EARTHCACHING - AN OVERVIEW

Earthcaching is an exciting educational offshoot of the already popular sport of geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoors adventure game in which participants search for a 'cache' that has been hidden by another player. The details of each cache, including its latitude and longitude, is recorded on a website. Participants use their GPSr to find the cache. The aim of Earthcaching is to take people to sites of geological interest, not only in the USA but around the world, and to use those sites to teach them some fascinating aspect of our planet. Sites are developed with educational notes which are provided on the web (www.earthcache.org) and then geocachers visit these sites and leave a log on the web describing their experience. The program has been operating for less than two years and already there are more than 200 Earthcaches in over 17 countries. All earth science enthusiasts who want to share educational sites with the general public are encouraged to get involved in this exciting program.