Sandstone views 3 - Ross' Red Cliffs EarthCache
Sandstone views 3 - Ross' Red Cliffs
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Sandstone Views 3 - Ross' Red Cliffs
This Earth cache educates you and tests your knowledge together with taking you to a very beautiful location and town.
The above coordinates will bring you to an impressive and unique Devonian Old Red Sandstone Cliff stretching for more than 200 metres in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire.
In 1833, Thomas Telford designed Wilton road to help improve infrastructure and communication. In doing so nearly 200 Metres of Old Red Sandstone Cliffs have been exposed, giving us a excellent cross section of this geological feature.
Herefordshire as a whole is dominated by the Devonian Old Red sandstones. The foundation for the Old Red Sandstone dates back around 400 million years ago in what is known as the Devonian period, it was originally laid down as river sediment from the erosion of older rocks upstream.
Amazingly at this time, this area was South of the equator in a dry and hot climate, when the world's continents were colliding and joining to form a supercontinent.
On arrival at this Earth cache, I think you will find the colouring of this Cliff face instantly striking. The red colouring was caused by the presence of oxygen during the creation and formation of these rocks from the oxidisation iron. In turn this gives characteristics colouring to local soil.
In this fine example several different coloured layers can be seen, resulting from the different amounts of oxygen being present when the rocks were formed. The breakdown of green or vegetable matter results in the reduction of iron present which changes the appearance from a red to a more green appearance.
At the end of Wilton Road, there are steeply sloping layers or cross bedding that show how the river channel flowed and built the river bank out sideways, today, the meandering River Wye is not to far away.
There is on road parking near GZ zero - At all times take care of the road.
You will find an information board and an interesting backdrop for you to take photos - No notice board spoilers please!
In order to log this cache mail me via my profile, the answers to the following questions.
1. Carefully and lightly touch the stone, describe what you feel, describe the colourations, describe the markings.
2. Looking at the cliffs and information the information board, what can be found within the cliff? What caused them to be here and where have they travelled from.
3. Estimate the height of the exposed Cliff at GZ and also take an elevation reading.
4. The meandering River Wye is not to far away. Go to waypoint 2 and calculate the distance from the River Wye as it stands today from the Cliff face and also the difference in altitude from the river to the notice board.
You should now be able to work out how far the away the River Wye is from the cliff and how much the water level has dropped.
As an interesting optional extra, please feel free to post a photo from the area, if you or your team are in the photo, that would be great! . !!No photos of the information board!!
Please e-mail me with the answers as you log the find, no answers within the logs!
I can also thoroughly recommend the very nearby cache GC3GG91 and the many others in this delightful town, The Gateway to the Wye Valley.
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Treasures
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