The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-10-07
All Southwest Kansas Puzzled
Over Fissures in Fields.
Salt Marsh Explodes When
Chunks of Ground Settle.
OIL SCUM ON WATER
Fowler People Form Company to
Drill for Oil and Gas.
Tertiary Slipping Down as Per-
milan Slipping Up.

Hutchinson, Kan, Oct. Either the
Tertiary is slipping down or the Per
milan is slipping up.
The latest case of earth-cracking
of this kind TO be reported is down
il eastern Meade county. Big cracks,
some of them as much as five feet
wide and several feet deep, and ex-
tending so TO 100 yards long have late
~ formed on farms near Fowler
The alfalfa field on the farm Of W.
A. Burford, two miles southwest of
Fowler, cracked open in several places.
While Mr.. Burford was moving hay
in his alfalfa, one of his mules sudden
" dropped into crack, and went out
of sight.
A few days later other large cracks
opened in the same field, extending
almost 100 yards in a southeastern
direction, and of sufficient width and
depth to bury horse. Mr.. Burford
describes the cracks as being in each
case wider at the bottom than at the
top.
Elsewhere in Meade.
Not only on the Burford farm but
elsewhere in Meade county similar
cracks are occurring, all of recent ap-
pearance. There are several large
ones on the farm of G. l.. beach and
also on the land of H. Breenneman.
The cracking of the earth in Meade
county, following similar phenomena in
southwestern Kingman county, in
northeastern Stafford county, in south
eastern Keno ana elsewhere through
out this section is causing local scien-
lists to conclude that all are caused
by the same geological phenomena.
Explosion When Ground Sinks.
The most spectacular ''earth-crack
of all, however, occurred near the salt
marsh in northeastern Stafford coun-
ty This was a literal explosion, in |
which a great cavity was burst In the
earth, and the shock OF which was
plainly heard in Great Bend and other |
nearby towns.
Following this bursting open of the |
earth the water of Rattlesnake nearby |
became extremely oily.
The Geology of It.
The Tertiary deposit is the mantle
Of sand, clay and gravel that over
lays the large part of western Kan
sas. a stratum at least $50 feet thick,
and caused by the disintegration or
rocks IN the mountainous area to the
west.
Joining this deposit on the east and
overlapping it is what is known as the
Permian series of rocks in which is
he red beds" exposed in Kingman,
Harper ard Barber counties, and in
1erlying this section.
Where the Meade county earth
cracks occurred a few days ago, the
Tertiary joins what is known as the
outcropping of sandstone
md shale. In southwestern Kingman
county the Tertiary is in juncture with
he Permian.
The eastern extremity of the tongue
If the Tertiary deposit which extends
across Reno county, laps over Into
Sedgwick county at Mount Hope, and
light at this juncture is where the
amOuS Mount Hope earth cracks oc-
cured This point, incidentally is the
urthest east in the state that the
Tertiary is found.
In northeastern Stafford county,
where the spectacular subterranean
occurred the Tertiary over
APPS and is in juncture with the Da-
lota sandstone formation. !
In each case the earth cracks oc-
.urred as the very edge or juncture !
# the Tertiary deposit, which seems to
Indicate that there is movement or
Tipping of some kind of that deposit,
possibly a pressure which forces the
arth open.
At Mount Hope there were strong !,
doris of natural gas from the cracks !
nd in a we'll near one of the cracks
he gas was sufficient to be ignited. :
Evidences of Gas.
Evidences of natural gas and oil fol- {
owed the breaking of the ground near Y
he Stafford salt marsh, and Rattle
make creek had an oil scum on 1T for
Many days.
The people at Fowler have become s
o much interested in the prospect OF
as that they have started putting down
hole to be drilled 1900 feet down. ]
! pocket of gas was struck at depth t
f $50 feet but work had to be stopped I
t nearly 900 feet the drill becoming /
ahmed. Funds are now being raised 6
o sink another hole, this time with a {
OCULAR gas drilling machine. stratum {
f rock salt SO feet thick was penetra- I
ed at q depth of $50 feet s
THIEF STEALS FROM FORT.