Killarney Lake Esker EarthCache
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a simple earth cache near the Killarney Lake Esker.
You will need your GPS to take elevation readings. And optionally a camera.
The name Esker is derived from the Irish word “eiscir”, which means: "a ridge or elevation, especially one separating two plains or depressed surfaces". The term was used particularly to describe long, sinuous ridges, which are now known to be deposits of fluvio-glacial material.
An esker is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions. Eskers can be several miles in length and, because of their peculiar uniform shape, somewhat resemble railroad beds.
Most eskers are believed to form in ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed within and under glaciers. After the retaining ice walls melted away, stream deposits remained as long winding ridges. Eskers may also form above glaciers by accumulation of sediment in surface channels, in crevasses, or in linear zones between stagnant blocks, or in narrow embayments at glacier margins. Eskers form near the terminal zone of glaciers, where the ice is not moving as fast and is relatively thin.
About 25,000 years ago when the last glacier started to retreat from this area the leading edge began to melt. As it did so the stream of water that both created this esker and helped carve out the nearby killarney lake was created. As time progressed the ice containing the stream melted away and the water ran free leaving it's stream bed behind hence creating this esker.
This esker is short and runs around the back end of killarney Lake. When I had walked this trail in the past I always wondered why someone would go to all the trouble to create a raised mound on the back end of the lake but it wasn't till recently that i learned it was an Esker.
To log this Earthcache email the answers to the following questions to this cache owner.
1.) While standing on top of the esker take an elevation reading on your gpsr and then carefully walking down to the lake's edge take another elevation reading. e-mail me the difference between those two numbers.
2.) While standing at the posted waypoint, estimate the width at the top and what this says about the width of the stream that formed under the ice.
3.) Take a photograph of yourself or team with a GPS anywhere along the esker. Post this with your online log. (Optional)
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)