Welcome to Moon Plain, I hope you find it ‘out of this world’, Moon Plain has quiet the repertoire; Pitch Black, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Red Planet, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Until the End of the World were all shot in Cooper Pedy. Along with that the Mars Society Australia also regard Moon Plain as an important location.
In planning for future crewed missions to Mars, suitable terrestrial test sites are crucial to development and evaluation of equipment and processes needed for survival and work function. The Moon Plain, northeast of Coober Pedy in the arid region of central South Australia, is potentially one such site. Here the surficial regolith contains abundant hydrated minerals, known to be widely distributed also in the equatorial regions of Mars and identified as a possible source of water in this ice-free region of the planet.
Moon Plain. The stretch of country, known as gibber desert, is among the driest places in Australia. It begins a few kilometres off the unsealed Oodnadatta track, twenty-five kilometres northeast of the opal mining settlement of Coober Pedy in remote outback Australia. In summer temperatures occasionally rise to 50 degrees Celsius. The average rainfall in impossibly low. Bounded in the south by the Stuart Rangers, a long chain of low hills, the Moon Plain is vas, reddish brown, treeless, almost completely flat and very nearly the size of Slovenia. It is covered with smooth weathered stones the size of cricket balls and crystalline shards of gypsum. Slight undulations in the land only become apparent to the visitor after a little while and are best seen in the slanting light of dawn or dusk. Those undulations are crucial to the ecology of the region because of the rare occasions when it rains even the slightest depression may attract sufficient water to sustain an astonishing variety of plants, which afterwards shrivel back into apparently lifeless tufts.
Fractures in the fissile (easily split) weathered shale contain gypsum, bloedite, iron sulphates and epsomite. The easily excavatable powdery soils contain abundant montmorillonite (very soft mineral), fine quartz sand and minor non-swelling clays, in addition to the sulphates. At the soil surface the epsomite is partly converted to hexahydrate. The deposit has formed through acid weathering of the host rock, a process that may itself be an analogue for past dehydration and weathering processes on the surface of Mars.
To log this Earth Cache, we require you to visit GZ and the WP listed to make some observations, consider the information given, then message us with the following answers to the best of your ability.
1. Does it appear rain has fallen or not fallen recently? What leads you to this conclusion? Describe the contributing factors that led you to this conclusion.
2. Walk around on the plain, what does it feel like under foot? Explain why you think it feels like this.
3. Describe what the surface of the plain looks like, can you identify any of the rocks or minerals listed in our description?
4. A photo of you or a personal item at Moon Plain, bonus points to anyone who does a Moon or Mars themed photo!
You are welcome to log your answers straight away to keep your TB's and Stats in order but please message us with your answers within a couple of days. Cachers who do not fulfil this Earth Cache requirement will have their logs deleted without notice.
Source: energymining.sa.gov.au