GC6QD3Y Embedded Oddities (Earthcache) in New York, United States created by rainbowtree

This cache has been archived.

rainbowtree: DO NOT post a log to this cache.
If you choose to disregard CO's request and log this archived cache, be sure you have the following ...
1. Pics at the required coordinates with you or your signature item as verification of visit.
2. All questions completely/thoughtfully answered.
A special thank you to those who completed all the requirements as requested -and- added the Journeys to your log.

GC6QD3Y ▼

A cache by rainbowtree Message this owner

Hidden : 8/17/2016

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

Permission to share this earthcache was given as long as searchers are respectful. Have fun.

Cattaraugus County
Enjoy the wonders that abound within these Enchanted Mountains.

EARTHCACHE REQUIREMENTS
Each cacher must send his/her own answers BEFORE logging a find. Enjoy the journey (learning adventure) as well as the destination (smiley earned). Remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints. To get credit for this Earthcache, complete the following tasks:

1. MESSAGE :-) or EMAIL …. The coordinates bring you to the front of a cultural center in Olean. ... a. Where is the conglomerate inclusion located? ... b. What percentage of the building block does the inclusion occupy?

2. MESSAGE :-) or EMAIL …. Explain (scientific or creative) how this rock was embedded in the parent rock.

OPTIONAL - Please respect the time and effort involved in finding and creating this earthcache by adding ABC to your log.

A. Post a picture at or near the posted coords. This picture is your log signature verifying that you were at the earthcache.

B. JOURNEY OF THE MIND ... Science explains what we observe. Relate (in your own words) something you found interesting in the reading. This adds to your learning adventure and your log.

C. JOURNEY OF THE HEART ... Art shares our personal experience of what we see. Share something special you found on site, and why it is special to you ... prose / story / poem / picture. This is a memorable addition to your log and will make other hearts smile.

OPTIONAL - HALL OF FAME

1. Identify the process responsible for each of the nine embedded oddities pictured.

2. Find another stone within Cattaraugus County that has a rock/mineral embedded within that is different from the parent rock. Post a pic with the coordinates, and describe what oddity you discovered.

THANK YOU Dr. Ovidiu D. Franţescu @ Pitt Bradford for your help with this earthcache.
THANK YOU Della Moore @ African American Cultural Center for permission to share this earthcache.

BUILDING STONES
A close look at individual stones in buildings yields an interesting variety of embedded oddities.
This one presents a geological puzzle. "It appears to be a conglomerate inclusion into sandstone. The problem is that I cannot see any kind of reworking marks on the conglomerate to indicate any significant transport from its source. To add more to this puzzle, the cross-beds in sandstone are deformed/interrupted by the conglomerate."

GEOLOGICAL INCLUSIONS
There are a myriad of processes that cause a different type of rock to be embedded within the parent rock. Each of the rocks were found throughout Cattaraugus County in buildings and rock corridors.

BLEBS and LENSES - See BSHC - Limestone
BLEBS are small bubble-like inclusions of one mineral within a larger mineral.
LENSES are deposits that are thick in the middle and thin at the edges, resembling a convex lens in cross-section.

CONCRETIONS - See Turtle Shell
A concretion is a hard, compact mass of matter formed by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles. They are found in clay strata that was originally mud laid down on the sea floor millions of years ago. Concretions vary in size and shape, but most usually spherical.
One of the pics shows a cross-section of a rose-shaped concretion.

FOSSILS
Formed when a plant or animal dies and is buried in mud and silt. Soft tissues quickly decompose leaving the hard bones or shells behind. Over time sediment builds over the top and hardens into rock.
A relatively common occurrence is white calcite replacing the shell.
One of the pics shows "a cross-section through a brachiopod shell, the zig-zag pattern is the shell, and the off-white streak is a calcite deposit inside the shell."

ORGANICS
Rocks are often covered with lichen and other organics, which sometimes appear like occlusions.

STAINING
IRON - Most sedimentary rocks contain iron in varying degrees. This mineral may appear in patterns or dispersed randomly throughout the parent rock. Color appears in various reddish hues.
MANGANESE - Forms similar to iron staining, but from manganese rich solutions (water) percolating through the sandstone. This mineral may appear in patterns or dispersed randomly throughout the parent rock. Color appears in various blackish hues.

WATER SCULPTURE - See ASP Rock Water Erosion
Water is responsible for eroding the rock creating a myriad of formations. Erosion of rock occurs from falling water (waterfalls), meandering water (rivers), and wave action (seas).
One of the pics shows ... "The thin, long, linear features, in positive relief, are flute marks/scour marks/. Water currents have carried pebbles and/or sticks along the muddy bed, and made those scours. A second (younger) layer of sediment was deposited and filled the scours, creating a mold of them, thus they have positive relief. Now you are looking at the underside of the younger layer."

XENOLITHS and PHENOCRYSTS - See Dots and Stripes
XENOLITHS are rock fragments of metamorphically altered rock that gets caught in the cooling magma or lava. As the magma cools, the igneous rock forms around the rock fragments.
PHENOCRYSTS are mineral crystals in igneous rock that began growing early in the cooling history of the rock, before the fine-grained groundmass crystallized around them. Or they may have arrived by gravity, either floating to the top or sinking to the bottom of a magma chamber.

RESOURCES
Wikipedia
Google Images - Iron staining in rocks
University Treatise

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ybbx nebhaq gur pbeare.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

This cache has been archived.

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Embedded Oddities EarthCache

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