This is an Earthcache – as such, there is no physical cache. Instead after examining the stones at the posted coordinates you will answer 4 questions and message me the answers. This earthcache is located in Red Run Park with permission. For more information about hours of operation and park rules please visit this PARK link.
911 MEMORIAL
The 9-11 Tribute features remnants from each of the crash sites, including an I-beam from the Twin Towers and a small boulder that was found near the Shanksville crash site. The memorial also contains a small stone slab from the Pentagon. Each is situated on a map next to the area where their respective disaster took place.
INDIANA LIMESTONE
Indiana limestone is a sedimentary rock that is found in the Salem Formation, a geological formation that is prominent in south central Indiana near Bedford, Indiana. It formed in a coastal ecosystem under a process called lithification.
Lithification is defined as the process in which sediments compact under pressure, expel connate fluids, and gradually become solid rock. It is also an oolitic limestone, which is named for its layers of bead-like spheres of calcium mineralized microbes known as ooids.
Limestone is primarily made up of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). That is because it was deposited as marine fossils (Many marine organisms have a skeleton that is primarily made of calcium) and decomposed at the bottom of a shallow inland sea. This Limestone also contains variable amounts of silica in the form of Jasper or Flint, as well as amounts of clay, silt, and sand as disseminations, nodules, or layers within the rock.
Over 350 million years ago most of the present-day Midwestern United States was covered by a tropical sea during the Mississippian Period. Those waters were shallow enough for the waves to move coarse carbonate sand across the seafloor. This constant wave action broke the larger fossils down, and washed the smaller ones away. As more layers build up on top of those pressure was formed. Over time these accumulated debris remained under pressure until they solidified into limestone.
Limestone from Indiana is an Oolitic limestone, which is a carbonate rock made up mostly of ooids (sand-sized carbonate particles that have concentric rings of CaCO3). It was previously believed that these rings formed around grains of sand or shell fragments that were rolled around on the shallow sea floor. More recently Scientists been discovered that ooids were made of concentric layers of mineralized microbes that lived about 200 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period when dinosaurs still walked on Earth.
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:
To log this Earthcache: Read the geology lesson above. Answer all four questions posted below and send via e-mail or messenger contacts on my Geocaching profile.
QUESTION 1. What is the process called when sediment layers are turned to rock?
QUESTION 2. Look closely at the stone. Do you see the grains that make up the stone? What colors do you see?
QUESTION 3. Touch the stone. Do the grains feel tightly cemented together or loose?
QUESTION 4. Next to the Pentagon block is an unidentified stone from the Shanksville crash sight. Using what you have learned about sedimentary stone, examine that stone. Do you think it is sedeminatry stone? Why or why not?
OPTIONAL: POST PHOTO. Posting a photo that readily indicates that you (and anyone else logging the find) are at the location.
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REFERENCES:
1. Funding sought for more work at Red Run Park’s 9-11 Tribute in Rouzerville, Zach Glenn, The Record Herald,February 25, 2014, therecordherald.com
2. The Pentagon 75 Years , Building an Icon, Dwight Jon Zimmerman, Faircount Media Group, 2018, Pg. 35 - 41, issuu.com
3. BUILDING THE NATION, Indiana Limestone Company, website, indianalimestonecompany.com
4. Indiana Limestone: A Short Biography, Geohistories, Phoebe Cohen, Co-Evolution of Earth and Life, Williams College, January 29, 2015, sites.williams.edu
5. Pentagon Stones Host Mineralized Microbes Older Than the Dinosaurs, Brooks Hays, Science News, January 19, 2018, upi.com
6. The Pentagon, Jeff Swiatek , virginiaplaces.org