This site offers a unique opportunity to explore and learn about granite weathering. Through geological processes involving time, water and pressure a granite mass has been turned into boulders.
To log this EarthCache, please send the cache owner a message with the answers to the following questions. Once you have completed the tasks and sent your answers, you can log your visit.
-Why is Alice Springs granite prone to weathering?
-What signs do you see of weathering? How does the granite surface feel?
-Find a boulder sitting on another boulder. Describe the horizontal joint. Why has this happened?
Rocks and rock forms that tend to have joints and fractures are also more likely to be affected by weathering. These cracks allow water to penetrate the rocks and expose more surface area, and the differential weathering caused by expanded joints will often lead to boulder forms on large and small scales.
The scenery around the Alice Springs Telegraph Station is characteristic of a granite terrain with rounded boulder strewn hills. Some of the boulders are sitting on other boulders. Alice Springs granite is a predominately pink granite exposed in the area surrounding the old Telegraph Station.
Alice Springs granite was formed millions of years ago as a result of the hardening of magma within the Earth's crust. Due to erosion the granite to come closer to the surface and as the pressure diminished, the granite expanded causing cracks to form. Rounding of the granite blocks as a result of chemical and mechanical weathering produced the boulder field landscape you see at the listed coordinates.
