Bad Lands EarthCache
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Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that
contains one of the worlds richest collections of upper cretaceous
dinosaur fossils. During the Upper Cretaceous period 75 million
years ago, eastern Alberta was a low coastal plain at the edge of
the shallow Bearpaw Sea. The climate was subtropical (similar to
Florida today) and the rich wildlife included about 35 species of
dinosaur. Several herds of these dinosaurs likely became overcome
during flooding events causing large concentrations of dinosaur
fossils. When some of these animals died, they lay in river
channels and mud flats so their bones were buried in new layers of
sand and mud. Over time, a combination of pressure, lack of oxygen
and deposition of minerals produced fossils impressions of the
bones, teeth and skin of those creatures that once roamed ancient
Alberta. Their bones were buried and preserved under layers of sand
and mud deposited in the deltas of sluggish rivers which became the
present soft sandstone and bentonite clay shale rocks. At the end
of the last Ice Age 13,000 years ago, a sheet of glacial ice 600m
thick eroded the upper layers of rock, and huge meltwater rivers
carved the Red Deer river valley with its badlands of coulees,
mesas, hoodoos and buttes, out of the soft rock, exposing this
great concentration of fossil-bearing sediments. To log this Earth
Cache please email me the answers to the following questions and
post a photo you took while at the Dinosaur Provincial Park. 1.
What year was the dinosaur park added to the World Heritage list?
(Answer on the plaque) 2. What is the altitude difference between
where you are standing the the base of the valley? 3. What mineral
is responsible for the red colour in the valley before you? 4. The
museum has several near complete dinosaur skeletons on display.
Email me the name of one of these. Note there's one in the lobby if
you don't want to pay to enter the museum. * Also please remember
this is a Provincial Park and the collecting of fossils is strictly
prohibited.
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