My journey in nature's back yard!: July 2012

Whaleback, Northumberland County This is a very cool sight to see. We accidentally stumbled upon it one day while dirt bike riding.

Location: Bear Valley strip mine, near Shamokin, Northumberland County, Shamokin 7.5-minute quadrangle; approximately 40º 46' latitude and 76º 35' longitude. Size: The whaleback area covers about 7 acres. Geology: Arguably one of the best exposures of folded rock structure in the United States. In this small area, all the structural elements and (6) stages of deformation for the Valley and Ridge Province can seen and studied. It is considered the type locality for examining the style, mechanics, and stages of structural development for the rocks in the Appalachian folded mountain belt. Individual structural elements such as faults (3 types), folds, joints, cleavage, lineations, and slickenlines can be examined in a hands on setting. Visually engaging because of the size and preservation of the folds. Heritage value: Site is scientific, educational, scenic, and historical. Heritage status: Because site is privately owned, heritage status is in the hands of the owner. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pnhp/whaleback.aspx

Here is a newspaper article from the MIKE STAUGAITIS (STAFF WRITER MIKE_S@NEWSITEM.COM)Published: May 4, 2012 MIKE STAUGAITIS/Staff Photo The tour group from Princeton University makes its way back to the Whaleback on Thursday morning. MIKE STAUGAITIS/Staff Photos A tour group from Princeton University explores the far side of the Whaleback in Coal Township on Thursday. Image Gallery for 'Rock stars' visit Whaleback COAL TOWNSHIP - Sometimes it takes an outside opinion for the locals to realize just what wonderful things are in their own back yard. Thursday morning, a group of retired professors who all earned their doctorates in geology from Princeton University traveled to see the diamond-in-the-rough geological formation know as the Whaleback. The retired academics have a reunion every three years where they travel to different sites to view and learn about geological formations. Previous trips have taken them to Hawaii, northern California, Montana and the Canadian Rockies. In November of last year, Ed Cotter, retired professor from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, contacted Kathy Jeremiah, grant manager and planning director for Northumberland County, about their plans to visit the Whaleback. The group of retired professors, from all over the United States, Canada and overseas, totaled approximately 50 people. "When Ed contacted me, he told me that a couple of the profs couldn't walk, and he asked me for help getting them to the Whaleback" Jeremiah said. Jeremiah enlisted the help of the Anthracite Trail Riders (ATR), a local ATV club that formed last year in response to the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA) planned for land near the Whaleback. Members provided their side-by-side ATVs to help transport the more senior of the visitors to the site. Also, ATR members conducted a cleanup in the Whaleback area this past Saturday in preparation for the tour, extracting a dumpster's worth of debris and garbage. ATR obtained permission from Reading Anthracite for the cleanup and to transport the tour group. On tour The group met at Princeton on Wednesday and from there traveled to several other locations, including a red rock formation in Selinsgrove. They arrived at the Third Patch of Bear Valley Road shortly before noon Thursday. Their charter bus stopped where the road ends and the rugged terrain of access road begins. The majority of the group, donning hiking shoes, backpacks and hats to keep the sun out of their eyes, elected to walk the rest of the way to the Whaleback access trail. The rest jumped in Jeremiah's SUV and Dave Crowl's pickup truck. Crowl is the chairman of the Northumberland County Conservation District, on the steering committee for the AOAA and is an ATR member. He also brought his side-by-side. Near the access trail, Americus Hose of Sunbury and personnel from Northumberland County Public Safety Dept. were on hand with their side-by-sides and to assist should there be any emergencies. Whale watching "Your first assignment is to figure out which feature is called the Whaleback," joked Laurel Goodell of Princeton University as the group gathered near the massive rock formation, which is some 400 yards long. From there, Cotter took a seat on a rock a few feet down the slope from the group, where he provided a history of the geological formation, which was unearthed through coal mining. Cotter estimated that he has been at the Whaleback approximately 80 to 100 times throughout his tenure at Bucknell. The scene resembled a college mass lecture class, only the backdrop was the Whaleback. The talk quickly evolved into discussions of synclines, anticlines (the Whaleback's formation), vertical extension faults, horizontal compression, sedimentary strata, flexural slip folding and tectonic ripples - making it apparent these graying folks who came from all over the world are "rock stars" of a different breed. Rare gem The consensus among the group was that the Whaleback is very unique - even world class as far as geological exposures go. Finding one like the Whaleback is apparently extremely rare, and the people in the tour group should know. They have visited sites all over the world, including ones in China and Iran. What makes our Whaleback so unique is that fact that it is three dimensional. "Almost always you just see a cross-section. You just see one face of a formation," said Jason Morgan, a retired professor from Princeton who lives in Boston. "Here you see it in full three dimensions. It is quite extraordinary." Also on hand was Canadian Dr. Raymond Price, a retired professor from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. He is also the retired director of the Geological Survey of Canada. "It is a spectacular exposure because the coal and overlaying rock have been removed," Price said "You can see the shapes they acquired while these mountains were forming. Geologist dream of seeing the three-dimensional shape of the layers." Price was at the Whaleback once before, with students, in the 1970s. The professors wrapped up their visit with lunch at the new Knights of Columbus building in downtown Shamokin. From there, they were heading back to Princeton and to visit the Sterling Mine in northern New Jersey, an abandoned lead and zinc mine and, like the Whaleback, a tourist attraction. "I can't believe that people came from all over the world," Jeremiah said as the professors were departing, "the long distances they traveled to see what is in our backyard."