URBAN EARTH - Into 🐤 Zoo EarthCache

Introduction

There's loads of geologically interesting stuff in the Trafford Centre. Every time I go I notice something different and I've wanted to put together another EarthCache here for a while but indoor locations on this scale bring challenges of navigation and identification i.e. getting people to the right places and making sure they are looking at the right stuff .

But then I noticed how many animals are there to be discovered if only you look, and I knew I had a workable theme because animals are easy to recognise .

The animals in question are sculptures rather than living creatures. Many of the animals are made of differing types of rock. Some of them are made of other materials. Some of them are mythical beasts. All of them are fun to look at.

Logging Tasks

IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THESE LOGGING TASKS PLEASE SEND US YOUR ANSWERS USING THE Message this owner LINK AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE OR USING THE MESSAGE CENTRE OR EMAIL VIA OUR GEOCACHING PROFILE BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR LOG. PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ANSWERS OR SPOILERS IN YOUR ONLINE LOG. YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND LOG YOUR FIND AS SOON AS YOU HAVE SENT YOUR ANSWERS IN ACCORDANCE WITH GROUNDSPEAK GUIDELINES. LOGS WITHOUT ADEQUATE LOGGING TASK EVIDENCE MAY SUBSEQUENTLY BE DELETED.

PLEASE REMEMBER this EarthCache is on private property with the full knowledge and permission of the property owner so you can feel completely free, if challenged, to explain the full details of the activity you are undertaking so that any and all interested parties can be confident your activities align fully with the safety and security requirements appropriate to a venue of this type. This is one geocache where 'Stealthiness' is absolutely not required.

There is no requirement of any kind to enter any store to complete this EarthCache.

Based on your study of the animals sculpted from rock and using the information on the cache page please tell me:

1. The marble used for some of the lions includes obvious visible impurities, which are easy to spot because they are not white. Find the widest, darkest band of impurities that you can and look closely at its crystal structure, how does it compare to the pure marble?
   
   
2. Compare the dogs outside the Regent Crescent entrance to those sheltered inside - what obvious differences do you see in the rock they are carved from?
   
   
3. One of the fish has part of a fin missing, exposing the internal crystalline structure of the rock. In what ways does it differ from the rest of that fish?
   
   
4. Find a lioness statue and compare the carved base to the polished animal. Describe any similarities or differences between the two, including how they reflect light.
   
   
5. Locate the mystery animals and tell me what they are. On the rear flank of the animal closest to exit to the car park there are some mineral inclusions which don't appear in any of the other animals - what do they look like?
   
   
6. Optional task: feel free to add any photographs of your visit that do not show the specific features from the logging tasks - no spoilers please. In the interests of allowing everyone to experience the EarthCache fully for themselves obvious spoiler photographs will be deleted.
   
   

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock formed when limestone or dolomite are subjected to high pressure and/or heat.

The Earth's crust is made up of a number of enormous rock plates which move around very slowly. These plates are so massive that when two of them collide huge amounts of heat and pressure are generated, which are perfect conditions for the metamorphism of limestone into marble. This is one reason why most marble is formed at these convergent plate boundaries.

In its purest form, marble is a white rock with a crystalline and sugary, sometimes sparkly appearance, consisting almost entirely of a mass of interlocking crystals of calcium carbonate. As the crystals are visible without the aid of a microscope geologists refer to marble as having a macrocrystalline structure.

Geologists also refer to marble as being monomineralic on the basis that it consists of a single mineral but the fact is that while calcium carbonate makes up the bulk of the rock, marble usually contains smaller amounts of other minerals, which may include quartz, graphite, pyrite, and iron oxides. These accessory minerals can give marble a pink, brown, gray, green, yellow or blue tint and also result in banded patterns of colours. Marble that contains bituminous material can even be black!

Most of the animals in and around the Trafford Centre are sculpted in marble - but not all of them.

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  Lions - at the published coordinates you will find a number of large and very impressive lions, all of which are carved from solid marble with a fine, crystalline structure.
  
  The marble has a translucent quality and if you look closely it's fairly easy to see the crystals, which have an almost sugary appearance. It reminds me a little bit of Kendal mint cake .
  
  In some of the lions the bright whiteness of the marble is interrupted by contrasting coloured bands, swirls or patches, caused by the inclusion of impurities in the rock, and these impurities too help to reveal the crystalline structures within.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Dogs - outside the Regent Crescent entrance (see waypoint provided further down the page) sit a number of small dogs which look like the one shown in the image on the right. I say small but I suspect they are scaled-up representations of whichever dog breed they are modelled on.
  
  I would say that the marble these dogs are sculpted from is purer than that used for the lions which does, I think, contribute to their more gentle appearance.
  
  In the sheltered area just inside these doors you'll find four more dogs sitting on top of rectangular granite plinths.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Lionesses - at first sight I wasn't quite sure, due to the somewhat stylised sculpting, which large cat these sculptures represented but I'm now confident, that they are indeed lionesses.
  
  The first lioness is just inside the Regent Crescent entrance - sharing a space with four dogs and there are two more through the next set of doors - where you'll also find the fish. There are more lionesses, and fish, dotted around various other parts of the Trafford Centre.
  
  A single block of marble has been used for each sculpture, but the use of a variety of carving techniques has resulted in the attached base of each cat having marked differences to the cat itself, which merit closer inspection .
  
  
  
  
  
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  Fish - the marble fish here seem to swim in threes - or are they supposed to be singing? Not quite sure .
  
  Whatever it is they are doing, one of them has managed to lose part of a fin - which means that you can see the internal crystalline structure of the marble where the surface hasn't been polished - which is quite revealing and also useful and relevant to one of the logging tasks that you need to complete
  
  The route to the next animal along the trail - the marlin, an impressive fish somewhat larger than the ones here, is through the next set of doors and perhaps very slightly to the right.
  
  
  
  
  
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  Sailfish and Marlin - rocks are the subject of this EarthCache and these large fish sculptures aren't, as far as I can tell, made of rock and so aren't important to the logging tasks. As such you needn't study them in any detail.
  
  It would be a shame to miss them out though as you'll pass them along your journey anyway and they are, after all, members of the Into Zoo .
  
  I had originally thought these two statues were a matching pair but it turns out that the one with the largest, sail-like dorsal fin is a Sailfish and the one with the more compact, rigid dorsal fin is a Marlin - you live and learn eh? .
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Dolphins - one of the most popular sights in the Trafford Centre is the impressive fountain surmounted by not one but six dolphins.
  
  Again, there's no requirement for the purposes of this EarthCache to study the dolphins as I don't think they are made of natural rock - but I urge you to stick around for a few minutes if you've not seen this fountain in action before because on a regular cycle it shoots a jet of water up into the air all the way to the floor above, three times in a row - which is one of the reasons there are almost always people gathered around it.
  
  The fountain is on the ground floor, close to unit six on Peel Avenue.
  
  
  
  
  
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  Mystery animals - to locate the final group of animals that you'll need to see to complete this EarthCache, you'll need to head up to the first floor and then almost exit the mall.
  
  For ease of navigation, look for and follow signs which read EXIT TO REGENT CRESCENT CAR PARK ENTRANCE NO. 2.
  
  Following those signs should get you there easily enough - the animals you're looking for are on your left just before you get outside. Alternatively, use the waypoint below to get to the same location from outside on the upper level of the car park.
  
  It is interesting to note that this group is carved from a single block of stone and also that the stone includes a clear and distinctive sprinkling of minerals not seen in any of the other statues.
  
  From this spot you will also see, if you look out over the car park toward the exterior roof-line of the building, a number of golden eagles, which conclude your tour of the Intu Zoo.
  
  
  
  

If you've carefully read and digested the information from this cache page your tasks at the cache location should prove relatively straight forward, although you may wish to take a printed copy of the page with you so that you can check your answers while there .

Please submit your logging task responses before posting your log.