Ancient Worm Trails EarthCache
Hidden : 9/13/2003
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

This cache site is at a very cool rock. This rock has the preserved trails of worms that lived 420 MILLION years ago. To get credit for the cache, you will need to bring a metric ruler (centimeters and millimeters). Please measure the widths and depths of 10 of the trails, and post the average that you get for them all. Also, please tell us what kind of "worms" or other organisms might have made the tracks. What do you think they were doing?

The large rock you see has broken off from nearby outcrops, and is called fucoidal quartzite. It is a piece of the Ordovician Swan Peak Quartzite. The sand was deposited in shallow, near-shore sea, about 420 Million Years ago. What happened to make the rock look so neat, is that worms, or some other type of marine organism, burrowed and crawled through the seafloor, leaving behind their trails. Sand then filled in those trails, and turned to sandstone. Later, while buried deep in the earth, the rock was heated slightly, metamorphosing it into quartzite. Subsequent uplift and mountain building brought the rock to where you see it today.

This was originally a traditional caches wich was stolen and then converted to a virtual. It was then converted into Utah's First Earthcache. We're going to try and get it converted to an Earthcache.


420 Million year old worm trails in the Swan Peak quartzite.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)

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