Structural Geology of the Manhattan, Kansas Area

Abstract

The major structural features within the Manhattan area, the Salina basin, Abilene anticline, Irving syncline, Nemaha anticline, and Forest City basin, lie beneath a westward dipping cover of Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks, the Prairie Plains homocline. Imposed upon these major structural elements is an array of kimberlite plugs, minor folds and thrusts, and high-angle faults. The thrusts, minor folds, and kimberlite plugs seem to be the result of reactivated strike-slip movement along an old fault zone buried beneath the Permian and Pennsylvanian sediments in the Abilene anticline area; the high-angle faults are apparently the result of reactivated vertical movements of a buried fault zone in the Nemaha anticline area. The regional joints appear to have been an important controlling factor in determining the trend of the high-angle faults and the emplacement of the kimberlite plugs.