The Redstone City EarthCache
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Parts of Burlington were built from the ground . . . literally. Many of the buildings in town and on the University of Vermont campus were constructed with local red stone known as Monkton Quartzite, a distinctively red quartzite found in the Champlain and Vermont Valleys. Below are examples of this red-stone construction.
Redstone Hall, University of Vermont
1879 Mary Fletcher Hospital
Iron oxide in the rock gives it the reddish-purple color. The rock is of the Cambrian period, a geological time from the Paleozoic Era lasting about 55 million years per current scientific theory.
This sedimentary rock formed from sand deposits in the shallow sea water along the continental edge of the lapetus Ocean, a body of water existing about 500 million years ago.
The red stone used for area construction was extracted from the retired Redstone Quarry at the end of Hoover Street. The three-acre site is open to the public.
The posted coordinates are at the northern edge of the ledge, which runs north to south about 750 feet. Park at the end of Hoover Street., two blocks east of U.S. Highway 7 where you will have an open view to the beautiful cliffs.
You can also view the hardened ground ripple marks of the once-submerged sediment.
To log this earthcache, please visit the site and submit your answers to the following questions:
1. Why do you believe the formation is called bedding?
2. What caused the ripple marks in the sediment?
3. In your estimation, what is the elevation of the relief (cliff wall)?
OPTIONAL: Photogrpahs of yourself or surroundings will be met with giddy earthcache-geek excitement.
Resources and credits:
Middlebury College
Stewart Contstuction, Inc.
Vermont Geological Survey
Vermontish, via Waymarking.com
Wikipedia
Placed by a member of D.A.W.G.S.
Denton Area Wayward Geocache Seekers
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