Geological Paper's. 121 



DIPPING SANDSTONE. 



The upper massive sandstone in the Lawrence shales is found 

 to be dipping in many places. Generally the dip is toward the 

 center of the range or away from the escarpment. Also, the dip is, 

 wherever examined, greater in the lower layers of sandstone, be- 

 neath which is a soft clayey shale, than in the upper ones. A 

 cross-section of this dipping sandstone is sometimes seen in quar- 

 ries, but the best examples I saw of it were in a large quarry one 

 and one-half miles northeast of Yates Center, and in quarries along 

 the escarpment from Mr. Soward's. two miles up the river from Oak 

 Valley, to a deep railroad cut two miles east of Longton. A de- 

 scription of the appearance in this cut will suffice for all. 



The sandstone which is the upper one is found to be very much 

 distorted in this cut. Upon entering it at the west end, we find at 

 the north side the strata dipping forty degrees to the west, and a 

 few feet farther dipping at the same angle to the east. On the 

 south «ide the underlying shale appears as though pushed up 

 and separating the sandstone, which dips the same as on the north 

 side. Where the shale has pushed up into the sandstone the 

 twisted and contorted structure was noticed, and also the dipping 

 sandstone. This cut is 200 yards long and the shale is pushed up 

 into the sandstone six times in this distance to a height of from 

 four to six feet above the railroad track, and at each place the phe- 

 nomena of the sandstone is similar. The extent of the sandstone 

 below the road-bed was not determined. The appearance is that 

 the sandstone is'broken and the shale pushed up, while the massive 

 sandstone has settled down into the shale. The cut is from thirty 

 to forty feet deep and the layers of sandstone become more and 

 more horizontal as the top layers are reached. However, this seems 

 to be generally true of all the dipping strata. 



I concluded that all the dipping sandstone is from cross-bedding, 

 massive landslides, or an uneven surface upon which the sandstone 

 was originally laid down, the Longton railroad cut being an exam- 

 ple of the latter. The mounds are all caused by erosion. 



The reddened sandstone is caused by the changing of the iron 

 coloring agent from the ferrous to the ferric state. All the differ- 

 ent strata were found to be in place. Some low anticlinal and 

 synclinal folds were noticed. In the anticlinal folds the massive 

 layer of sandstone is often broken and the sides of these fissures 

 faulted from one to six inches, as may be seen in the sandstone 

 quarry one and one-half miles north of Yates Center. 



