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Broken Arrow Bluff Earthcache EarthCache

Hidden : 2/21/2015
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   other (other)

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Geocache Description:

This earthcache is located within Broken Arrow Bluff Park, one of the smallest parks operated by the City of Gainesville at just 11 acres.  Please stay on the trails and follow the rules posted on the sign at the entrance to the park.  As with any nature area in Florida, be aware of the possibility of poisonous plants and animals.


DO NOT CLIMB ON THE ROCKS AT THIS LOCATION! There are rare and fragile plants that are found on the rock here that should not be disturbed! You can get the information without disturbing the are or climbing/sitting on the rocks.

If you carved away layer after layer of rock beneath us here in Florida, you'd find limestone.  Lots and lots of limestone.  Florida sits atop thousands of feet of limestone and because of the properties of limestone, there are places you can see the rock beneath us.  Here at Broken Arrow Bluff Park is one of those places.  

Limestone is a sedementary rock and is composed mostly of calcium carbonate from the skeletons of marine organisms.  The skeletons can be made of either argonite or calcite and as the marine organisms die, they either dissolve, break apart or stay intact, but they eventually become cemented together and turn to rock.  The limestone that makes up the majority of this area is the Ocala Limestone Group which formed from 55 to 33 million years ago during the Eocene epoch.  Because limestone is partially soluble, especially when exposed to acidic conditions, the erosional landscapes known as karst form.  This is what creates much of the landscape around north central Florida, including the example of limestone you are standing in front of.  It allows for sink holes to form, caves to be created and to occasionally have limestone outcroppings visible on the surface.

To claim credit for the earthcache, please email the answers to the following questions to the owner of the cache through their profile.  Please do not post the answers in your log, even if encrypted.

1) How tall do you estimate the highest rock formation is from the water level to the top?

Questions 2 through 4 will require you to inspect the rock. Again, PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB ON THE ROCKS!

2) What does the appearance of the rock tell you about how the depression formed?

3) What fossils are abundant in the rocks?

4) Do you think that the smaller rocks surrounding the largest one were once attached to it?  What clues in the largest rock make you think that?

5) OPTIONAL - Post pictures of your time in the park

 

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limestone

Florida Museum of Natural History Displays

Additional Hints (No hints available.)