Sidmouth Cliffs - A Surprise View! EarthCache
Hidden : 1/31/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:


NOTE:



This is an EARTHCACHE!

There is NO PHYSICAL CONTAINER, and to log a find you need to email the answers to the questions below to me, by clicking on 'heartradio' just below the cache title and then clicking 'Send Email'.

 If after 24 hours of you logging your find I still haven't received your answers, your log risks being deleted.


SIDMOUTH CLIFFS



At GZ you will be presented with a spectacular vista over some of the Jurassic Coastline.
The cache is located near High Peak


LOGGING REQUIREMENTS


ALL OF THESE TASKS CAN BE COMPLETED AT THE HEADLINE COORDINATES


1) On the nearest cliff face to your left, you will see two different colours of rock. Describe the differences in appearance between the top layer, and the bottom layer, and their different colours.

2) As you look away into the distance at the cliffs, you will see that the cliffs are changing colours as you look along the coastline. Describe the changing colours of the cliffs and their appearance.

3)Estimate your altitude at the headline coordinates.

Optional task - Take a photo of you or your GPS with the cliffs behind you.


Please email me the answers - don't put them in your log.


 

GEOLOGY

Sidmouth lies within a wedge of the Otter Sandstone (245 - 235 million years old) exposed due to faulting to the west of the town that interrupts the general eastward dip of the rock layers. Westward the Otter Sandstones disappear from the cliffs under Peak Hill replaced at beach level by the Mercia Mudstone group (235 - 204 million years old). Approaching Sidmouth from the west there is a fault that exposes the Otter Sandstones again and results with them suddenly appearing in the cliff face adjacent to the younger Mercia Mudstones. East of the town the eastward dip causes the Otter Sandstones to disappear again below beach level, replaced y the Mercia Mudstones. Both sequences are red indicating they formed in an arid environment.

There are four rock strata in the cliff face of High Peak. The "Otter Sandstone Formation" that forms the base of the cliffs were deposited in a hot dry climates in the Triassic Period about 220 Million years ago. The deposits in the centre of the cliff face are from the Mercia Mudstone Group and were formed about 200 Million years ago. Above these Triassic formations, there are layers of Upper Greensand, a Cretaceous rock formation, about 80 Million years old. The top of High Peak is underlain by flint gravel that was probably left behind following the solution of an original cover of chalk during the early Tertiary period about 60 to 65 Million years ago.

Further East, the white cliffs of Chalk, at Beer are part of the westernmost stretch of Chalk cliffs on the English Channel coast. The chalk was formed in a warm tropical sea between about 65 and 100 million years ago. This contrasts with the arid desert formation of the Otter Sandstone. The chalk is composed almost entirely of the remains of small sea creatures and carbonate shells of microscopic algae.


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