The Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) is a research and service division of the University of Kansas, charged by statute with studying and providing information on the geologic resources of Kansas. The KGS has no regulatory authority and does not take positions on natural resource issues.
The sign for the Kansas Geological Survey offices in Lawrence, carved from the state's unique Fencepost limestone.
The Dakota is a sedimentary geologic unit name of formation and group rank in Midwestern North America. The Dakota units are generally composed of sandstones, mudstones, clays, and shales deposited in the Mid-Cretaceous opening of the Western Interior Seaway. The usage of the name Dakota for this particular Albian-Cenomanian strata is exceptionally widespread; from British Columbia and Alberta to Montana and Wisconsin to Colorado and Kansas to Utah and Arizona. It is famous for producing massive colorful rock formations in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains of the United States, and for preserving both dinosaur footprints and early deciduous tree leaves.
Road cut into the lower Dakota Group at crest of Dinosaur Ridge, near Golden, Colorado
Dakota Formation in Central Kansas
Schematic reconstruction of the eastern side of the Cretaceous seaway during deposition of the sediments that eventually became the Dakota Formation. Erosional highlands occur in South Dakota and Minnesota.
Lignite coal seam and mine, Wilson, Kansas, 1873
