Sands of Time EarthCache
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The Wainwright Dunes contains one of the world’s last large remnants of the aspen parkland. Situated adjacent to the southern boundary of the Camp Wainwright military reserve, this area is a unique combination of ecosystems. Aspen groves and sand dunes are interspersed with marshy bogs and the valley of Ribstone Creek.
Travel within the reserve is by foot only
The Wainwright Dunes were once the basin of a Glacial Lake formed by the melting of continental glaciers, beginning at least 12,000 years ago. Water flowing from the melting glaciers deposited huge amounts of sand on the bottom of the lake, and as it dried out, a barren, flat ares of sand was left behind. All this sand and a lack of vegetation allowed for transverse (at right angles to wind direction) dunes to form. Over time, these dunes changed into "blowout" dunes because vegetation anchored some areas while other sections were blown downwind.
Most of the dunes present here are blowout dunes with an average height of eight metres and are arranged in an overlapping pattern. The wings of the dunes point in the direction of the ancestral winds which are not that much different from the predominant winds direction today.
If you look closely at the dunes, you can see that many of them have dark, carbon-rich soil bands. These represent former land surfaces that developed during brief periods of increased moisture and decreased wind.
The soil in this area is light and sandy which make it of on use for agriculture. Also the sand is too impure to be used for glassmaking.
Wainwright dunes
You can get to the dunes by following this road, but from here on the road is sand and it is very easy to get STUCK.
To log this cache you will have to email me the answers to 3 questions:
1) While at GZ look at the dunes and determine what direction the ancestral winds would have come from.
2) Looking at the dunes is there a dark carbon-rich soil band, and if so how thick is it.?
3) Looking at the sand is it uniform in size or mixed?, fine or coarse?
4) Take a photo (now optional)
Please do not make any reference to these answers in your log. Thanks.
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