Not quite, but certainly deeper than might be expected. This
pond, Kortright’s North Peeper Pond, is a rare example of a
kettle formation.
During the last Ice Age, this area was covered in a mass of ice
more than a kilometre think. When the ice finally began to melt
12,000 years ago, pieces of the glacial ice were left behind. Some
of these fragments were buried underground, where they remained
partially insulated from the above-ground melting. There they lay
perhaps for centuries, like giant hidden ice cubes, long after the
bulk of the parent glaciers had vanished. Inevitably, however, as
they melted away, large depressions in the terrain were left
behind. In some cases, such as here at the Peeper Pond, melt-water
and perennial springs rushed in to fill the depression. A new
kettle pond or lake was born.
In the thousands of years since its formation, sediments from
decaying plant and animal material, pollen, soil, and air-borne
dust have gradually settles to the pond’s bottom. There it
has lain relatively undisturbed in seasonally-stratified layers of
ooze. Due to the undisturbed quality of the pond’s bottom
sediments, valuable information about the past climate, flora and
faunal populations, and the presence or not of prehistoric humans
in the vicinity can be determined by taking a sediment core. This
involves drilling down to the bottom of the pond sediments and
extracting a cylindrical cross-section of the accumulated layers. A
finding of ancient corn pollen could, for instance, indicate that
early humans practiced agriculture close by.
With no direct inlet or outlet for the water to flow, this pond
will eventually fill in with sediments. Eventually the open water
will disappear and a treed swamp will remain.
To log a find send me the length of the pond by measuring it end
to end while walking along the trail along with the answers to the
following questions.
1) What do many scientists think caused the ice to melt?
2) How deep is the ooze at the bottom of the pond?
3) How deep is the water on top of the sediment?
This cache was placed under direct supervision of park staff.
Please use the provided trails and visit this geocache only during
park hours.