For the sake of smartphone GPS users, the logging questions are listed first. Questions (3) and (4) can be done at home if necessary.
Please feel free to log your find after sending the answers. You will only be contacted if your answers are deficient.
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Logging Requirements: To log this earthcache, send an email or message to the cache owner with answers to the following questions. Do NOT include in your log either the answers (even if encrypted) or photos of the waterfalls. Posting photos of other nearby waterfalls is acceptable.
Questions from observations at posted coordinates:
(1) Estimate the total number of feet of vertical drop in the main waterfall area near ground zero. Include the drops of all the ledges along about 25 feet of stream, but not the additional ledges farther up or downstream.
(2) Sighting along the length of the rock ledges (see illustration below), does your compass agree or disagree with “the big picture?”
Questions from text:
(3) Name another Appalachian geological province besides the Blue Ridge Mountains that also trends NE-SW.
(4) How large were the forces that created the rock folds and faults?
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The NC Arboretum lies in a geological province known as the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is part of a larger system, the Appalachian Mountains.
Map of Appalachian Geological Provinces, US Geological Survey
Notice that the various provinces run in a northeast-southwest direction. This is because the actual masses of bedrock are oriented in the same direction.
Due to a complex chain of events in the past, bedrock in eastern North America has been “wrinkled” in NE-SW lines. It is thought that continental-sized forces were exerted from the southeast. The outcome is vaguely similar to using a horizontal yardstick to push flat bed linens toward the middle of a bed – a zone of parallel “wrinkles,” or in eastern North America’s case, folded and faulted (broken in long lines) rocks. The visible result at the earth’s surface is a large region of long, relatively straight valleys and ridges which mirror the orientation of the rocks beneath.
The following geologic map of NC uses different colors to show various major rock unit surface exposures. Notice the long lines of differing colors trending NE-SW.
While the above maps illustrate "the big picture," there are places in western North Carolina where exposed rock layers reveal this NE-SW trend in micro environments. This waterfall area is one such location. Rather than the usual jumble of loose rocks in the stream bed, this area has very distinct ledges of erosion-resistant bedrock.
Use your compass to check the orientation of the rock layers that form the waterfall ledges. What direction are the layers running? Have you noticed similar examples anywhere else on the Arboretum property? Elsewhere in western North Carolina? Keep your eyes open for more "small parts of the big picture! "
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Appalachians#/media/File:Appalachian_map.svg
http://www.conservation.nc.gov/web/lr/1985-state-geologic-map
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USFS rules state that geocaching is not permitted within Bent Creek Experimental Forest. Under a special use permit geocaches are permitted at The North Carolina Arboretum when placed and maintained by Arboretum staff only. Please refrain from adding additional caches.
The North Carolina Arboretum was established in 1986, and features a 434-acre public garden with over 10 miles of hiking and biking trails. For more information on fees and policies, visit our website at www.ncarboretum.org.