Milford Drumlin Field EarthCache

Milford Drumlin Field

Milford Station is a Canadian village in Nova Scotia's East Hants municipal district in the Shubenacadie Valley. The community is home to the largest open-pit gypsum mine in the world. Milford Station is primarily a service centre for local farming communities, although given its location along Highway 102, it has a growing residential population and is exhibiting exurban characteristics. Milford Station has an abundance of dairy cattle conceiving a 2:1 population to that of people.

The landscape is dotted with knolls, drumlins, eskers, kames, and ancient shorelines carved by glaciers and their meltwaters, cutting across central Nova Scotia following the ancient fault line of Shubenacadie River Valley. 

At these coordinates you will be standing atop of a large drumlin with views of other drumlins all around you. 

Drumlins are a long  oval-shaped hill, largely composed of sediments deposited by a glacial drift, formed beneath a glacier or ice sheet and aligned in the direction of ice flow. There are no strict definitions relating to their size but they tend to be up to a few kilometres long and up to 50 m in relief.

A drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine.

Drumlins often occur in groups called drumlin fields. Such streams flow underneath a retreating glacier.

Geology

The majority of drumlins observed in North America were formed during the Wisconsin glaciation. The Wisconsin glaciation was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. The Wisconsin glaciation extended from approximately 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, between the Sangamonian Stage (known globally as the Eemian stage) and the current interglacial, the Holocene. The maximum ice extent occurred approximately 25,000–21,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum, also known as the Late Wisconsin in North America.

Drumlin, oval or elongated hill believed to have been formed by the streamlined movement of glacial ice sheets across rock debris, or till. The name is derived from the Gaelic word druim (“rounded hill,” or “mound”) and first appeared in 1833. Drumlins are often in drumlin fields of similarly shaped, sized and oriented hills. Many Pleistocene drumlin fields are observed to occur in a fan-like distribution.

Drumlins are generally found in broad lowland regions, with their long axes roughly parallel to the path of glacial flow. Although they come in a variety of shapes, the glacier side is always high and steep, while the lee side is smooth and tapers gently in the direction of ice movement. Drumlins can vary widely in size, with lengths from 1 to 2 km (0.6 to 1.2 miles), heights from 15 to 30 m (50 to 100 feet), and widths from 400 to 600 m.

From ground zero as you drive North, South or East on the highway you pass through the Drumlin Field.

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. Looking in all directions how many Drumlins can you see (answer for East and West)?

2. What is the elevation of the Drumlin you are on?

3. What do you think these Drumlin’s are made of?

4. What are the majority of these Drumlin’s used for?

5. 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.