ABOUT THIS EARTHCACHE
This EarthCache is located at Stafford County Park beach area. The beach area is the location of the old lumber mill docks. The north end of the beach is a transverse bar with more transvers bars that can be seen to the north. There are transverse bars all along the Lake Huron coast in the northern thumb but most of them are surrounded by private land. The public park here allows us to get close to them and even walk out on some of them.
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS
In order to log this EarthCache, send me your answers to the following questions either through email or messaging from my profile page.
From the waypoint "View to the north" or as close as you can safely get to it, look north to the transverse bars and answer these questions.
1: Describe the material making up the transverse bars. (sand, pebbles, rocks, boulders, etc)
2: Do the bars go directly out from the shore or at an angle?
3: Do you think the bars are growing, eroding away or maintaining their size? why or why not?
4: Post a pic of you or a signature item at the posted coordinates with the bench and lake in the background (see example below). You don't need to include your face in the pic if you don't want to. You can also send me the pic through messenger if you don't want to post it with your log.
If you enjoyed this EarthCache, please consider giving it a favorite point.
TRANSVERSE BARS
A transverse bar is a ridge of sand in the nearshore zone that extends perpendicular or at a high angle to the shoreline, unlike longshore bars which are parallel to the coast. These rhythmic features appear in patches or groups along the coast, separated by troughs that may contain rip currents. Also known as "finger bars," they form in low-to-moderate wave energy environments and can be found both attached to the shore and extending from a shore-parallel bar further offshore.
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
In Michigan, transverse bars are ancient, wave-built sand and gravel ridges found on glacial lake plains. These features were created thousands of years ago in the nearshore zones of proglacial lakes that filled the Great Lakes basins as glaciers retreated. The transverse bars near Port Hope are part of the Lake Huron lakebed geology, formed by the deposition of sand and gravel from proglacial outwash streams during the late stages of the last glacial period, approximately 10,000 to 14,000 years ago. The bedrock in the area is primarily ancient Paleozoic sedimentary rock, but the transverse bars are surficial glacial deposits. These bars, consisting of sand and gravel, are reworked from earlier Lake Algonquin beaches and are shaped by present-day nearshore sediment transport.
references
https://pubs.usgs.gov/
https://www.michigan.gov/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
I have earned GSA's highest level:
 |