Welcome to the Rockpool, an open-air swimming area surrounded by many colourful rocks!
No physical cache can be found here since this is an Earthcache.
To log this cache, you will have to visit the waypoints of this Earthcache and answer the questions below based on the information provided.
Background
Most rock formations that can be observed around Townsville are made of pink Granite. Prime examples are Castle Hill, Mt Stuart, Mt Louisa and also Kissing Point in front of which you are standing now. Granite is a igneous rock, which means that this type of rock was formed from slowly cooling magma beneath the Earth's crust before it was exposed to the Earth's surface through erosion of the surrounding (softer) material.
Granite is a hard rock with embedded crystalline features made of Quartz and Feldspar that can be easily seen with the naked eye. Quartz crystals have typically a glassy/crystalline clear to whitish-grey appearance. Feldspar has generally a white porcelain-like appearance but due to mineral inclusions can also occur in shades of pink, grey or brown; which then gives the Granite in which the Feldspar is embedded its dominant colour.
While comparably large Quartz and Feldspar crystals embedded in the Granite are formed by slowly cooling magma, hot granitic magma that enters cracks of already cooled granite may cool very rapidly. Due to the locally rapid cooling process uniformly-shaped very fine Quartz and Feldspar crystals are formed. Those crystals cannot be individually identified with the naked eye and feel relatively smooth to the touch. This fine material is called Aplite which may appears as white veins or dykes intercutting the Granite.
Cracks appearing during the formation of Granite may instead by Aplite be filled by pure Quartz itself. The formation of such Quartz Veins occurs due to the crystallization of mineralised fluids under simultaneous slow cooling and high pressure. Quartz veins are characterised by coarsely grained glassy/white crystals that are leading in distinct directions through the surrounding rock.
Logging Requirements / Questions
POSTED COORDINATES
LR - Add to your log a picture taken from the posted coordinates of either yourself or an object showing your caching name and the Rockpool in the background.
WAYPOINT 1 (S 19° 14.357 E 146° 48.364) - From the pathway take one easy small step up on to the rock. Then look down and find a large distinct band leading through the rock.
Q1 - In which COMPASS BEARING is the band leading when facing the rock wall?
Q2 - Approximately HOW THICK is the band?
Q3 - What COLOUR and APPEARANCE has the band compared to the surrounding rock?
Q4 - How does the band FEEL compared to the surrounding rock?
Q5 - Based on your answers for Q3 & Q4, what type of rock do you think are the band and the surrounding rock?
WAYPOINT 2 (S 19° 14.367 E 146° 48.361) - Stand on the pathway and look towards the vertical rock face next to it. Search for a smaller band leading through the rock face compared to WP1.
Q6 - Approximately HOW THICK is the band?
Q7 - What COLOUR and APPEARANCE has the band compared to the surrounding rock
Q8 - How does the band FEEL compared to the surrounding rock?
Q9 - Based on your answers for Q7 & Q8, what type of rock do you think are the band and the surrounding rock?
Q10 - Is there a difference between what you observed at Waypoint 1 and 2? If so, why do you think this might be the case?
Please send the Cache name (Crackin' Time at the Rockpool) and GC-Code (GCA3NM0) followed by the answers for questions 1 to 10 as chat message to me. Then, you can log this Earthcache straight away. I will get in touch if there is something wrong with any of the provided answers, or if no answers were provided at all. PLEASE NOTE: Every cacher must individually message me and provide all answers. "Team Answers" will not be accepted.