The park office (with fossils) is open every day from 8 to 4. / 82 Cabin Bridge Road / Forksville, PA 18616-0062 / Phone: 570-924-3287
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:
CENTER
1. MESSAGE …. a. View the fossil lungfish burrow. What is the diameter? ... b. FIELD - View the Forkville cliffs. Did you find a fossil burrow? If so, post a pic (optional) for all to enjoy.
2. MESSAGE …. a. View the fossil lepidodendron. Describe it. ... b. FIELD - Search the banks and cliffs along the creek of the Loyalsock Gorge. Look for the large specimen located there. Did you find it? If so, post a pic (optional) for all to enjoy.
CREEK
3. MESSAGE …. Search the creek for fossils. Describe your finds. You are welcome to keep what you find. However, if you find something unique, the park is asking you to donate it for all to enjoy. The lepidodendron fossil was found by a young fossil hunter who donated his find.
LOG …. Post picture of you or your signature item with fossils found. This picture is your log signature for the fossils.
4. MESSAGE …. As you travel the roads in this State Park, you will notice boulders dotting the hillside. These are unsorted colluvium deposits resulting from rockfalls down the slope. As you explore the creek, you will notice a large variety of rocks. Many of these rocks are transported from elsewhere. ... Choose a special rock from the creek bed. Do you think this is native or transported? Explain.
LOG …. Post picture of you or your signature item with rock chosen. This picture is your log signature for the rock.
OPTIONAL - Please respect the time and effort involved in creating this earthcache by adding A and B to your log.
A. 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.
B. 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. This is a memorable addition to your log and will make other hearts smile.
Journeys of Heart and Mind ...
Stories to Touch the Heart and Puzzles to Challenge the Mind / Rainbow Tree Story
THANK YOU Bill (Park Manager) for permission to share this learning adventure.
FOSSILS
A fossil is a preserved remain, impression, or trace of a plant or animal that once lived in a past geological age. During the Middle Devonian, a mountain building phase began when Avalon (ancient) collided into eastern North America (modern). This collision created the Acadian Mountain range. Rivers filled with sediments flowed into the Catskill Basin at the base of the mountains. The basin was flooded by the Kaskaskia Sea, which covered many states east of the Mississippi down to the gulf of Mexico. The fossils found here are from this geologic time period.
The fossils pictured above are those you may find while searching the creek and gorge.
LUNGFISH
About 350 Million years ago, Sullivan County was part of a series of deltas. An ancient lungfish inhabited these waters. At the approach of a drought, the primitive lungfish would burrow tail first in the mud, leaving only a small opening to the surface for air. It would sleep until the drought passed. Then it would leave the burrow and return to aquatic life. Some of these burrows were filled with sediment slightly harder than the muds into which the lungfish burrowed. Due to differential weathering, remnants of these burrows can be observed in the red siltstones near Forksville. The cliffs are continually changing due to weathering by wind and water. Thus, the burrows may or may not be observable during your visit.
LEPIDODENDRON
During the Devonian, primitive fern-like plants grew to large sizes and formed Earth's first forests. There is a large plant fossil found along the creek bank/cliff. However, the creek is continually changing due to water levels and transport of gravel/rocks. Thus, the lepidodendron fossil may or may not be observable during your visit.
LOYALSOCK GORGE
The rock types found within the park are mainly shales, sandstones, and conglomerates. Of the three types of sedimentary rocks found here, fossils occur embedded in the shales and sandstones.
From top of cliff to creek we have 1. Pottsville Group - highly resistant gray coarse-grained conglomerate and sandstone, 2. Mauch Chunk Formation - red shales, 3. Burgoon Sandstone - gray to buff sandstone, 4. Huntley Mountain Formation - less resistant olive gray sandstones and grayish-red shales.
ROCK-WATER RELATIONSHIP
The most common method of fossilization is called permineralization, or petrification. After an organism's soft tissues decay in sediment, the hard parts are left behind. Water seeps into the remains, and minerals dissolved in the water seep into the spaces within the remains, where they form crystals. These crystallized minerals cause the remains to harden along with the encasing sedimentary rock.
In another fossilization process, called replacement, the minerals in groundwater replace the minerals that make up the bodily remains after the water completely dissolves the original hard parts of the organism.
RESOURCE ... World's End State Park, Sullivan County - Geologic Features of Interest. Trail of Geology 16–012.0