284 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY.- 



scarcely a township in the whole area which does not have an in- 

 stance of an anticlinal axis or synclinal trough, yet such anticlinals 

 and synclinals are of such limited extent and of such low angles of 

 inclination that they are of but little importance. The greatest 

 inclination known anywhere scarcely reaches four degrees, and occurs 

 in the Cottonwood Falls limestone and associated formation a few 

 miles west of Strong City. Considerable effort was made to deter- 

 mine the cause for these various irregularities. In most instances 

 the conclusion was reached that the primary cause was the ine- 

 qualities of the ocean bed on which the deposit was formed. In 

 the production of ocean beds one can readily understand how a slight 

 inequality in the distribution of the shale forming materials would 

 leave an uneven surface for the limestone which succeeds it, and 

 that correspondingly a lack of regularity in the production of calca- 

 reous matter would equally produce an irregular surface of the lime- 

 stone for the succeeding shale bed to rest upon. The directions of 

 the anticlinal and synclinal axes were variable, the most prominent 

 one being approximately at right angles to the line of outcropping of 

 the various formations. Those mentioned at Cottonwood Falls, trend 

 north and south, and possibly are due to slight orographic movements 

 long after the rocks were formed. 



A few faults are known within the Coal Measures, but none of any 

 considerable extent. The Cherokee shales have numerous faults with 

 vertical displacements sometimes reaching 18 or 20 inches. The 

 Lawrence shales likewise have some such faults. One is positively 

 known to exist in the vicinity of Sibley. Mr. Bowman while fol- 

 lowing a 14-inch seam of coal a few feet under the surface was 

 surprised to find it suddenly disappear. By digging downwards 

 about 3 feet, however, he came upon the same coal bed which had 

 been displaced to that extent. It is quite probable that detailed 

 investigations throughout the Coal Measure area will detect many 

 similar faults and possibly even greater ones, although the almost 

 perfect harmony of stratification found along the lines of the different 

 sections run by this Survey, sections which cross each other in so 

 many different places, and which trend in so many different direc- 

 tions, would seem to positively establish the absence of any very 

 considerable faults throughout the whole Coal Measure area. 



Neither is there any considerable evidence of regional or dynamic 

 metamorphism anywhere within the Coal Measures of the state. Only 

 one locality has been found which at all approaches anything of this 

 nature — the once famous "silver mines" in Woodson county. Dili- 

 gent search was made by all the observers in every locality for marks 

 or traces of metamorphism of any kind, or other indications of disturb- 

 ances of volcanic or eruptive nature, but nothing whatever was seen. 



