Gunnison news-champion., 1917-08-24
FOSSIL OCEANS OF GREAT AGf

FOSSIL OCEANS OF GREAT AGf
Among 'Nr mary unsolved myster
..- concern gv III, interior of Mothe
Eann f.w arc wur. fascinating tha,
,tu . brought 20 light by certain sur
r-.-.rc ,rp.r.,u.. Of d~illers of dee
a'. Although many people are no
4aa.. uf ,n" fat. large proportion
ofth, wells sunk 20 depths below l,0Oo
'.., encounter arg, bodies Of salt wa
'... ~, flow os which may be so grea
'Ha, the du.I,r rmarks that he ha
..LrE ,nr Gulf Of Mexico or som,
ulr-r mm,u-, body Of salt water
Ihr -at water may even flow up out
uf n, mouth of The we'll, but NOR,
commonly O., rises in the well TO a
hugh, Of several hundred feet abovc
'h" bottom. and its supply is so great
that only a pump Of enormous capa-
city can keep the well empty. Where
doc ih- salt water come from? II is
often assumed that II fills some i'm
m"n-o cavity or system of crevices
bu, IN fact =, is generally contained
IN som" bed Of unusually porous rock
Ike sandstone. in which the pores
though minute, have an aggregate
volume or capacity of millions of cubic
feet
But one question is no sooner an
swcrcd than another one. more diff
cult. arises and the question now is,
How did this salt water get into the
porous rock Has rain water soaked
far down IN tn" "arth and found
some bed Of salt which it dissolved
and thereby become salty; or had the
salt water some source far within the
earth. from which it has arisen toward
the surfacr: or is it the water of some
ancient ocean that filed the pores of
the sand and mud of its bed, which
in ages gone by became buried under
sand and mud that gradually accum-
ulated on the ocean bottom The
shells Of the sea animals found in
lmcstones and other hard rocks at
the heart of the continent show clearly
that the ocean. in some one or several
remote ages, covered a large part of
the country, and it appears extreme
ly probable that the salt water found
in the deep wells is really fossil sea
water cntombcd in the sands and muds
Of former ones and now brought 10
the surface by the drill, which in in
Vulnerable places in this and other
countries is being sunk to depths Of
two. three, and four thousand feet, and
even down to depths of nearly 800
feet, depth reached by a very deep
well which is still being drilled at a
place a little west of Pittsburgh.
This salt water seems to be found
especially in oil fields. but it has been
struck by the drill at many other
places, as, for example. near Leaven-
worth, Kansas, where enormous guam
titles of salt water are found at var
ious depths below the surface. AL 1
though no valuable pools of oil or gas
have been found in that region. num-
erOus beds of coal under-lie it. In one !
boring four beds of coal aggregating /
over s feet in thickness and numer-i
Gus thinner beds having an additions
al total thickness of feet were found. |
In that region also many out-cropping
layers Of rock contain remains of
marine shells. and the entire region /
was no doubt once covered by the sea. /
Indeed, the geologist has been able
TO decipher in the rocks numerous /
details of the record of the advance !
and retreat Of the sea and has been
able to establish the fact that the
region at several different times.
These and other geologic features of /
the region near Leavenworth, Kansas, 1
and east of it. in Missouri, includingl
its mineral resources, are described |
in folio Of the Geologic Atlas of the /
United States just issued by the
United States Geological Survey, De-
partment of the Interior. This folio,
the Leavenworth-Smi folio (No.
2O6), which was prepared in cooper
alton with the Missouri Bureau of
Geology and Mines, contains also
geologic maps and numerous other
illustrations. 1t may be obtained by
sending % cents to the Director of the
Survey.