Questions are posted at the top for your convenience. This is an Earthcache which has no physical container.
At the coordinates, you will see a large rock with glacial striations. Observe the rock and email or message me with the answers to these questions.
1. Using a compass, determine which direction the lines in the rock are running. Based on your location, does this make sense for the glacial flow?
2. Estimate the depth and length of the striations.
3. Estimate the size (length and width) of the exposed rock at this location.
4. (Optional) Post a photo of yourself or a personal item with the bay behind you.
The Laurentide Ice Sheet, also known as a continental glacier, once covered all of what is today Vermont. The ice sheet was over a mile thick in some places and it slowly receded until the ice disappeared from Vermont about 12,000 years ago.
This massive ice sheet, or glacier, contained various rocks in various sizes. Rocks that are carried along on the bottom of the glacier act like sandpaper. These rocks can grind and scratch the bedrock during the glacier flow, and they leave behind "striations."
Striations usually are multiple straight parallel lines or grooves carved in the bedrock which can show in which direction the glacier was moving. Glacial striations are abundant in Vermont, especially in mountainous areas and in the Champlain Valley.
The rocks embedded in the glacier have to be harder than the bedrock in order to scratch it. The bedrock itself also has to be strong enough to withstand weathering over thousands of years in order for us to be able to observe these striations today.