GeoawareGSA1

There are a few ways to do it, but here's one fun, sleuthy option: "Look through NASA’s raw images. Can you find the image of our trackable item in that large gallery? Be sure to filter for pictures taken by SHERLOC and WATSON." I just did that and it was one of the top images, after filtering. It will probably drop lower over time, but was easy to find just now. Happy hunting! --Matt

This is great news! I just discovered the trackable, and am looking forward to seeing what discoveries WATSON makes! --Matt

Neos2 shared some great resources, and a great overall approach. I'll add a tidbit -- it's really hard to tell based on the photos, but it looks like there might be some columnar jointing going on there in those cliffs, and that is often seen in rocks that derive from volcanic flows. There is basalt and andesite (extrusive volcanic rocks), I believe, in that general region, so those pieces may fit. Here's another resource, from a good source (not sure if it hits exactly the right area), that may be of some assistance: FIELD GUIDE - GEOLOGY AND MINING HISTORY OF THE KERN CANYON, LAKE ISABELLA AND WALKER BASIN, KERN COUNTY CALIFORNIA - Gregg Wilkerson 2017 --Matt Dawson, GSA Education Programs Manager

This is an exciting day! I'm watching the live feed right now from Colorado, USA. An exciting day for space science and for geocaching!! --Matt Dawson, GSA

I'm very excited that we can be a part of this fun and educational initiative! Earth and Mars have so much in common, and EarthCaches are a great vehicle for demonstrating their connections. --Matt Dawson, Geological Society of America (GSA) (GeoawareGSA1)

FWIW, the second to last item in our FAQ addresses this topic somewhat: http://www.geosociety.org/GSA/Education_Careers/Field_Experiences/EarthCache/GSA/fieldexp/EarthCache/faq.aspx Somebody logged my EarthCache, but it appears they visited the location before my EarthCache was published. Should I allow the log, or delete it? There is no rule that says somebody has to visit the location after publication in order to make a log. HOWEVER, in GSA’s view, somebody has not actually visited an EarthCache if there was no EarthCache there at the time of their visit! GSA has no problem with a cache owner deleting a log from somebody who has clearly not visited the EarthCache after its publication date. If a cache owner wants to allow such logs to stand, that's fine too. (That's up to the cache owner. Maybe in some cases they would feel as though the person logging the cache did get a good lesson, by combining an earlier visit with solving the cache's logging tasks after the fact. The cache owner can be the judge of that.)

Dear EarthCachers, Below is an excerpt of a press release just issued by the Geological Society of America (GSA). We hope some of you can join us in Seattle! Best wishes, Matt Dawson, GSA Discover Washington State Geology with the Experts Geological Society of America Opens Annual Meeting Event to the Public and the Geocaching Community Boulder, CO, USA: The Seattle community is invited to spend an afternoon learning about local geology, courtesy of the Geological Society of America's (GSA) Annual Meeting & Exhibition, being held at Seattle's Washington State Convention Center, 22-25 October. Three lectures on Sun., 22 Oct., 1:00-4:00 p.m., in Washington State Convention Center Room 203, will be open to the public without a meeting registration fee. Attendance at these talks is available on a first-come, first-served basis, with a capacity of 100 attendees. Educators and EarthCache enthusiasts (a GSA outreach partnership with Geocaching.com) will find particular interest in the program, but everyone is welcome. After the talks, attendees are invited to tour the Exhibit Hall associated with the meeting, which includes more than 200 organizations representing various aspects of the earth sciences, including tools and instrumentation, rock, gem & mineral vendors, jewelry and gifts, educational products and supplies (books, maps), university programs, government science agencies (federal, state, local, and international), professional societies and associations, and more. Exhibit Hall (Halls 4AB) hours on Sunday, 22 Oct., are 2:00-7:00 p.m. The three presentations by professional geologists and educators will each be followed by a short question and answer session. (Presentation times are subject to change; any updates will be posted on the meeting website.)

Hi All, International EarthCache Day is coming soon on October 8, 2017. A souvenir can be earned by logging an EarthCache on October 7 or 8. Big thanks to Geocaching.com for providing two days during which people can earn a souvenir! Details: https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2017/09/learn-something-new-on-international-earthcache-day/ --Matt Dawson, GSA

Hi everyone, This is a good discussion, thanks for bringing it up. We certainly do not want poor Google translations used for EarthCaches. I would recommend that people do as hzoi suggested, and find local cachers to work with to obtain a proper translation. If one notices cache text that is poorly translated, you could contact the CO and/or the reviewer to point this out, and work with them to improve it. I suppose (not sure if this is too harsh), that if a translation is VERY bad, and you request a fix, and it is not done, one could post a "needs maintenance" note or something like that. But please work with the CO and reviewer first. --Matt Dawson, GSA

Hi Cyclops, Nice to hear from you. I am sorry to say that GSA is not organizing an International EarthCache Event in 2017. However, our Annual Meeting takes place in Seattle, 22-25 Oct. 2017, and we will have some small-scale activities related to EarthCaching on 22 Oct. at the Washington State ConventionCenter. Stay tuned for more details. --Matt Dawson, GSA (Formerly GeoawareHQ--we had a recent name change)

Thanks for confirming that!

Hi, We just updated our site so this link: http://www.geosociety.org/earthcache/Images/banners/OfficialECBanner.jpg Should now point again to the proper file. The actual file resides here now (the old URL just redirects here), so please use this URL moving forward: http://www.geosociety.org/images/gsa/earthcache/OfficialECBanner.jpg Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Now that the redirect is set up, on any cache pages that had the old URL, the image should appear properly. If somebody has a page that points to the old link, and can check to see that things are "okay", I'd love to hear their results. --Matt, GSA

What I like: "Estimate this thingy..." "Now tell me, what does that value tell you about..." Because: 1. The estimate helps establish to some degree that the person was really there. And that is one step to getting the education -- being there (but it's not even the MOST important step, I'd argue.) 2. Then you make the estimate have some learning value. Whoa, there was 30 meters of displacement along that fault? That's a lot. Or, that boulder is only 2 meters wide, that could've been pushed into place by a few different mechanisms then... A previous poster mentioned orders of magnitude. That's a very valuable tool, and a great way to gauge if an estimation is good or not. While we're at it... check out the Powers of Ten movie... --Matt

"EarthCaches must be educational." That's the key. If the people were educated, then they met the goal. One could be educated even through wrong answers. But it depends on the answers; if they were very, very bad and showed no attempt to put thought into it or to participate in the educational aspect of EarthCaching, then I'd argue that the find was not made. So it's up to the CO. If they send a photo, and totally terrible answers, I'd push back and not accept it. A photo alone, and no true attempt to answer the logging tasks would not be considered a "find" in the spirit of EarthCaching. But if the CO thinks the answers had some thought, observation, reasoning, learning behind them, please go ahead and accept the log. --Matt

Thanks everyone for your patience. Each area has a designated reviewer, and sometimes, if they are unavailable for awhile (life happens, even for geocache reviewers! ;p), another reviewer fills in, and often, that filling in results in a slowdown, since they have other areas to cover as well. So again, thanks for your patience. --Matt

I think this would be very difficult to make into a publishable EarthCache. See the list of acceptable/unacceptable topics: http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=292 Acceptable: Deposition, so you've got deposition of trash here, but that's kind of a stretch. Non-Acceptable: Oceanographic observations (that would probably rule out a focus on the patterns of ocean currents carrying the trash) Think about what the logging task would be, and how that might create a geological lesson. If this could be done, it might work. But I think this would be very difficult, creating a logging task that involves on-site observations, about something unique here. Just my thoughts. --Matt Dawson, GSA

This makes me super happy, especially as I can identify folks in each photo. Events like this are a great service to the community, thanks for hosting them! --Matt Dawson, GSA

Try this book: Roadside Geology of New York, by Van Diver, to get ideas for locations. The book covers the whole state. --Matt

This is a great discussion. Some resources on the geology of Illinois that might be useful: 1) "From the Cincinnati Arch to the Illinois Basin: Geological Field Excursions along the Ohio River Valley", by Maria and Counts [not sure if that's the right part of Illinois, but it looks good.] 2) "Geology Underfoot In Illinois", by Wiggers Anyway, lots of great ideas in this thread. I particularly like egroeg's suggestion to consider this: "what lesson are you trying to give the cachers?" That is the best place to start Best wishes, Matt Dawson, GSA

It's MEGA now! --Matt

Good question! And Touchstone gives a great answer. I'm not sure, but another possibility could be this: I believe there are some EarthCaches that begin their "lives" as a traditional, with a container, and then later were converted to an EarthCache type. Perhaps during the transition, the sizes aren't always updated? This may not at all be the case, just a wild guess that might explain some of them? --Matt GeoawareHQ

As to the question of how EarthCaches are assigned to reviewers: It is based on location, but sometimes other reviewers will help out in other geographic areas if someone is on holiday, or there is a high volume of submissions needing review. I would also point out that reviewing "globally" is very difficult and time-consuming, as there is a lot of ground to cover. As to the calling out of a particular reviewer and particular caches; I will leave that alone. Either way, we greatly appreciate those who submit EarthCaches, and those who volunteer to review them Best wishes, Matt GeoawareHQ

I just wanted to note that all EarthCache reviewers are avid geocachers. Being an enthusiastic geocacher is the #1 requirement to being an EarthCache reviewer. I guess I'd also point out that a large portion of university professors in the geosciences have quite a lot of backcountry experience [Albeit, probably not with geocaching!] Cheers, Matt Dawson, GSA (GeoawareHQ)

Very good, it looks like the review process has begun Good luck! --Matt GeoawareHQ

The 2015 International EarthCache Event has the following info online: Event website - http://www.4iee.com/ Event Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/4th-International-EarthCache-Event-4IEE/481778738630598?fref=ts Event GC listing - http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5KXFF_4iee-4-internationales-earthcache-event We are very excited that Germany will be hosting this event! --Matt Dawson, GSA