Wichita Mountains Badlands Earthcache EarthCache
hzoi: I've been thinking of ways to update this earthcache to make it compliant with the current guidelines, but without revisiting the site, it's not doable.
Thanks to those who came out to visit this miniature badlands.
Wichita Mountains Badlands Earthcache
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This earthcache will teach you about the badlands erosion terrain feature just off the road in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. There is no physical cache container to find; to log this earthcache, you will need to email us the answers to the questions below. The questions are repeated in the unencrypted hint for your convenience. Parking available at the additional waypoint.
I must have driven by this spot dozens of times but had never stopped to actually see what was here. When I saw a topographic map that named this spot "Bad Lands," I realized that this was an unusual spot for this area. Finally, on my way to the nearby "Styx Mine" virtual, I decided to check it out. I could not find any scientific studies of this area, but after a little investigation and homework, I figured this was a perfect spot for an earthcache lesson.
GEOLOGY OF THE WICHITA MOUNTAINS
Based on current scientific theory, around 550 to 600 million years ago, this entire area was under water after the land collapsed into a basin and was flooded by the sea. The floor of the basin was thickly covered in sediment washed into the sea. Hot lava formed under this sedimentary rock and was forced upward into it. Because the lava was insulated by the layers of rock above it, it cooled slowly, forming the dark, finely grained igneous rock called gabbro.
Around 50 million years later, another intrusive sheet of hot granite lava formed under the surface and was forced up through the older gabbro. Although some of the lava reached the surface through vents, much of it cooled below the surface as well, though not as slowly as the gabbro. The granite it formed, called Mount Scott granite, is the most extensively found rock in the Wichita Mountains. Mount Scott is a leucogranite, meaning it is lightly colored and contains few dark specks of materials. The rock mostly consists of quartz and microperthite (an alkali type of feldspar, the rock that makes up over 60% of the earth's crust) and contains low amounts of iron and magnesium.
Around 515 to 425 million years ago, the land subsided or sank under sea water, and the sheet of Mount Scott granite was then buried under sediment. Then, around 300 million years ago, there was a massive uplift, and the land was raised up around 20,000 feet. This produced mountains much larger than you can see today. The limestone that formed from the sediment that covered Mount Scott weathered and eroded away around 250 million years ago, as did some of the granite.
But a quick comparison of the rock here at the badlands to the granite that forms the hills and mountains nearby shows that this area is definitely not granite. So what is this area and how did this form?
WHAT ARE "BAD LANDS?"
Early settlers and explorers in the Plains and Southwest did not mess around with poetry; they tended to call things like they saw them from a practical perspective. The term badland was first applied to a part of southwestern South Dakota, which French-Canadian trappers called the "mauvaises terres pour traverser" (the “bad lands to cross”). It was later applied to other areas with similarly eroded terrain. The term "bad lands" cuts to the chase for anyone thinking of farming or settling this land. There is little to no topsoil, and therefore little to no vegetation -- a bad land for farming. The area is also criscrossed by washes -- a bad land for traveling by horse or on foot.
From a geologic perspective, "badlands" are landscapes that are "intricately dissected and characterized by a very fine drainage network with high drainage densities, short, steep slopes, and narrow interfluves." An interfluve is an area of high terrain between valleys -- think ridge lines. Badlands typically develop in areas that have little to no plant cover lying on top of materials that are either unconsolidated (like gravel) or are poorly cemented (like clays, silts, or sandstones). In some cases, the minerals in badlands are very water soluble, such as gypsum.
Badlands are characterized by having little to no regolith -- the material on the earth's surface that overlays rock. The word comes from the Greek words "lithos," or rock, and "rhegos," or blanket. Regolith consists of many things, all of which are the product of physical or chemical weathering -- the process of breaking down rocks and minerals -- and biological processes such as decomposition. The top layer of regolith is something we're all familiar with -- soil. Without regolith, without soil, vegetation cannot grow.
Badlands form through two processes, deposition followed by erosion. First, layers of material accumulate over time. Once these sedimentary deposits form and solidify, they are subject to erosion.
Over time, badlands can form dramatic landscapes, characterized by hoodoos that are separated by canyons or ravines. Gloss Mountain State Park, in Major County, is also badland terrain, a series of mesas and valleys that developed as the gypsum rock there eroded in places.
LOGGING THIS EARTHCACHE
To log this earthcache, email us or send us a message (visit link) and copy and paste these questions, along with your answers. Please do not post the answers in your log, even if encrypted. There's no need to wait for confirmation from us before you log, but we will email you back if you include your email address in the message. Group answers are fine; just let us know who was with you.
1. The name of this earthcache: Wichita Mountains Badlands
2. Describe the landscape you see. What colors appear in the formations? What is their texture? What kind of rock or deposit do you think makes up these formations?
3. What, if any, vegetation can you see in the badlands itself? How is this different from what's around it?
4. How deep are the gullies between the formations? Based on that, do you think these badlands formed millions of years ago or more recently?
SOURCES
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Geology of the Wichita Mountains. (visit link)
Oklahoma Geological Survey, Geology of the Eastern Wichita Mountains, Southwestern Oklahoma. (visit link)
US Dept. of Agriculture, National Resource Conservation Service. "Supplement to the Soil Survey of Comanche County, Oklahoma." (visit link)
Encyclopedia Britannica, "Badland." (visit link)
Wikipedia, "Badlands." (visit link)
Wikipedia, "Regolith." (visit link)
This earthcache was placed with the permission of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
Additional Hints
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[LOGGING THIS EARTHCACHE
To log this earthcache, use the "send message" link in our profile and copy and paste these questions, along with your answers. Please do not post the answers in your log, even if encrypted. There's no need to wait for confirmation from us before you log, but we will email you back if you include your email address in the message. Group answers are fine; just let us know who was with you.
1. The name of this earthcache: Wichita Mountains Badlands
2. Describe the landscape you see. What colors appear in the formations? What is their texture? What kind of rock or deposit do you think makes up these formations?
3. What, if any, vegetation can you see in the badlands itself? How is this different from what's around it?
4. How deep are the gullies between the formations? Based on that, do you think these badlands formed millions of years ago or more recently?]
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