(Editor's note: Gary Lewis is the director of education for a society of geoscientists in Boulder, Colorado. He is currently living in Canberra, Australia and, at this time, is the only Earthcache approver.)
As Geocaching continues to grow at such an amazing rate, it was inevitable that, sooner or later, it would dip a bit more deeply into the education pool. That's where Earthcaching comes in.
Developed closely with Groundspeak Inc., the home of geocaching.com, Earthcaches are a partnership between the geocaching community, the Geological Society of America, and many other partners including Subaru America. In bringing these groups together, this concept is such a neat expansion of this already fascinating game.
Earthcaches are virtual caches with a real purpose. Unlike the often-rejected 'what-a pretty-place' virtual, Earthcaches take people to places and teach them something wonderful about our planet. They are developed by geocachers who have knowledge of earth science and who can develop and write great educational geocaching experiences.
As the name implies, Earthcaches are about learning about the planet we call home. This includes geological phenomena (fossils, minerals, faults, folds, resources) and geographical features (glacial features, waterfalls, etc). Already, there are some great Earthcaches in Australia, the USA, and Canada, and some under development in Germany and Norway.
Earthcaches provide not only the location, but also the lesson about what you are seeing. For example, the first Earthcache set up in Australia, Earthcache I-a simple geology tour of Wasphead, takes the visitor to six places on a headland where they can see evidence of what it was like some 280 million years ago when the Earth was in a massive ice age. The notes provide the geocacher with an introduction as well as information from each site they visit.
Another in Colorado, Mica City Earthcache, takes visitors to a site where internal forces of the earth have injected veins of minerals, some of which are up to a matchbox in size. The explanations for how and why are right in the cache notes.
Because Earthcaches are a type of virtual cache, they are a perfect way for many places to become open to people in both rural and city locations. An Earthcache is currently under development that will take people on a guide of the amazing variety of building stones used in Denver. It will provide the story of each stone type as well as other information.
One great step forward for Earthcaches has been the adoption on the concept by the National Park Service in the USA. At this stage, the Earthcache team are working with one park in Colorado, USA, to experiment with the use of Earthcaches as a way to provide another experience for visitors. We are also talking to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management; both manage huge tracts of land in which Earthcaches could be developed.
Because of the nature of Earthcaches, they go through a special approval process in where the language and appropriateness of the cache are tested by the Earthcache team. The Team uses a set of guidelines as well as their own earth science experience to ensure that the quality of Earthcaches is maintained. The Earthcache team is also expanding to make sure that caches in languages other than English are not excluded from the project.
So, how do you develop an Earthcache? First, go read the guidelines. They are quite simple. The most important one is that the cache must really teach the visitor something wonderful about our planet. Just a "view" will not make it as an Earthcache. We would suggest that you check out some of the already excellent Earthcaches , like The Rocks that Grew Earthcache or the WoolShed Creek Earthcache to see how others have written notes. Then, complete the online submittal form with all the same details you would use for a regular geocache. The Earthcache team then makes a decision on the value of the cache and, if it meets the standards, it is submitted to Geocaching.com to undergo their cache approval process. At this stage, around 60% of submitted Earthcaches are being approved and listed.
Earthcaches are for everybody. If you find one listed in an area you are going to visit, please go and take a look and learn something wonderful about our amazing planet.
To find the current Earthcaches, you can go to the Earthcache portal or search for the Earthcache key word at Geocaching.com.
