The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1918-01-10
FOSSIL OCEANS OF GREAT AGE


Among the many unsolved myster-
les concerning the interior Of Mother
Earth few are more fascinating than
those brought to light by certain sur
prising experiences of drillers Of deep
wells. Although many people ale
not aware of the fact, large proper
ton of the wells sunk to depths be-
low 1000 feet encounter large bodies
of salt water, the flow of which may
be so great that the driller remarks
that he has struck the Gulf of Mexico
or some other immense body of salt
water. The salt water may even flow
up out of the mouth of the we'll but
more commonly it rises in the well
to height of several hundred feet
above the bottom, and its supply is
so great that only a pump of enor-
nous capacity can keep the well
empty. Where does this salt water
come from? 1t is often assumed that
it fills some immense cavity or sys-
tenn of crevices, but in fact it is gen
orally contained in some bed of I'M
usually porous rock, like 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
swered than another one, more diff
ficult, arises, and the question now is
How did this salt water get into the
porous rock? Has rain water soaked
far down into the earth and found
some bed of rock salt which is dis
solved and thereby becomes salty; or
had the salt water some source far
within the earth, from which it has
arisen toward the surface; or is it
the water Of some ancient ocean that
filled the pores Of the sand and mud
of it's bed, which in ages gone by
became buried under sand and mud
that gradually accumulated on the
ocean bottom? The SHELLS of sea
animals found in limestones and other
hard rocks at the heart of the con-
tinent show clearly that the ocean,
in some one or several remote ages,
/ covered large part Of the country
and it appears extremely probable
that the salt water found in deep
wells is really fossil sea water en-
tombed in the sands and muds of
former cons and now brought to the
surface by the drill, which in innu-
merable places in this and other coun-
tries is being sunk to a depth OF
two. three, and four thousand feet
and even down to depths of nearly
$500 feet, depth reached by very
deep well which is still being drilled
at place a little west of Pittsburgh
The salt water seer1s to be founc
especially in oil fields, but it has beer
struck by the drill at many other
places, as, for example, near Leav.
enworth, Kan, where enormous GUAM.
titles of salt water arc found at va.
RUS depths below the surface AL
though no valuable pools of oil OF
gas have been found in that region
numerous beds of coal underly it. II
one boring four beds of coal aggre.
eating over eight feet in thickness
and numerous thinner beds having
an additional total thickness of six
feet were found. In that region alsC
many out-cropping layers of rock con.
tain remains of marine shells and the
entire region was no doubt once GOV.
cred by the sea. Indeed, the geoI.
ogist 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 estab.
fish the fact that the region was sub.
merged at several different times
These and other geologic features OF
the region near Leavenworth, Kan.
and east of it, in Missouri, including
its mineral sources, are described in
folio Of the Geologic Atlas of the
4 United States just issued by the Unit.
ed States Geological Survey, Depart
ment of the Interior. This folio, the
MISUNDERSTANDING folio No. 2O6)
which was prepared in cooperation
with the Missouri Bureau of Geology
and Mines contains also geologic
maps and numerous other illustra-
tions. 1t may be obtained by send
ing Is cents to the Director of the
Survey.