Though the final location may look like faulty ground, here in Colorado it’s rare to be found. We live in the middle of the "North American Tectonic Plate." The closest plate boundary to us is on the West Coast. At that boundary, the North American plate is Slamming into the "Pacific Plate." The break between these two plates runs through Mexico, the western half of California, then just off the coast of Oregon and Washington. It goes all the way through Alaska, curving West at Alaska's Tail... the Aleutian Islands(Arc Islands). It's no coincidence that the vast majority of the earthquates and volcanoes in the USA run along this epic border. In fact the entire Cascade Mountain range is a result of the Pacific plate subducting(going under) under the North American plate and tiny Juan de fuca plate. As the Pacific Plate subducts into the mantle of the earth, it brings sea water and mineral fuel for the production of super-hot magma. It's an amazing recycling of the earth's crust. Magma is astoundingly hot, wanting to rise to the surface. If magma rises to the surface of the crust, it cools and solidifies. This can happen peacefully, or with devastating eruptions.
The Earth is a constantly changing planet. Even beneath our feet magma is cooling and turning to Granite. If you want to know more, it’s not hard to see. Pick up a rock.... let's study Geology.
N40 2A.BCD W105 0E.FGH
A = Normal Fault – Strike Slip Fault
B = Reverse Fault
C = Sedimentary Rock + Strike Slip Fault
D = (Convergent Boundary + San Andreas Fault) – Reverse Fault
E = Normal Fault + Divergent Boundary
F = Igneous Rock
G = Batholith – Convergent Boundary
H = Sedimentary Rock – (San Andreas Fault + Divergent Boundary)
This Geocache was created and is maintained by Stanley Polley, a Science teacher at Loveland Classical Schools.