Cliff-Hanger EarthCache
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To claim this cache:
1) What colours you see in the stones, as well What other interesting "live" features do you see.
2) Given the information above and your estimation of the hight of the drop, estimate how long it would take to create a NEW spout from the formations of siltsone.
3) Although not manditory, a picture of your GPS or you from GZ would be nice. (Plase do not cross the fence, standing anywhere with the view of the waterfall is good enough.)
There is a nice pathway to get to GZ. Park at the hot springs parking lot, walk down to about where the store is, and walk towards your left. Go over the bridge and then down on the trail that is visible from that bridge.
This is a non-motorized vehicule area. Please do not go anywhere else but on the pathway. DO NOT scale down the canyon. The pools below not for swimming, it is a safety/liability problem with the rock being very slippery around the site. Failure to comply will result in me having to archive the cache.
Stalactite are one of several types of common speleothems.
They are commonly cone shaped structure natually made up of siltstone, limestone (calcium carbonate/chalk) and other minerals which hangs from a high ground (such as cave ceilings).
Commonly one can find stalagmites underneath although in this case we have a formation of flowstone. Flowstone is caused when the water scatters and spreads as opposed to falling in the same place all the time.
Sometimes these structures can fuse together and become what is known as a silt column (aka. pillars). This location samples some drapery, which is causing the spout look of the structure.
In almost all cases, the higher the flow of water spilling determines the growth rate of the formation of stone. In this example, because of the very fast rush of water, this structures grows quite quickly (approximtely up to 3 mm per year) the average for a low flow is approximately 0.13 mm per year.
In this example, the water creating this marvelous hunk of rock is the run-off from the hot spring pools above. It demonstrates that when you swim in the designed pools, your body is in fact in a warm solution of sediments which eventually will re-harden into rocks.
Also in this case, because the water is warmer then just dripping water (from being a volcanic hot spring), much more mineral can be disoled in the water. As it cools, the water also loses some ability to cary as much minerals, which will increase the deposition rate. At this rate, if nothing changes, a piller should replace the current formation of siltstone.
A little about the chemistry behind the formation of siltstone... Stalactites are formed by the deposition of minerals in solution (liquid form). In our case the liquid solution of mineral flows freely until it reaches contact with oxygen which reverses the chemical reaction that made it liquid. At this point the minerals become solid again and form shapes as the minerals are deposited in their new place.
Congrats to windjile on First to Find!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Rawbl gur ivrj sbez TM naq gur bgure sbezngvbaf bs fvygfgbar ivfvoyr sebz gur fnzr cngu.
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