128 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



The Missouri and Iowa Coal Measures are divided by Winslow* and 

 Keyesf into marginal and interior areas, which differ widely in their 

 lithologic properties, a necessary result of the different conditions 

 under which they were found. The question may well be asked: 

 "Do the properties of the Coal Measure rocks in Kansas warrant 

 such a division?" This can only be answered by a study of the 

 rocks themselves, for which purpose the Neosho river section affords 

 a good opportunity. At the base of the system we find about 500 

 feet of shale, with sandstone very abundant in the northeast parts, 

 but much less abundant in the vicinity of Oswego, while the 

 Cherryvale well shows none in its 4,00 feet of shale. This would 

 indicate that the shore line was to the southeast, for the sand would 

 be carried oceanward a much less distance than the material produc- 

 ing the shale. The great thickness of the shale beds also shows that 

 the conditions were not favorable for the growth of marine animals 

 during the time the shales were forming. 



The relative thinness of the Oswego limestone along its eastern 

 limits and the great thickness of the same (?) system at Independence 

 implies that the deep ocean where limestone could be extensively 

 formed lay to the west. But the heavy beds of sandstone contained 

 within the Laneville shales reaching to the west beyond Indepen- 

 dence indicate that this area was at that time a marginal area. Next 

 above this we have the heavy Erie limestone reaching a thickness 

 of 60 feet in jjlaces. 'I'his limestone bears strong evidence of 

 having been formed beneath a moderately deajj ocean. " Above this 

 we have the Chanute shales, which contain perhaps as large a per cent 

 of sandstone as is found in either the Cherokee or Laneville shales. 

 .Still further the sandstone is as abimdant along the Verdigris river as 

 in any other locality examined, which hardly intlicates a marginal 

 area towards the east, .\bove this the Icjla limestone is next in order, 

 a remarkably heavy system, and one which is known to have a lateral 

 extent of more than a hundred miles, and which probably was formed 

 beneath a deep ocean. From this point westwards and upwards no 

 other limestone system is known more than half as heavy as this 

 except number 15, which has its maximum thickness away to the 

 west beyond Cottonwood Falls. Neither is there a shale system half 

 as thick as the Cherokee shales. The one approaching it most closely 

 is the Lawrence shales, which carries so much sandstone. The other 

 systems alternate with each other with much greater frequency, neither 

 the limestone nor the shales being excessively thick, while sand- 

 stone is fully as abundant in the upper systems as in any part of the 



♦Missouri Geologic- Siiivi y. Kt-poit on Coal, 1H91. +Io\vii Geologic Survey. Vol. 1. An- 

 nual Keport for 18S*2. 



