Digby Neck Tomsonite EarthCache

Digby Neck Tomsonite

Centreville is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Digby in Digby County on Digby Neck. Digby Neck is a peninsula extending into the Bay of Fundy and is the western extension of the North Mountain range from the Annapolis Valley and is made of two thick lava flows. It is separated from the eastern portion of the North Mountain by a deep, tidal channel, the Digby Gut. Along with Long Island and Brier Island, it forms the northwest shore of St. Mary's Bay.

Geography and Geology

The North mountain traces its history to the Triassic period when this part of Nova Scotia occupied the center of the supercontinent Pangaea. It is a 201 million year old sequence of tholeiitic basalts, which contains columnar jointing. Numerous sediment-filled fissures are present near the upper surface of North Mountain. The hard ridge of basalt resisted the grinding of ice sheets that flowed over the region during past ice ages, and now forms one side of the Annapolis Valley in western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula.

Thomsonite Mineral

Thomsonite is the name of a series of tecto-silicate minerals of the zeolite group. Globally, thomsonite is one of the rarer zeolites. The crystals tend to be long thin blades that typically form radial aggregates, and sometimes fans and tufts. The aggregates are variable and may be spikey in appearance, dense and ball-like, or form worm-like growths. Tight acicular radiating clusters and sphericules are common forms. Thomsonite occurs with other zeolites in the amygdaloidal cavities of basaltic volcanic rocks, and occasionally in granitic pegmatites. Those enclosed in basalt are extremely difficult to remove without breaking them.

Enjoy the view.

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.

When you look around the area you will find the Tomsonite in many of the rocks in both pink and white.

Questions:

1. Estimate the size of the area that contains rocks with Tomsonite in them?

2. Describe the width, or thickness and colors of the veins and exposed Tomsonite?

3. At the posted coordinates give the dimensions of the exposed Tomsonite, as seen in the picture above?

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

[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.