For purposes of logging this cache you must answer the following three questions. You also must take a picture of you or a personal item near GZ with Monkey face clearly in the background.
At GZ you will be able to get up close to Monkey Face. You may need to expand and explore the area where it is located to fully answer the questions.
1. As you walked up the Misery Trail you were able to get up close to the Rhyolite near WP1. Describe its texture and color.
2. Describe Monkey Face from top to bottom, once again observing texture and color. Were you able to see anything embedded in it? Why do you think the bands are different in color?
3. Do you think the rock face of the posted coordinates are different than the rock face of WP1? If so please explain the differences.
4. Please take the Mandatory photo of yourself or a personal item near GZ with Monkey Face clearly in the background and either send it to me when you message the answers or attach it to your found log.
This earthcache is located on Oregon State Property and placed with permission.
Note: An earthcache is the magical combination of geocaching and geological discovery. They vary greatly from traditional geocaches in that there is NO PHYSICAL CONTAINER! Once at the Earth Cache site, take in the scenery, the geological marvels or oddities, and read the cache description. You will likely be asked to answer some questions about the site and take a picture. You can email the cache owner or use the Message Center to send answers to the required questions. Please don’t be intimidated about answering the questions. They are not graded and were meant to enrich your visit, open your eyes and provide you with new knowledge and insights about the location. Most importantly have fun!
This Earthcache is placed for you to understand a little bit about Smith Rock State Park and the forces of nature that shape our environment.
You are recreating on the rim of an ancient supervolcano—the remains of which are now called the Crooked River Caldera.
A supervolcano is big. Really big!
A volcano is bestowed supervolcano status if at any point in time it erupted more than 240 cubic miles of material. For comparison, Mount St Helens erupted just 0.3 cubic miles of material in 1980, causing ash to fall as far away as Minnesota and Oklahoma. A supervolcano’s magma chamber builds very slowly over time, causing the earth above to swell, until the volcano erupts with such destructive force that it leaves behind a large depression or caldera.
What is Monkey Face at Smith Rock?
Monkey Face is a 350 foot spire that is the centerpiece of Smith Rock State Park. When viewed from the south, the top of the pillar resembles the face of a Monkey complete with a mouth, nose, and eyes.
The spectacular spires and walls of Oregon's Smith Rock State Park are carved out of welded tuff and rhyolite- Rocks that formed from the ash explosions and lava flows of an eruptive supervolcano. Using a map of these rocks and landscape of the region, geologists have identified a 230-square-mile depression called a caldera that is all that is left of this ancient volcano. A caldera is a giant crater that forms when a magma chamber beneath a volcano erupts a large volume of material. The top of the volcano literally collapses into the newly emptied chamber, creating a huge depression. Smith Rock State Park is on the northwest corner of the Crooked River Caldera.
Most of the crags at Smith Rock are made up of welded tuff, a rock that forms when hot ash, sprayed into the atmosphere from a volcanic eruption, settles onto the Earth's surface in a thick sheet, hardening as it cools. Like lava, when ash cools it contracts, sometimes forming giant columns separated by vertical cracks. The Monkey Face at Smith Rock is one of these columns of hardened ash now weathered and eroded into this spectacular shape.
Smith Rock also contains formations that are made up of basalt and rhyolite. The rhyolite is from the same volcano as the welded tuff. Rhyolite is like basalt in that it is an extrusive volcanic rock, formed from lava flows. Rhyolite is different from basalt, though, because it forms from magma that has less iron and magnesium, resulting in a rock that is less dense and lighter in color. Rhyolite is actually chemically similar to granite, the difference being, granite cools slowly underground, while rhyolite cools quickly after a volcanic eruption of lava. The shiprock formation, near the Picnic Lunch wall, is made up of rhyolite. The upper rim of the Crooked river valley is made up of dark columnar basalt. The basalt is younger than the welded tuff and rhyolite.
Hiking any of the state park’s numerous trails gives you plenty of chances to see the rock close-up. It’s pretty much all tuff, the volcanic rock made mostly of consolidated ash and pumice. Many tuffs become welded into hard rocks because of the high temperatures as they compact, but most of these tuffs are not welded and so relatively soft. Some exceptions include the red-colored welded tuffs at the crest of the Misery Ridge trail.
Sources:
For purposes of logging this cache you must answer the following three questions. You also must take a picture of you or a personal item near GZ with Monkey face clearly in the background.
At GZ you will be able to get up close to Monkey Face. You may need to expand and explore the area where it is located to fully answer the questions.
1. As you walked up the Misery Trail you were able to get up close to the rhyolite near WP1. Describe its texture and color.
2. Describe Monkey Face from top to bottom, once again observing texture and color. Were you able to see anything embedded in it? Why do you think the bands are different in color?
3. Do you think the rock face of the posted coordinates are different than the rockface of WP1? If so please explain the differences.
4. Please take the Mandatory photo of yourself or a personal item near GZ with Monkey Face clearly in the background and either send it to me when you message the answers or attach it to your found log.
This earthcache is located on Oregon State Property and placed with permission.
Thank-you for visiting Smith Rock State Park. I hope you learned a thing or two about its geology!