Page 8
University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1964
Survey Uncovers 'Loot In Them Thar Hills'
The state officials, businessmen, and university heads sat up straight in the small paneled room on the KU campus and listened intently. They had just heard a report that sounded like money.
William Hambleton, associate director of the State Geological Survey had told a meeting of the newly formed Kansas Research Foundation that there may be ore deposits under Kansas, that aluminum can be made from the state's salt and clay, and that the state's volcanic ash industry is reviving.
These are the results of research by the Geological Survey at KU, which this year celebrates both its Centennial and Diamond Jubilee anniversary. The first Geological Survey of Kansas was established in 1864 marking the beginning of 100 years of geologic study. The present Geological Survey was established in 1889 at KU by the legislature, thus the Geological Survey marks the 75th year since its beginning.
GOV. JOHN ANDERSON moved quickly to ask Hambleton for a more complete report on the possibilities Hambleton had just described, The report is on the Governor's desk now. It suggests the great economic potential of university geological research.
Kansas volcanic ash production faded 20 years ago when better abrasives were discovered for household cleansers. Hambleton's report notes. Geological Survey researchers have discovered, however, that the ash can be "popped" like breakfast food, and turned into everything from acoustical tile to insulation to swimming pool filter material.
More than 20 million tons of the ash lie just beneath the top soil in 40 Kansas counties. At least six Kansas companies are interested in production possibilities.
Survey representatives also have been working with industrial groups in Ellsworth County to develop practical methods of producing aluminum and aluminum oxide from the area's clay.
IT IS POSSIBLE to produce aluminum oxide by combining the clay with hydrochloric acid, which in turn is produced from the vast salt deposits of central Kansas.
As for ore deposits they are possibly in Precambrian "basement rocks" which are everywhere under
Kansas, and are within 500 feet of the surface in eastern Kansas. It would require an aerial magnetic survey costing perhaps $300,000 to begin to determine if there is ore worth mining, at places where these rocks are shallow.
These are some of the investigations which may have immediate economic importance. They have been brought to light by the Geological Survey, an organization consisting of 70 full and part-time researchers and technicians and an annual budget of about $650,000.
Some of the newest studies of the Geological Survey use an electronic computer. The Survey is concerned with the storage and retrieval of large quantities of geologic information. In addition, computers are used to produce 3-dimensional trend surface maps that may have great significance in finding future oil reserves.
THE SURVEY and several other departments of the university are establishing a joint conference and production group on computer problems. Some of these problems will involve "economic modeling." Mineral economists want to know more about the relationship between prices, cost of transportation, production, taxes, etc. in terms of the economic feasibility of mineral commodity development.
The University next summer will install a large IBM 7040 computer which will greatly speed these computations.
Geological Council Elects Chairman
Robert F. Walters, Wichita geologist, has been elected chairman of the Mineral Industries Council, an advisory group to the State Geological Survey located here.
The 12-member Council met here last Thursday and Friday to analyze operations of the Survey and make recommendations for fitting it into the current drive for economic development in Kansas.
Walters, of the Walters Drilling Co., in Wichita, is a consulting geologist. He holds the Ph.D. degree from The Johns Hopkins University.
He is a past president of the Kansas Geological Society and is active in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Some of the Geological Survey studies involve a bit of mystery. For instance, Kansas is the nation's greatest producer of helium gas, yet no one knows where it came from, how it was formed, or what causes it to collect in certain underground locations.
DR. FREDERIC SIEGEI, recently returned from two years in Argentina to head the Survey's geochemistry division, is beginning to study these questions. In basic research over the next few years, he will assemble data from every Kansas petroleum log that has been analyzed for helium.
From these, he hopes to find some correlation between a well's helium content and its surrounding geologic structure. Geologists suspect there is a relation here which will enable them to know more about underground geology by studying helium analyses.
Some other services of the State Geological Survey are in continual use. Perhaps the Survey's most widely known services are those to the Kansas petroleum industry, plus its continuing study of the state's ground-water reserves.
THE SURVEY maintains 150,000 driller's logs, logs, 45,000 electric and radioactivity logs, and cuttings from 75,000 wells. These are readily available to the public. The Ground Water Division records observations in 800 water wells throughout the state. Its geologists have prepared ground-water reports in 75 Kansas counties. There will be new developments in this service too. Electronic computers will be put to work to study the relation between rainfall, irrigation, runoff, and other factors which affect ground-water supplies. Computers will be used to study the water yield of water-bearing rocks. These data will be useful if it ever becomes necessary to regulate Kansas' increasing use of irrigation.
The University and the State Geological Survey can continue these kinds of research so long as adequate support is received. Hambleton told Governor Anderson.
FOR SOME projects, the Geological Survey and the KU Department of Geology cooperate on research to provide more basic fundamental facts about the earth beneath us.
For example, Prof. Louis Dellwig works with another mystery—Kansas salt. Geologists are certain that the salt came from an ancient sea, but are puzzled by the size of the deposits, which in some areas are 500 to 1,000 feet thick.
The Classical Film Series presents
THE SAVAGE EYE THE GIFT
Outstanding Films by American Independent Directors
Wednesday, February 19 Fraser Theatre-7:00 p.m.
Admission: $.60
Advanced Single Admission Tickets Now on Sale at Kansas Union - Season Tickets Only $5.00
Different kinds of salts customarily settle from sea water in a succession of layers. It may have been an unusual sea with unusual currents which deposited so much of one kind of salt (sodium chloride) in Kansas.
IN THE PAST YEAR such basic research has taken several of the KU geology department to the Antarctic, the Pacific Ocean, Africa, and to widely scattered locations in the United States and Europe.
Professor Dellwig is at the University of Tubingen, Germany, this year on a Fulbright scholarship, comparing German salt deposits with those of Kansas.
The famed research of Dr. Edward Zeller into thermoluminescence—the dating of rocks by heating radioactive samples—has taken him to Antarctica several times with graduate students. Eventually, his research may determine how many thousands of years have elapsed since Antarctica slowly changed from a lush tropical area to afrozen wasteland.
THE WORK OF Dr. Richard Benson and his graduate students has
taken them to coastal areas and the Indian Ocean in pursuit of the ostracode, a tiny animal resembling a shrimp which represents an important form of life found in rocks extending back for more than 500 million years.
Dr. Frank C. Foley is in the Ivory Coast of Africa investigating ground water in an area where water supply is a difficult problem—a subject familiar to geologists.
During the past two years more than $100,000 has come from agencies outside the state to support basic Kansas geology research. This is in addition to regular operating budgets of the university geology department and the Geological Survey. Much more research will be done as space and equipment were available, said William Merrill, geology department chairman.
Kansan Classified Ads Get Results!
SEE FABULOUS
COBRA
NOW ON DISPLAY
JOHN HADDOCK FORD
714 Vermont
Europe For Less All Student Trips
Enjoy all-expense-paid travel with others your own age who share your interests. Special student sailings. Escorted. 15 years experience. Get full details from your local travel agent or write American Youth Abroad, 70 University Sta., Minneapolis, Minn.
EUROPE — **Rambler**, 10 countries, 37 days, from $1027 — **Ha'p'ny**, 15 countries, 49 days, from $1215 — **Vagabond** to Eastern Europe, 17 countries, including Russia, 56 days, from $1498. ROUND THE WORLD — 8th annual World tour, 54 days, 16 countries, from $2595.
DO YOU KNOW WHY SUSIE ELEPHANT BUYS STATIONERY AT CARTERS?
BECAUSE THEY HAVE A BIG SELECTION.
CARTER'S STATIONERY 1025 Mass.