This is an earthcache and has no container. It is a virtual cache to learn something. It is located on the Glenn highway in Alaska. GZ brings you to a pullout to observe the geology around you.
The massive gypsum deposits that constitute Sheep Mountain are the result of 150 million year old magmatic activity. When heated gasses of the magma chamber deep below the earth’s surface rose through the layers above altering the surrounding material the hot hydrogen sulfide penetrated through the limestone layers above and metamorphosed the rock into several deposits. Over time the chamber cooled into rock and the layers above the chamber eroded into the peak we see today.
Please email the CO the answers to the following questions.
1. What material resulted from the volcanic activity? What is it a main component of it in everyday use?
2. If you look to the west you can see an orange colored hillside. What makes it this color?
3. Which plate did the buoyant magma arise from?
4. What attracts the Dall sheep to this area and why?
5. As you look around at the other mountains that surround Sheep mountain, are they of the same material or different?
6. Why or why not?
7. Finally, even though pictures are optional, please post a picture of you and your party (or of your GPS if you are caching solo) for all to enjoy. Do not include the signs at the posted coordinates in your photo.
RESOURCES
USGS Sheep Mountain inactive gypsum mine. http://mrdata.usgs.gov/ardf/show-ardf.php?ardf_num=AN080
Gypsiferous deposits on Sheep Mountain, Alaska http://pubs.dggsalaskagov.us/webpubs/usgs/b/text/b0989c.pdf
Hodges, Montana. Rockhounding Alaska, A Guide to 75 of the State’s Best Rockhounding Sites. 2010 Site 28
GZ Interpretive signs