Please do NOT post your answers in your log.
Cape Blanco is the most westerly headland in Oregon and the fastest rising area in Oregon if not the world with a rate of uplift of approximately 1 inch every 30 years. The uplift is due to the offshore Juan de Fuca plate subducting under/pushing against the North American Plate causing the rise of the Oregon Coast, especially at Cape Blanco. Cape Blanco consists of several visible geologic formations: Otter Point Formation (dark conglomerate), Eocene Tyee group (gray sands and clays), and the Empire Formation (fine white sands and silts containing shell fossils). The Empire Formation is the formation that gives Cape Blanco its name.
This earthcache takes you on an approximately 2-mile round-trip beach hike. The trail to the beach starts at the parking coordinates that are accessed by driving into the campground.There will be a sign for a road to the beach in the campground.
Please send a message with answers to the following questions:
1. At way point 1 how many major rock layers do you see? Are they all the same color?
2. At way point 2 what indications do you see that you are looking at a fault?
3. At the sea stack: What direction are the rock layers tilting that make up the sea stack? Are all the layers the same color? Do they contain the same size of material?
Posting a picture in your log of your favorite spot on the beach is optional.
Information for this earthcache was gathered from the following sources:
Roadside Geology of Oregon by Marli B. Miller
In Search of Ancient Oregon by Ellen Morris Bishop
Hiking Oregon's Geology by Ellen Morris Bishop