Pliocene and Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Meade Basin, Southwestern Kansas

Abstract

The Meade basin lies chiefly in Meade County, southwestern Kansas, at the eastern edge of the High Plains. The field studies reported in this paper were carried on in Meade County and in adjacent parts of Clark, Ford, and Seward counties, Kansas, and Beaver County, Oklahoma. This area contains nearly complete sequence of continental Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits. These strata are here described and reclassified as the Laverne and Ogallala formations of Pliocene age, and the Meade and Kingsdown formations of Quarternary age. The age and stratigraphic position of the late Pliocene Rexroad fauna and of several local Pleistocene faunas are discussed.