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Underground Resources of Kansas

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Underground Resources of Kansas

by Raymond C. Moore and Kenneth K. Landes

Cover of the book; black text on light brown paper.

Originally published in 1927 as Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 13. This is, in general, the original text as published. The information has not been updated. An Acrobat PDF version (49 MB) is also available.

Preface

Kansas has attained to the fourth place among the states in the volume and value of its agricultural resources within the life period of many persons now living, and the pride of achievement, as well as the material benefits derived, have directed attention chiefly to our greatest industry, agriculture.

Because the state has, in the archives of the State Board of Agriculture, more complete and comprehensive records than those of perhaps any other state or nation for a like period of development, we know much of and about Kansas agriculture; but of the underground resources, those things of which the soil is composed and those other things which add to the wealth of the state as direct products of high value in the economy of our daily lives, and without which Kansas would have been much retarded in its growth, we have known less until the more recent years.

In 1892 this Board published a report on the geology and mineral resources of the state which contained virtually all that was then known about them, but as increased knowledge and the greater discoveries and developments have occurred since that time, and Kansas has outdistanced a number of other states that were noted producers of underground wealth, the latest information on this subject as applied to Kansas is now offered to the people of the state in the following pages.

Kansas now ranks ninth among the states in the value of its mineral products, exceeding most of the states which produce gold and silver, and being exceeded only by Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Illinois, Texas, Ohio and Kentucky, and a knowledge of the results which have placed this state in the front rank as a producer of underground wealth, as well as a more comprehensive knowledge of the geological formations upon which the origin of our soils depend, is highly desirable.

Much has been accomplished through the investigations of individual geologists who worked as pioneers in uncovering the hidden wealth of the state, and more has been done through the organized activities of the State Geologic Survey, and our present knowledge of these resources is wholly derived from their work; but much further investigation is needed. Large areas of the state are practically unknown in a geologic sense, and much more of detailed information is needed in the areas already explored.

Through the work of Prof. R. C. Moore, geologist of the State Board of Agriculture, state geologist and professor of geology in the University of Kansas, and his able assistant, Prof. Kenneth K. Landes, acting state geologist and assistant professor of geology at the University, the Board is presenting in the following pages the sum of our knowledge of the underground resources of Kansas.

J. C. Mohler, Secretary.


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Kansas Geological Survey, Geology
Placed on web March 23, 2018; originally published November 1, 1927.
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The URL for this page is http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/13/index.html