Nubben - en geologisk tidsinnstilt bombe

The Nubben - a geological time bomb

The Nubben is a changing mountain that makes it extremely easy to see what has already happened geologically and what will happen in the near geological future (100,000 years?).
This Earthcache also contains two waypoints: at WP1 you can clearly see the changes that have already taken place, while at WP2 you can see the current state with a forecast for the future.

The Nubben is Ramberg's local mountain, steep, 240m high and overlooked by the surrounding mountains.

The rock in this area generally consists of various gneisses (paragneiss and orthogneiss) as well as Quaternary deposits.

Weathering refers to the natural decomposition of rock as a result of its exposed location on or near the earth's surface. Several processes come together that cause physical destruction and/or chemical changes to the rock - caused abiotically or biotically.

The weathering processes are usually roughly divided into:

• Physical processes - mostly the mechanical weakening or destruction of the rock structure as a result of an increase in volume of individual components, which can have various causes.
• Chemical processes – decomposition of individual or all components of the rock structure.
• Biogenic processes – rock-weakening effects of the activity of living beings.

The three processes reinforce each other.

Erosion involves the removal of more or less weathered rocks or loose sediments, including soils. On the one hand, erosion creates landforms such as mountains and valleys, but ultimately destroys them completely if it continues, unless it is counteracted by endogenous processes (especially tectonics) that cause the land surface to rise. Erosion is the counterpart of sedimentation.
Natural erosion usually occurs involving a flowing medium, which in most cases is either liquid water, ice or air in the form of wind. In particularly steep relief, material is transported solely by gravity, e.g. in the event of rock falls.

This has nothing to do with geology, but I always see a gorilla face in the Nubben. I've marked the face, maybe that way we can communicate more easily when doing the tasks about regions on the Nubben.

Send me the answers to the questions asked via message center before you log online! And upload a picture of yourself, parts of you or your GPS to your online log.

Head to WP1 “Nubben’s past” south of Ramberg.

1. Describe what has already happened to the Nubben in geological time and how you can recognize this!
2. What conclusion can this be drawn about the type of rock at this location?

Go to Waypoint 2 “Nubben’s future”. Well, the phenomenon can be seen at sunset in the play of light and shadow.

1. Here you can clearly see the traces of the advancing weathering process. Explain to me what you see, at what height (in the gorilla face) it is and estimate the extents (length, height) of it.
2. What do you think will happen in a geological time period? Let's say the Nubben is about 50m wide and one ton of gneiss weighs about 2.5 tons per cubic meter, what total weight of the event are we talking about?

Sources:

• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Geological-map-of-Flakstadoy-and-part-of-the-adjacent-Vestvagoy-showing-eclogite-facies_fig2_263037078
• Per Tore Frederiksen, Jakob Johan Møller, Lofoten: en unik naturooolevelse, 2009, p. 26
• de.wikipedia.org "Verwitterung", "Erosion"
• Pictures: own shots