From the listed coordinates, you can view multiple layers of limestone, convoluted by geologic pressures over eons of time.
Look to the South, you are standing at a geologic transition zone where the Hill Country land you are standing on begins to becomes much more flattened out as it transitions into another geologic area called the Gulf Coastal Plain. The tremendous forces associated with the transition movement many eons long ago could be the reason for the limestone layer convolutions in front of you.
These limestone layers are hundreds of feet deep over much of the Hill Country and they can be used as a raw material mined for the purpose of becoming, among other things, the very road you are standing on. This limestone can be mined and become a material of many uses.
Cement is one of those local products from the earth utilized for tremendous benefit to mankind. It is derived from organics that once lived here and have been geologically processed into materials man can use.
A nearby cement plant, approximately a mile West of you, is situated there because of the large quantities of local and ancient geological deposits of limestone at the site. These deposits at the cement plant appear much as you see the layered limestone viewed at the listed coordinates.
This limestone is made of rocks composed primarily of calcium carbonate which organically originated as shells and skeletons of beings once living here in huge numbers.
These organisms, with their calcium carbonate body components, died and settled to the bottom mud of a shallow seabed located right where you are standing. They lived, and died, up to approximately 140 million years ago during the Cretaceous period which was the last period of the Mesozoic Era during which the Earth’s climate was warmer, by natural causes, than it is during this modern era of mankind.
As these organisms settled to the sea bottoms, they were subsequently and routinely covered by repetitive layers of incoming and receding shallow sea waters containing mud, clay, more organisms, over and over, and for many millions of years, ultimately forming multiple layers of limestone.
The limestone formed from these ancient shallow sea bed sediments is now mined in open-pit mines called quarries, ground up into tiny pieces, heated in the presence of air, and transformed into a very fine powder called cement. It is this cement powder that is mixed with other geologically created materials such as rocks, sand, and gypsum (the white chalky material in sheet rock that likely forms the walls of your home) to become dry concrete. When this dry concrete is mixed with water, it hardens with time to become the important load bearing shapes important to us such as foundations, bridges, and highways.
If you are at the listed coordinates, chances are high that concrete from the nearby cement plant composes much of the path that got you here, no matter what transportation method you chose. Concrete also likely formed the floor support of the building you slept in last night. It’s all thanks to ancient and natural geological processes which are quietly important to our daily lives.
About a mile West of the coordinates, is a real cement manufacturing plant actually mining limestone at a quarry. That facility produces about 5 billion pounds of cement each year and is responsible for at least 117 local jobs with a direct 10 million dollar beneficial impact to the local economy.
The positive contributions from the geological creation and man-made transformation of limestone materials represented by this Earthcache just keep on coming. For example, mined-out, abandoned quarries are sometimes transformed into amusement parks (Fiesta Texas) and shopping centers (The Alamo Quarry), both of which you can visit in nearby San Antonio. These recycled quarries attract tourists, provide entertainment, business revenues, and create jobs for many, many more people and families beyond just the economic benefits of the original cement plant.
To demonstrate the educational value of your visit and to claim a find for this Earthcache, you must answer some pertinent questions according to the following instructions.
Please email your ANSWERS to the CO FIRST, then you may LOG YOUR FIND.
Do not wait on a reply from the CO to log your find. Claimed FINDS which do not meet logging requirements will be auto-deleted.
Do NOT answer the questions on the geocache page log or place pictures of the answer to any of the questions…this, too, will cause auto-deletion.
Sorry ’bout that, but geocaching rules are geocaching rules.
Now, please email to the cache owner the answers to the following questions:
- During what geological period did the limestone in this area form?
- What is one example of a body part of the organisms that was turned into limestone by geologic processes over very long periods of time?
- How many layers of limestone do you see from the listed coordinates?
- What is the name of the Plain area noticeably beginning and easily visible to the south of the listed coordinates?
- Once the quarry is completely mined, what are two examples of how this geological formation might be re-used for continued economic benefit to the area?
After answering the above and emailing your answers to the CO, you can go ahead and log your find.
Photos are welcome, encouraged, and appreciated…but are NOT a requirement nor proof by themselves of a find.
References :
http://www.texasalmanac.com/topics/business/nonpetroleum-minerals
http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/audit/cement/ch1.htm
http://www.texasalmanac.com/topics/environment/geology-texas-0
http://www.livescience.com/29231-cretaceous-period.html
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=labeled_buildings.showplantProfile&plantprofile_id=p_701
Congratulations to BulldogBlitz for FTF