scrofulous ulcerations and enlargement of glands, prostrations from long standing sickness, spinal diseases, nervous affections” and a long list of other diseases and ailments. The Cascade Falls area is fed by thermal springs that originate along the banks of the Cascade Creek and flow into the channel. It is the water from these warm springs that once made up the area’s industry. Except for Evan’s Plunge, there is very little geothermal use in the Hot Springs area today. This is due to a combination of a lack of interest and belief in the therapeutic mineral waters and the corrosion of pipelines. The geothermal industry faced its demise in the 1950s. Despite that, there are still over 80 capped wells and springs in the town of Hot Springs alone. Several more springs can be seen in the immediate area. The Cascade Falls picnic area offers restrooms, picnic tables, and developed trails with steps and viewing platforms. There is poison ivy in the area (as the signs will tell you), so watch out. Enjoy!
There are several warm springs in southwestern South Dakota--particularly near Hot Springs. When water naturally flows to the surface of the earth from underground, it is called a spring. Hot springs, or thermal springs, are springs that have been geothermally heated by the Earth’s mantle. The temperature of rocks in the Earth’s crust increases the deeper into the crust you go. Water that passes deeply enough into the crust will be heated as it comes into contact with the hot rocks. In volcanic zones, the water is heated when it comes into contact with magma.
These springs are located in a physiographic area known as the southern Black Hills, an area typified by intensely folded and faulted shales, limestone, sandstone, and dolomite that produced many of the mountain ridges in the area. These sedimentary rocks can be seen in outcrops in the vicinity of the hot springs. The beds of sedimentary rocks are generally steeply inclined because of the mountain building forces that occurred throughout the area during tens of billion of years ago. The hot springs in this area were produced from artesian aquifers and limestone caverns, underground layers of rock capable of holding groundwater. According to John Gries’s book Roadside Geology of South Dakota, the water traveling through this area of South Dakota trickles deep into the Earth’s crust where it is heated by the mantle before returning to the surface “where streams have cut deep canyons into the rocks” (298). Gries also explains that this water resides in the heated part of the earth for a relatively short time (no more than a few hundred years) before traveling rapidly to the surface. Based on carbon-14 dating, it is estimated that the age of much of the water of the hot springs exceeds 4000 years.
The beautiful color of the water is due to the organisms living in the hot springs. The warm temperatures of the water create a microscopic world in which the climate in the immediate area is much warmer than the surrounding area, allowing different species of plants and animals to thrive here. The water itself, because it is naturally sterile, has also been associated with medicinal properties. Because of its sterility, NASA chose water from hot springs like these to hold moon rocks while their scientists were looking for signs of life.
NOT A LOGGING REQUIREMENT: Feel free to post pictures of your group at the area or the area itself - I love looking at the pictures.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)