Clayton Park Iron EarthCache

Clayton Park Iron

Clayton Park is a suburb of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Located along the southwestern border of Rockingham and bordering the northern part of Fairview, Clayton Park is named after a family that owned property in the area extending up the southern slope of Geizer's Hill.

Within the suburb is a development called Mount Royale which contains a park with the same name. As you enter the Mont Royale subdivision the 2 acre park is developed around and on top of a large iron deposit. As you come to the posted coordinates you will see a wall of rock containing the iron deposits.

There are only a few industrially important minerals of iron, although several hundred minerals contain iron. In most iron deposits, magnetie, hemotie, siderite, and limonite are the major iron minerals. This deposit appears to be a Limonite and Hematite mix.

Hematite is colored black to steel or silver-gray, brown to reddish brown, or red. While the forms of hematite vary, they all have a rust-red streak. Hematite is harder than pure iron, but much more brittle.  Limonite is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. Limonite usually forms from the hydration of hematite and magnetite, from the oxidation and hydration of iron rich sulfide minerals, and chemical weathering of other iron rich minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. It is often the major iron component in lateritic soils.

Iron, one of the most abundant elements on Earth, helped give rise to entire civilizations and is the key ingredient in steel, without which many of our modern structures would not be standing. The story of iron's origins is astronomical, and it begins with the element being born from the explosion of stars.

By scientific standards, the origin of iron is one of the most violent processes imaginable. A type of star known as a red giant begins to turn all of its helium into carbon and oxygen atoms. Those atoms then begin to turn into iron atoms, the heaviest type of atom a star can produce. When most of a star's atoms become iron atoms, it becomes what is known as a supernova. It explodes, showering space with iron, oxygen and carbon atoms far and wide.

From here, gravity takes over, forming the atoms into planets such as Earth.  Born of these violent explosions, Earth's core is likely mostly molten iron, and its crust is about 5 percent iron.  It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust.

To log this Earthcache visit the viewing location.  Please answer the following questions and send in a timely manner to my geocaching profile or email. Answers not received will result in deleted logs.

Questions:

1. What is the length?

2. It runs under the park but how high is it at ground zero?

3. What is the Strike and Dip of the rock face (see Note below)?

4. Post a picture in your log with a personal item or hand in picture to prove you were there.

Note: Strike and Dip 

Picture a single layer of flat rock and tilt it downward to the right. The tilt of that layer is called the “dip”. The dip is measured as the angle between the layer and a horizontal line.

Now, try looking at that same tilted layer from directly above it. Again, it’s dipping downward to the right. Draw a horizontal line directly across that layer. This is called the “strike”. For example, if the strike is north-south that means this layer is dipping to the east.

If you looked at the example on a map, a marble placed in the middle would roll downhill East at an angle of 45 degrees.

[REQUIRED] In accordance with the updated guidelines from Geocaching Headquarters published in June 2019, photos are now an acceptable logging requirement and WILL BE REQUIRED TO LOG THIS CACHE. Please provide a photo of yourself or a personal item in the picture to prove you visited the site.