We were staying nearby with family and took a walk up to the Pepper Pot in Eaves Wood, near Silverdale.
There are great views to be had, you can also learn a little bit about how Limestone pavements were formed.
The section you want to look at is obscured by the large red rectangle below.
Huge thanks go to Craig McCoy, National Trust Ranger for Eaves Wood, for giving permission to place this Earthcache.
1) How many clints are there at GZ?
2) What is the width of the large gryke at it's widest point? Is is straight or does it bend?
3) If you were to get into a time machine and come back about 10,000 years into the future, would the same number of clints remains - or would it be more, or less? Explain your answer.
4) Take a photo of yourself at GZ, or an identifying item with Pepper Pot in the background.
Please submit your answers via message though the Geocaching website or by sending me an email - there is no need to wait for a response before logging your find.
Limestone Pavement Formation
If you explore areas like the hills around Arnside, you'll often see something called limestone pavement. This forms over thousands of years where a layer of limestone bedrock has been exposed at the surface, usually after glaciers scraped away the soil and other looser rocks during the last Ice Age. Limestone is a type of rock made mostly of calcium carbonate, which actually dissolves quite easily in rainwater. Over time, the slightly acidic rain eats away at the rock, especially along natural cracks and joints in the limestone, creating the patterns and features we see.
The Clints
The large, flat blocks of limestone you see on the pavement are called clints. These are the areas of rock that remain relatively raised and intact. They form the "paved" surface that you can walk across. Think of them as the building blocks of the limestone pavement.
The Grykes
Separating clints are the grykes. These are the deep, narrow cracks or fissures. They begin as tiny, natural weaknesses in the limestone, like faint lines in the rock. Rainwater, which is slightly acidic, easily seeps into these narrow openings. As the water sits or flows through these cracks, it slowly dissolves the limestone.
How They Change Over Time
Over thousands of years, this constant dissolving action by rainwater gradually widens and deepens the grykes. As the grykes become larger, they carve deeper into the bedrock. This ongoing process means that what might have once been a single, larger clint can eventually be entirely separated into two or more smaller clints as the gryke between them expands.