Pleistocene Geology in a Part of the Kansas City Area

Abstract

The general concept of the Pleistocene stratigraphy in northeastern Kansas has been developed over a period of many years by a large number of geologists. It is quite well established that only the Nebraskan and Kansan glaciers entered northeastern Kansas. Even though the detailed stratigraphy remains to be determined through mapping and surface and subsurface studies, the regional picture has been well established. For example, the presence of a major filled and buried pre-Kansan valley across northeastern Kansas is known, the presence of two tills along the Missouri River in Doniphan County is well known, and the general areas in which till deposits are found are fairly well established. There are, on the other hand, certain features of the Pleistocene geology of northeastern Kansas that have not been studied in detail and others that have not been recognized or described previously. In this paper regional aspects of Pleistocene geology are first summarized as they have been established and then new data and descriptions for the Kansas City area are presented, some of which are not in agreement with previously developed concepts. Figure 1 shows the areas glaciated by the Nebraskan and the Kansan ice sheets. Frye and Leonard (1952, fig. 12) have depicted the Nebtaskan glacier as having been more extensive than is shown here and they have indicated the probable presence of Nebraskan glacial deposits in Atchison, Doniphan, Brown, Jackson, and Nemaha Counties. More recently, as a result of an extensive drilling program in Brown County, Charles K. Bayne (1963, personal communication) concluded that Nebraska Till is absent or only doubtfully present over most of Brown County, and, on the basis of this information, the extent of Nebraskan glaciation is restricted to the area shown. The probable extent of Nebraskan glaciation in Missouri has been determined as a result of a recent drilling