North, South, East, and West of the Moon EarthCache
Moonpie10: I no longer live in the area and thus can't maintain the caches I have placed. So moving on.
Thanks to all that took the time and effort to find this cache.
North, South, East, and West of the Moon
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Your search starts at the lunar spiral. From there you will visit all four stone Cardinal Direction Markers placed around the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The stones were ceremonially presented to the Museum by the Native peoples from North and South America and Hawai’i. It might be easier to print out the questions before you do this cache.
Please be respectful of the stones. Do not climb on them; the surrounding landscaping is an integral part of the stone settings. Please remain on the paved walkways at all times. Thank you.
People have always held the four cardinal directions as special. They are how we geographically orient ourselves. It is well known that ancient cultures around the Earth observed the heavens and understood the timing of celestial events. Proof of this understanding has been found across the Earth at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Chichen Itza, Mexico; the Inca in Peru; Stonehenge, England; Giza, Egypt; and the Chinese have long written records of lunar events. These are but a few examples of human awareness of celestial events. But even though they set stones to mark events and could even predict some events, this does not mean that there was an understanding of the underlying mechanics. As a geocacher, you understand that the rotational axis of the Earth and direction of spin are the bases of the cardinal points on the compass, and thus our system of latitude and longitude.
The Cardinal Direction Marker stones were chosen to represent the four cardinal directions and to reflect the history of planet Earth. Each has its own geologic history. The North Stone is one of the oldest known rocks on Earth, while another, the West Stone, is one of the youngest. Placement of the stones around the museum was done very precisely and with great care. Before each stone was moved, measurements were made so that it could be placed at the museum exactly as in the exact orientation it was at its point of origin. Pay close attention to each stone’s placement relative to the others, as you will have to answer a question about this.
South Stone: Presented by the Yagán, the southernmost community of people, who live on Navarino Island (Chilean Tierra del Fuego); this 145 – 65 million year old granite boulder solidified deep in the earth during the Cretaceous Period. Tyranosaurus rex roamed the earth. Marsupials migrated from South America to Antarctica, on their way to Australia, just before the rifting of Gondwana began opening the Drake Passage. After the granite solidified, it was lifted tectonically and subsequently subjected to erosion. This stone was transported by a glacier from the mountains to the south to the coast, where its trip to the museum started. Its edges were rounded in this process. While you are here,note the features of this stone, including its color, the features of its edges, the size of the grains, and its overall shape.
North Stone: Presented by the Tlicho (Dogrib) community, whose people are said to have come from stone at the beginning of time. From the shore of Acasta Lake Canada’s Northwest Territory, this gneiss boulder is 4,000,000,000 (4 billion) years old and is one of the oldest rocks known on planet Earth. The Earth started as a molten sphere 4.5 billion years ago. This rock shows that 4 billion years ago the earth had cooled sufficiently for minerals to form, and the crust, consisting of lighter minerals, was differentiating from the heavier minerals of the mantle. This stone originated from a region of the North American continent known as the Canadian Shield. The shield is the core and oldest part of North America. The Canadian Shield was a very active place 4+ billion years ago; since that time it has been relatively geologically inactive and stable. North America looks as it does today because many parts have been accreted to it during its wanderings (continental drift) across the planet. Life is not known to have existed on Earth at the time this stone cooled to a solid state. The oldest forms of life on Earth did not show up for another 200,000,000 years, around 3.8 billion years ago. Note the features of this stone, including its color, the features of its edges, the size of the grains, and its overall shape.
East Stone: : Presented by mid-Atlantic tribes, represented by the Piscataway-Conoy, Accohanack, Assateague, Monocan, Maryland Shawnee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Nansemond, and Pamunkey. This quartzite boulder is from the Lower Cambrian Sugarloaf Mountain Formation that was deposited as sand approximately 500-550 million years ago. This metasedimentary rock formation consists of massive white quartzites interbedded with softer sericitic quartzite, slate, and phyllite. This metasedimentary is not friable because there is a silica cement between the originally water transported quartz sand grains. Life in the oceans rapidly diversified during the Cambrian, with the evolution of most of the modern phyla, the earliest molluscs and trilobite among them. While you are here, note the features of this stone, including its color, the features of its edges, the size of the grains, and its overall shape.
West Stone:Presented by the Hawaiians, this stone was given the name Kane Po. This basalt boulder is the youngest of the four stones, being only 300 years old (the United States would not be a nation for 64 years). The stone is round and resembles the base of a snowman in shape. The reason for this shape is that the stone formed in much the same way as a ball of snow; hardening lava rolled in a lava flow and added layer upon layer of cooling lava to the outside. This type of stone is an accretionary lava ball. Museum staff involved in bringing this stone from Hawai'i witnessed other accretionary lava balls forming in an active flow. The eruption that produced Kane Po is an important part of the oral chant history of Hawai'i. The importance of the geology of the Hawaiian Islands and its role in the daily lives of Hawaiians can be found in the Pele and Hiÿiaka chants translated by Nathaniel Emerson (Pele and Hiÿiaka: A Myth From Hawaiÿi, 1930).
In the left image above, the Hawaiian island chain stretches to the northwest, and then north as the Emperor seamount chain, toward the Aleutian Trench. This long chain tracks the movement of the sea floor over a hot spot (as shown in the right image) in the mantle that is the source of the heat driving the Hawaiian volcanoes. Radiometric dating of the lava that make up the islands shows that the Big Island is the youngest, and Wake Island, the smallest, is the oldest. Just to the southeast of the big island, an active submarine volcano, Lö'ihi, is erupting lava. Someday Lö'ihi, will become the youngest Hawaiian Island. While you are here, note the features of this stone, including its color, the features of its edges, the size of the grains, and its overall shape. Additional information about volcanoes and the Hawaiian volcanoes can be obtained by following these links. Smithsonian Global Volcano Program Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Questions you must answer before logging a find on this cache.
East Stone 1) This is a metasandstone.
Crossbeds, illustrated here, are a common sedimentary feature in some sandstones. Do you see any crossbeds in the East Stone?
West Stone 2) What is the shape of this stone? The lava, from which was formed, cooled very rapidly to basalt. Do you see any minerals? (A minerals has characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. In contrast, a rock has no specific chemical composition as it is an aggregate of minerals. Ice is a mineral, but liquid water and steam are not. Diamond is a mineral; charcoal is not.)
South Stone 3) The sign indicates this stone traveled more 18,000 miles from its point or origin. Roughly how far, in miles, is the South Stone from its point of origin on Navarino Island Chile (approximately S55° 03.000' W067° 38.000)? Give a possible explanation for this discrepancy.
South Stone 4) This stone cooled very slowly, perhaps over a million years. Compare the size of the mineral grains in this stone with the West Stone and give a brief explanation for the difference in mineral grain size.
North Stone 5) This is one of the oldest rocks on earth. How can you tell that it is a metamorphic rock?
Questions about the Earth based on the cardinal stones:
6) Which stone’s origin is the furthest east ?
7) At their point of origin each stone would have a “shady” side (“moss always grows on the north side of a tree”)? Is their shady side different where they currently reside?
8) Two points define a line. What are the coordinates where the lines between the North and South Stones and that between the East and West Stone intersect?
Extra credit – If it is a sunny day and the right time, tell where the rainbow image was taken.
We would like to thank TR and TM.
The cache was placed with the permission from the National Museum of the American Indian's office of the Associate Director of Museum Assets and Operations, Smithsonian Institution
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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