Geology The Kansas River flows through what is known as the Stable Interior region. Since this region is near the center of the North American Plate, it has not experienced any extensive geologic faulting, folding, or mountain building in recent geologic time. From the confluence at Junction City, the river flows through limestone, shale, mudstone, and occasional sandstone strata that, except for diagenesis, remain largely undisturbed since deposition in shallow Carboniferous and Permian seas. The age of the rock exposed by the river becomes progressively older as the river moves downstream for two main reasons. First, downstream areas experience more erosion from increased flow, and second because the slight uplift of the Ozark dome to the southeast caused the strata in Kansas to dip very slightly to the west. The Smoky Hill River and Republican River tributaries reach far to the west into the Cretaceous deposits of the Western Interior Seaway and the Neogene Period deposits of material from the uplift of the Rocky Mountains, which created the Ogallala Formation.
Geology The Kansas River flows through what is known as the Stable Interior region. Since this region is near the center of the North American Plate, it has not experienced any extensive geologic faulting, folding, or mountain building in recent geologic time. From the confluence at Junction City, the river flows through limestone, shale, mudstone, and occasional sandstone strata that, except for diagenesis, remain largely undisturbed since deposition in shallow Carboniferous and Permian seas. The age of the rock exposed by the river becomes progressively older as the river moves downstream for two main reasons. First downstream areas experience more erosion from increased flow, and second because the slight uplift of the Ozark dome to the southeast caused the strata in Kansas to dip very slightly to the west. The Smoky Hill River and Republican River tributaries reach far to the west into the Cretaceous deposits of the Western Interior Seaway and the Neogene Period deposits of material from the uplift of the Rocky Mountains, which created the Ogallala Formation.