The Salina Basin in north-central Kansas is not a prolific
oil-producing basin as other similar basins in the Midcontinent.
However, there are long-time producing structures - plains-type
folds in the southern part that have produced oil for almost 70
years. The northwest -southeast basin axis extends northward into
Nebraska and the basin is asymmetrical with a steeper southwestern
flank bordering the Central Kansas Uplift and a gentle northeastern
flank extending eastward to the Nemaha Anticline. The southern
limit of the basin is ill-defined with no major limiting feature
between it and the Sedgwick Basin to the south. Rocks in the basin
range in age from Precambrian to Recent, but it is mainly a Paleozoic
basin with the Permo-Pennsylvanian section truncated to the east,
so that the maximum sedimentary thickness is about 4,500 feet.
The structural history of the basin is similar to that of the
adjacent Forest City, Sedgwick, and Cherokee Basins. A major change
occurred in the structural regimen in the late Mississippian early
Pennsylvanian when the present-day structure was formed. Minor
folds were formed, as elsewhere in the Midcontinent, by differential
compaction of sediments over tilted, rigid Precambrian fault blocks
(=buried hills). Minor, but important, structural adjustments
continued during the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic, and continue
today. Several of the plains-type folds which occur along northeast
anticlinal trends were analyzed as to time of origin, development,
and relation to the geothermal conditions of the region.