Makawehi Point at Shipwreck Beach Earthcache EarthCache
Makawehi Point at Shipwreck Beach Earthcache
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Welcome to
Shipwreck Beach!
This was the location of a scene from the movie,
"6 Days and 7 Nights" with Harrison
Ford.
What a
beautiful view you will see from this area!
Facing west, the formations at the far end of Keoneloa Bay are
known as Makahuena, the southernmost tip of Kauai.
The lithified sand
dunes that form Makawehi (also known as the Paa Ridge) accumulated
as sand dunes during the last “high stand” of the sea,
about 125,000 years ago.
As sea levels lowered at the peak of the Ice Age (about 18,000
years ago), reaching its lowest point of around 360–400 feet
below the present sea level, the dunes occupied a more inland
position.
From there, volcanic ash deposited onto the dunes and a coastal
forest began to flourish.
Rain percolated through the sand which partially dissolved some of
the skeletal and coral grain sands.
Calcite crystals grew around the sand grains and within the pore
space between the grains, locking together to produce the cement
that changed the carbonate sand into carbonate sandstone, also
known as limestone.
As the Ice Age ended, huge glaciers that had covered much of the
earth melted, resulting in a rise in sea level.
Waves eroded much of the dune and formed what is now Keoneloa
Bay.
Prior to that erosion, the sand dunes would have extended almost
continuously between the two points.
Today Makawehi point is being undercut by continual wave
erosion.
The huge blocks of limestone that lie at the base of these cliffs
are examples of that erosion.
This area is made
of Sandstone Pinnacles. Sandstone-limestone pinnacles are usually
formed by rain-waterwashing down along vertical fractures in the
limestone.
Pinnacles can be seen in stark formation to the right of a small
bay just before the climb to the golf course.
Paleontologists Storrs Olson and Helen James of the Smithsonian
Institution uncovered bones from exitinct species here dating back
to between 3,000 and 4,000BC.
A Wedding on Shipwreck Beach
Don't walk out too far!
To get credit for
this cache, you must answer the following in an email:
1. What type of Fossils have been found in this area?
2. There are rhizocretions in this area, what is a
rhizocretion?
3. Record the height that your altimeter states while on the
point.
Extra Credit: Post a photo of you and your GPSr at the site!
Please do not post answers in your log.
Congrats to
2NMLVBUGS for the "FTF!"
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)