Tinker Falls Earthcache EarthCache
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Tinker Falls is a lovely waterfall to visit any time of the year.
It is located in the Labrador Hollow Unique Area.
Park on the west side of Route 91, about 3 miles south of Route 80. Cross the road and a little north of Tinker Falls Creek there is a trails sign for Tinker Falls. The trail is an easy 1/4 miles walk to the falls.
Trailhead: N 42°46.804 W 076°02.148
To get CREDIT for this cache and to demonstrate the educational value of your visit please E-mail the answers to the following questions. FINDS which do not meet logging requirements will be auto-deleted.
Answers to questions 1 to 5 can be found in the writing. Questions 6 and 7 are to be answered on site.
1. There would be no Tinker Falls if it were not for what deposit?
2. What layer is most responsible for holding up Tinker Falls? (It is mainly hard calcareous quartz sandstone which is extremely resistant to erosion.)
3. Why do they call it the Limestone Tully?
4. Why are fossils important to understanding the different beds of rocks?
5. What kind of fossils are mostly found at Tinker Falls? - Look to see if you see any fossils along the trail. Do not remove.
6. Besides water what do you think contributed to the formation of the stream?
7. At this location briefly describe the rocks on either side of the trail and tell why they are different. N 42°46.847 W 076°02.070
Tinker Falls is an 80’ waterfall divided into a series of drops, the most dramatic being a large overhang that Tinker Falls Creek flows over. The creek flows to the south southwest. The ledge is roughly 100 feet wide and 30 feet high and 30 feet deep. The gorge is surrounded by trees. In summer the water can virtually dry up due to the low water volume.
It allows you the unique opportunity of easily walking behind a waterfall. This is a well-known stop on the Onondaga Trail.
By knowing a little about the Great Ice Age it is easier to understand the geology of Tinker Falls. For two million years New York State was covered by a continental ice sheet which did not retreat until 12,000 years ago. This retreat unveiled the landscape that had been sculpted by the tons of ice which passed over it. The sediments of earlier periods were attacked by the erosive forces of ice during the Pleistocene.
Physiographically (the study of the surface of the earth), Tinkers Falls is located in what is know as the Appalachian Uplands.
The north-to-south movement of the glacial ice transformed those valleys which were paroled to its flow into the broad U-shaped valleys characteristic of continental glaciating. Labrador Hollow sits in one of these "through valleys" and the stream that runs over Tinkers Falls empties into the drainage system in Labrador Hollow. Tinker Falls then sits on the rim of a through valley.
The term given to such a feature as Tinkers Falls is a "hanging valley" or. more appropriately "hanging valley waterfalls." Hanging valleys form as a result of glacial erosion. That has happened here is that the through valley, because it was in the line of glacial flow, was eroded much more deeply that the surrounding area, even though these areas were also under the glacial
ice. When the glacial ice melted many streams were therefore left hanging or perched on the rim of the more deeply eroded through valleys. Tinkers Falls is one of these hanging valleys. Since the end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago, Tinkers Falls has eroded back (upstream) about one quarter of a mile. Erosion has not destroyed the falls because of the interesting characteristics of Tinkers Falls and the Tully Limestone formation.
The Great Ice Age has revealed to us a very important deposit of the Devonian - the Tully Limestone. Were it not for the erosion resistant Tully Limestone, there would be no Tinkers Falls but rather just a series of rapids in the stream which drains into Labrador Hollow.
The Tully Limestone formation mainly consists of well-bedded, gray, fine-grained limestone, forming resistant layers that stand out in marked contrast to the adjacent, less resistant formations. Tinkers Falls affords us a view of the Tully Limestone whose resistance to erosion is responsible for not only Tinkers Falls, but also several other falls in the Central New York State area. Its resistance is especially noticeable because it is sandwiched between two layers of less resistant shales - it is underlain by a group referred to as the Moscow Shales and overlain by what is known as the Genesco Shales. These waterfalls were significant in the early settlement of this region because of the waterpower that they could provide to the early settlers.
The Tully Limestone is a relatively small formation. It extends from just east off Canandaigua Lake in Ontario County to the Chenango River Valley. This is a distance of about one-hundred miles. It varies in thickness from about .81 meters to about 14.55 meters. Its maximum thickness is at its most eastern exposure and its thinnest at its Western end in Ontario County. Between these two exposures it does not get progressively thinner or thicker, but rather, varies greatly.
Tully Limestone is exposed in several places. Many of the better exposures are in the vicinity of the village of Tully -hence Tully Limestone. At Tinkers Falls the Tully Limestone has an excellent exposure. The underlying rocks are the Moscow Shale. It is Mid-Devonian and belongs to what is know as the Hamilton Group. It is chippy, fossiliferous shale which is clay and contains
many fossils: brachiopods, pelecypeds and byozoans. The foot of the falls is quite a bit darker than the rocks above it.
The Geneseo Shale lies upstream from the Falls. It is in the Upper Devonian sequence. This rock formation is composed mainly of black and gray shales and sandstones. It is nearly unfossiliferous.
These layers are between what is known as the Tully Limestone. These can be divided and subdivided. First is may be divided into two equal members known as the Upper Member and the Lower Member. They may then be subdivided into several beds. Each bed is a rock unit which contains one to several layers which can be identified by it's distinctive field appearance, unique fossils, uncommon minerals, and distinctive structures.
The beds from oldest to youngest:
DERUYTER BED -- thin resistant limestone layer defines base of Tully Limestone -- can be identified at base of falls because it contrasts sharply with the dark Moscow Shales which is light in color and only about one foot thick - its fossils are mostly brachiopods
CUYLER BED -- thin-bedded calcareous siltstone about one foot thick at the Falls - its fossils are mostly brachiopods
FABIUS BED -- This bed is mainly hard, calcareous quartz sandstone which is extremely resistant to erosion. It is the layer most responsible for "holding up" Tinkers Falls. A "rockfall" within the last thirty years has exposed a vertical cliff face which had not yet produced partings. The base of the Fabius is marked only by a slightly lime and more burrowed zone - It's fossils are mostly brachiopods with some trilobites, and corals.
MEEKER HILL BED -- It is mostly composed of thin-bedded to silty limestone. Its fossils are limited to one type of brachiopod.
The following beds are present at Tinkers Falls and not part of the actual cliff over which the stream flows:
Tully Valley Bed
Vesper Bed
Carpenters Falls Bed
Taughannock Falls Bed
West Brook Shale Bed
Bellona Coral Reef
Moravia Bed
Fillmore Glen Bed
Fossils are the clue to the nature of life from the millions of years that have gone before us. They help is to recognize different beds of rock due to the fossils which are present or not present. This allows us to link together rock layers even though they may be separated by thousands of miles. Most of the fossils found at Tinkers Falls are invertebrates (animals without backbones.)
You can do a more difficult climb up the ledge behind the falls. Because the area is made of loose shale it is recommended you do not traverse the area alone and do not bring children.
Permission to place this Earthcache has been given by the DEC but they request that you stay on the trails.
When visiting Tinker Falls you may wish to visit Labrador Pond, a 120 acre glacial lake.
There is a boardwalk on the north shore that takes you through the wetland. From the Tinker Falls parking lot go north for 11 miles on Route 91 then turn left onto Labrador Crossing. The access road to the boardwalk is a short distance. The boardwalk is handicapped accessible.
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