Steamer, while where I live now is mostly sand, leftover beach, not too far away there's nice, fertile top soil that's about two feet deep, then the worst red clay and marl you've every seen. That stuff sticks like glue when it's wet and is like rock when it's dry. When I was a kid I had to dig my Dad out of a hole he was working in and, literally, got stuck in that stuff up to his knees. He was working around the "grease pit" putting in new pipe so there was enough water to really make it gummy as heck.
Years ago, during a really cold (for here) winter I watched a utility crew installing underground electric feeds. The ground was frozen down to at least four feet. They had a big trackhoe with a knife blade instead of a bucket. The front end of that hoe would come off the ground trying to get the knife into that frozen clay, then the whole machine would slide forward as they tried to cut. I'd guess the weight of that machine at about 20 tons. Took them three days to do about 100 meters of trench 2 meters deep and a meter and a half wide.
We have lots or marl around, especially near the shore. When I was a kid, the county put a lake (pond) in a new park. We used sieves and sieved for sharks teeth. We took what we found to the local, county, museum and they dated them at about 1 million years old. That was Shark River County Park, part of the basis for "Jaws".
Years ago, during a really cold (for here) winter I watched a utility crew installing underground electric feeds. The ground was frozen down to at least four feet. They had a big trackhoe with a knife blade instead of a bucket. The front end of that hoe would come off the ground trying to get the knife into that frozen clay, then the whole machine would slide forward as they tried to cut. I'd guess the weight of that machine at about 20 tons. Took them three days to do about 100 meters of trench 2 meters deep and a meter and a half wide.
We have lots or marl around, especially near the shore. When I was a kid, the county put a lake (pond) in a new park. We used sieves and sieved for sharks teeth. We took what we found to the local, county, museum and they dated them at about 1 million years old. That was Shark River County Park, part of the basis for "Jaws".
