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:
Go to the second floor and out the glass doors. There is a walkway where you can view the dig site and get answers to the questions.
1. MESSAGE …. What are scientists doing the day you visited this earthcache?
2. MESSAGE …. Why is the soil different colors?
3. MESSAGE …. What rhinos were excavated from the Rhino Pit.
4. MESSAGE …. At the Ivory Pit a mastodont skull was discovered. Name four other fossils that were excavated from this pit.
5. MESSAGE …. Compare the Gomphothere (brick mural) with the Mastodon (exhibit).
6. LOG …. Post a picture at or near the coordinates. This picture is your log signature.
OPTIONAL - Please respect the time and effort involved in creating this earthcache by adding A and B to your log.
A. 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.
B. 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. This is a memorable addition to your log and will make other hearts smile.
Journeys of Heart and Mind ...
Stories to Touch the Heart and Puzzles to Challenge the Mind / Rainbow Tree Story
THANK YOU Chris Widga (Head Curator) for your help and permission to share this learning adventure.
FOSSIL SITE
The Gray Fossil Site is nearly five acres in size and well over 100 feet deep. The fossils are preserved in the dark sediments. Scientists have discovered an entire ecosystem that existed on this site 7 to 4.5 million years ago. They have excavated thousands of specimens, including several new species. For the first time, the world knows what the southern Appalachians looked like at the end of the Miocene.
In late May of 2000 fossils were discovered by a Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) road construction project on the Highway 75 and Fulkerson Road of Gray, TN. TDOT geologists, researchers from University of TN-Knoxville, and the TN State Archeologist recognized the potential significance of the site and sought to protect it. On August 7th, 2000 TN Governor Don Sundquist and other state officials visited the site. Returning for a second visit on September 15, 2000, the governor announced that the road project would be relocated to save the fossil site for research and education.
"The current dig at the Gray Fossil Site was determined to have been the location of a semi-circular sinkhole that once harbored a pond environment over a long period of time and is now yielding the remains of the ancient plants and animals that lived, watered, and died within the then watery sinkhole." Wikipedia
FIELD and LAB
EXCAVATION - Once an excavation area has been decided on, the first step is to survey 1 meter squares and carefully remove the top grass layer. Fossils are mostly found in the dark clays. Slow excavation with hand tools begins when the dark clays are exposed.
WATER SCREENING - All sediment or soil removed during excavations is kept for researchers. Each yellow bag will be water-screened for micro-fossils (small fossils like fish, snake, bird, lizard, salamander bones and small mammal teeth). All sediment bags have their location (test pit area and square number) and excavation date indicated on them.
SURVEYING - When a bone is found and before it is removed, it is surveyed (preserving how the bone is laying in the ground for further research) and given a field number (a combination of date found, specimen count, and survey points). This number will remain with the specimen at all times. After the specimen has been surveyed for its orientation and elevation, the information is entered into a computer program where maps can be made. This data is important for interpreting the layout of specimens, especially when they overlap each other.
FIELD JACKETS - Field jackets are created by putting burlap strips into wet plaster and placing them onto a surface to be protected. Once a field jacket has hardened or set, workers will start the process of bringing it into the Preparation Lab.
SCIENTISTS
Depending on the day, scientists may be surveying, collecting fossils on the surface, digging, screening dirt, or carrying large specimens and bags of sediment back to the lab. OUTSIDE - The walkway gives you a view of what is happening at the dig site. INSIDE - The large glass windows gives you a view of what is happening in the lab.
Discoveries are continually being made and revisions made based on these new discoveries. The brick fossil mural depicts fossil organisms discovered at this site. The Gomphothere turned out to be a Mastodon upon further excavation and assembly.
EXHIBITS
"Come explore the past as we discover it ... See what was happening here in eastern Tennessee before humans walked the earth."
Enjoy the exhibits displayed within the museum. All are based on discoveries at this dig site. How are fragile fossils displayed? What is Palynology? How many questions can you answer at the interactive murals? Discover all this and much more as you enjoy an awesome learning adventure here.
GOMPHOTHERES and MASTODONS
Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were superficially elephant-like proboscideans. ... Mastodons are any species of extinct mammutid proboscideans in the genus Mammut, distantly related to elephants, that inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene. Wikipedia
SCENES AND ACTIVITIES
Includes Plant material | Sediments and invertebrates | Geologic features | Drillholes and stratigraphy | Geologic map ... Aerial View and Deep Sampling ... http://graysite1.net/Scenes.html
ROCK-WATER RELATIONSHIP
The most common method of fossilization is called permineralization, or petrification. After an organism's soft tissues decay in sediment, the hard parts are left behind. Water seeps into the remains, and minerals dissolved in the water seep into the spaces within the remains, where they form crystals. These crystallized minerals cause the remains to harden along with the encasing sedimentary rock.
In another fossilization process, called replacement, the minerals in groundwater replace the minerals that make up the bodily remains after the water completely dissolves the original hard parts of the organism.
EARTHCACHE
Diggin' Up Bones - Gray Fossil Site https://coord.info/GC1554M