Plate Tectonics at Pine Mountain Gold Museum EarthCache
Plate Tectonics at Pine Mountain Gold Museum
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In a little known section of West Georgia lies a well hidden secret. Just outside Villa Rica, Georgia, is the Pine Mountain Gold Museum at Stockmar Park. Stockmar Park contains over 3 miles of developed trails with exhibits for the serious history buff, geological forays, or just a cool place to spend time with the family. Villa Rica gold is among the purest in the world at 98% pure from the ground. The Pine Mountain site was commercially mined off and on for over 100 years.
According to ground surveys taken in the mid 1820s, gold was discovered in the northern parts of Carroll County, (now Douglas County) near present day Villa Rica. This area was heavily mined for gold through the early to mid 1800s until the gold miners loaded up and headed to California. The little known similarity of this region of Georgia to the California Gold Fields is the proximity of Plate Tectonics formations. Global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years brought change to each of the regions. Volcanoes, tectonic plates and erosion all combined to concentrate billions of dollars worth of gold in the mountains of California and the Foothills of Georgia. An excellent example of Plate Tectonics is located adjacent to the North opening of the mountain tunnel. You can clearly see the individual plates laid out at sharp angles. 
To log your find, take a picture of you with your GPS at the plate area or your favorite spot in the park. (Optional) Post the picture with your log (picture is optional but would be nice) and E-Mail me the answers to the following questions:
1. Name 2 activities that are caused by the motion of Plate Tectonics? __________________ and ________________
2. What is the name of the middle plate, below the continental crust? _______________
3. According to the exhibit sign, _______-_______ convergence is used to describe this formation.
4. What is described on the site 18 sign in the park? _____________________
The story of Plate Tectonics is a fascinating story of continents drifting majestically from place to place breaking apart, colliding, and grinding against each other; of terrestrial mountain ranges rising up like rumples in rugs being pushed together; of oceans opening and closing and undersea mountain chains girdling the planet like seams on a baseball; of violent earthquakes and fiery volcanoes. Plate Tectonics describes the intricate design of a complex, living planet in a state of dynamic flux. Two of the heat engines necessary to create mineral deposits, namely regional metamorphism and volcanic or magmatic activity are a direct result of Plate tectonics.
In one model of continental drift consistent with modern evidence, a current of mantle material rises under an ancient continent, causing it to break apart. The current then spreads out horizontally and carries the pieces of the continent away from each other. Between the separating pieces an ocean is opened up. In one instance of this, the pieces are South America and Africa; the ocean opened up between them is the Atlantic. Along the middle of the Atlantic lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which represents the region where the mantle current surfaces, forming new oceanic crust and producing much volcanic activity. The horizontal mantle current eventually meets an opposing current, and they both turn downward into the mantle again at the site of one of the trenches mentioned above. Enormous pressures are produced in this region, for the continental crust and the oceanic crust are moving toward each other. (The continental crust is being carried, so to speak, on the back of the mantle current. On the other hand, the oceanic crust is believed by some geophysicists to be identical with the mantle current--it is simply the solid and somewhat altered top layer of the mantle current.) The descending mantle current tends to drag the crust down with it, forming a deep trench or piling up young mountains. At the same time, the continental crust tends to ride over the oceanic crust, for it is the lighter of the two. The trenches may be filled as the advancing edge of the continental crust is thrust up to form mountains, and numerous earthquakes originate from the plane along which the oceanic crust is forced to slip under the continental crust.
Earth's outer shell, the lithosphere, long thought to be a continuous, unbroken, crust is actually a fluid mosaic of many irregular rigid segments, or plates. Comprised primarily of cool, solid rock 4 to 40 miles thick, these enormous blocks of Earth’s crust vary in size and shape, and have definite borders that cut through continents and oceans alike. [Oceanic crust is much thinner and more dense than continental or terrestrial crust].
There are nine large plates and a number of smaller plates. While most plates are comprised of both continental and oceanic crust the giant Pacific Plate is almost entirely oceanic, and the tiny Turkish-Aegean Plate is entirely land. Of the nine major plates, six are named for the continents embedded in them: the North American, South American, Eurasian, African, Indo-Australian, and Antarctic.
The other three are oceanic plates: the Pacific, Nazca, and Cocos. The relative small size of the numerous other plates neither diminishes their significance, nor their impact on the surface activity of the planet. The jostling of the tiny Juan de Fuca Plate, for example, sandwiched between the Pacific and North American Plate near the state of Washington, is largely responsible for the frequent tremors and periodic volcanic eruptions in that region of the country. When two continents meet head-on, neither is subducted because the continental rocks are relatively light and, like two colliding icebergs, resist downward motion. Instead, the crust tends to buckle and be pushed upward or sideways. The collision of India into Asia 50 million years ago caused the Eurasian Plate to crumple up and override the Indian Plate. After the collision, the slow continuous convergence of the two plates over millions of years pushed up the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to their present heights. Most of this growth occurred during the past 10 million years.
There is no charge for enjoying the park grounds including viewing Pine Mountain's mines and natural trails.
MUSEUM HOURS Monday through Saturday ~ 10:00 am ~ 4:00 pm
MUSEUM CLOSED ON SUNDAY The Park Grounds are open Daylight Hours only.
Please do not enter or remain on the premises before Dawn and after Sunset
http://www.platetectonics.com and http://blank005.tripod.com/geology/tectonics.html were used for information concerning this listing.
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