FOSSILS NEAR QUIN ABBEY (IRELAND) EarthCache
Hidden : 9/18/2013
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

This earthcache takes you to a place near Quin Abbey, where the parking and picknick area is paved with flagstones full of fossils.

To get there you have to follow the signposting "Abbey view".

This EC could be placed at many spots in Ireland. We placed it there, where it is, because from this point you have a nice view towards Quin Abbey and because there are only 14 caches in a 10 km radius of that point (Sept 2013).

The flagstones which were used here for building the pavement consist of of 318 million years old sandstones and shales which are typical for the nearby Burren region.
During the carboniferious period that part of the world was situated 10 degrees south of the equator and was covered by a flat sea in a warm tropical climate. In the sea there was a rich life of tropical plants and animals, and those which hard shells or skeletons could easier become a fossil (the hard parts, mostly after the soft parts vanished) than those with only soft parts (for fossilisation see below). So the common fossils of this time are mostly crinoids, corals, brachiopods and gastropods.
Between 326-318 million years ago particles of clay were washed along the rivers into the sea creating the siltstones and sandstones . These stones laid down during the floods. Between the floods the sea was quiet calm, current ripples were formed on the sea floor and animals left traces on that floor which got fossilisazed too. A common fossil of that period is twisty trails, called scolicia, probably feeding trails left by some unidentified marine creature and are commonly referred to as “worming" (perhaps caused by a worm, a snail or a crustacean). Another common fossil of that period are fossilied ripple marks (for fossilisation see below).

Fossilisation:
But how does an animal or plant or even only a trace could become a fossil?

To become a fossil several conditions must be fulfilled:
The dead animal must be covered with with sand, mud ... as soon as possible, so that the air supply is stopped. This happens often at the ground of the sea.
Often the soft tissues are lost anyway through decay, so that mainly bones and shells are fossilized.
Then, many layers have to be deposited on the animal. Due to high pressure and possibly higher temperatures and the migration of minerals (e.g. calcium, pearl) into the fossil, it is then subject to the same metamorphic conditions as the surrounding rock.

Traces of animals or current ripples could petrify if another material incorporate itsself into the pattern (similar to an imprint (see below)).

Of course there are other kind of fossils without petrification such as conservation in ice (for example Ötzi), in amber (mostly small insects) or in bog etc.

Image 1 shows the most frequent types of fossilasation for shellfishes at the example bivalvia.

1.) Petrifacation: the bivalvia is enclosed, minerals soak the shells, which petrify.
2.) Petrifacation with druse: like 1.), but with druses inside.
3.) Pseudomorfosis: the shells are enclosed, the surrounding sediment is getting hard. Due to chemical influeces the shell dissolved, the interstitial volume is filled with other materials, which petrify.
4.) Imprint: the shell is pressed into sediments which hardens. Due to chemical influences the shell dissolves. Only the extern imprint of the shell petrifies.
5.) Internal cast: the shell is enclosed, the interstitial volume is filled with other material. The shell dissolves. Only the inner imprint petrifies.

To log this earthcache as a found you have to visit the place at the listing co-ordinates. Just look at the flagstones around the parking or picknick area. There are hundreds (probably thousands) of larger fossils all of the same kind.

Contact us via our profil and send us the answers to the following questions:
1.) Which kind of fossils you can admire at this place?
2.) Explain in simple words how this could petrify (the info text in this listing might help)!
3.) Estimate the width of this fossils in average.
4.) Tell me the number of flagstones which border on the left side of the left of the four parking spaces.

5.) Upload a photo of you or your GPSr with the Quin Abbey in the background from GZ to your online -log.

Flag Counter

Sources:
1.) http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/about-the-cliffs/geology/
2.) http://www.geoneed.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/05/Module-B4-Information-Sheets.pdf
3.) Image: from our EC Through the cliff: Fossalisation http://coord.info/GC3YMHC

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Haqre lbhe srrg!

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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