Geological Forensics 6
Part of a series of caches that demonstrate how Geology and Forensics are often used together to explain features we find in both rocks and our surroundings.
Geology is the study of the Earth; its rocks; its structure; everything within it - and also the processes that shape its surface. Forensics is the use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts. Geologists, and especially palaeontologists, use the evidence found in rocks to deduce the environment that a sedimentary rock or fossil was deposited in, or the 'story' of how the crystals in a metamorphic or igneous rock formed. More recently, geologists are employed to help dispose of our waste, which some people are now saying makes an entirely new ‘layer’ of rock/sediment in and around our planet.
For a brief introduction to Geology, and the details of different rock types, please see a previous Geological Forensics EarthCache (for example, http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5Y1C4_geological-forensics-5 )
The final cache can be found at NAB⁰ CD.EFG W HIJ⁰ K.LMN
To work out the coordinates for this cache, please follow the tasks below, choosing the correct answers at each location/question. Choose the wrong answers, and you’ll end up somewhere, but choose the correct answer, and you’ll be rewarded with a log to sign and (hopefully), some toys to swap.
If one proceeds to the starting coordinates N 50° 50.360 W 001° 05.850, one will find yourself at the edge of a large (free) car park, near the perimeter road. BE CARFEUL HERE WITH YOUNG CHILDREN – the car park can get quite busy during most hours of each day of the week.
In clear view from the coordinates, one will see a kerb stretching along the perimeter edge of the whole car park, planted with a variety of bushes. As one looks along the length of this kerb, and also within the car park and in between the buildings and boat parks that stretch off westwards towards the sea, one will see many similar-looking 2m high thick (20cm wide) poles.
If the object on the top of the poles are gold in colour, then A = 6
If the object on the top of the poles are silver in colour, then A = 5
Now look to the mini-roundabout that marks the entrance to ‘the Dump’ at Way Point 1 (N 50° 50.355 W 001° 05.830), from the road that you can see. The question you need to answer is: How many ‘Monkey Puzzle Trees’ are growing on the roundabout’?
If there are no Monkey Puzzle Trees growing on the roundabout, then B = 0
If there are two Monkey Puzzle Trees growing on the roundabout, then B = 4
Instead of peering through the trees to the South, why not ‘view’ Way Point 2 (N 50° 50.100 W 001° 05.850) from a suitable satellite-imaging website. You will notice ‘Horsea Lake’, a long and thin, North-West/South-East orientated lake. Originally used by the Navy to test torpedoes, it is now used to help train both divers and the Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Squad.
If Horsea Lake is artificial, then C = 5
If Horsea Lake is natural, then C = 1
If one could see across to the northern area of Portsmouth, you would see the tall, double skinny chimneys of the site where our rubbish is burnt (Way Point 3 (N 50° 49.310 W 001° 03.250)). This is one ‘option’ available to Councils across the world for the disposal of household waste. What are the other two options available to Councils?
If the other available options are to burn it again, and then bury it, then D = 8
If the other available options are to bury it, or recycle/re-use it, then D = 0
Portsmouth once chose to bury its rubbish. Various sites across the city are open grassland/’green spaces’, due to the toxins in the soil below! The City can no longer bury its rubbish, simply because, when you remember that most of the city is an island, it has actually run out of land space!
Look a few miles to the north (Way Point 4, at N 50° 51.380 W 001° 05.850 stretching Eastwards and Westwards from here), and you will see Portsdown Hill. Many websites and local (excellent!) EarthCaches cover this feature so I will not dwell on the Hill here. Look to the East and down towards the South-East and you will see a few cone-shaped hills (Way Point 5, at N 50° 50.250 W 001° 05.500).
If you think that Portsdown Hill is older than the immediate hill ‘range’, then E = 2
If you think that Portsdown Hill is younger than the immediate hill ‘range’, then E = 7
If one studies a map of Horsea Island from, say pre-1950, it is a grass-covered expanse, covered with occasional bushes and trees. If one stands at WayPoint 6 (N 50° 50.530 W 001° 05.640) (there is NO NEED TO GO HERE!!), you will see a nice manicured and landscaped roundabout, half-surrounded by embankments that hold up the M27 motorway and the slip-roads that feed on to it. If you stood here in 1940, would you experience:
Cows happily chewing the cud as they strolled around their field? If so, F = 4
Being stuck up to your armpits in deep stinking mud, screaming for help as the tide raced in, wishing that helicopters had been invented so that the Coastguard could easily pluck you from the mud? If so, F = 8
One way to extract rock from the ground is by making a large hole, probably using explosives and large machines. Look North to Way Point 7 (N 50° 51.320 W 001° 05.721), and there is a prime example.
If the rock blasted away from where you can see was a variety of calcium carbonate the locals call ‘Chalk’, then G = 3
If the rock blasted away was a variety of intrusive igneous rock, then G = 6
The man-made feature at Way Point 7 – is it a quarry, or an adit?
If the big white man-made feature is an adit, then H = 0
If the big white man-made feature is a quarry, then H = 0
The answer to the last question is obviously ‘a quarry’ – adits are horizontally-orientated man-made tunnels that form part of (or are) a mine.
Now think back to the embankments part-surrounding Way Point 6 (as above). What rock do you think was used to build the foundations for the M27 and slip-roads in this area?
If you think it was ‘gneiss’, then I = 2
If you think it was ‘Chalk’, then I = 0
The Chalk – was it formed on land in the hot Triassic-aged arid deserts, or was it formed in the Cretaceous-aged warm, shallow seas?
If formed in the Triassic parched deserts, then J = 0
If formed in the warm shallow seas of the Cretaceous Period, then J = 1
If one walks to Way Point 8 (at N 50° 50.421 W 001° 05.837), you will see a landscaped 2m wide kerbed area separating the pedestrian pathway from the car parking area. Within this are a variety of shrubs and grasses, and nicely-arranged rock boulders. At the Northern tip of this kerbed area is a large ‘monolith’, surrounded by smaller boulders at its base.
If the monolith is made of limestone and the boulders are a selection of crystalline igneous rocks, then K = 18
If the monolith is crystalline and the boulders made of a variety of limestone, then K = 5
As one stands here looking at the boulders, you could wander off and sit in a marina-side bar or café in the nearby ‘Port Solent’ plaza of shops and restaurants, and think about the above. Or, you could stand here and suss it all out – be that Forensic Scientist, wherever! The above covers various aspects of what a Geologist probably does in their day-to-day job, linking in their scientific knowledge with the skill of ‘deduction’ that a Forensic Scientist also employs in their job. Put yourself in their position, what deductions can you make?
Has this area always been the low (a few metre-high), ancient (thousands of years old), raised sea-bed that was created following the last glaciation that one often sees along this stretch of the coast of Southern England? If so, then L = 0
This area was recently natural sea-bed, covered in soft muds with occasional sporadic grass-covered islands that disappeared and re-appeared with the daily tides, then L = 9
Did you know that if you drive East from the roundabout as mentioned above at Way Point 1, you will drive to not only the Council ‘Dump’, but on the way, you will pass a biogas-powered electrical power station, generating 2.4 mega-watts of electricity for the National Grid? This uses the gases released by rotting/decomposing matter, especially the rubbish left by humans; let the rubbish decay slowly over time, surrounded by an impermeable membrane (waterproof-sheet), and potentially dangerous, flammable gasses may build up. To prevent the whole area exploding, devastating the whole area by making a hole big enough and deep enough for the sea to flood in, let alone the death and destruction it would cause, the gases can be easily dispersed by a network of underground pipes that feed to the surface, where a series of chimneys adorned with wind-driven ‘spinners’ harmlessly disperse the gas (what colour tops could these have I wonder?).
If you think this potentially dangerous and highly flammable gas is methane, then M = 7
If you think this potentially dangerous and highly flammable gas is dihydrogen monoxide, then M = 4
And last of all, the logo that indicates ‘recycling’ is now a common sight in our lives. To make it clear that this logo is ‘good for the environment’, what colour is generally used when presenting this logo?
If you think the colour of the ‘recycle logo’ is generally pink, then N = 2
If you think the colour of the ‘recycle logo’ is generally green, then N = 3
Now work out what coordinates ABCDEDFHJKLM and N are and go sign the log (and maybe swap a few small swapsies)!
Good luck!
