West Creek Waterfall EarthCache

This Earthcache is placed in Brooklyn Heights Village Park with permission. This will take you to a waterfall part of West Creek within the park.

Although you may get closer to the cache from a side street you will be on private property and will find the decent to the cache highly dangerous! Also the rocks are extremely slippery - be very careful. Even though they may not look slippery please take caution. Recommendations for another cache placed nearby are to: “Bring a pair of water shoes and some old clothes and enjoy the shallow creek running through the park”. While you are here make sure you visit Red Wanted It This Way - GCJND7

West Creek is a 9 mile tributary of the Cuyahoga River and encompasses a 14 square mile watershed. West Creek has 10,000 years of history beginning with post-glacial remnants.

A waterfall is a geologic formation that results from usually water flowing over rock where at some point a break occurs and causes a change in elevation. Over a period of time the edges of that shelf will continue to break away causing the water to retreat further up the stream or river creating a recession. Often the rocks below the waterfall are softer than the outcropping and as a result of that will continue to be cut and eroded. Over time the falling water will create a cave like formation known as a rock shelter or plunge pool behind the waterfall.

There are different types or classifications of waterfalls:

• Block – Water descends from a relatively wide stream or river.
• Cascade - Water descends a series of rock steps.
• Cataract - A large waterfall.
• Fan – Water spreads horizontally as it descends while remaining in contact with bedrock.
• Horsetail – Descending water maintains some contact with bedrock
• Plunge - Water descends vertically, losing contact with the bedrock surface
• Punchbowl – Water descends in a constricted form, then spreads out in a wider pool.
• Segmented – Distinctly separate flows of water form as it descends
• Tiered – Water drops in a series of distinct steps or falls
• Multi-step - A series of waterfalls one after another of roughly the same size each with its own sunken plunge pool.

Here, you will find this water fall deep at the bottom of the gorge. You can see how the erosive power of water has cut right through the soil and down to multiple layers of the Bedford Shale. This type of shale is very predominately exposed in Northern, Central, and Southern Ohio. Bedford Shale represents sediment washed into the Ohio Sea from uplands to the north in Canada and from the Catskills in the east. Upon close observance you may notice is color and texture. The shale is primarily gray and red. You should also notice that the shale has a sandy texture. Bedford Shale traditionally has been considered to be Mississippian in age. Recently, along with the overlying Berea Sandstone, it has been assigned a Late Devonian in age. The Mississippian age began roughly 359 million years ago and ended roughly 318 million years ago. The Devonian age began roughly 416 millions years ago and ended roughly 359 millions years ago.

Requirements to log this cache: (please do not place you or any member of your party in any danger to log these requirements)

Each Cacher that logs a find is required to submit answers to the questions above (failure to comply will result in a deletion of your log). The only exception to this are young kids that are caching with their parents (who have their own account, but not computer privileges). Per Earthcache guidelines, each cacher is to learn from their visit/experience. That means each cacher must perform the necessary task(s) or requirements to log the cache and earn your smiley.

Any logs that do not meet the above posted requirements will be deleted at the discretion of the cache owner. All logging requirements must be completed within 48 hours of logging the cache online or your log will be deleted unless you have prior permission from the cache owner.