Mt John EarthCache
ridders76: had its day. Too many are not making a real attempt at gathering the answers.
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29-10-2012. Update: This is a 2/2.5 star cache so a little more effort than a park and grab. Question 1 takes a little bit of time and effort but not much. It must be answered.
Roche moutonnee are created by the passage of glaciers over rock leaving a distinctive asymmetrical rock shape with one side being a gentle slope and the other a much sharper angle. Roche moutonnées are aligned roughly parallel to ice flow so the layout of Mt John clearly indicates which way the glaciers where flowing in this location, the makeup of the bedrock however influences the rate of erosion so the direction maybe skewed.
Both the abraded stoss side and the plucked lee side of roche moutonnee require the former presence of sliding ice and meltwater. The presence of roches moutonnées means therefore that the ice masses that progressively shaped these bedrock hills were warm based, with ice at the glacier bed above its pressure melting point. The stoss side is the side that faced the direction of ice flow while the plucked lee side is the opposite side. Plucked lee is the downstream side of the roche moutonnee.
To best view the plucked lee take the walk from the behind the ice skating rink in the township, on this walk you will see the erosive process of particle detachment by moving glacial ice. In this process, basal ice freezes in rock surface cracks. As the main body of the glacial ice moves material around the ice in the cracks is pulled and plucked out. Also called quarrying.
On the summit of Mount John is the University of Canterbury's astronomical observatory. During the day its domes can be seen from the Tekapo township. The mountain was chosen as the best observatory site in New Zealand because of its high number of clear nights throughout the year, the stability and transparency of the atmosphere and the uniquely dark skies in the Mackenzie Basin, devoid of city light pollution. It is internationally recognised as one of the best-situated observatories for viewing the southern night skies. For example, the Magellanic Clouds (satellite galaxies to our own Milky Way) can be seen continuously throughout the year.
GZ is at the bottom of the roche mounnee. Access to the top is via a publicly accessible but private road. The road is narrow and uphill traffic has right of way. Not recommended for camper vans. Visiting the top is not required to log this Earthcache but there are two tasks.
1) Explore both the stoss side and the plucked less side and take note of the relative difference in the majority of rock debris that remain. Email a description of your observation.
2) As proof of your visit email the digits that precede the letters pax on the sign at GZ.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)