Adams Road Mastodon EarthCache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(other)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Please be prepared to complete all the tasks. All tasks must be completed to log this geocache.
What to Do to Log This Earthcache
If a geocacher can log this while on-site, the answers can be sent from on-site as well. Logs received prior to answers being sent may be deleted without warning. Sending the answers is how the EarthCache is found. If a cacher is not prepared to complete each task appropriately and thoroughly prior to logging, then please do not log this EarthCache. Each task is required to complete this EarthCache.
Do not post answers to any tasks in the posted log. Logs will be deleted if posted with answers.
A series of tasks will need to be performed to complete the requirements and log this EarthCache. E-mail those answers to the address listed in the owner’s profile. Post the picture taken in Task 3 with the log.
Task 1: Answer the Following Questions
1) What is the name of the moraine responsible for much of the sediment in the area?
2) What type of glacial lake was here just prior to the Adams Road Mastodon's demise?
3) What was the make-up of the earth (surrounding dirt) in which the Adams Road Mastodon became trapped?
Task 2: Visit the Adams Road Mastodon Site
4) What percent of of the Adams Road Mastodon was recovered?
5) When did the Adams Road Mastodon die, give or take 50 years?
6) According to the map, how many mastodon sites are in the upper peninsula of Michigan?
7) How many mastodon sites are in Michigan?
8) What is the proper/full name of the animal the American mastodon is compared to on the sign?
Task 3 (Optional): Take a Picture
There is a really neat and unique bench at the site. Take a picture of you and/or your team to post with your log.
Location
This EarthCache is located on the Clinton River Trail, a rails to trail bike path. The site is .25 miles from parking. The terrain is flat.
About Mastodons
Mastodons were animals that roamed present day United States and equivalent latitudes around the world in areas that were forested during the late Pliocene and into the Pleistocene epoch. They first appeared about four million years ago with the most recent fossils dating to about 7000 years ago.
Mastodons were members of the elephant family, standing about 10 feet high at the shoulder. They were leaf eaters and had teeth designed for doing such an activity. In fact, the name mastodon is a reference to those teeth. Mastodons were furry like mammoths, but the fur was more superficial than beneficial as it did not have an undercoat as animals of the northern regions would have for warmth. They also had larger skulls. Mastodons differed from mammoths in many ways, more of which can be learned by completing this EarthCache.
About Fossils
Permineralization is the process of mineral-rich groundwater entering the cavities of an organism soon after death and/or during the decaying process. Depending on the mineral/water mixture permineralization can occur at the cellular level (usually of plants) thus producing highly detailed fossils. In order for all this to occur, the organism needs to be covered by sediment soon after death and/or the decaying process. The sediment hardens into sedimentary rock, the rock we find today containing fossils.
Michigan's State Fossil
Michigan is one of a few states which has fossils as two different state symbols. The Petoskey stone is actually fossilized coral and is the state stone of Michigan. On April 8, 2002, Senate Bill 397 was signed into law making the Mamut americanum (American mastodon) the official state fossil.
The Adams Road Mastodon
On July 7, 2006 an excavation crew was working on a bypass between Adams Road and M-59. As a backhoe lifted out a shovelful of earth, a limb bone fell from the shovel. Workers explored the hole and found teeth and a partial tusk. The Oakland County Road Commission (OCRC) called the Cranbrook Institute of Science who sent an archeologist and a geologist to the site, and with the cooperation of the OCRC, removed the mastodon fossil bones and some fossilized plants.
Further related fossils and bones were discovered July 26. On "August 3rd a group of 7th and 8th graders enrolled in the Institute’s summer geology field camp discovered more of the mastodon’s bones and associated fossil plants from sediments that had been hauled from the original site and temporarily stored at a local gravel pit near the town of Holly, [Michigan]."
"The Adams mastodon was recovered from postglacial sediments deposited on and adjacent to a glacial landform called the Inner Defiance moraine. The moraine formed during late glacial times around 14,000 C-14 years ago when the terminus of a melting continental glacier was present in the area. Ice wedge polygons in aerial photos and information from other local sites indicate that permafrost and polar desert conditions (with mean annual temperature 20°F colder than present) existed before tundra and eventually spruce forest and the mastodon community moved into Oakland County as global warming accelerated. The sediment layers containing the Adams mastodon bones and abundant white spruce cones were deposited in a small lake that formed in an ice block depression on the glacial landscape (kettle lake), probably more than a thousand years after the ice front receded from Oakland County. The lake eventually evolved into a bog as a boreal coniferous forest (spruce followed by pine) progressively surrounded its drainage area. Judging from the radiocarbon dates of wood and cones from other local sites the Adams mastodon is likely to be between 12,000 and 10,500 C-14 years old. The excellent surface condition of the bones indicates that the carcass did not undergo extensive exposure and degradation but more likely subsided rapidly into a tomb of sandy lake clay until it was unearthed by the backhoe on 7-7-06!"
Other Information
Don't forget Cache In Trash Out.
The FTF prize is the glory and fame associated with being the first to find.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Guvf vf n erfg nern ba gur ovxr genvy jvgu n fvta naq orapu