What's an Earthcache?
This short hike will take you to Devil's Bathtub, which is a kettle hole in Mendon Ponds Park.
Devil's Bathtub is also a meromictic lake. A meromictic lake has layers of water which do not intermix. The deepest layer of water in such a lake does not contain any dissolved oxygen. The layers of sediment at the bottom of a meromictic lake remain relatively undisturbed because there are no living organisms to stir them up.
This type of lake may form for a number of reasons:
- the basin is unusually deep and steep-sided compared to the lake's surface area
- the lower layer of the lake is highly saline and so denser than the higher levels of water
To log this cache (as of 2/5/07),
- you must go to the posted coordinates and take a picture of yourself with your GPS on the wooden platform with the kettle in the background and in email send your answers to the following:
- Describe how a kettle lake is formed.
- How deep is the kettle hole to the water surface? Needs to be measured by you, no signs stating this information.
- How many steps lead down to the lake?
Please feel free to also post pictures from the top of the kettle. They'll be more interesting than the ones in the at the posted coords, but a picture at the coords is required to prove you did the hike into the tub.
Definitions for Kettle Lake & Meromictic Lake taken from the free online encyclopedia, wikipedia
