96 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 
THE MOUND VALLEY ESCARPMENT. 
The second member of the Erie formation, the Mound Valley, * 
has very prominent exposures all the way from the Neosho river to 
Galesburg and for some distance south when it suddenly fails to 
produce an escarpment for a considerable way, especially near 
Little Labette Creek. At Mound Valley, however, it 1s very 
prominent continuing so to the southwest nearly to the Verdegris 
river at Liberty. Here, however, the limestone has disappeared 
and the escarpment is produced by sandstones, which are eroded 
further south by the tributaries of the Verdegris. 
THE INDEPENDENCE ESCARPMENT. 
The upper system of the Erie formation, the Independence,* is 
found on the high land east of Urbana and south of that place, 
producing an escarpment east of Thayer, which runs in a southwest 
direction to the Verdegris just below Independence. Crossing to 
the west side of the river, it produces a high bluff all the way to 
Coffeyville and after a slight digression to the west at Onion creek, 
passes into the Indian Territory. Lying to the east of this escarp- 
ment from south of Thayer to the Verdegris, 1s a chain of hills and 
mounds, including the Bender mounds and those around Cherry- 
vale, which form a very striking feature of the country. They are 
simply the remains of outlying areas separated from the escarpment 
by erosion. 
EARLTON ESCARPMENT. 
The next succeeding formation is the lola limestone formation. 
Below the Iola system proper lie the Earlton limestone systems. } 
From Elk river to east of Benedict they are closely associated with 
the Iola, but west of Chanute and northwest of Earlton, from which 
place the systems take their names, they produce a separate 
escarpment, due to the thickening of intervening shales. Between 
Altoona and Earlton there are a number of *mounds which have 
recently been protected by the limestone which produces this 
escarpment. The escarpment fades out in the Neosho Valley, and 
southwest of Vilas blends with the next succeeding, which is the 
IOLA ESCARPMENT. 
The escarpment produced by the Iola lhmestone]| is most prom1- 
nent west of the Verdegris river from Table Mound northwest of 
Independence to Benedict. South towards the state line it loses 
*Adams, Univ. Geol. Sur.. Vol. 1, Chap. 1. 
+Adams, ibid. 
*Name here proposed. 
|Haworth and Kirk. Kansas Univ. Quart., Vol. IT, p. 109. 
