Public Land Survey in Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pic20/pic20_1.html
Geologic Mapping in Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pic4/pic4_1.html
Earthquakes (Kansas included!),
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pic3/pic3_1.html
Other KGS Public Information Circulars,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pubCirculars.html
Aber, J.S., Surficial geology of Butler County
Kansas,KGS Open-file Report 1991-48,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/OFR/1991/OFR91_48/index.html
Geologic map of Chase County, Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/General/Geology/County/abc/chase.html
Geologic map of Morris County, Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/General/Geology/County/klm/morris.html
Permian system stratigraphy in Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/189/08_perm.html
Clarification and changes in Permian
stratigraphic nomenclature in Kansas-2008,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Current/2008/Sawin/index.html
Stratigraphic succession in Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/189/index.html
Geologic history of Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/162/index.html
Kansas Geologic Timetable,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/geotopics/timeChart.html
Flint Hills Physiographic Province,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/flinthills/flinthills.html
Fossils of Kansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/KSfossils.html
Fossils of Kansas map/poster,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Books/2002/Fossil/
Rocks and Minerals,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/KGSrocks.html
Other GeoKansas,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/home.html
Kansas Photo Library,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Images/DB/index.html
Kansas Industrial Mineral Producers,
www.kgs.ku.edu/Magellan/Minerals/index.html
Interactive Geologic Map of the
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve,
geoportal.kgs.ku.edu/tallgrass/
Exploring the Flint Hills of Kansas,
Chase County Geology,
www.geospectra.net/fieldgeology/
kansasrocks.htm
Exploring the Raton Basin and
Southern Rockies of Colorado,
www.geospectra.net/fieldgeology/
coloradorocks.htm.
Identifying Rocks from the
Flint Hills of Kansas,
Raton Basin and Southern
Rocky Mountains of Colorado,
www.geospectra.net/fieldgeology/
rocks.htm.
Click to enlarge.
Students getting an introduction to the field geology course the first morning in the geospatial laboratory.
In the afternoon, students are at Lake Kahola. Dr. Aber explains the Silva Ranger compass and how to measure joints using a sidewalk groove.
Students work with concepts of magnetic declination and strike/dip. Dr. Aber explains the right hand rule.
Lunch is in the picnic shelter and bathroom facilities are nearby. The spillway was the first stop after lunch and provides a great view of the stratigraphic units that make up the landscape in this area of the Flint Hills.
Lake Kahola spillway illustrates alternating limestones and shales that have been identified as cyclothems. It is a record of transgressing and regressing sea level in a shallow sea present during the Permian geologic time period.
Students practice their skills for determining joint directions using the compass.
Grass coming up in these near-vertical cracks helps to define the joints.
Rock types are defined in part by fossil content, which students examine. Cottonwood Limestone has a blocky appearance and outcrops in the spillway, below the lake level, at 1269 feet in elevation. The joints measured in this outcrop are some of the most common joint orientations in eastern Kansas.
When shale erodes more quickly than limestone, the blocks drop in random patterns. Evidence of animal tracks and trace fossils are common in the limestone. Below the limestone are layers of colorful shales. Red, gray, and black shales tell a story of changing depositional environments.
Students move to lower elevations in the spillway to view the Neva Limestone, which consists of thin limestone interbedded with shales.
More joint measurements are taken as students perfect their compass skills.
The Neva has a varied fossil content and varied sedimentary structure.
The limestone is thinly beded in some places and in others, it takes on a spongey appearance. This is referred to as box work and can be seen in some caves such as the Cave of the Winds in South Dakota.
Secondary mineralization filled in cracks, then less resistant limestone weathered away leaving the crack fillings to define the stone.
Tree roots took advantage of the porous rock and established an underground network that was eroded and exposed as the spillway widened. The lower surface shows mounds of algae called stromatolites. As students climbed back up the spillway they encountered a thick layer of chert (shown below left).
The chert was weathered out of limestone and stands as a remnant of the former floor of Kahola Creek, which has continued to downcut and migrate south during the Holocene. After leaving the spillway the group moves on to the dam and outlet tower of Kahola Lake.
Up on top of the hill overlooking the dam is an old quarry of the Crouse Limestone. On the way up the hill, the vegetation is examined and Bluntspike Rush is found. This plant grows in wetlands, which is a good indication of springs. Kahola Lake was positioned in this location because of abundant springs and it was assumed the lake would never dry up.
In another area around the lake, a better exposed spring was found also located below the Crouse Limestone. On the slope going up to the quarry and in this location, the darker green is a wetland plant in the Rush family (Juncaceae), possibly Torrey's Rush or Bluntspike Rush.
The tallgrass prairie is defined by Big Bluestem grass (Andropogon gerandii), but is rich with wildflowers throughout the spring, summer, and fall seasons. The blue or purple flower above is Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis).
Pale Dogwood (Cornus amomum) is a common bushy shrub found in open moist places. Unfortunately, poison ivy is also a common find in the Flint Hills. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) can climb trees as a vine or grow across the ground or as a shrub. It contains a poisonous oil that can cause a severe rash on the skin and should be avoided (http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/796_ivy.html).
On the left is a Plains Larkspur (Delphinium virescens) is positioned closely to a Compass Plant making the leaf pattern difficult to see. The Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) shown in the middle, will have a yellow flower in late spring and summer which resembles an aster. The leaves supposedly line up in a north-south direction but students were cautioned to take measurements with the Silva compass to be certain!
Left is pictured Blue Wildindigo (Baptisia australis), a perennial in the Pea family. The flower in the center is Spider Milkweed (Asclepias viridis)often found in association with limestones. The yellow flower on the right is Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) in the Parsley family, and common in moist tallgrass prairies.
The yellow flower is in the Eveningprimrose Family, possible Missouri Eveningprimrose (Oenothera macrocarpa). The tiny white flowers are Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) in the Aster family.
The pink rose in the center is wild and called the Pasture Rose (Rosa carolina). After flowering, it develops fruit referred to as hips; this fruit is rich in vitamin C and used for jellies and medicines. The other rose is Simplicity and was planted.
Other roses, daisy, and iris (a.k.a. flag) plants are used for landscaping the yard around cabins.
 
Kahola Lake was constructed in the 1930s as a Works Project Administration (WPA) to supply the city water for Emporia.
However, the lake was too small and too far from Emporia to be effective. Cabins were built around the lake and Kahola was a city park until the recent sale of the leased land to homeowners.
Kahola Lake is a beautiful recreation area in the Flint Hills which is a perfect place to study rocks and plants, as well as enjoy the water!
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