Well, the title gives a hint at what the Earthcache is about, it is about why the becks in this region are brown, the main reason the becks are brown is because of the accumulation of peat, peat is an organic material that forms in the acidic, sterile, waterlogged conditions of a bog. As plants die, instead of decomposing, the organic matter is laid down, and slowly accumulates as peat because of the starvation of oxygen in bogs. This therefore traps the CO2 within the peat so helps combat the growth of CO2 in the atmosphere. (Peat is a young fossil fuel, storing around double the carbon that is stored in all the world’s forests)
Why is it bad for CO2 to be in our atmosphere?
CO2 is known as a greenhouse gas, a gas which gets trapped between the ground and the ozone layer (a sort of oxygen shield from the deadly matter thrown at us by the sun), CO2 is not toxic to humans but can have an effect on our planet, as CO2 builds up, it starts to trap heat energy from the sun between it and the ground, this is known as global warming and is what people believe is helping to speed up the ice caps (the Antarctic and the Arctic) melting.
What’s so bad about the ice caps melting?
The sea levels begin to rise as the molten ice (water) starts to drain into the oceans of the ice caps which will eventually flood low lying settlements, a good example of a place close by is Kingston Upon Hull, about 40miles from here, most of Hull is actually below sea level now so the quicker the ice caps are melting the more likely hull is to be flooded.
How to claim this Earthcache
What you need-
- An empty, see through, 500ml bottle
- Ph Test strips (You can buy these very cheap of the internet (around 99p) or from your local chemist)
What we would like you to do to claim this Earthcache is to walk down to the bank of the beck and collect a 500ml sample of the water (the standard size of a small bottle of water), please take care whilst getting to the bank there's quite a steep drop! You are finding this Earthcache at your own safety.
You should then send the answers to the questions for 1 and 2 (shown below) to us via the 'Geocaching Message Center' (there's a link to the message center at the top of this cache page under 'Message This Owner').
- From the bottle, what colour does the water appear and what do you see floating around in it? (Quick Tip: let the water settle a little before making your observations, the matter should sink to the bottom of the bottle so you can see it more clearly)
- Using the ph test paper, test the ph of the water, what is the ph number? (Quick Tip: The description does state a clue to which end of the ph scale it is likely to be towards)
If you fail to send these within 1 week of logging (unless there is a reason), your log shall be deleted.
Good luck!