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. ... "Geocachers must complete the tasks before they log the EarthCache as found." (4.3. EarthCache logging tasks)
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.
Take a journey through a beautiful valley as past and present come together at the posted coords. ... Past - the well flowed with oil/gas. ... Present - the well flows with refreshing spring water. We have hiked miles through State Game Lands, and this is the only one we have encountered.
1. MESSAGE …. What is the height and diameter of the pipe?
2. MESSAGE …. a. What kind of spring flows from the pipe? ... b. What is the magnitude of flow?
3. MESSAGE …. With so many orphan wells, why do you think this artifact is so rare?
4. LOG …. Post a picture at or near the coordinates. Post a picture of your discovery well. 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 well (abandoned or active) in/around the ANF, If an active well, respect the lease owner and do NOT go near the well. Give coordinates. If you found your well at a geocache/earthcache site, give 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.
THANK YOU Victoria V. Neboga | Senior Geologic Scientist | PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for your help with this learning adventure.
ABANDONED WELLS
The world’s first commercial oil well was in Titusville, Pennsylvania where Edwin Drake drilled a hole in the ground and lined it with pipe to keep the earth from caving back in. Drake’s success in 1859 triggered the first real energy boom.
Boom towns sprung up around wells and were quickly abandoned. Oil prospectors carted wagons of drilling explosives over bumpy roads. Oil men would rush barrels of black gold down rivers by damming up water and then releasing it all at once, in order to create an artificial tidal wave. There were no environmental regulations in the 19th century. Many drillers simply walked away from their wells once the oil and gas stopped flowing.
That was the norm for most of Pennsylvania’s history with oil and gas drilling. It wasn’t until 1955, almost a century after Drake drilled his well, that the state passed a law requiring operators to report the locations of their wells. The result is that western and northern Pennsylvania are pockmarked with hundreds of thousands of wells whose locations are essentially unknown.
These abandoned wells can be dangerous because they provide pathways for methane gas to seep to the surface, where it can, under the right settings, trigger explosions. Active drilling near unplugged abandoned wells is dangerous, too. In June 2012, the intersection between a Shell fracking operation and a forgotten well drilled in 1932 likely led to a 30-foot geyser of methane and gas.
There were 325,000 gas wells drilled in Pennsylvania – 110,000 of them with unknown locations. There are 8,356 wells classified as orphans or abandoned wells in DEP database. About 3,000 of them are already plugged (~200 per year).
TOPOGRAPHY
The topography of an area is a description of the features of an area. Example: flat, valleys, hills, etc.
Spring location marked as a red cross under letter “E”.
Topographic low spots provide the simplest mechanism for the formation of springs. Depressions springs are formed when the water table reaches the surface. The change in topography creates a corresponding undulation in the water-table configuration. A local flow system is thus created, with a spring formed at the local discharge zone. The physiographic setting along the valley could be favorable for the artesian conditions of the groundwater (flowing wells). There are a couple of springs down the Skinner Creek (about 2 miles), which are used for Fish Hatchery.
There are a couple of old gas wells drilled in this area (Prospect Hill) in late 40-50s. The closest gas well is about 1 mile up the valley of Skinner Creek. What you are observing at the posted coords is probably an old casing belonging to an old gas well, now called an “orphan well”. Thousands of these are scattered along the northern part of Pennsylvania. Many of them went dry (no gas) and were abandoned later. The old pipe serves as the conduit for the groundwater in a form of “artesian spring”.
SPRINGS
All springs start out as groundwater that runs through an aquifer before meeting the earth surface. An aquifer is basically layers of rock in which water runs through porous rock and the cracks that form The rock acts as a filter as the water runs through it. As the water flows out of the earth’s surface, it can take many forms. Because of this there are categories for the type of spring that is there. Springs are identified by how that ground water is accumulated, how the water flows from the surface, the magnitude of the flow and the formation that the spring causes after flowing out.
GRAVITY FED - Water flowing out of the earth's surface
ARTESIAN SPRING - Groundwater under pressure that overcomes gravity and goes up instead of down.
GEYSER - Erupting spring
HOT SPRINGS - Occur when the water issues from great depths or is heated by near-surface hot volcanic rock.
MINERAL SPRINGS - Those with a high mineral content, usually silica or lime, dissolved from the rocks through which the water has passed.
MAGNITUDE OF FLOW
1st Magnitude - 2800 L/s
2nd Magnitude - 280 to 2800 L/s
3rd Magnitude - 28 to 280 L/s
4th Magnitude - 6.3 to 28 L/s
5th Magnitude - 0.63 to 6.3 L/s
6th Magnitude - 63 to 630 mL/s
7th Magnitude - 8 to 63 mL/s
8th Magnitude - 8 mL/s
0 Magnitude - no flow (sites of past/historic flow)
RESOURCES
PERILOUS PATHWAYS ... http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/10/10/perilous-pathways-behind-the-staggering-number-of-abandoned-wells-in-pennsylvania/
Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells https://www.hh-law.com/Articles/Oil-and-Gas-Articles/Abandoned-Oil-and-Gas-Wells-More-Than-Just-a-Rusty-Eyesore.shtml
GEOCACHE
There is a geocache nearby. See The Flowing Well Cache by Zormsk .... http://coord.info/GC6A3D.