Traces of a Glacier at Kansas City, Mo. 



E. C. CASE. 



During the last summer it was the fortune of the writer to discover 

 on the bluffs of the Missouri River in Clay county, Mo., just opposite 

 Kansas City, the traces of a glacier as shown in the scratching and 

 planing of a surface of limestone which outcrops about half way up 

 the bluff some So or loo feet above the present river bed. The 

 striae are rather light, seldom over half an inch in depth, and would 

 seem to indicate that the boulders that acted as graving tools had 

 been reduced by trituration or other processes to a small size. This 

 is further borne out by the fact that there are no boulders of any 

 size to be found in the neighborhood. The striae are continuous, or 

 practically so, being straight, clean-cut scratches, and showing no 

 termination in the small space exposed in the workings of the quarry. 

 The continuous character of the scratches with the absence of any 

 gouges or other intermittent markings would indicate that it was an 

 ice field, or glacier, rather than icebergs or floes. (Report Director 

 U. S. Geol. Survey 1885-6, p. 29). 



The striae are in two sets that display among themselves a remark- 

 able degree of parallelism. The greatest number of lines run in 

 a direction from one to two degrees west of north. The second series 

 corresponds almost identically with a northwest to south :ast line. 

 These markings occur on a surface of limestone belonging to the top- 

 most layer of the region and covered directly by the clay. The 

 extent of the abrasion it is therefore impossible to estimate, but it 

 was probably slight as the glaciation is only to be noticed in a very 

 limited area at the highest portion of the outcrop in the bluff. The 

 extreme limit of glaciation that could be traced did not exceed a 

 quarter of a mile, but was very distinct in that distance. 



The dip of the strata, as is the case generally in this region, is 

 toward the northwest and thus opposed to the probable advance of 

 the glacier, and would account for the scratchings which under these 

 conditions might be produced by a very small glacier or one near the 

 limit of its southward movement. (Chamberlain, Report Director 

 U. S. Geol. Survey 1S85-6, p. 160.) 



Previous to this time there have been no glacial markings noted 

 in Missouri and but one region, in Nemaha county, in Kansas (L. C. 



(U9; KAN. UNIV. QUAK., VOL. II, NO. 3, JAN. l.?94. 



