Kooling off in Karijini EarthCache
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Karijini National Park is centered in the Hamersley Range of the Pilbara Region in north west Western Australia. The co-ords take you to the Karijini Visitor Centre. Some answers can be found here. The rest are accessible via sealed roads a short distance from the visitor centre.
Karijini National Park is just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. The nearest public airports are Newman and Parraburdoo airports. The park is located approximately 1055 kilometres from the state Capital, Perth.
It was formerly known as Hamersley Range National Park and is the second largest national park in Western Australia behind Karlamilyi National Park.
Karijini National Park is all about adventure. It’s about exploring ancient rocky tunnels and plunging gorges, paddling through crystal-clear waterways and swimming under stunning waterfalls.The banded iron formations exposed in many of the rocks in and around the gorges originated more than 2,500 million years ago as iron and silica-rich sediment deposits accumulated on an ancient sea-floor. Over millions of years these deposits were transformed by the pressure of further sediments laid down over them, forcing trapped water to be driven out and gradually turning the sediments into tough, well-bedded rock. Horizontal compression later caused the rocks to buckle, developing numerous vertical cracks, before lifting to the surface to form dry land.A sharp drop in sea-level caused the rivers to cut down rapidly through the land, creating sheer-sided gorges. This, combined with millions of years of erosion, has sculptured the rocks into the present landscape
The five gorges that extend northwards out of the park - Bee Gorge, Wittenoom Gorge, Kalamina Gorge, Yampire Gorge, and Dales Gorge - provide spectacular displays of ancient rock layers.
- Banded Iron Formation
Banded iron formations (also known as banded ironstone formations or BIFs) are distinctive units of sedimentary rock that are almost always of Precambrian age. A typical BIF consists of repeated, thin layers (a few millimeters to a few centimeters in thickness) of silver to black iron oxides, either magnetite or hematite, alternating with bands of iron-poor shales and cherts, often red in color, of similar thickness, and containing microbands (sub-millimeter) of iron oxides. Some of the oldest known rock formations, formed over 3,700 million years ago, include banded iron layers. Banded layers rich in iron were a common feature in sediments for much of the Earth's early history but are now rare. Phanerozoic ironstones generally have a different genesis.
- Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone.
- Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimeter in thickness, called fissility
To Log this cache, you will need to answer the following questions on some aspects of the geology of this park, along with two questions showing you have been here.
Can you please email the C/O with your answers. Please dont post in your log.
(a) What resource in the Pilbara is provided by Banded Iron Beds
(b) Up until the 20th century, Shale was also referred to as what ?
(c) What is the term for dolomite rock ?
(d) At WP1, you are standing in front of a gorge. What is its name ?
(e) Still at WP1, At the base of this gorge, is a feature. What is its name, and also Aboriginal name
You will have to do your research to get the first three answers.
Additional Hints
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