Geokansas

Learn more about earthquakes, sinkholes, landslides, and environmental issues facing Kansas today and the KGS role in addressing them. Discover Kansas’ rich geologic history, unusual and unexpected topography, and natural resource gems in every corner of the state. Maps, oil and water well drills, seismic sensors, and other geologic tools ...

Geokansas. Fossils in Kansas. Fossils specimens: Delocrinus, Acanthoceras, Meganeuropsis. Many Kansas rocks are full of fossils, the remains of plants or animals that have been preserved in rock. Through fossil finds, geologists and paleontologists piece together evidence of earlier life and landscapes on Earth.

The Smoky Hills region in north-central Kansas encompasses a range of hills composed largely of sandstone, a second composed largely of limestone, and a third composed largely of chalk. Although visibly different, they are unified by age—all were formed from sediment deposited during the Cretaceous Period, which lasted from 145 to 66 million ...

The Oread Limestone, a formation common in eastern Kansas, was named in 1894 by Erasmus Haworth, the first director of the Kansas Geological Survey. He named it after Mount Oread, the hill on which the University of Kansas is located and where the limestone cropped out. The Dakota Formation, a familiar rock unit in central Kansas, got its name ... Geologic maps depict bedrock—the solid rock at the earth's surface or directly beneath the vegetation, soil, and thin deposits of unconsolidated material collectively called "cover." Limestone, sandstone, and shale are common types of bedrock in Kansas. Portion of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve geologic map. Post rock country is about 200 miles long, stretching diagonally southwest from near the Nebraska border in Washington County to just north of Dodge City in Ford County. East to west, it ranges from less than 10 miles to nearly 60 miles wide. Still dotted with the fence posts, the region also has many churches, barns, homes, bridges, businesses ...Sometimes, the sediment is cemented by minerals and other materials. Common sediments in Kansas: S and— rock fragments or mineral particles that range in diameter from about 1/16 to 2 mm (from 0.002 to 0.08 inches). Gravel —chipped or rounded rock fragments that typically range in diameter from about 3 to 75 mm (0.125 to 3 inches). cross-bedding. fossils of bivalves, gastropods, mollusks, and other marine animals. Kanopolis was the first state park in Kansas. In 1948, a dam was completed across the Smoky Hill River to contain the water within surrounding ravines and canyons. The park has more than 30 miles of scenic trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding.Galena. Galena has metallic to lead-gray, cube-shaped crystals that break into cubic, right-angled fragments. It is an ore—a mineral of economic value—that was once mined in southeastern Kansas for its lead content. …

The Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), a research and service division of the University of Kansas, is charged by statute with studying and providing information on the geologic resources of Kansas.The KGS has no regulatory authority and does not take positions on natural resource issues. Research at the KGS focuses primarily on energy, water, and …Vertebrate fossils—of gliding reptiles that dominated the sky, of sharks and swimming reptiles that ruled the sea, of dinosaurs and mammoths that roamed the land—are embedded in Kansas rocks and sediments. Some are common in specific locations. Others, such as dinosaurs, are rare. Several types of sharks and fish lived in the Pennsylvanian ...Kimberlite is one of only two igneous rocks found at the surface in Kansas. Extremely rare in the state, igneous rocks form from hot molten magma that pushes up toward the surface from Earth's interior then cools. The magma may cool and harden before reaching the surface or erupt onto the surface. Kimberlite forms in vertical structures in the ...The Glaciated Region in northeastern Kansas was invaded by at least two of the eight or nine glaciers that ground their way down into the northern United States during the Pleistocene Epoch, between 2.6 million and 11,700 years ago. The first ice sheet to make it to Kansas covered just the far northeastern corner of the state before retreating ...The Glaciated Region in northeastern Kansas was invaded by at least two of the eight or nine glaciers that ground their way down into the northern United States during the Pleistocene Epoch, between 2.6 million and 11,700 years ago. The first ice sheet to make it to Kansas covered just the far northeastern corner of the state before retreating ...Before the surrounding area was settled, Cheyenne Bottoms was an intermittent marshland in a 64-square-mile basin. In the 1950s, the state of Kansas began developing it into a more permanent and stable wetlands and wildlife area. Dikes now divide the marsh into a series of pools, and water is diverted between pools to maintain suitable habitat.Salt is mined in Kansas using two methods: underground mining and solution mining. Underground mines in Kansas range in depth from 500 to 1,000 feet. With the underground room-and-pillar method of mining, a shaft is drilled through overlying rock to reach the salt deposit. The salt is removed in a checkerboard pattern so that large square ...Point of Rocks is west off of Kansas Highway 27 about 10 miles north of Elkhart. It is in the Cimarron National Grassland managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The grassland encompasses more than 108,000 acres of land left in poor condition after the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and restored by the federal government. Wagon ruts are visible in places.

In 2013, a Wallace County sinkhole in far western Kansas appeared without warning and then grew to more than 200 feet across and 90 feet deep. The KGS determined that natural dissolution of underground halite (rock salt) likely caused the catastrophic collapse. During the dissolution process, groundwater seeped through fractures in layers of ...4 Images. In eastern Kansas, most water used for drinking, industry, and other purposes comes from surface water sources, mainly larger rivers and lakes. These include the Kansas, Missouri, Cottonwood, and Neosho rivers and constructed reservoirs created by damming rivers. Although western Kansans depend more on groundwater, a few reservoirs ...One of the best places in the state to access sand dunes on public property is Sand Hills State Park in the Arkansas River Lowlands just northeast of Hutchinson in Reno County. The 1,123-acre area has 14 miles of hiking, interpretive, and horseback riding trails that loop through sand dunes, grasslands, marshlands (with wildlife observation ...Fossils in Kansas. Fossils specimens: Delocrinus, Acanthoceras, Meganeuropsis. Many Kansas rocks are full of fossils, the remains of plants or animals that have been preserved in rock. Through fossil finds, geologists and paleontologists piece together evidence of earlier life and landscapes on Earth.The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism now manages 14,500 acres of unreclaimed land and lakes in southeast Kansas as the Mined Land Wildlife Area. The area includes rugged hills created by strip mining and more than 1,000 lakes that developed in unreclaimed ditches. Gob piles, the piles of discarded coal waste and fractured rock ...Rock City. Huge sandstone spheres ranging up to 20 feet in diameter cover an area roughly the size of two football fields at Rock City, about four miles south of Minneapolis in Ottawa County. Known as concretions, the spheres weathered out of a sandstone layer in the Dakota Formation. The sandstone was formed mainly from sand deposited along ...

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Fossils, Paleontology, and Geoarchaeology. Kansas rocks are full of fossils, the remains of plants or animals that have been preserved in rock. Through fossil finds, geologists and paleontologists piece together evidence of earlier life and landscapes on Earth. The Osage Cuestas region covers much of eastern Kansas south of the Kansas River. Cuesta, Spanish for hill or cliff, is the term geologists use to describe ridges with steep, cliff-like faces on one side and gentle slopes on the other. Cuestas, characterized by a series of east-facing ridges (or escarpments) up to 200 feet high in elevation ...Mass extinctions. Mass extinctions are episodes in which a large number of plant and animal species become extinct within a relatively short period of geologic time—from possibly a few thousand to a few million years. After each of the five major mass extinctions that have occurred over the last 500 million years, life rebounded.Fossils of the large, swimming reptiles called mosasaurs are common in western Kansas chalk beds, which were deposited in Cretaceous seas. Although mosasaur species varied in length, some grew to be more than 50 feet long. The longest one found in Kansas was about 40 feet long. Mosasaurs had long bodies, sharp teeth, and paddle-like limbs.

Coal mining. Coal shovel. Coal was likely mined from a hillside near Fort Leavenworth in northeastern Kansas as early as 1827, the year the fort was established. By the late 1850s, Missourians were mining coal for use by blacksmiths near what is now Weir, in southeastern Kansas. Just before and after the Civil War, coal production became ...Water levels continue to fluctuate but have not fallen back to 1980 lows. Cedar Bluff State Park, operated by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, offers camping and other recreational opportunities. Cedar Bluff State Park is about 13 miles south of I-70 on K-147. The bluff is on the south side of the lake.Rocks and minerals of the Ozark Plateau. Limestone. Common throughout Kansas, limestone is a sedimentary rock composed mostly of calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO 3 ). It is formed in marine environments by organic means—that is, from the remains of animals or plants—or by chemical deposition. Many animals and plants (such as oysters, corals ...Explore Southwest Kansas. The High Plains of southwest Kansas, bisected by part of the Arkansas River Lowlands, are known for farmland and feedlots. But geologic sites of interest include two large sinkholes, a high outcrop once important to travelers on the Santa Fe Trail's Cimarron Cutoff because it signaled water was nearby, and an area once ...When linked to human activities, it is referred to as "induced seismicity." Oil and gas operations, mining activities, geothermal energy production, construction, underground nuclear testing, and impoundment of large reservoirs can all be sources of induced seismicity. Beginning in 2013, Kansas saw an unusual increase in earthquake activity in ...Blending in with the surrounding High Plains landscape, the optimistically named Mount Sunflower in Wallace County is hard to spot on the horizon. Yet at 4,039 feet above sea level, it holds the distinction of being the highest point in Kansas. That puts it more than 3,300 feet above the state's topographic low point in southeastern Kansas.Shale is a soft, brittle, fine-grained, and easily eroded sedimentary rock formed from mineral-rich silt, or mud, that was deposited in an aquatic environment, buried by other sediment, and compacted and cemented into hard rock. When exposed at the surface by erosion, shale weathers into thin layers called plates.Sphalerite is an ore—a mineral of economic value—that was once mined in southeastern Kansas for its zinc content. It is also called zinc blende, blende, blackjack, and mock lead. Sphalerite crystals are usually shaped like triangular pyramids, with three sides and a base. Because it has good cleavage in six directions, sphalerite will break ...Remnants of a village occupied in the late 1700s by the Kitkahahkis — one of four Pawnee bands — are visible at the Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site in northwest Republic County. The limestone museum building encircles the excavated remains of a large earth lodge, and evidence of 26 other lodges are found on the six-acre site. In ...A meteorite is a stony or metallic piece of meteor that reached Earth's surface. Meteorites have been found all over the world, and of the 1,671 verified in the United States as of April 2013, 158 came from Kansas (see Meteorites in the United States ). Stones —composed primarily of silicate minerals (compounds consisting of silicon, oxygen ...The boulders and pebbles from local and distant rocks that were carried by glaciers are of many different types, including limestone, sandstone, quartzite, granite, and basalt. Rocks that have been transported into an area from far away are called erratics. Among the glacial erratics in northeastern Kansas, quartzite is one of the most common.

Bryozoans are some of the most abundant fossils in the world. They are also widespread today, both in marine and freshwater environments, living at all latitudes and at depths ranging downward to at least 27,900 feet (8,500 meters). Marine bryozoans show up in the fossil record in the early part of the Ordovician Period, about 485 million years ...

The High Plains Aquifer Atlas, compiled by the Kansas Geological Survey, features more than 70 maps—several animated or interactive—that can be used to investigate such timely topics as changes in groundwater levels and availability of groundwater over time, water use, water rights, and the region's climate conditions. Four animated maps in ...Bordering the Spring River in Cherokee County, the Spring River Wildlife Area falls just within the Ozark Plateau region. Habitat in the 424-acre area includes oak and hickory forest, native prairie, restored native grasses, and croplands. A sandstone ridge overlooks the river. An additional 62-acre tract of the wildlife area is one mile ...Color elevation map of Kansas. The elevation in Kansas rises gradually from east to west. The lowest point, at 679 feet above sea level, is where the Verdigris River exits the state into Oklahoma just south of Coffeyville in Montgomery County. The highest point, at 4,039 feet above sea level, is on the Colorado border in Wallace County.The second route — the Gyp Hills Scenic Drive — is a 22-mile loop through the heart of the Red Hills region in Barber County. Starting three miles west of Medicine Lodge at the junction of Highway 160 and Gyp Hills Road, the route runs south on Gyp Hills Road, turns west on Scenic Drive, and heads back north toward the highway on Lake City ... The 1:24,000-scale (7.5 minute) series maps are the most detailed topographic maps available for Kansas. Each map covers an area of approximately 6.5 by 8.5 miles and shows towns, lakes, rivers, creeks, ponds, roads, railroads, quarries, pipelines, radio towers, airports and landing strips, townships, vegetation, cemeteries, and rural buildings.Little Basin, to the east of Big Basin, is smaller but still about 280 yards (just under three football fields) in diameter and 35 feet from rim to floor. St. Jacob's Well, in the bottom of Little Basin, is a spring-fed pool that is also a sinkhole within a sinkhole. No one has ever reported seeing the 84-foot-wide and 58-foot-deep pool dry.Shale is a soft, brittle, fine-grained, and easily eroded sedimentary rock formed from mineral-rich silt, or mud, that was deposited in an aquatic environment, buried by other sediment, and compacted and cemented into hard rock. When exposed at the surface by erosion, shale weathers into thin layers called plates.Blending in with the surrounding High Plains landscape, the optimistically named Mount Sunflower in Wallace County is hard to spot on the horizon. Yet at 4,039 feet above sea level, it holds the distinction of being the highest point in Kansas. That puts it more than 3,300 feet above the state's topographic low point in southeastern Kansas.The Kansas High Plains region is an area of vast flatlands and gently rolling plains. Topographic relief is largely restricted to streams and river valleys and is most notable in the Arikaree Breaks in the far northeast corner of the state, at Point of Rocks along the Cimarron River in the far southwest corner, and around Lake Scott State Park.

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Of all the water on Earth, more than 96% is too salty to drink. Most of that is in the oceans. Surface water—in lakes, rivers, creeks, ponds, and playas and other wetlands—is our most visible source of freshwater, but it …Water levels continue to fluctuate but have not fallen back to 1980 lows. Cedar Bluff State Park, operated by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, offers camping and other recreational opportunities. Cedar Bluff State Park is about 13 miles south of I-70 on K-147. The bluff is on the south side of the lake.Rock City. Huge sandstone spheres ranging up to 20 feet in diameter cover an area roughly the size of two football fields at Rock City, about four miles south of Minneapolis in Ottawa County. Known as concretions, the spheres weathered out of a sandstone layer in the Dakota Formation. The sandstone was formed mainly from sand deposited along ...Clams and their relatives (oysters, scallops, and mussels) are often called bivalves (or bivalved mollusks) because their shell is composed of two parts called valves. Bivalves have a long history. Their fossils first appear in rocks that date to the middle of the Cambrian Period, about 510 million years ago.Learn more about earthquakes, sinkholes, landslides, and environmental issues facing Kansas today and the KGS role in addressing them. Discover Kansas' rich geologic history, unusual and unexpected topography, and natural resource gems in every corner of the state. Maps, oil and water well drills, seismic sensors, and other geologic tools ...Cross Timbers State Park, which lies in the gently rolling Verdigris River valley, has miles of trails for walking, hiking, and backpacking. All but Ancient Oaks Trail—an interpretive trail featuring trees dated as far back as the 1720s—are also open to runners and mountain bikers. Toronto Lake is a reservoir built on the Verdigris River ...GeoKansas, hosted by the Kansas Geological Survey, is a comprehensive site that describes the geology of the state of Kansas. This site contains a very useful guide to …Fusulinids were small marine organisms that were common inhabitants of the world's seas during the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods, from about 323 to 252 million years ago. The earliest fusulinids occur in rocks deposited during the late Mississippian Period, more than 323 million years ago. Fusulinids became extinct during the mass ... Vertebrate fossils—of gliding reptiles that dominated the sky, of sharks and swimming reptiles that ruled the sea, of dinosaurs and mammoths that roamed the land—are embedded in Kansas rocks and sediments. Some are common in specific locations. Others, such as dinosaurs, are rare. Several types of sharks and fish lived in the Pennsylvanian ... The largest Kansas earthquake in recent years was a M 4.9 event in 2014 that was thought to have been caused by induced seismicity. The epicenter was in Sumner County near Milan, where some buildings suffered minor damage. At least 31 felt earthquakes in Kansas were documented in newspaper accounts and other sources between 1867 and 1976.Geologic maps depict bedrock—the solid rock at the earth's surface or directly beneath the vegetation, soil, and thin deposits of unconsolidated material collectively called "cover." Limestone, sandstone, and shale are common types of bedrock in Kansas. Portion of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve geologic map. ….

Sphalerite or zinc sulfide (ZnS) is the most important mineral of zinc ore. Also called zinc blende, blende, blackjack, and mock lead, pure sphalerite is nearly colorless, but it is commonly brown, yellow, black, or dark red because of impurities. It has a white to dark-brown streak, always lighter than the color of the specimen.Clams and their relatives (oysters, scallops, and mussels) are often called bivalves (or bivalved mollusks) because their shell is composed of two parts called valves. Bivalves have a long history. Their fossils first appear in rocks that date to the middle of the Cambrian Period, about 510 million years ago. Landslides. A 1995 landslide in Overland Park, Kansas, destroyed two homes and damaged four lots. Landslides, though not a common problem in Kansas, are natural phenomena that occurred in the state long before human occupation. The downhill movement of masses of soil and rock come in many forms and are potentially serious. A large field of the Sioux quartzite boulders sits on a hillside on Kansas Highway 99 a few miles north of I-70 in Wabaunsee County. The reddish boulders were likely dumped there as the ice melted and the glacier retreated north. Many of the boulders, also known as glacial erratics, are now stained green by lichen. Mount Mitchell Heritage ...4 Images. View Gallery. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is the only unit in the U.S. National Park System devoted to North America's tallgrass prairie ecosystem, which once covered 170 million acres from Kansas to Indiana and Canada to Texas. Less than 4 percent of the natural prairie remains today, most in the Kansas Flint Hills.Shale is a soft, brittle, fine-grained, and easily eroded sedimentary rock formed from mineral-rich silt, or mud, that was deposited in an aquatic environment, buried by other sediment, and compacted and cemented into hard rock. When exposed at the surface by erosion, shale weathers into thin layers called plates.The only urban state park in Kansas, Kaw River State Park encompasses 76 acres of oak and hickory forest along the south side of the Kansas River — informally known as the Kaw — in west Topeka.The carapace is divided lengthwise into three lobes (hence, the name trilobite): a prominent central axis and two flatter lobes. The carapace consists of a head, or cephalon, which is typically crescent shaped; a middle region called the thorax, made up of a number of overlapping segments (anywhere from 2 to 61); and a tail, or pygidium, in ... Geokansas, [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1], [text-1-1]