Surficial Geology of Crawford County, Kansas

Kansas Geological Survey

Crawford County is located in the southeast corner of Kansas, near the western edge of the Ozark uplift. This surficial geology map shows the bedrock layers found at the surface or immediately under the vegetation and soil. This is the first geologic map of Crawford County, the eastern third of which was extensively mined for coal in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

This map helps users make informed decisions about land use and energy, mineral, and water resources, such as determining the extent of subsidence problems around abandoned underground mines in the Pittsburg area. Both strip mines and underground mines, none currently active, are shown on the map.

The surface rocks throughout the county were deposited during the Pennsylvanian Subperiod of the Carboniferous Period, about 300 million years ago, and consist mainly of limestone, sandstone, and shale. The coal beds are also carboniferous. Sand, gravel, silt, and clay deposited along the streams and creeks, however, are significantly younger.

The map shows the distribution, rock type, and age of bedrock near the earth’s surface. It can be used to identify surface and subsurface lithologic units and their stratigraphic relationships, show geologic structures, delineate thick surficial materials such as alluvium, and show the spatial orientation of these features. The map includes a stratigraphic column depicting the vertical sequence, thickness, and lithologies of the geologic units. A generalized description of each unit is also included. An east–west cross section shows the vertical relationship of the rock units.

Courtesy of Kansas Geological Survey.

Map Book Page [PDF]