The Clouds YDT TGT EarthCache EarthCache
The Clouds YDT TGT EarthCache
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Placed for GC46HYP on April 21, 2013 We are GO for CITO! event. Please Cache In Trash Out as you complete this series to keep the area beautiful for all that visit here. Thank you!
Placed with permission from Topsham Parks and Rec, the Yaruhha Dwarven Treasure geocache series, YDT, is part of the Topsham GeoTrail, TGT, in Maine, USA. The theme of the YDT was inspired by the story for the Dwarven Treasure Geocoin - Yaruhha Edition created by Gregson Vaux Artifacts. This series is designed to allow geocachers to find twelve geocaches and three EarthCaches on foot at one stop, the Topsham Recreation Fields.
Depending on the season, you may be able to stand at the coordinates or at least a few feet from them on the trail. While placing geocaches for the YDT TGT series, we considered placing a geocache here but from the kiosk map, we knew we were standing among Forested Wetlands.
Forested Wetlands
Wetlands are complex and fascinating ecosystems that perform a variety of functions of vital importance to the environment and to the society whose very existence depends on the quality of the environment. Wetlands regulate water flow by detaining storm flows for short periods thus reducing flood peaks. Wetlands protect lake shore and coastal areas by buffering the erosive action of waves and other storm effects. Wetlands improve water quality by retaining or transforming excess nutrients and by trapping sediment and heavy metals. Wetlands provide many wildlife habitat components such as breeding grounds, nesting sites and other critical habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species as well as the unique habitat requirements of many threatened and endangered plants and animals. Wetlands also provide a bounty of plant and animal products such as blueberries, cranberries, timber, fiber, finfish, shellfish, waterfowl, furbearers and game animals. Although wetlands are generally beneficial, they can, at times, adversely affect water quality. Waters leaving wetlands have shown elevated coliform counts, reduced oxygen content and color values that exceed the standard for drinking water.
Please send a message with the answers to the following questions to claim this EarthCache.
1. At the coordinates, look up toward the clouds. What is unique about this spot among this forested wetland?
2. Based on the information provided, why do you think a forested wetland came to form at this locatoion?
3. Looking at the trail width and depth, do you think the trail is natural or man made? Why?
4. Why do you think there are more younger trees than older trees still standing in this location?
Thank you for visiting The Clouds YDT TGT EarthCache!
From the Kiosk in the main parking lot:
Near the end of the last great ice age, retreating glaciers reached the present-day coast of Maine. The weight of glaciers compressed the Earth’s crust and combined with glacial melt waters raised water levels to the glacier’s edge. As land was freed from heavy ice cover, it began to rise to its former position and emerged from the sea. About 14,500 years ago a strong pulse of glacial melt water was released, causing sea level to rise even more rapidly. Sea level in this region rose at the same rate as the Earth’s crust was rising. A period of equilibrium resulted in the ancestral Androscoggin River depositing a layer of fine sand, commonly known as a delta, now known as the Brunswick – Topsham sand plain, into the sea. In Topsham, the elevation of this delta can be seen at the Riverside upper playing field and extends to the north almost to the Cathance head of tide area. As the rise of sea level slowed and the land continued to emerge, the Androscoggin began to cut down into the delta surface.
The Riverside lower playing fields sit on terraces cut by the river. Based on archaeological studies in this area, the terraces were cut some time prior to 9,500 years ago.
16,000 years ago a continental glacier covered most of Maine, but was receding from the coastal lowland. The sea was in contact with the ice margin.
15,000 years ago, the glacier was receding rapidly and Southern Maine was ice-free. The land was still depressed from the weight of the ice, resulting in the extensive submergence of low land areas.
13,000 years ago, the glacier had disappeared from central and southern Maine. Uplift of the land had caused the sea to retreat.
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Treasures
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