Reverend Sherwood's Cat's Paw
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Come to Stone Mountain, Georgia to see REAL geology up close and in person. Whether you want to see and learn on a macro mountain scale (think of it as the volcano that never was), or a micro chemical crystal formation scale (can you say tourmaline pods?), this is the site and cache for you! Cache requires two measurements (as of: October 18th, 2006) AND two photos.
Enter private Stone Mountain Park and go to the East Quarry (or just about anywhere since cat's paws are all over this rock).
*****SPECIAL EQUIPMENT REQUIRED (AS OF: October 18th, 2006): You will need a ruler!!*****
TO LOG THE CACHE:
1) Take your ruler, and measure (to the best of your ability) the biggest cat's paw you find, and post it's length. Also, post the width of the "clear area" around the cat's paw. This is a new requirement in order to meet the updated www.earthcache.org guidelines. (I am allowing a thirty day grace period for those that had uploaded / printed this sheet off already and did not see this new requirement being posted on October 18th, 2006. Logs after November 18th, 2006 not meeting the new requirement will be deleted - so sorry.
2) Take two photos: One of you, GPSr and Mountain; and second of you, GPSr, and cat's paw.
History: "The mountain itself was formed about 300 million years ago in the Pennsylvania geologic period. This was even before dinosaurs roamed the earth! Stone Mountain did not form like most mountains you're probably familiar with. The Appalachians, for instance, were pushed up as a result of "plate tectonics" - the shifting of sections of the Earth's crust over and under each other. Volcanic mountains, like the islands of Hawaii, are formed by molten lava from our planet's core bursting through to the surface and cooling. Stone Mountain, however, was created when shifts in the earth's crust created extreme heat and friction and melted a large amount of rock below the surface. This heated magma bubbled up towards earth's surface but did not make it all the way. Over time, the magma hardened into granite. Eventually, the land on top of the granite dome washed away through erosion and left us with what we now call Stone Mountain. Granite, like lava, is an igneous rock because it was formed by crystallization of magma. The granite at Stone Mountain consists of quartz, mica and feldspar. There are areas on the mountain where these rock types can easily be seen on the surface. Stone Mountain granite was quarried for about 120 years, until 1978. There are many places in the park where you can see the effects of quarrying - look for ledges of rock, the drill holes in the stone, the quarry ponds and the piles of quarry rubble. In 1790, American settlers began moving into the area of the giant mass of granite, first named Rock Mountain. In 1825, the Rev. Adel Sherwood, of Mercer University, Macon, renamed it Stone Mountain. The town located at the base of the mountain was incorporated in 1839 and named New Gibraltar. It wasn't until 1947 that the Georgia Legislature changed the name of the town to Stone Mountain." From the parks' website: www.stonemountainpark.com
More Geology: Stone Mountain is one of the largest granite formations in the east. It exposes 7.5 billion cubic feet of rock. The nearby Mount Panola and Mount Arabia are similar to Stone Mountain though smaller. Stone Mountain formed 300 million years ago deep underground during the formation of the Appalachian mountains. The shifting of the earth’s crust beneath the continents created heat and friction which melted a large amount of rock below the surface. This magma (melted rock) slowly hardened into granite and remained hidden beneath the earth’s surface for millions of years. The granite was eventually exposed as the miles of land on top of the dome washed away with time and weathering. Granite is an igneous rock, like lava, because it was formed by crystallization of magma. The granite at Stone Mountain consists of quartz, mica and feldspar. Thanks to: www.stonemountainpark.org
For those hard chargers that can't get enough, or you want to lead a scout troop or school group, may I recommend the following sites:
For the instructors, smart stuff: gpc.edu/~pgore/stonemtn/stonemountain.html
For the instructees, field trip worksheet: gpc.edu/~pgore/geology/geo101/stnmtn.htm
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Nyy gur uvagf lbh arrq pna or sbhaq ng jjj.yag.bet