St.George's Harbour EarthCache
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An Earth Cache located at the top of hill overlooking St. George's
Harbour.
Welcome to St Georges, capital city of Grenada.
St. George’s Harbour is an explosion crater that was formed
on the coastline during the most recent volcanic activity on
Grenada. Grenada was formed partially by volcanic activity and also
formed by the build up of coral formation and sedimentary
rocks.
The earth’s crust is made up of 12 to 15 large plates which
do not fit together perfectly. The area where the plates rub
together are called fault lines. A volcano is formed when there are
cracks in the plates and magma flows out from the mantle through
the cracks in the plate and out onto Earth's surface.
Grenada lies on two tectonic fault lines. The main one runs NNE-SSW
and the second one is perpendicular to the first. The fact that
Grenada is elongated is based on the orientation of the primary
fault trend.
The explosion craters that have been created due to movement of
these fault lines include St. Geroge’s Harbour, Lake Antoine,
The Punchbowl Crater, Grand Etang (location of another cache site)
and Queens Park. The lakes are easily visible from the air, and are
all perfectly round.
All of these volcanic craters are extinct, but there is an active
submarine volcano 5 miles north of Sauteurs called
Kick-‘em-Jenny. It is so called because of the sea action in
this area. It erupts frequently, and has an exclusion zone around
it for planes and boats. For more information on
Kick-‘em’Jenny, please refer to The University of The
West Indies Seismic Research Centre
(http://www.uwiseismic.com/Default.aspx).
From where you will be standing you can see the two distinct areas
of the harbour. The volcanic crater is called the
‘lagoon’ and it is where sailboats are moored. The
horseshoe shaped harbour surrounded by the town is called
‘The Carenage’. Both areas are protected naturally from
the winds and the sea by a narrow but deep entry way. At 30 ft
depth, currently The Queen Mary 2 is the only cruise ship that can
not enter the harbour. Waves are only an issue when the wind comes
from the rare direction of 237 – 255 degrees.
To log this cache you must post a picture of you and/or your GPS
at the cache site and e-mail the answers to the following questions
to the cache owner.
1. Estimate the width of the mouth of the harbour.
2. Estimate the diameter of the volcanic crater (the lagoon).
3. How many canons are on the top of the wall to your north?
4. What large object is just below you to the east?
Enjoy your time on The Spice Island.
bb415 and kinghenry
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