Hunt’s Point - Whale rock EarthCache

Hunt’s Point - Whale rock

Hunt's Point is a community in the province of Nova Scotia, located in the Region of Queens Municipality on Highway 3, west of the town of Liverpool. The community stands on land granted to Samuel Hunt in 1759.  Mr. Hunt was an important figure, serving in a myriad of functions including coroner, schoolteacher and Justice of the Peace.

Hunts Point is one of many communities in Queens with a Harbour Authority and is a hive of activity during the lobster season, which in Queens runs from the last Monday in November to May 31st. The first day of lobstering is known as "dumping day", where fisher's families will come out at dawn to the wharves to see the boats off and to celebrate the start of the season.

Whaleback or rock drumlins are a bedrock knoll smoothed and rounded on all sides by a glacier. The ice-smoothed bedrock bumps which lack the steep, plucked lee side faces are referred to as whalebacks or rock drumlins.  Whalebacks are streamlined on all sides (including the up- and down-ice ends). They are formed beneath relatively thick, slow, warm based ice with little meltwater and no basal cavities.

The difference between the whaleback formations and roche moutonnées is the whalebacks have a smooth lee side, whilst roche moutonnées have a cliffed lee side.

Plucking occurs when rocks and stones become frozen to the base or sides of the glacier and are plucked from the ground or rock face as the glacier moves. This leaves behind a jagged landscape.

Abrasions occurs when rocks and stones become embedded in the base and sides of the glacier. These are then rubbed against the bedrock (at the bottom of the glacier) and rock faces (at the sides of the glacier) as the glacier moves.

Whalebacks often show striations on all surfaces, indicating that abrasion has scoured the entire surface of the rock bump.  The absence of plucking implies that ice remained firmly in contact with the bedrock across the entire surface of whalebacks.

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.

From the coordinates, look easterly and see the example of Whale rocks.

Questions:

1. How many whale rocks do you see?

2. What direction was the glacier moving to carve these rocks (NSEW)?

3. How long and high is the larger whale rock?

4. Why did these rocks not break or pluck from the glacier action?

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.