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.
Tocobaga was the name of a chiefdom, its chief, and its principal town during the 16th century. The chiefdom was centered around the northern end of Old Tampa Bay, the arm of Tampa Bay that extends between the present-day city of Tampa and northern Pinellas County.
Archaeologists believe that the Tocobaga people occupied the site as early as 900 AD until the late 1600’s. This Temple Mound is the largest remaining in the Tampa Bay region. The mound was made of alternating layers of shell and sand. Remains of posts indicate there was at least one structure on top, possibly used for ceremonial purposes or the chief’s dwelling. Archeologists believe the ramp led to a “town plaza” at the base of the mound.
The National Register of Historic Places recognized the significance of this site for several reasons. • This village was likely the Tocobaga capitol. • It was occupied solely by the Tocobaga. There was no earlier occupation of the site. • It is the “type site” for the Safety Harbor Culture . • It represents the Safety Harbor Period.
Originally, this mound was rectangular in shape roughly a truncated pyramidal mound about 20 feet high and up to 130 feet long at each side of the base. A tremendous hurricane in 1848 washed away approximately 1/3 of this mound. The stone retaining walls were completed by park staff in 1983 to stop further erosion and deter removal of artifacts.
Pinellas County is a sub-peninsula located along the western edge of central Florida. The County lies on the southwestern flank of the Ocala platform, and is underlain by a series of limestone formations, all of which dip toward the south. Two formations reach the surface in Pinellas County, the Hawthorne and Tampa Limestone, while a third, the Suwannee, is beneath them throughout the County. These formations are the most important characteristics of the geology of the County. The Suwannee Formation is the oldest geologic formation that has significance to the County. It is found at depths of 100 feet in the Tarpon Springs area and dips to over 250 feet under St. Petersburg. The formation consists of granular, porous limestone formed during ancient (Oligocene) times by carbonate secreting marine life.
Moving toward the surface, the Tampa Formation also underlies the entire County. The Tampa Formation nearly reaches the surface north of a line from Palm Harbor to Safety Harbor. It dips as it moves southward to a depth of over 100 feet in St. Petersburg with two intermediate high points, the Coachman High and the St. Petersburg Plateau area. Ancient reefs are believed to have originated at these high points. Spreading from these points is the now hard limestone of the Tampa Formation, intermixed with granules of sand and phosphate. In several areas in the north County, the formation is about 20 feet thick and widens to over 150 feet in the south. The water soluble hard limestone is honeycombed with many interconnected solution channels which store large quantities of water.
Just under the surface is the Hawthorne Formation, which is absent north of a line from Safety Harbor to Palm Harbor. Quite different from the Tampa and Suwannee, the Hawthorne Formation is dominated by layers of sandy clays. The top of the formation is gently rolling, but exhibits a prominent ridge which extends from central Pinellas County (east of Dunedin) south to the vicinity of Walsingham and east to the St. Petersburg area. Surface elevations of the formation ridge range from 50 feet mean sea level near Coachman to 11 feet below mean sea level in St. Petersburg. This subsurface ridge in western Pinellas County forms the core for the Pinellas Ridge and to the south it forms the core for the more elevated St. Petersburg Plateau area. The Hawthorne Formation is only about 10 feet thick in the north County near Coachman but become over 100 feet thick in St. Petersburg.
The basin that is now Tampa Bay formed between 15 and 7 million years ago, when the underlying limestone was deformed by collapses, The basement of Tampa Bay consists of ancient sub-basins deformed into sinks, folds, sags and warps, later filled in by the by the sand sediments. The sediments in Florida occur near the present coastline at elevations generally less than 5 feet (1.5 meters). The sediments include quartz sands, carbonate sands and muds, and organics.
www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org
http://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/fips-unit.php?code=f2103
In order to log this cache, please email or message me the answers to the following questions BEFORE you log a Find:
Stage 1: (Top of the Mound)
1. What is the base material here under your feet?
2. Do you see any limestone up here? If so, describe what you see.
3. Walk around the top of the mound, do you see any erosion? If so, what do you think has caused it?
Stage 2:
1. What does the bottom of Tampa Bay look like here? (i.e. sand, shells, sediment, rocks, etc.)
2. What is the large growth here on the bay side of the seawall? What do you think keeps it in place and it cotinues to grow here regardless of the tide?
Stage 3:
1. Describe what is different at this location from Stage 2.
2. If the tide is low, what's at the base of the seawall?
3. If the tide is high, what is the clarity of the water?
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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