Abstract

A map of the pre-Mississippian areal geology of Kansas reveals a broad regional uplift, here called the Central Kansas arch, extending west-northwestward across the state. North of the arch is the North Kansas basin, and south of it the Dodge City basin, which is the north limb of a greater geosynclinal trough in central Oklahoma. A map of the oil pools of the state superimposed on that of the pre-Mississippian areal geology shows clearly that the pools tend to lie along the broad geanticlinal crest of the Central Kansas arch and seems to show, though less distinctly, a relation to the pre-Chattanooga outcrop of the Simpson formation. The distribution of oil pools to be expected under the hypothesis that the oil of Kansas was generated, during the Appalachian revolution, in the deep geosynclinal basins of southern Oklahoma and has migrated northward through certain porous carrier beds and accumulated under the control of the structural and geological conditions existing at that time--before the more recent westward tilting of the region--seems to agree fairly closely with the actual distribution as now known. Whether this agreement indicates the correctness of the hypothesis or is due merely to coincidence remains an open question to be decided by future developments.

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