ALLEGHENY NATIONAL FOREST DISCOVERY SERIES
Each of the earthcaches in this series will take you along roads and trails
to discover the wonders that exist in and around the ANF.
Elk - Forest - McKean - Warren
This discovery series was developed as a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who completed the requirements as requested, and wrote positive logs worth the time to read. Complete 24 ECT caches. Send a list of logs (GL links) via message for verification of requirements. Arrange to meet at Cache Condo to pick up your trackable coin.
EARTHCACHE REQUIREMENTS
Each cacher must send his/her own answers BEFORE logging a find. Enjoy the journey (learning adventure) as well as the destination (smiley earned). Remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints. To get credit for this Earthcache, complete the following tasks:
NOTE: Answers via message -and- log signature picture are required to post a find for this cache.
Begin at N 41° 50.521 W 079° 00.768 (enter water) and continue to N 41° 49.508 W 079° 07.088 (leave water). You will be travelling approximately 6-7 miles down the Allegheny River. Along the way, observe the shoreline banks and island banks. These observations illustrate the influence of erosion, deposition, and manmade changes along this stretch of the Allegheny River.
1. MESSAGE …. Observe both banks of the Allegheny River and the banks of the islands at the beginning coords, at least every mile, and at the ending coords. Include the following descriptions at each point along the river.
BANK ACCESSIBILITY - easy, moderate, no access
BANK SLOPE - vertical (90°), steep (45°+), moderate (45°-), slight
BANK MATERIALS - natural or manmade
GRAIN SIZE - mud, silt, sand, pebbles, cobbles, boulders
ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCE - pristine, aesthetic, garbage
2. MESSAGE …. Based on your observations ... a. Explain which areas show the greatest effects of erosion. ... b. Explain which areas show the greatest effects of deposition.
3. MESSAGE …. Based on the reading ... a. Give examples of erosion. ... b. Give examples of deposition.
4. LOG …. Post a picture anywhere along your route. Post a picture of your body of water. These pictures are your log signature. No spoiler pics...
OPTIONAL - Please respect the time and effort involved in finding and creating this earthcache by adding A B C to your log.
A. Discover another body of water in/around the ANF, Give coordinates. Identify (river, stream, etc.). If found at a geocache/earthcache site, post picture with name of the cache and GC number instead of cooordinates.
B. JOURNEY OF THE MIND ... Science explains what we observe. Relate (in your own words) something you found interesting in the reading. This adds to your learning adventure and your log.
C. JOURNEY OF THE HEART ... Art shares our personal experience of what we see. Share something special you found on site, and why it is special to you ... prose / story / poem / picture. This is a memorable addition to your log and will make other hearts smile.
THANK YOU LN for travelling and hiking with RT to complete this Earthcache Trail.
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ALLEGHENY RIVER
The present-day Allegheny River flows southward from New York and Pennsylvania, to its confluence with the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is slowly eroding and downcutting through the bedrock, which consists of flat-lying sedimentary beds of shale, sandstone, limestone, clay stone, and coal that were originally deposited during the Pennsylvanian Period of geological time (about 300 million years ago). These bedrock layers can be seen from certain points along the Allegheny River today. During this time of rock formation, the river drainage system and topography were totally different from that seen today; the ancestral rivers flowed west into a shallow sea that covered Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. Due to proximity to the equator, the climate was tropical. During this time, Western Pennsylvania was a broad, flat plain with very little topographic relief and very little difference between the tops of any hills and the water levels of the Allegheny.
During the late Cenozoic era (about five million years ago) geological processes slowly uplifted the area, increasing the slope of the Allegheny river. The erosional style during the early Cenozoic Era was one of sidecutting, with large river meander loops. As the Allegheny flowed faster due to uplifted land, and a greater downslope river gradient, the river's course straightened out somewhat, and sideways erosion changed to greater downward erosion. The downcutting of the Allegheny continued until the river's water level was about 200' above that seen today.
Before the advance of the glacial ice, there were three ancestral rivers that combined to form the Allegheny as we know it today. As the glacial ice finally retreated, all the water from the Allegheny flowed southward to the Mississsippi River, as it does presently. There was a fourth ice advance that deposited a blanket of unconsolidated glacial till in the northern portions of the Allegheny River drainage basin. Much of this material was deposited in the Allegheny riverbed due to outwashing from the surrounding hills. Downcutting remains the major erosional style of the Allegheny, even though there is still some meandering and sidecutting.
RESOURCES
http://3r2n.collinsandgoto.com/river-research/allegheny/geology/report1.pdf
http://getoutzine.com/node/881
WATER CACHES
All the water caches are a THANK YOU
to Earth Mother for her life-sustaining waters.
The depth of a soul is not measured by what appears on the surface.
