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Dakota Aquifer Program--Introduction

Extent of the Dakota Aquifer


The Dakota aquifer system and its equivalents extend across much of the central North American continent. Figure 1 is a map showing the Dakota extent in North America. The contiguous aquifer system extends northward from Kansas approximately to the Arctic Circle in Canada, southward into northeastern New Mexico and the Oklahoma panhandle, westward to the Rocky Mountain front, and eastward to western Iowa and Minnesota.

Figure 1

fig1

Across the Continental Divide, the Dakota aquifer is present in many of the intermontane basins. In Kansas, the Dakota is present in most of the western two-thirds of the state. Figure 2 shows that the aquifer extends westward from Washington County in the north-central part of the state and northward from Morton County in southwestern Kansas. In all the Dakota is present in 59 of the 105 counties in the state.

Figure 2

fig2

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Kansas Geological Survey, Dakota Aquifer Program
Updated April 8, 1996.
Scientific comments to P. Allen Macfarlane
Web comments to webadmin@kgs.ku.edu
The URL for this page is HTTP://www.kgs.ku.edu/Dakota/vol1/intro/extent.htm