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Hmm! Sand Parked Where? Along the Manistee! EarthCache

Hidden : 6/9/2025
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
5 out of 5

Size: Size:   other (other)

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Geocache Description:


To do this earthcache you must be in a boat on the water. 

Requirements:

1. How do you think a layer of sand ended up on top of a layer of clay?
2. How thick is the Sand Layer? How thick is the Clay layer(What you can see obove the water)? 
3. Take a picture of yourself or Kayak with the clay/sand bank in the background and post it in your log. 

Lesson.

Sediments( pebbles, sand, silt, clay) are carried by a moving water, wind and/or ice.   

  • Water:

    Rivers, streams, and even ocean currents can carry sediment, transporting it downstream to lakes or along coastlines. The speed and volume of the water flow significantly influence the size and amount of sediment that can be carried. 

  • Wind:

    Wind can pick up and transport sand, dust, and other fine particles, creating features like sand dunes. If wind blew the sand to this location you would most likely see crossbedding layers of the sand. See diagram

  • Ice:

    Glaciers, as they move, can carry large amounts of sediment, including rocks, gravel, and finer particles. When glaciers melt, they deposit this sediment, forming glacial moraines and other features. 

Michigan is known to have glaciers covering the area a mile thick. As glaciers move they deposit sediments in an unsorted manner at the end of the glacier.  Liquid water carrying sediments will sort the sediments by particle size. Smaller sediment stays suspended as the water slows while heavier sediment is depositied. When the water enters a lake and movement of water really slows, sand the heaver sediments will settle out on the bottom of the lake bed while the lighter clay sediments stay suspended in the water and will deposit slowly on top of the sand. 

Varves are seasonal sediment alternations which appear to represent annual cycles(see pic on seasons) in seasonal lakes. They are widely studied and correlated, because seasons cause sedimentary variations that repeat. Like tree rings, they allow us to see year by year change, they record climate and lake level change events and allow reconstruction of historical records. Varve deposits can be very thin or think.  It is not uncommon for varves to be relatively thin, less than 10 centmeters while being over a meter thick can occur as well. 

 

 

Sources

https://www.geo.mtu.edu/KeweenawGeoheritage/Glaciers/Varves.html

 

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Rawbl n Cnqqyr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)