Editing Kansas River (section)

==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 [[Fault (geology)|geologic fault]]ing, [[Fold (geology)|folding]], or [[Orogeny|mountain building]] in recent [[Geologic time scale|geologic time]]. From the confluence at Junction City, the river flows through [[limestone]], [[shale]], [[mudstone]], and occasional [[sandstone]] [[stratum|strata]] that, except for [[diagenesis]], remain largely undisturbed since [[deposition (geology)|deposition]] in shallow [[Carboniferous]] and [[Permian]] seas. The age of the [[rock (geology)|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 [[Ozarks|Ozark]] [[dome (geology)|dome]] to the southeast caused the strata in Kansas to [[Strike and dip|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]].<ref>{{cite web |title=KGS Map M-118--Surficial Geology of Kansas |publisher= Kansas Geological Survey |url=http://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/Geology/gifs/M118_150dpi.pdf |year= 2010 }}</ref>

All of the rocks in the eastern Kansas valley are [[Sedimentary rock|sedimentary]], ranging from [[Late Pennsylvanian]] (300 million years ago) through the Permian, with three notable exceptions from the [[Quaternary]] Period. The first is river [[sand]] and [[gravel]] deposits, which have been carried in largely from erosion of the Ogallala and Cretaceous rocks by the western extents of the Kansas River tributaries. Second, the retreat of the [[Kansan glaciation]] left behind a combination of ice- and meltwater-deposited [[sediment]]s known as drifta, a poorly sorted mixture of clay, sand, gravel, and even large boulders that cover parts the Kansas River basin from the [[Big Blue River (Kansas)|Big Blue River]] and eastward. The third is [[loess]], a fine [[silt]] that may have originally been deposited by the melting water of the receding glaciers, then redeposited by the wind. The thickest loess deposits can be found in the northwest and north-central part of the Kansas River basin from southern Nebraska into northwest Kansas, as well as near the river's mouth.<ref name="autogenerated1" />