Mississippian Stratigraphic Nomenclature Revisions in Kansas

This paper reviews proposed Mississippian nomenclature changes in Kansas and outlines the changes to Zeller (1968) that have been adopted by the Kansas Geological Survey. The Sedalia Dolomite is changed to the Sedalia Formation and the Northview Shale is changed to Northview Formation due to lateral lithology changes. The Short Creek Oolite Member as originally defined and described by Smith and Siebenthal (1907) at the type section in Kansas is reinstated. The Cowley Formation as originally defined and described by Lee (1940) in Kansas is reinstated. The Ste. Genevieve Limestone is placed as the basal formation of the Chesteran Stage.

Quaternary Stratigraphy and Stratigraphic Nomenclature Revisions in Kansas

This paper outlines Quaternary nomenclature changes to Zeller (1968) that have been adopted by the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS). The KGS formally recognizes two series/epochs for the Quaternary: the Holocene and Pleistocene. Pleistocene stage/age names Kansan, Aftonian, Nebraskan, and Yarmouthian are abandoned and replaced with the broader term "pre-Illinoian." Formation names Bignell, Peoria, Gilman Canyon, and Loveland are maintained for loess units. Formation names for the following alluvial lithostratigraphic units are abandoned: Crete, Sappa, Grand Island, Fullerton, and Holdrege. The Severance Formation is adopted as a new lithostratigraphic unit for thick packages of late Pleistocene alluvium and colluvium in Kansas. The DeForest Formation is accepted as a valid lithostratigraphic unit for deposits of fine-grained Holocene alluvium in Kansas. Formation names Iowa Point, Nickerson, and Cedar Bluffs for glacial tills and Atchison and David City for glaciofluvial deposits are abandoned. The Afton and Yarmouth Soils are abandoned as pedostratigraphic units, whereas the Sangamon Geosol and Brady Geosol are maintained.

Classification of Red Beds at Point of Rocks, Morton County, Kansas

The age of red beds exposed below the bluff-capping Ogallala Formation at Point of Rocks in Morton County, Kansas, has been disputed since they were first recognized in the late 1800s. Over the years, nearly 25 maps and reports have variously classified the strata as Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic, or Permian, creating an interesting history of speculation and stratigraphic nomenclature. Many of the interpretations relied on the indirect method of comparing lithologies to similar exposures in surrounding states, but none were in-depth studies. Until recently, the Kansas Geological Survey has considered the rocks to be Jurassic based on Zeller (1968), the currently recognized stratigraphic guide and chart for Kansas. A comprehensive study by Smith et al. (2015)--using outcrop descriptions, subsurface information, and detrital zircon data--constrained the age of the red beds at Point of Rocks, assigning them to the Guadalupian Big Basin Formation, the uppermost Permian unit in Kansas.

Enigmatic Red Beds Exposed at Point of Rocks, Cimarron National Grassland, Morton County, Kansas

Point of Rocks, a high-relief bluff overlooking the Cimarron River valley in Morton County, Kansas, is capped by distinct white beds of Neogene Ogallala Formation calcrete that overlie red beds of shale, siltstone, and sandstone. These unfossiliferous red beds are currently assigned to the Jurassic System; however, their age has long been debated due to a lack of marker beds, index fossils, and nearby correlative outcrops. As a result, geologists over the years have assigned the rocks to systems ranging from the Permian to the Cretaceous. In this study, four stratigraphic sections were measured in the red beds and three bulk samples were collected to determine the uranium-lead age distributions of detrital zircon (DZ) populations. Red-bed strata composed of fissile shale and sandstone are interpreted as alluvial overbank deposits, while dominantly trough cross-bedded and planar-laminated sandstones are interpreted as tidally influenced fluvial deposits. Detrital zircon age peaks can be grouped into at least seven subpopulations with a youngest single zircon age of 263.8 ± 12.1 Ma, a more conservative age of 293.0 ± 6.95 Ma based on the youngest grouping of three grain ages overlapping at 2σ, and a complete absence of Mesozoic age zircons. In addition, copper oxides along partings and fractures suggest that the red beds once hosted copper sulfides, a common constituent of regional Permian-Triassic red beds. The DZ data--in conjunction with the identification of the Permian Day Creek Dolomite marker bed in logs of nearby drilling tests--strongly suggest that the enigmatic red beds cropping out at the base of Point of Rocks should be assigned to the Guadalupian Big Basin Formation, the uppermost Permian unit in Kansas.

Precambrian Nomenclature in Kansas

The informal stratigraphic term "Precambrian" is replaced by formal nomenclature--Proterozoic and Archean Eonothems/Eons--and the informal term Hadean. The Phanerozoic Eonothem/Eon, representing all rocks younger than the Proterozoic, is added. The Proterozoic is further divided into Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic, and Neoproterozoic Erathems/Eras. The name Rice Formation (Scott, 1966) is abandoned, and the use of the informal term "Rice unit" is recommended. The proposed name Rice Series (Berendsen, 1994) is not accepted. These changes are adopted by the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) and the stratigraphic nomenclature of Zeller (1968) has been revised accordingly.

Fusulinids from the Howe Limestone Member (Red Eagle Limestone, Council Grove Group) in Northeastern Kansas and Their Significance to the North American Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian)-Permian Boundary

Fusulinids from the Howe Limestone Member (upper part of the Red Eagle Limestone, lower part of the Council Grove Group) are described here for the first time. The Howe fauna is particularly significant because it represents the earliest fusulinids known to occur above the new conodont-based Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian)-Permian boundary at the Glenrock Limestone Member-Bennett Shale Member contact (Red Eagle Limestone) in northeastern Kansas. The Howe fusulinid assemblage is composed entirely of species of the genus Leptotriticites. The species L. hughesensis and L. glenensis were originally described from just beneath the new systemic boundary horizon in the Hughes Creek Shale Member and Glenrock Limestone Member, respectively. L. wetherensis is a species from the Stockwether Limestone Member of north-central Texas, which is thought to directly overlie the new systemic boundary in that region. L. gracilitatus is a species reported from below and above the boundary in west Texas and New Mexico. Therefore, the Howe Limestone Member fusulinid fauna is quite transitional in character. The first typical and diagnostic early Permian (Wolfcampian Series) fusulinids in the midcontinent section appear in steps through the stratigraphically higher Neva Limestone Member of the Grenola Limestone (Paraschwagerina kansasensis), and the Cottonwood and Morrill Limestone Members of the overlying Beattie Limestone (Schwagerina jewetti, S. vervillei). This offset of conodont and fusulinid faunal changes should be taken into account in regional and interregional biostratigraphic correlations of the new systemic boundary.

Temporal Variability in the Quality of Produced Water from Wells Tapping the Ozark Aquifer of Southeast Kansas

State and local agencies have become concerned that the available water supply from the Ozark aquifer in the Tri-state region of southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri, and northeastern Oklahoma may become unusable or require additional water treatment because of deteriorating quality resulting from overdevelopment. Many southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas water supplies withdraw water from a 30-60-mi (48-96-km)-wide transition zone in the Ozark aquifer that separates calcium, magnesium-bicarbonate ground water with low dissolved solids to the east from sodium-chloride brines to the west. Water-quality deterioration within the transition zone could potentially come about as a result of eastward migration or upward movement from deeper horizons of saline water. This study assessed variability in the quality of water produced from wells within the transition zone in southeast Kansas across a variety of time scales. Water samples were collected monthly from nine wells located in the transition zone over a two-year period and frequently during two 50+ hr chemical-quality pumping tests of Pittsburg well 8. The samples were analyzed for conductance and pH, and all major and selected minor dissolved inorganic constituents. Mixing curves of chloride versus bicarbonate/chloride ratio and chloride versus sodium/chloride ratio demonstrate that the produced water from Ozark aquifer wells is a mixture of low dissolved solids, calcium, magnesium-bicarbonate ground waters and sodium-chloride brines. Produced water from wells tapping sources in the Ozark and the overlying Springfield Plateau aquifers is a blend of waters from these sources, although the data suggest that the contribution from the Springfield is small relative to the Ozark aquifer. Fluctuations in the quality of the produced water during pumping most likely result from complex mixing of waters of differing quality from different parts of the Ozark aquifer within the well bore. This is borne out by bicarbonate/chloride ratio versus chloride concentration mixing curves and the dissolved constituent ratios indicative of bicarbonate and sodium in excess of that required to balance calcium + magnesium and chloride, respectively. Comparison of the 1979-1980 data with the 2006-08 data from this project indicates that the chloride concentration in some of the sampled supplies has increased. Based on extrapolation of the maximum estimated rate of chloride concentration increase, the earliest that water from Pittsburg wells 8 and 10 would exceed the recommended drinking water limit for chloride is estimated to be by the years 2045 and 2060, respectively, assuming continuation of the present rates of pumping.

New Insights on the Sequence Stratigraphic Architecture of the Dakota Formation in Kansas–Nebraska–Iowa from a Decade of Sponsored Research Activity

The Cretaceous Dakota Formation in the areas of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa contains a rich and well-preserved microflora of fossil palynomorphs. A comprehensive listing of these taxa is presented in this publication as part of a continuing effort to develop a refined biostratigraphic scheme for mid-Cretaceous terrestrial deposits in North America. The Dakota Formation in this region contains four distinctive Albian-Cenomanian palynostratigraphic zones that are used to partition the unit into successive depositional cycles, and each zone records deposition in fluvial-estuarine environments. The late Albian Kiowa-Skull Creek depositional cycle at the base of the Dakota Formation is recognized throughout the study area, and is also recognized in other parts of the Cretaceous North American Western Interior basin. The overlying newly recognized latest Albian "Muddy-Mowry Cycle" is formally defined for the first time in this paper and correlates with depositional cycles recognized by other workers in other parts of the Western Interior basin. The Cenomanian lower Greenhorn Cycle is already widely recognized by many other workers throughout the Western Interior basin. Laterally extensive thin zones of pervasive carbonate mineral cementation are noted in fluvial-estuarine deposits in the Dakota Formation. They are believed to have formed as synsedimentary cements that precipitated below estuarine marine-flooding surfaces in settings related to discharging paleoground waters. The existence of these early diagenetic cementation zones has important implications for the recognition of diagenetic barriers and baffles to modern fluid flow in the Dakota Formation. New stable isotopic data on these authigenic cements are reported in this paper and add to a body of published data on the δ18O of mid-Cretaceous paleoprecipitation in North America.

Treated Wastewater and Nitrate Transport Beneath Irrigated Fields near Dodge City, Kansas

Use of secondary-treated municipal wastewater for crop irrigation south of Dodge City, Kansas, where the soils are mainly of silty clay loam texture, has raised a concern that it has resulted in high nitrate-nitrogen concentrations (10-50 mg/kg) in the soil and deeper vadose zone, and also in the underlying deep (20-45 m) ground water. The goal of this field-monitoring project was to assess how and under what circumstances nitrogen (N) nutrients under cultivated corn that is irrigated with this treated wastewater can reach the deep ground water of the underlying High Plains aquifer, and what can realistically be done to minimize this problem. We collected 15.2-m-deep cores for physical and chemical properties characterization; installed neutron moisture-probe access tubes and suction lysimeters for periodic measurements; sampled area monitoring, irrigation, and domestic wells; performed dye-tracer experiments to examine soil preferential-flow processes through macropores; and obtained climatic, crop, irrigation, and N-application rate records. These data and additional information were used in the comprehensive Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) to identify key parameters and processes that influence N losses in the study area. We demonstrated that nitrate-N transport processes result in significant accumulations of N in the thick vadose zone. We also showed that nitrate-N in the underlying ground water is increasing with time and that the source of the nitrate is from the wastewater applications. RZWQM2 simulations indicated that macropore flow is generated particularly during heavy rainfall events, but during our 2005-06 simulations the total macropore flow was only about 3% of precipitation for one of two investigated sites, whereas it was more than 13% for the other site. Our calibrated model for the two wastewater-irrigated study sites indicated that reducing current levels of corn N fertilization by half or more to the level of 170 kg/ha substantially increases N-use efficiency and achieves near-maximum crop yield. Combining such measures with a crop rotation that includes alfalfa should further reduce the amounts of residual N in the soil, as indicated in one of the study sites that had alfalfa in past crop rotations.

A Review of the Stratigraphy of the Ogallala Formation and Revision of Neogene (“Tertiary”) Nomenclature in Kansas

The member names for the Ogallala Formation (including the Valentine, Ash Hollow, and Kimball) in Kansas of Zeller (1968) are abandoned. The Ogallala Formation in Kansas includes strata of Miocene and earliest Pliocene age, revising earlier correlation to the Pliocene only (Zeller, 1968). The Kansas Geological Survey is abandoning use of the term "Tertiary," to be replaced by the term "Neogene." International stage boundaries for the Neogene have not been established in Kansas.