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Welcome to Castle Rock! Castle Rock is a large Limestone and Chert Bluff on Turkey Creek.
When you look at Castle Rock, you will notice that the rock consists of several layers that look like a stack of pancakes. The Limestone (light grey) is layered with the Chert (orange). Over the course of many hundreds of thousands of years, the rock face has been etched at differing rates. This effect further emphasizes the different layers of the stone.
Now... look at the historic photos below. They were taking around 100+ years ago. You are standing in about the spot that the photographer was standing in when those photos were taken.
(Photos are from the City of Joplin Archive)
Amazingly enough, Castle Rock look almost exaclty the same. 100 years has been a slight blink of an eye for the ancient rock face.
But you will now notice, that if it wasn't for the presence of Castle Rock in the photos, you would have no idea that you are at the same location. Mother Nature has drastically changed and eroded and moved the creek banks over time.
To collect this Earthcache, Please perform the following tasks and answer the questions accordingly.
1. Estimate the height of Castle Rock.
2. Look at the Layers of Limestone (light grey) and Chert (orange-ish). Which one of the rock layers do you think is the harder and more durable rock? Why do you think this?
3. Estimate the width of Turkey Creek at this location today.
4. Why does the creek width look different from the creek in the historic photos? Where did it go?
Please email the answers to questions to WCSexton.
Please email your answers first, then LOG THE FIND. Do not wait on a reply from me. FOUND IT logs which do not meet logging requirements will be removed.
If you would like to visit the Top of Castle Rock, there is a pedestrian trail on the other side of the Creek that leads to it. You will be able to sit at the rock bench in the photograph and look down on the creek. Also, at the time of the creation of this Earthcache, there is a Traditional Geocache located at the top. Please be Very Careful and have fun!