Medicine Lodge - Springs EarthCache
MadMother: Construction zone for another year.
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These are natural springs located along the old highway near Medicine Lodge.
A spring is a place where groundwater flows to the surface and issues freely from the ground. Springs are an integral part of the water cycle.
A spring is a water resource formed when the side of a hill, a valley bottom or other excavation intersects a flowing body of ground water at or below the local water table, below which the subsurface material is saturated with water. A spring is the result of an aquifer being filled to the point that the water overflows onto the land surface.
Springs range in size from intermittent seeps, which flow only after much rain, to huge pools flowing hundreds of millions of gallons daily. The amount of water that flows from a spring depends on many factors, including the size of the caverns within the rocks, the water pressure in the aquifer, the size of the spring basin, and the amount of rainfall. Human activities also can influence the volume of water that discharges from a spring -- ground-water withdrawals in an area can reduce the pressure in an aquifer, causing water levels in the aquifer system to drop and ultimately decreasing the flow from the spring.
In the Medicine Lodge area we find well fractured Paskapoo outcrops. The Paskapoo is the most important bedrock source of groundwater. Permeability of bedrock in the area is primarily due to fracturing.
Numerous high yielding aquifer zones in the Paskapoo appear parallel to the Rocky Mountains and are probably well fractured sandstone. Local areas of groundwater discharge are evident as springs, soapholes, muskeg and hummocky terrain. Groundwater movement through these permeable sandstones is rapid and emerges on hillsides and slopes as contact springs and in lower areas as soapholes, hummocky terrain or muskeg. Ground waters that escape these sandstone "collectors" and continue downward discharge into rivers like the McLeod and Athabasca.
Parking is available about 4 meters from the posted coordinates: N53°32.420 W116°59.296. Use the access road which is range 210A near the Ninja Fairies cache.
😎As proof that you found it, you MUST E-MAIL me the ( the cache owner), the answers to the following questions FIRST or I will delete your log. Please e-mail your answers to the following questions to the cache owner😎.
1. How is the water being brought out of the ground? Describe.
2. Estimate the distance the water travels before it reaches the ground (i.e. the distance from the spring outlet to where the water reaches the ground).
3. From the table below, estimate the magnitude at which the spring is flowing. Make your best guess.
MAGNITUDE.... FLOW (L/s).......... FLOW (ft/s, gal/min, pint/min)
1st mag. .........2800 L/s................>100 ft/s
2nd mag......... 280 to 2800 L/s..... 10 to 100 ft/s
3rd mag......... 28 to 280 L/s......... 1 to 10 ft/s
4th mag.......... 6.3 to 28 L/s......... 100 US gal/min to 1 ft/s (448 US gal/min)
5th mag.......... 0.63 to 6.3 L/s....... 10 to 100 US gal/min
6th mag.......... 63 to 630 ml/s........ 1 to 10 US gal/min
7th mag.......... 8 to 63 ml/s........... 1 pint to 1 US gal/min
8th mag.......... 8 ml/s....................<1 pint/min
0 mag............. no flow (site of past/historic flow>)... none
In your on line log, feel free to describe your visit to the Medicine Lodge Springs and to upload your best digital photo(s) from your visit (photo's are not a requirement to log this cache but it would be nice) but please ensure the photos do NOT show the details necessary to log this cache.
SOURCE: The pdf of Hydrogeology of the Edson area, Alberta
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Treasures
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