218 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



ROCK EXPOSURES ABOUT ATCHISON. 



By JOHN M. PRICE, Jr. 



The vicinity of Atchison presents some very interesting exposures of rock 

 formation. Within a radius of a few miles there are three or four well-devel- 

 oped rock quarries besides numerous quarries only partially developed. 



For the sake of convenience I have prepared a section showing the geo- 

 logical position and order of the various formations exposed, and these I have 

 numbered from 1 to 18, beginning with the lowest and numbering up. 



Our first expedition was to the Waggener quarry, one mile south of Atch- 

 ison, and situated on one of the bluffs overlooking the Missouri river. Here 

 the lowest formation exposed was No. 8, the 20-foot limestone. Just above 

 this came No. 9, a layer of soapstone shale, four feet in thickness. Above 

 this was a band of limestone eight inches wide. I'his band of eight inches 

 appeared only in one place, and decreased on both sides, and on one side it 

 completely disappeared into the shale. Above this was more shale for a dis- 

 tance of about 20 feet. Then appeared a ridge of limestone four feet in thick- 

 ness, and then more shale for a distance of from 20 to 25 feet. 



From here we went to the Atchison coal mines. Here we find No. 8, the 

 20-foot limestone, as the highest formation. Hence it is called the cap-rock. 

 Below this came No. 7, slate, or rather a slaty shale, having a thickness of 

 four feet. Next was found a band of limestone 21 inches thick, and below this 

 shale for a distance of 12 feet. A layer of limestone 10 feet came next, and 

 beneath this was No. 3 shale for a distance of about 2.5 feet. Next came No. 2, 

 the coal, averaging between 16 and 18 inches. Below this was more shale, 

 but its depth we could not determine— it was at least 30 feet. 



Returning from the coal mines, we passed an old deserted quarry on the 

 opposite side of the hill from the Waggener quarry. Here we obtained ex- 

 posures of Nos. 14, 15, and 16. This last is composed of a three-foot band of 

 solid limestone covered by about 15 inches of disintegrated limestone. Below 

 the limestone comes a layer of soapstone shale measuring four feet, and be- 

 low this lies the sandstone. This, however, was not sufficiently exposed to 

 obtain any measurement. 



This measurement, however, we obtained in an exposure near the Gaffney 

 brick yards. In one place it measured eight feet, but within less than half a 

 mile it had disappeared entirely. No. 10 did not appear here, nor in any 

 of the other exposures; and the 24 feet of shale of Nos. 9 and 11 had dwindled 

 to only seven feet. No. 13 is the clay used oy the Gaffney Brick Company, 

 and makes the finest vitrified brick manufactured in the state. 



Many other exposures were visited, but all gave substantially the same 

 results. One in particular, about two miles north of town, gave exposures of 

 all the formations from No. 16 down to No. 3, inclusive. All of these forma- 

 tions are very persistent, and especially the different limestones. 



I could obtain no exact measurements of Nos. 17 and 18. The two measure 

 approximately 12 feet. The latter is a limestone abundant in fossil Fusulina. 



The measurement of all these exposures, from the level of the river to the 

 drift, gives a total of 180 feet. The drift measures all the way from nothing 

 to about 50 feet. 



One interesting feature of the hills around Atchison is the frequency of 



