Old Man of Hoy EarthCache
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Geography
The Old Man stands close to Rackwick Bay on the west coast of the island of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, and can be seen from the Scrabster to Stromness ferry. From certain angles it is said to resemble a human figure.
Winds are faster than 8 metres per second (18 mph) for nearly a third of the time, and gales occur on average for 29 days a year. Combined with the depth of the sea, which quickly falls to 60 metres (200 ft), high-energy waves on the western side of Hoy lead to rapid erosion of the coast.
Geology
The Old Man of Hoy is a red sandstone stack, perched on a plinth of basalt rock, and currently the tallest sea stack in Britain. It is separated from the mainland by a 60 metre (200 ft) chasm strewn with debris, and has nearly vertical sides with a top just a few metres wide. The rock is composed of layers of soft, sandy and pebbly sandstone and harder flagstones of Old Red Sandstone, giving the sides a notched and slab-like profile.
History
The Old Man is probably less than 250 years old, and may soon collapse. The stack is not mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga, written c.1230, and on the Blaeu map of 1600, a headland exists at the point where the Old Man is now. The McKenzie map of Hoy of 1750 similarly shows a headland but no stack, but by 1819 the Old Man had been separated from the mainland. William Daniell sketched the sea stack at this time as a wider column with a smaller top section and an arch at the base.
Your task to log this earthcache:
1. Which 2 elements were mainly responsible for the development of the "Old Man" ?
2. How did the "Old Man" get his name ?
3. In which geological time period was the "Old Redstone" formed ?
4. Please tell me the Km/Miles "there and back" from the walk to the Old Man !
5. Optional. Please add a photo of yourself and/or gps at the viewpoint if possible, although this is not a requirement for logging the cache.
You can log the cache without my confirmation but you should send me answers before. If there is anything wrong with your answers I will let you know. Logs without sending answers will be deleted.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)