Wednesday, September 28, 2011

WOGE #310

When I saw Péter Luffi's WOGE 309 I immediately thought of some of the areas I looked at while searching for WOGE 306, which I eventually found in Greece.  I focused my search on that part of the world and after about forty minutes I found the right location just across the border in Albania.  However, finding information about the geology took much longer.  I was glad that the puzzle had not yet been solved when I finally got back to it.

In keeping with the spirit of Felix Bossert's recent encouragement for new players, I will offer a simple challenge for WOGE 310.  If you follow the suggestions he gives, you should be able to find this interesting valley rather quickly.  In addition to the location, be sure to tell us something basic about the geologic history.  Nothing fancy is required, just a simple explanation of how it was formed.  Since this is meant to be an easy WOGE, the Schott Rule is in effect.  (Go here for an explanation of WOGE rules.)

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5 comments:

  1. Felix BossertSeptember 29, 2011 at 8:39:00 PM GMT+1

    This woge could have been solved already: see comments of Mathias H.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mathias H.September 30, 2011 at 2:09:00 PM GMT+1

    The coordinates of this location are: 50°32’00” N , 103°14’00” W. It is the valley of the Qu’Appelle River, in Saskatchewan, Canada. This valley is entirely cut into quaternary glacial sediments, such as till and glacial sands, deposited during the last/current glacial period by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, over cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Riding Mountain Formation. These quaternary deposits can be some hundreds of meters thick, and typically form vast plains flattened by the glacial activity. As the glaciers melted, the high income of meltwater eroded the Qu’Appelle valley, whose river now meanders in a much gentler flow then when the valley was eroded. There are many abandoned meanders visible in the image. This was what I could get from searching the internet, mostly on this sources, which I hope weren’t too misleading: http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/geology.html
    http://www.cmste.uregina.ca/valley/naturalhistory.html
    http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/quappelle_valley.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. MatthewSeptember 30, 2011 at 9:00:00 PM GMT+1

    Congratulations to Mathias H. for finding WOGE 310 and providing a good explanation of how the Qu'Appelle valley was formed. What I noticed when I first saw this area on Google Earth was that the valley seemed far too wide and deep to have been created by the small river flowing through it. The glacial history that you mention is also seen in the many small "kettle ponds" dotting the plains around the valley, (formed when the retreating glaciers left behind chunks of ice).

    I look forward to seeing what challenge you have selected for WOGE 311. Please leave a comment here when you have it posted.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Felix BossertSeptember 30, 2011 at 9:22:00 PM GMT+1

    Mathias: Congratulations for your first WoGE win.
    If you need help to create a blog, please feel free to ask questions here, or on my 'blog'. A common problem with new blogs is, that comments are not allowed at the beginning. So test your first post if the comments work.

    If you do not want to start your own blog, ask someone to publish the next WoGE for you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. MatthewSeptember 30, 2011 at 9:36:00 PM GMT+1

    I have just posted WOGE 311 for Mathias here on my blog (http://matthews-woge.blogspot.com/2011/09/woge-311.html). Sorry for any confusion. I posted my comment above before checking my e-mail and finding that he had already sent me a picture.

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