EarthCache Master Traditional Cache

This is a traditional cache which can be visited and logged as found at any time.  It also includes an optional “EarthCache Master” challenge where you can earn a unique, custom-made “EarthCache Master” commemorative coin.

This traditional cache was developed to highlight one of geocaching’s most educational and rewarding cache types: the EarthCache.  Unlike traditional caches, there is no container to find for an EarthCache. Instead, an EarthCache invites you to explore, observe, and understand the natural features that shape our planet.

EarthCaches focus on the solid Earth and the materials and processes that shape it.  When you visit an EarthCache, you will encounter geologic features that reveal part of Earth’s story. By studying what you see around you, insight is gained into the forces that formed landscapes and, in some cases, continue to influence it today.

Are you ready to prove your geology skills? Step up and see if you have what it takes to earn the title of EarthCache Master! 

Optional EarthCache Master Challenge

I’d like to invite you to participate in an optional EarthCache-related challenge.  The first 40 cachers to meet the requirements below, will be awarded a unique, custom-made “EarthCache Master” commemorative coin. 

Requirements

1. Find and log this traditional cache.
2. Visit 10 different EarthCaches that fall into each of the 10 categories listed below.
3. The EarthCache can be found at any time.
4. The EarthCache must be located in the United States.
5. An EarthCache can only be used in one category.
6. You can’t use an EarthCache that you have published.

A printable worksheet is available to download.  Once you have completed the challenge requirements, send me a message, using the Geocaching message system, with the following information for each of the ten EarthCache categories:

1. The category number and name
2. The US state it is located in
3. The GC number  
4. Your found date
5. The name of the EarthCache
6. A brief description of the EarthCache lesson

EarthCache categories

1. Rocks and minerals:  
   This category is about identifying the material and characteristics of rocks and/or minerals. For rocks, this includes igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.  For minerals, this includes, feldspar, quartz, olivine, pyrite, talc, mica, pyroxene, and amphibole minerals.
2. Sand and soil:
   This category is about the process and/or results of the weathering of rocks and minerals which creates sand and soil.  This includes particle size, mineral type, particle shape, compaction, and types of soil.
3. Caves:
   This category is about the formation and characteristics of caves.  This includes chemical processes, erosion, and tectonic forces.
4. Folds:
   This category is about the bends or curves in rock layers that occur due to tectonic forces.  This includes anticlines, monoclines, chevron folds, and recumbent folds.
5. Geological processes:
   This category is about identifying any of the geological processes involved in studying the natural mechanisms that shape the Earth's surface.  For example, erosion, weathering, and deposition.
6. Glaciers:
   This category is about the glacial events that caused landscapes to look the way they do.  This includes drumlins, moraines, eskers, erratics, fjords, kettle lakes, kames, and till.
7. Volcanism:
   This category is about the process for which materials such as molten rock, gases, and other substances erupt to the surface.  This includes volcanos, lava fields, tephra, geothermal development, and hot springs.
8. Coastal:
   This category includes the geological features and processes that shape coastlines.  This includes erosion, sedimentation, and the impact of waves and tides.
9. Hydrolic:  
   This category is about how water has affected the topography. This includes underground water, water tables, aquifers, percolation, infiltration, rivers, streams, wetlands, bogs, swamps, marshes, and waterfalls.
10. Tools used by geologists:
    This category is about how index fossils, rocks, and historical geology sites are used to determine the era that the item was formed.

References

• The Geological Society of America
• Geology education
• Geocaching EarthCache help

EarthCache Master Challenge leader board