OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 123 



erodes readily and contains a considerable amount of sand. This 

 is the condition, not only of the main streams, but also of the 

 tributaries so far back from the main stream that change in its 

 bed could not possibly affect them. 



From the relation of the present stream bed of the South Can- 

 adian to its previous stream beds and also to the terraces it ap- 

 pears that the river at present it cutting its bed downward. How- 

 ever it may have aggraded its bed at times in the past and may do 

 so again in the future. 



XXV. BURIED MOUNTAIN RANGES IN OKLAHOMA 



Charles N. Gculd 



Consulting Geolcgist, Oklahoma City. 



It is a well known geologic axiom that granite (us«d in the 

 sense of igneous and metamorphic rock) underlies all other rocks. 

 Granite is tho most common expression, on the earth's surface, of 

 the basal complex or earth stuff, which occupies by far the larger 

 portion of the planet on which wc live. We were taught in our 

 student days that if we drill deep enough anywhere or. the earth's 

 surface v/e would encounter granite. 



So, academically, we have known that granite underlies all of 

 Oklahoma, and that if the blanket of sedimentary rocks, including 

 the sandstones, limestones and shales, could be removed, tha< this 

 granite floor wo'ald be exposed. However, until recently, we have 

 had very little definite information as to the occurrence ot this 

 granite, and especially as to the depth beneath the surface at 

 which it occurs in various parts of the state. 



Thanks largely to the work of the oil geologists we arc now 

 learning many things heretofore unknoAvn. The records of the 

 thousands of deep wells drilled in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, 

 have been collected, tabulated and correlated, so that v,'C now 

 know more about subsurface conditions in many parts of the Mid- 

 Continent Oil Field than in almost any other part of the United 

 States. 



It is a matter of general informiation that there are in Oklahoma 

 four regions of mountain uplift, namely the Wichitas and Arbuckles, 

 entirely within the state, and the Ouachitas and Ozarks, locar.ed 

 partly within Oklahom.a and partly in some other state. The 

 essential structure of these four mountain regions is practicably the 

 same, being in each case an elevated, truncated dome, with the 

 sediraentaries dipping quaqnaversally from the core of ihe moun- 

 tains. In the Arbuckles, Wichitas and Ozarks erosion has removed 



