REMOTE SENSING CHARACTERIZATION OF ELEVATED SUB-HORIZONTAL TOPOGRAPHIC SURFACES IN THE WICHITA MOUNTAINS, OKLAHOMA

Multiple, elevated, horizontal to sub-horizontal, topographic surfaces are present throughout the Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma. Elevated topographic surfaces, developed primarily on granite bedrock, with gentle slopes of 0.5 to 7°, were investigated using remote sensing techniques which include: 1) Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) extracted from NAD 27 UTM coordinates, 2) Google Earth imagery, and 3) USGS topographic maps. In the western Wichita Mountains prominent topographic surfaces at elevations of 720 ± 5 m, 685 ± 5 m, and 660 ± 5 m are well preserved on at least four different mountains (e.g., Solder’s Peak, King Mt.). These topographic surfaces can be correlated with similar topographic surfaces, at similar elevations, on at least seven different mountains (e.g., Pinchot, Mt. Scott, North Mt.) in the eastern Wichita Mountains. A less well developed surface at 585 ±5 m is present in the eastern Wichita Mountains and may not be preserved in the western Wichita Mountains. Additional surfaces at other elevations are suspected.

These surfaces are interpreted to be relict pediments, and/or remnants of more extensive peneplains, subsequently dissected as a result of long term time-integrated changes in base level, climate, and/or tectonic uplift. Correlation of sub-horizontal surfaces at several distinct elevations between the western and eastern Wichita Mountains indicates the entire Wichita Mountains basement behaved as a coherent, continuous, crustal block since at least the Mid Cenozoic. The presence of multiple, elevated, sub-horizontal, regional topographic surfaces throughout the Wichita Mountains complicates direct correlation of these surfaces to the Southern High Plains peneplain using either a linear regression or an exponential fit along a line of projection. Thus, a finer resolution of the timing of development of individual elevated surfaces in the Wichita Mountains needs to be established to facilitate regional correlation and interpretation of these surfaces.