Ripple Marks- Evidence of Ancient Shallow
Waters
These formations can not be seen during times of high water or
flooding. Please do not attempt to visit this site when it is too
dangerous or the ripple marks are not visible due to high water. As
always use common sense and be careful with children and pets.
This Earthcache is located in the Shawnee State Forest in
southern Ohio. Please be respectful of the environment and the
Park rules and regulations.
Removal of any natural materials, plants, artifacts, etc. is
prohibited. CITO is still ok and encouraged.
General Forest Rules
- Shawnee State Forest is open to visitors between the hours of 6
a.m. and 11 p.m. daily. Legal campers, hunters and anglers may be
present during other hours.
- Operation of motor vehicles is restricted to roads provided for
such travel. The speed limit on state forest roads is 30 mph unless
otherwise posted. Vehicles may not be parked where traffic or
access to division service roads or trails will be obstructed.
- Horses may be ridden only along forest roads or on designated
bridle trails.
- Swimming and motorized boats, except with electric motors, are
prohibited in state forest lakes.
- Fires are not permitted except in grills or fire rings provided
or in portable stoves. Fires must be attended at all times.
- Litter must be disposed of in receptacles provided.
- Camping is permitted only in areas provided and designated for
such use.
- Public display or consumption of any alcoholic beverage is
prohibited.
- Disturbance, defacement or destruction of any property,
material, natural feature or vegetation is prohibited. Berries,
nuts and mushrooms may be gathered and removed except from tree
seed orchards or posted areas.
The strange looking rock formations at the bottom of this creek
bed are called “ripple marks”. They are formed by shallow water
flowing over a bed of sand or other sediments, or by wind-driven
wave action in shallow water, again over small sediments.
The ripples formed in shallow water by waves, (imagine small
waves lapping at the shore of a very shallow area of a lake) are
called wave-formed ripple marks. These are distinguishable by the
symmetrical shape of the individual ripples. Another type, called
current formed ripple marks are asymmetrical in shape with gentle
slopes on the up-current sides and somewhat steeper slopes on the
down-current sides of the ripples. Other more erratic ripple marks
are formed where two separate wave patterns, traveling in slightly
differing directions meet. These are classified as interference
ripple marks.
These patterns are usually small and close together, but not
always. Very large volumes of fast moving water can form very large
ripples. The Channeled Scablands in Washington State were formed
when an ancient, very large lake burst through its natural dam and
flooded many thousands of acres of land in a short amount of time.
The ripple marks it left can still be seen today and may be 100
yards in length or longer, with heights resembling small hills.
The formations seen at this site were almost certainly caused by
shallow, slowly flowing water moving over sandy or muddy areas. At
some point in the history of these formations, the ripples were
covered with other layers of sediment, without disturbing the
patterns we see today. In time there were many other layers
deposited here, compressing the layers by their own weight
effectively forming fossil wave marks in the rock.
Millions of years later, as erosion slowly removed the layers of
rock the ripple marks have been exposed and are as we see them
today. As erosion is an ongoing process, these remnants will
eventually disappear, worn away by the same processes that destroy
mountains, turning them into sediments. It is ironic that these
marks were formed in shallow water millions of years ago, and today
the rock that they have been preserved in makes up the bed of a
shallow stream. The water and wind created these formations, and
will destroy them in time.
To get credit for this Earthcache email the answers to the
questions below and post a picture of you and your GPSr with the
ripple marks in the background. Failure to answer the questions or
logs with no pictures will result in the log being deleted. If it
is not possible to get a picture because of camera problems, for
instance the batteries died or you dropped your camera in the
water, email us first and we will work something out.
Questions:
1. What are two processes that can form ripple marks?
2. What is the width of the creek bed at this location?
3. What is the elevation of the formations seen here(creek
channel)?
Credits and Ammosuperman EarthCaches
This EarthCache was created by a team of two Platinum EarthCache
Masters, Ammosuperman EarthCaches are a collaborative effort. We
have used resources such as the Internet and magazine articles as
well as personal experience in visiting the sites, as research
tools in its construction. Our goal is to learn more about our
planet and to pass along what we have learned to others having
similar interests. We hope you enjoy the experience.
Special thanks to Tim Wilson and the Shawnee State Forest for
allowing this EarthCache.
