Sustainable Development of Water Resources
Water is considered a renewable resource, but in parts of Kansas, water resources are not being renewed, at least in the short term. Safe Yield and Sustainable Development of Water Resources in Kansas, a new public information circular by Marios Sophocleous, Geohydrology Section, and Robert Sawin, Geology Extension, explains why the entire water system—the hydrologic cycle—needs to be considered in managing water resources. It describes how ground water and surface water interact, why the concept of safe yield is not sustainable yield, and how sustainable development can be applied to water-resource management in Kansas.

Copies of Safe Yield and Sustainable Development of Water Resources in Kansas (Public Information Circular 9) can be obtained free of charge by contacting Publications Sales at the KGS. It is also available electronically through the Survey’s World Wide Web site at www.kgs.ku.edu.

Current Research
Chert gravel found on hilltops in east-central Kansas provides clues about the ancient courses of several modern Kansas rivers. A study by James Aber of Emporia State University, Chert Gravel and Neogene Drainage in East-central Kansas, shows the probable drainage routes of the Arkansas, Verdigris, Neosho, and Marais des Cygnes rivers several million years ago.

Aber’s article is one of four articles in KGS Bulletin 240, Current Research in Earth Sciences, Other articles in the bulletin are Heat Flow in the Cretaceous of Northwestern Kansas and Implications for Regional Hydrology, by Andrea Förster and Daniel Merriam; Comparison of Maturation Data and Fluid-inclusion Homogenization Temperatures to Simple Thermal Models: Implications for Thermal History and Fluid Flow in the Midcontinent, by K. David Newell; and Chemical Analyses of Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian Coals from Southeastern Kansas, by Lawrence L. Brady and Joseph R. Hatch. All of these articles were electronically published during 1997 as a KGS online bulletin at www.kgs.ku.edu/Current.

Copies of Current Research, Bulletin 240, are available from the KGS for $10, plus tax, shipping, and handling.

New

Publications

Major perennial streams in Kansas in 1961 and 1994 (from Public Information Circular 9).

The Kansas Earth Science Teachers Association and Kansas Geological Foundation have recognized Sam Wine, earth science teacher at Eureka High School, with the 1997–98 Excellence in Kansas Earth Science Education Award. This award of $1,000, funded by the Kansas Geological Foundation, is given to an outstanding earth science teacher in grades K–12. The award was presented in December at the Kansas Geological Foundation’s annual meeting in Wichita. Other finalists for the award were Beverly Ring (Oregon Trail Junior High School, Olathe), Roger Roots (Sherman Middle School, Hutchinson), and Vincent Coons (Iola High School). The finalists received publications from the Kansas Geological Survey.

Wine is the fifth recipient of the Excellence in Kansas Earth Science Education Award. Last year’s winner was Dan Kuhlman, earth science teacher at Eudora Middle School in Eudora, Kansas.

Earth Science Educator of the Year