Jutting up from the southern border of Kansas is a rugged region known as the Chautauqua Hills. In a band approximately 10 miles wide, these sandstone-capped hills extend as far north as Yates Center in Woodson County. The sandstones in the Chautauqua Hills are the Tonganoxie Sandstone Member of the Stranger Formation and Ireland Sandstone Member of the Lawrence Formation. Locally known as the Chautauqua sandstone, both are thick units, the remains of deposits that filled a large river valley during the Pennsylvanian Period, about 300 million years ago. A good place to see typical Chautauqua Hills sandstones is at The Hollow, a city park in Sedan located a block east of downtown. At the park’s entrance is a display of limestone from Chautauqua County containing numerous fossils of rugose coral, which lived at the bottom of shallow seas during the Pennsylvanian Period.

Kansas Geological Survey Advisory Council

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Director: Lee Allison

The mission of the Kansas Geological Survey, operated by the University of Kansas in connection with its research and service program, is to conduct geological studies and research and to collect, correlate, preserve, and disseminate information leading to a better understanding of the geology of Kansas, with special emphasis on natural resources of economic value, water quality and quantity, and geologic hazards.

The Geology Extension program furthers the mission of the KGS by developing materials, projects, and services that communicate information about the geology of Kansas, the state's earth resources, and the products of the Kansas Geological Survey to the people of the state.

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Online February 10, 2003

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URL:http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/GeoRecord/2001/vol7.2/Page4.html