Mathematical and Geological Papers. 53 



KAW VALLEY ANTICLINE. 



I!y v.. (', Wahkki.. 



ABOUT 1883, Prof. I. C. White, of the United States Geo- 

 - logical Survey, was employed to see if it were possible to 

 determine whether gas and oil deposits might be located from 

 a scientific standpoint. Professor White, in his report upon 

 such investigation, said that after examining all of the great 

 gas and oil wells of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia 

 he found that every one of them was located either directly on 

 or near the line of an anticlinal axis, and which was the origin 

 of the anticlinal theory. He further found that wells drilled 

 in the same region, and not on the anticlines, were found to be 

 void of gas and oil, and usually productive of large quantities 

 of salt water. 



To the uninitiated I would say that an anticline is an up- 

 ward thrust or bulge in the earth's strata from the original 

 horizontal position. 



A wide investigation both in reading and in personal ob- 

 servation leads the writer to conclude that wherever water 

 has penetrated the strata neither gas nor oil will be found in 

 the syncline, but only on or near the axis or apex of an anti- 

 cline, and then only when it is capped in on all sides and there 

 has been no eruption through to the surface ; the theory being 

 that the water forces the gas and oil out of the strata until it 

 goes to where it can go no further and then collects and is held 

 up and put under pressure by the water. So if a well-capped 

 anticline is found, and there are layers of shale rock beds or 

 impervious rock above it, one may reasonably look for gas or 

 oil in or near the dome thereof. These uplifts or anticlines 

 need not be very high, as some of those in southeast Kansas 

 and northeast Oklahoma which the writer has personally ex- 

 amined are about forty feet in elevation above their extreme 

 edge and spread out several miles in width and length; but 

 these small ones usually produce only in small strips along the 

 axis, and sometimes when one end of the axis is lower than 

 the other even the lower end of the axis is unproductive. So 

 while one might miss finding gas and oil in an anticline, yet 

 practically it is the only place to start prospecting, as nearly 



