South Park Stone EarthCache
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The South Park stone was documented by a local doctor who was a founder member of the Darlington and Teesdale Naturalists Field Club. After his death in 1900 the Club decided to bring the stone to the South Park as a memorial to him. It was pulled from the river by steam powered traction engine and loaded onto a truck. It took 8 men 4 days to move it to Darlington. As it entered South Park, it fell off the truck and left where it fell, the north entrance to the park on the Victoria Embankment.
The South Park Stone is a 12 Ton glacial erratic. As the ice sheet moves along the bedrock it creates friction between the rock and glacier surface. This process over thousands of years form many of the land features we see today e.g. The Lake District valleys. Rocks and other materials are often plucked from their origin and transported along with the ice sheet. The rocks are shaped as they are transported along the glacier by erosion/abrasion. As the ice sheet melts or retreats the glacier deposits the rocks and material where they stand. These rocks are called glacial erratics. Generally, the glacial erratic will rest on bedrock of a different type although glacial or alluvial sediment may directly underlie the erratic. The glacial erratic can be used by geologist and scientists to determine the direction of travel of the ice sheet. It is estimated that the South Park Stone was transported from Shap (more than 70 miles away) some 12,000 years ago during the last Great Ice age of Britain along with many other glacial erratic in the area. It was deposited in the bed of the River Tees approximately 300 yards upstream of Winston Bridge. It is the second largest stone of the Teesdale Erractics after the Deepdale Great Stone. In 1900 the stone was moved 10 miles further east to its current location.
1. What are the Height, Width and Depth of the South park Stone?
2. What colour is the stone and what does it feel like.?
3. Based on the images below, is it Fine, Medium or coarse grained?
4. What type of rock is the south park Stone, and is it Igneous, Sedimentary or Metamorphic?
5. A picture of you with the stone (Optional, but that’s always nice, and good proof of a visit)
Additional Hints
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