Sheep Rock EarthCache
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I brought you here to view a Roche Moutonnee (which is French for Sheep Rock). If you look out over the lake towards the mountains, you should see a large mountain, set out by itself, with one steep side and one broad side. This is a roche moutonnee. You can easily view this right from your car - no need to even get out! This is handicap accessible.
Roches moutonnees are formed by glaciers. As ice flows over a pre-existing mountain, it smooths the mountain side, forming a gradual slope. The friction of the ice against the rock causes the basal ice (at the base of the glacier) to melt, forming a stream that flows over the top of the mountain with the ice. As the stream cascades down the other side of the mountain, it refreezes and "plucks" chunks of rock from the mountainside, forming a ragged, steep side. These plucked rocks eventually become entrained (incorporated) into the ice and deposited elsewhere are erratics.
These features are called roches moutonnees (sheep rocks) because they resemble the back of a sheep.
As this is an Earthcache, there is no physical container, but in order to log your find, please send me a message through geocaching.com with answers for the following questions:
1. Looking at this roche moutonnee, which side is steep and which side is smooth? (Right or left side?)
2. Based on your answer for #1, which direction do you think the ice was flowing when this feature formed? Right-to-left? Or left-to-right?
3. Where do you think the erratics that were plucked from the mountainside ended up? Use your compass or GPSr!
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Treasures
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