GEOLOGIC MAPPING OF RICE COUNTY, KANSAS

Rice County, located in central Kansas, is one of four counties currently undergoing new geologic mapping in Kansas as part of the State Geological Survey Mapping (STATEMAP) portion of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP). The county is transected by the Arkansas River and is one of the most eastern extensions of the High Plains in Kansas. Further, it is bisected northwest to southeast by a physiographic boundary where the northeastern half falls within the Smoky Hills physiographic region and consists of a Quaternary loess mantle overlaying the Neogene Ogallala Formation and Cretaceous bedrock. The southwest portion of the county lies within the Arkansas River Lowlands physiographic region and is comprised of Quaternary-age alluvium (floodplains and terraces) and eolian sand dunes and sheets. Rice County was one of the four counties recently selected for updated geologic mapping for several reasons: the High Plains aquifer is being stressed by residential and heavy agriculture use; high commercial demand for construction aggregate; and, after several recent consecutive years of drought, the potential reactivation of sand dunes. This poster showcases the status of the Rice County geologic mapping project, highlighting the newly-completed mapped geology. Work has been conducted in stages with the annual mapping boundaries based on specified USGS 7.5-minute topographic quadrangles. To date, four full and seven partial quadrangles have been mapped, with the remaining two full and four partial quads to be completed in FY 2016. The mapping was accomplished using Esri ArcGIS software; geologic contacts were estimated through field methods (e.g., backhoe trenching, shallow coring) in combination with remote sensing techniques using LiDAR data and NAIP imagery. Maps were subsequently field checked and reviewed by various scientists.