2007 Pinelands Short Course
- Thread starter Pinetones
- Start date
Thanks. This one actually looks good. They have a couple of geological presentations I'd like to see.
I made it to the short courses. Excellent, all of them. They get better each year. I sat there mesmerized while Mark Demitroff, University of Delaware Geography Professor explained the formation of spungs, cripples, and sand dunes in the pine barrens. He is so good I wanted to sit through it again. He had photos showing evidence of fractures from early permafrost and other glacial activity. A couple of things to remember:
-many of the larger stones you find in the pines may have a flat face on one side. That is from ice crystals being blown by the winds coming off the glacier. They blasted a flat face on the rock.
-the terminal moraine can easily be seen around exit 10 of the Turnpike.
-Spungs are those round or semi-round holes with seasonal or permanent water. They were caused by the winds off the glacier scouring out a hole in the permafrost sand after the area was weakened by a freeze fracture in the ground.
-Cripples are those somewhat long shallow valleys we see adjacent to rivers. They were caused by rain water flowing across the frozen land (I did not understand this one, so I wanted to see it again).
-In sand pits, look for the white sand in weird uplifiting formations in the side of the sand cliffs (kind of like a lava lamp). That is evidence of warming after the glaciers melted, and everything sunk down and mixed the frozen material and thawed it, and pushed some of it up.
good stuff, all of it........
-many of the larger stones you find in the pines may have a flat face on one side. That is from ice crystals being blown by the winds coming off the glacier. They blasted a flat face on the rock.
-the terminal moraine can easily be seen around exit 10 of the Turnpike.
-Spungs are those round or semi-round holes with seasonal or permanent water. They were caused by the winds off the glacier scouring out a hole in the permafrost sand after the area was weakened by a freeze fracture in the ground.
-Cripples are those somewhat long shallow valleys we see adjacent to rivers. They were caused by rain water flowing across the frozen land (I did not understand this one, so I wanted to see it again).
-In sand pits, look for the white sand in weird uplifiting formations in the side of the sand cliffs (kind of like a lava lamp). That is evidence of warming after the glaciers melted, and everything sunk down and mixed the frozen material and thawed it, and pushed some of it up.
good stuff, all of it........
Check this out. I was out by the old Eureka gun club with my friend Sunday, and in walking up the road from the bridge, I found the evidence Mark talked about. This stone had reared its head during the ice age when the glaciers came into NJ. It got its head shaved by wind blown ice crystals for its trouble. Also, look at the evidence of erosion below the shaved part. This is really neat stuff.
You can see it closer by choosing from it from the recently viewed photos.......
Update; I sent it to Professor Demitroff. His reply:
Very Good,
You've found a classic Late Pleistocene ventifact. Your rebellious stone was shaped by blowing sand and perhaps even ice crystals when strong katabatic winds poured off the Laurentide ice sheet to the North. Aren't the Pinelands simply amazing!
Kind Regards,
Spung-Man
You can see it closer by choosing from it from the recently viewed photos.......
Update; I sent it to Professor Demitroff. His reply:
Very Good,
You've found a classic Late Pleistocene ventifact. Your rebellious stone was shaped by blowing sand and perhaps even ice crystals when strong katabatic winds poured off the Laurentide ice sheet to the North. Aren't the Pinelands simply amazing!
Kind Regards,
Spung-Man
Very very nice Bob! Missed by Beck, Dolph Arens, Asa Dayton if you believe in him, the Bransons, and many many more. You are most likely the first person to focus on and comprehend what secrets the Aserdaten area truly holds.
Guy