At the end of the last Ice Age, the Grand River basin was a spillway for meltwaters of the retreating Wisconsin glacier. These floodwaters flowed into a post glacial lake and deposited millions of tons of sand and gravel till where you are now standing.
The Wisconsin glacier covered the valley 20,000 years ago and shaped the Grand River Valley. It pushed soil and rock ahead of its advance, filling in older river systems. As the glacier melted, two major landscape features emerged in our part of Ontario. The first is the huge deposits of gravel, sand and clay that were left behind. Today these form the basic sub-soils in regions of the watershed, and are why there are glacial drumlin hills near Guelph, gravel pits near Paris, and clay soils in Haldimand County.
In order to log this earthcache, please email me the answers to the following questions using the information that you find at GZ, and your observations:
1. What was the first resource to be mined in this area, and its alternate name?
2. When did serious aggregate extraction of sand and gravel begin in this area, and what are some of its uses?
3. Explain the process of Rehabiliation. When did this gravel pit enter the process of Rehabilitation, and what will it accomplish?
4. Look at the land in front of you. Using your observation skills & information learned above, what step of the "Extraction and Rehabilitatation Sequence" is this gravel pit currently in?
Congratulations to Pasha88 & 78viper on the FTF!