A Misfit in West Nose Creek Park EarthCache
A Misfit in West Nose Creek Park
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Congratulations Jub-Jub on your first, FTF. Way to go Bill.
Tens of thousands of years before the CPR and CN arrived, Western Canada had an erratic train, a slow moving glacier that carried and deposited large quartzite rocks, some of them were the size of a barn, originating in Jasper National park and heading southeast to the Alberta Montana border.
In the Calgary area, the erratic train stopped to drop off cargo at West Nose Creek, Nose Hill Park, Fish Creek Park, and Okotoks. The Big Rock at Okotoks may be the largest, but the Split Rock at West Nose Creek is the most symmetrical. As its name implies, the large rock is split in half, resulting in a narrow path between the two pieces of the rock.
The erratic train didn’t need bridges roads or rails, it pushed its way slowly across the prairies, creating West Nose Creek and Nose Creek Park with ice and meltwater.
Today Nose Creek today is a calm meandering stream that winds its way down a peaceful valley in northwest Calgary and is a popular green space for Calgary's growing population. The creek is clearly much smaller than the valley it occupies (a misfit stream) and was not capable of eroding a valley of this size.
A misfit stream is a stream that is far too small to have eroded the valley which the stream occupies. The shape of the valley may also be inconsistent with a typical valley that has been eroded by water. Generally it is reasonable to expect a valley to be in proportion with the stream that occupies it. When a period of glaciation modifies the landscape by creating glacial troughs the rivers that occupy such valleys after the ice has retreated are not in proportion with the size of the valley.
Misfit streams can be caused by reductions in the discharge of the stream. Channel size responds rapidly to variations in discharge, but valley size responds over much longer timescales. Many causes of reduced discharges are possible. If misfit streams are widespread in an area climate change, particularly a reduction in precipitation is likely to be the cause. If a single river appears to be a misfit stream it may be as a result of anthropogenic interference through groundwater extraction or dam construction upstream. Natural causes such as volcanic or seismic activity stream capture or other changes in drainage patterns
To log this cache as please email the owner, do not post here the answers to the following:
1, Estimate the distance to the valley top, on the opposite side, at the widest point.
2, Estimate the width of the creek at any point you can see from here.
3, Post a photo of yourself with your GPSr
Development stages of misfit streams.
A) Dendritic drainage system develops in waning ice sheet
B) Dendritic channels backfill with stream sorted debris
C) Climate ameliorates and soil develops over poorly defined depressions
D) Misfit valleys appear as groundwater flow dissolves carbonates.
Additional Hints
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