Standing Stone EarthCache
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Standing Stone
Standing Stone - Named Mt Pleasant in Lancaster Ohio was created millions of years ago and has been used by many people for many things
since that time. Early Indians settled near the base of this feature as well as a crossroads for indian Trails, they also named Mt Pleasant Standing Stone
Mt Pleasant is a feature of Rising Park and has a trail that leads you to the top so you can get a great veiw of Lancaster Ohio
and the Fairfield County Fair Grounds
Geoclogical History of Standing Stone (Mt. Pleasant) Lancaster, Ohio
Ohio’s beautiful landscapes have been sculpted largely out of stone by the power of water. But even before the sculpting began, much of the stone in Ohio was deposited beneath water. Thick beds of limestone were deposited in the shallow seas that once covered what is today Ohio. Deposits of coal, gas and oil and the surrounding layers of shale were created in the bottom of muddy swamps that trapped organic matter. Sandstone and conglomerates formed when coarser sediments were deposited, again by water, and were cemented together to create stone.
Black Hand sandstone got its name from two black handprints that were found on a cliff near Newark, Ohio. It is thought that the hand prints were used by indigenous peoples to indicate the direction to the nearby Flint Ridge. Flint Ridge was an important source of flint for tool making by these cultures and was visited by humans for thousands of years before Europeans arrived on the continent.
DEPOSITION OF SANDSTONE
Millions of years ago during what is known to geologists as the Mississippian age large rivers were carrying vast quantities of sand and silt into an ancient sea which then occupied much of what is now the central portion of the United States. There the waves, tides, and currents of the ocean worked the suspended matter over and over, floating away to the deeper, more quiet waters the finer parts but depositing the coarser materials, sand with some pebbles, on or along the beaches. The final result of all this action was to deposit a vast sheet of sand and pebbles varying in thickness from a few to 300 feet or more.
APPALACHIAN REVOLUTION
Why does the Black Hand sandstone, laid down in the sea and buried by other rocks, now appear at the surface in great cliffs and hills across central Ohio from South Bloomingville, Hocking County, through Lancaster and Newark to Mansfield in Richland County? The Permian age of the geologist was "brought to a close by one of the most profound physical disturbances in the history of North America. It has been called the Appalachian Revolution because at that time the Appalachian Mountain Range was born out of the sea by upheavals and folding of the strata" (Miller). The great forces of nature thus created mountain ranges, lifted large areas into plateau-like highlands and raised other parts into broad plains. Such events elevated our region above the sea and opened the way for the next cycle, which is that of land sculpturing.
Glaciatian
As far as known the first glacier to reach Ohio was the Kansan or Pre-Kansan the marks of which are much obscured by later ice invasions. This early glacier appears to have advanced southward from the Canadian Highlands to about midway across Ohio. There were two more glacial periods that would help shape ohios land as it is today
The last ice sheet to ivade Ohio, some 30,000 years ago, was the Wisconsin, the deposits of which are very apparent over approximately 26,460 square miles of the State. It made many changes in the surface features, leveling certain areas to a smooth, even plain, piling up drift in others to knobby hills and billowy ridges, and filling certain valleys with great quantities of out wash materials. In Fairfield County the Wisconsin glacier lacked a few miles of extending as far south as the Illinoian. The terminal moraine or border of the last ice passed irregularly through southeastern Richland, northern Berne, southeastern Hocking, and northwestern Madison townships. This glacier certainly passed over Standing Stone as a granite boulder of Canadian origin still remains upon the summit. However, the ice did little in sculpturing the walls of the great rock, yet it left a mantle of drift around the base of this hill as well as over the surrounding countryside. In general in the Lancaster region the chief effect of the Wisconsin glacier was to add more accumulations to that already deposited by the Illinoian ice, to the fill in the old Logan and Lancaster River valleys.
Complete Summary of How Standing Stone was Created
Standing Stone remains as a monument to many forces and events in a long story mainly explained by geology.
The occurrences may be recorded as follows:
1. A thick body of sandstone, now known as the Black Hand formation, was laid down along the shore of the sea.
2. Through slow sinking of the ocean floor a great mass of other rocks were deposited above the Black Hand sandstone.
3. Next during profound earth movements, called the Appalachian Revolution, these rocks were raised to a land mass much above the sea.
4. Rains fell and streams then began the work of cutting valleys in the land. The first system of streams, named the Teays, carved deep troughs and basins in the rock surface and shaped up the higher parts into hills and ridges.
5. One of the Teays streams, the Logan River, cut a wide, deep valley northward past Lancaster and shaped up Standing Stone from the thick Black Hand sandstone. The main part of the work in reducing the rock to its present form was done at this time.
6. An early glacier, the Kansan or Pre-Kansan, buried or changed these early streams but led to the formation of a new river system, known as the Deep Stage.
7. One of these was the Lancaster River which flowed northward in the trough of the older Logan River but cut some 90 feet deeper into the rocks below.
8. The Lancaster River evidently aided in forming the abrupt walls of Standing Stone as it eroded away the soft shales from under the massive, resistant sandstone formation.
9. The second glacier, the Illinoian, passed over the Lancaster area and on southward to Sugar Grove. It scoured the walls of Standing Stone to some extent and left a thick deposit of drift around its base.
10. The Illinoian drift wiped out or modified many of the older streams. As affecting the Lancaster region the chief new stream formed was the Haydenville River which flowed southward from the ice front for an outlet to the sea. This stream had little or no effect on Standing Stone.
11. The third glacier in Ohio, the Wisconsin, passed southward over Standing Stone and beyond Lancaster. It made little change in the rock structure but added more drift around its base.
12. The Wisconsin ice invasion then led to the formation of the now existing system, the Hocking River and its tributaries. Standing Stone has not been affected by the present streams.
Hence, Standing Stone, an isolated knob of Black Hand sandstone, was formed mainly by the cutting of valleys by two old streams, the Logan and the Lancaster rivers, and its walls were scoured by two glaciers, the Illinoian and the Wisconsin. This rock named so appropriately by the Indians certainly merits a prominent place in the scenic features of Ohio.
To Log this cache you will need to complete 3 Tasks
1.What is the Elevation Change from the Parking Cords to the Posted Cords (Height in Feet)
2.What type of Sandstone is Standing Stone is Made of
3.Name the Two Old Streams and Two Glacial Periods responsible for Forming Standing Stone.
4. Can you describe the Sandstone of Standing Stone?
Please Obey All Park Rules and this cache is not Accessible at night
All info for this cache was taken from Ohio Journal of Science: Volume 52, Issue 6 (November, 1952), Wilber Stout
Placed by Member of
Additional Hints
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