Terra Cotta EarthCache
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The entire area was once part of a warm, shallow sea. Far to the southeast, a mountain range the size of the Himalayas was building, and rivers from these mountains were sending red, iron-rich sediment from the mountains into the seas, forming a large, muddy delta. The sea was teaming with life, but on land, no plants or animals had yet developed.
Here you will find the formation of Queenston Shale which is a very soft rock, in comparison to the harder sandstone, limestone and dolostone that make up the rest of the Niagara Escarpment. Erosion of the shale can occur rapidly if layers of other rock or vegetation are removed, and particularly if the area is impacted by grazing and large number of people. As the protective layer of vegetation was removed and the shale began to erode, erosion of the area has continued to its present-day state. This type of topography is rare in Ontario because in most areas the shale is protected from erosion by overlying hard rock (limestone, dolostone or sandstone), sand or gravel.
The erosion and emergence of "red soil" that you see here is happening rather rapidly. Even just as recently as 4 years ago there was only a couple portions visible along this 500m stretch of road, but now as time goes on you will see more and more sections of the "red soil" magically appearing. If you are familiar with the area you will even notice some efforts have been made to deter some of this erosion that is taking place.
With this earthcache we want to keep a historical timeline of how the erosion is having an effect on the area. Perform the following tasks in order to log this earthcache:
1) Over the 500m stretch of road from King St to the South up to the Caledon Trailway to the north, how many meters of this stretch display on the East (North East) side of the road the terra cotta like red soil?
2) How many sections of the terra cotta red soil are along this 500m stretch of road?
3) What is the consistency of the red soil? Hard, grainy, brittle, etc?
4) If you add water to the red soil, what happens to it and how does it appear to change?
5) What are the different colours of soil visible in the sections of erosion?
Post your findings from Tasks 1 and 2 in your log so we can see how it changes over the years.
Email me your findings from tasks 3, 4 and 5.
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