Earthcache Requirements
To claim this cache as "found", e-mail me the answers to the following questions:
1. At the posted coordinates, find the kettle. What is the approximate depth and width of this kettle?
2. How would you describe the shape of this kettle? (round? oblong? bell-shaped? irregular?)
3. Is this an example of a Kettle Pond or a Dry-Kettle?
This EarthCache is located in Dam No. 1 Woods in the city of Wheeling, IL. Listed below are parking and trailhead coordinates to help you find the cache, also below is a map of the trails.
When the Pleistocene Ice Age reached its peak around 22,000 years ago, continent-spanning glaciers covered large sections of North America and Eurasia like a sheet. As the Ice Age waned, the glaciers retreated. Occasionally large chunks of ice broke off from the glacier and became surrounded or even buried by soil and rock debris deposited by the melting ice sheet. Eventually, the blocks of ice also melted, leaving behind a depression in the ground. These depressions are called kettles; when they are filled with water, they are called kettle lakes, or pothole lakes.
The kettles are usually round, buit not always. Some might be 50' to 300' across and the depth of most kettles is less than 30 feet. True glacial kettles will fill with water during spring but dry up during summer. Kettles filled with water year-round are called Kettle Lakes or Kettle Ponds. People who live in areas with lots of Kettle Lakes sometimes refer to plain old kettles with no water as "dry kettles."
Example of Kettle Lake's in Siberian Federal District, Russia.