368 E. Haworth — Deformation of Strata in Kansas. 



Art. Liy. — Local Deformation of Strata in Meade County 

 Kansas and Adjoining Territory {Preliminary)^ y by 

 Eeasmus Haworth. 



While making geological investigations in Meade and adjoin- 

 ing counties in western Kansas during the summer of 1896, the 

 writer found certain conditions which seem to behest explained 

 bj the conclusion that a fault of considerable magnitude edsts 

 in Meade county, a fault decidedly larger than any other one 

 known in the state, and hence worthy of this preliminary 

 notice. 



Kansas occupies a middle position in the great plains between 

 the Rocky Mountain system and the Mississippi River. Its 

 eastern limit is about 200 miles west of the river, and its 

 w^estern border — 400 miles away — is a like distance east of the 

 easternmost part of the Rockies. Nowhere in the state has 

 there yet been found marks of vigorous orographic movements, 

 aUhough in many localities slight faults and gentle flexures are 

 linown. 



The general conditions of deformation in the plains to the 

 north and south of Kansas are about the same as within the 

 state, while both east and west such conditions are more strongly 

 marked. The movements to the east and southeast in Missouri 

 which produced the Ozark uplift, and a similar though more 

 pronounced uplift in Arkansas, extended in a milder form to 

 eastern Kansas, as is abundantly shown by the numerous fis- 

 sures and faults of slight dislocation and the gentle flexures so 

 common to that part of the state. To the west in eastern Col- 

 orado, as the Rocky mountains are approached, disturbances are 

 much more common and more marked in degree, as is well 

 known to geologists generally. 



(a). Geographic evidences of deformation. 



By referring to the accompanying map the general geography 

 of the district under consideration may be understood. Crooked 

 Creek, the stream most affected by the fault, rises in the 

 extreme eastern part of Haskell county and flows almost due 

 east to near the little village of Wilburn. Here it suddenly 

 turns to the southwest, making an angle of about forty-five 

 degrees with itself, to about twelve miles south of Meade, where 

 it veers southeastward to its junction with the Cimarron river. 

 The bluff lines along Crooked Creek are quite interesting in 

 character, particularly below Meade. Throughout the portion 



* Published with consent Df the Director of the United States Geological Surv j. 



