Logging an EarthCache requires that visitors undertake an educational task relating to the specific Earth Science at the site. If you don't want to answer the questions, don't log this EarthCache.
From the parking area to both stages of this Earthcache round trip is somewhere around 4 miles. I was zigzagging around when it was placed. If someone comes up with a better distance, I will update this posting.
Weeki Wachee Preserve covers 11,206 acres of land in Hernando county near the Gulf coast of Florida. The southern area, where this earthcache is located, has numerous man-made lakes. These lakes are a result of limestone mining operations in years past. Nature is slowly reclaiming the area as time passes. You can still see interesting limestone features in the hills and exposed limestone rock that was created and left behind when the mining operation was here.
The Florida peninsula is a porous plateau of karst limestone sitting on top bedrock known as the Florida Platform. The thick carbonate bedrock of the Florida Platform is of mid-Jurassic (about 170 million years ago) to the early Micone age (about 5 to 22 million years ago). This karst surface contains numerous sinkholes, folds, sags and warps. Since that time, the area has been subjected to fluctuations in sea level and other alternating periods of sediment deposition. The sand in the silicate rich bedrock was transported here to Florida from regions of eastern North America.
The Ocala Platform, where the Weeki Wackee Preserve is located in the west central region of Florida, was created during two episodes. The first occurred during the Late Oligocene through Early Miocene periods and the second episode occurred in Early Pliocene and Late Pleistocene periods. This movement created the feature referred to as the Ocala Uplift.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock mostly composed of calcite, calcium carbonate and the shells and skeletons of marine life. Some limestone composed entirely of organic material maybe clear to the naked eye. Other limestone is more compacted and therefore less differentiated. There are many different types of limestone due to different conditions that produced the rock. Listed below are five types.
CHALK LIMESTONE
Chalk limestone can be observed in the White Cliffs of Dover. The skeletons of small algae called coccoliths, deposited over thousands of years, became the white mud chalk that made these cliffs. This isn’t the same type of chalk used in blackboards. That type of chalk comes mainly from gypsum.
CORAL REEF LIMESTONE
Coral reefs provide examples of limestone made from skeletons of coral invertebrate ( i.e. animals that do not have backbones). This type of limestone can be found in the ocean or on dry land.
ANIMAL SHELL LIMESTONE
This type of limestone includes crinoidal and fusilinid limestone. Crinoidal limestone comes from crinoids, an ancient form of marine life called sea lilies because of their resemblance to the flower. Fusilinid limestone formed from the skeletons of small single celled creatures called Foraminifera. Many limestone outcroppings can consist primarily of these fusilinid shells which look like small grains of wheat.
LIMESTONE VARIETY – TRAVERTINE
Travertine is a compressed type of limestone that forms along streams, waterfalls or by hot or cold springs that are active for tens of thousands of years. Travertine builds up as a condensed, banded stone, with newer material covering up older layers over time, which often encapsulate fossils, shells, ancient leaf imprints and crystalline structures within it.
BLACK LIMESTONE ROCK
Limestone sedimentary rocks come in a variety of shades and colors. If you find a dark gray to black limestone rock, it gets its color from the organic materials fused within it. Brown and yellow limestone hues get their color from iron oxides and other impurities in the rock. Limestone texture typically varies from a course crystalline structure to multiple small and fine grains.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1348/pdf/Chapter%203_37-62.pdf
An earthcache has no physical log to sign – to receive credit you must answer the questions below. Do not answer the questions in your found log. PLEASE send your answers to my E-mail address or the message center for this published page.
In order to log this cache, please email or message me the answers to the following questions:
Stage 1:
Here on the side of the hill you will see a small limestone formation.
1. Please tell me what the color, texture and type of limestone you see here.
2. Do you see any fossil images here? If so, what are they?
Now look to the SW about 40 ft. Please go to the cluster of rocks that has the pine tree growing in the middle to answer the following questions.
3. Describe the color, texture and if the any of these fit one of the types described above?
4. Are there any fossils present and if so, what are they?
Stage 2:
Here you will see 3 limestone formations near the waters edge at the top of the ridge.
1. Describe each formation by type, color, texture or fossils if you see any.
2. Are these three formations the same? If different, why?
Stage 3:
1. Describe what you see at the water's edge just below the water line?
Update as of 4/2/2021:
[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. Upload the photo with your log. (NOTE: Please don't post a shot which reveals the answer to any of the above questions though. If you do so, it will be deleted).
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