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40-486: Initially described as marine shales, the 500–700 feet (150–210 m) thick Wellington appears mostly as dark gray, thinly bedded soft rock, much of it terrestrial, with sediments from fresh water ponds and salt lakes. There are several variable beds of anhydrite and gypsum and the central body of most of the formation is a massive salt bed. Localized red beds and green shales indicate conditions of exposed soils with shallow freshwater tables. Marine fossils are limited to

80-482: A lower Wellington shale member. However, these informally named divisions are based only upon the position of the Hutchinson Salt Member in the general middle of the formation, which is usually but not always present. Some limestone beds, typically dolomite, are observed within these upper and lower shale divisions, variously ranked as members, and the otherwise unnamed adjoining shales may be classified with

120-421: A netted appearance and have been referred to as chicken-wire anhydrite . Nodular anhydrite occurs as replacement of gypsum in a variety of sedimentary depositional environments. Massive amounts of anhydrite occur when salt domes form a caprock . Anhydrite is 1–3% of the minerals in salt domes and is generally left as a cap at the top of the salt when the halite is removed by pore waters. The typical cap rock

160-665: A railroad employee for his wife Ann and daughter Ellie . A post office existed in Annelly from August 25, 1885, to December 31, 1921. In 1910, Annelly, (population 25) had a money order post office, a station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad , a grain elevator , a hotel, and a general store. In 2003, the railroad track was abandoned. Today only the Main Street (Annelly Road or SE 57th Street, accessible from S East Lake Rd. and SE 60th Street) of Annelly still exists. Until

200-583: A relatively impervious protective barrier between the brines of the Permian formations and the fresh water of the surface aquifers used for domestic supplies. Particularly, this means that the thousands of oil wells in western Kansas must penetrate the Hutchinson Salt Member and other beds of soluble salt, anhydrite, and gypsum of the upper Permian rocks. During World War II , steel outer casings were recovered from completed cable-drilled wells in Russell County, but

240-572: A relief carving of an anhydrite kiln, made from a piece of anhydrite, for the United Sulphuric Acid Corporation . Extensive structural damage in the German city of Staufen im Breisgau has occurred since a 2007 geothermal drilling project allowed subsurface water to invade a layer of anhydrite below the city, causing extensive but uneven ground swelling as pockets of the anhydrite converted to gypsum. Annelly, Kansas Annelly

280-552: A special annual "Hunt for Red Rock-tober" tour where guided visitors may access and collect from the mine's tailing piles of red salt, generally considered to be a contaminated waste product. Following Interstate 70 in Northcentral Kansas , just east of Salina , travelers are guided over a scenic range of hills between the broad Saline and Solomon valleys. Here, the collapsing Hutchinson Salt Member and predominately red Ninnescah Shale are both absent and these bluffs are

320-592: Is a ghost town in Richland Township 9 miles southeast of Newton in Harvey County , Kansas , United States. The community was located along the Missouri Pacific Railroad line between Newton and Whitewater , but the track was abandoned in 2003. As of 2020, the land is privately owned farmland. For many millennia , the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans . From

360-435: Is a salt, topped by a layer of anhydrite, topped by patches of gypsum, topped by a layer of calcite. Interaction of anhydrite with hydrocarbons at high temperature in oil fields can reduce sulfate ( SO 4 ) into hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) with a concomitant precipitation of calcite . The process is known as thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). Anhydrite has been found in some igneous rocks , for example in

400-588: Is close to the surface, ground water dissolves the salt, causing the upper Wellington shales to sink and become covered by river and lake muds. Hutchinson, Kansas has been a focus of extraction of salt from the Hutchinson Salt Member. Several geological tourism opportunities occur underground within the Hutchinson salt mine in relation to the Strataca Salt Mine Museum , including overnight camping for organized groups, underground foot and bicycle races, and

440-455: Is deposited if the temperature is above 40 °C (104 °F). This is one method by which the mineral has been prepared artificially and is identical with its mode of origin in nature. The mineral is common in salt basins . Anhydrite occurs in a tidal flat environment in the Persian Gulf sabkhas as massive diagenetic replacement nodules . Cross sections of these nodular masses have

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480-506: Is most frequently found in evaporite deposits with gypsum; it was, for instance, first discovered in 1794 in a salt mine near Hall in Tirol . In this occurrence, depth is critical since nearer the surface anhydrite has been altered to gypsum by absorption of circulating ground water. From an aqueous solution , calcium sulfate is deposited as crystals of gypsum, but when the solution contains an excess of sodium or potassium chloride , anhydrite

520-481: Is the deepest of the three and holds water continuously, becoming a local wetlands environment. Anhydrite Anhydrite , or anhydrous calcium sulfate , is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO 4 . It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry . It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium ( baryte ) and strontium ( celestine ) sulfates, as might be expected from

560-573: The Coronado Heights public park atop Coronado Hill, the landforms are visible, resulting from the interaction of the resistant Dakota and Kiowa sandstones, the less resistant Ninnescah and Wellington shales, and the dissolution of the Hutchinson Salt Member. South of Coronado Hill lies the original and present course of the Smoky Hill River. Here, flowing out of the Smoky Hills in the west,

600-659: The Wellington-McPherson Lowlands . West of this valley, the Wellington shales gradually slope deeper underground beneath the Ninnescah Shale , but the unit extends no further West than the western Kansas border. At a time of extreme global glaciation, the location of the Wellington deposit was equatorial and glacier-free. The climate was generally arid but with cyclic variation in global temperatures and precipitation recorded by layers of windblown dust deposited in

640-407: The intrusive dioritic pluton of El Teniente, Chile and in trachyandesite pumice erupted by El Chichón volcano, Mexico. The name anhydrite was given by A. G. Werner in 1804, because of the absence of water of crystallization, as contrasted with the presence of water in gypsum. Some obsolete names for the species are muriacite and karstenite; the former, an earlier name, being given under

680-600: The 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America . In 1762, after the French and Indian War , France secretly ceded New France to Spain , per the Treaty of Fontainebleau . In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of

720-524: The 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre . In 1854, the Kansas Territory was organized, then in 1861 Kansas became the 34th U.S. state . In 1872, Harvey County was established within the Kansas Territory , which included the land for modern day Annelly. The community was established after the Missouri Pacific was built through the area. Annelly was named by

760-519: The Annelly alabaster that was quarried there, locally called "marble", was used in the construction of the so-called "marble block" of the historic Smith commercial building in Wellington, Kansas . As a shale, the Wellington Formation has limited exposures, but tends towards forming moderate soil-covered slopes below Kiowa Sandstone caprocks. This is aggravated by the fact that when the Wellington

800-472: The Hutchinson Salt (only soft shale, sand, and very thin chalk) the sinking is very steady and gradual. Interstate 70 was knowingly constructed over three of these sinkholes west of Russell, Kansas . The lanes have been elevated repeatedly since construction and an adjoining overpass was removed to avoid its impending collapse. All three sinkholes hold open fresh water in wet periods. The Crawford Sinkhole

840-574: The Hutchinson Salt is near the surface, it can be dissolved by the normal circulation of fresh groundwater. The dissolving salt results in collapse of overlying rock and the discharge of salt into surface water, degrading some freshwater sources. The lower Wellington consists of interbedded cycles of gray anhydritic mudrock and anhydrite, the anhydrite and gypsum being quarried in some locations. The lower shale includes several discontinuous beds of limestone and dolostone. In some locations, these thin limestone beds are sufficiently resistant that they influence

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880-475: The Ninnescah Shale below this side of the valley floor. On the bluffs visible on the far east side of the valley, the Ninnescah Shale is completely missing and the Wellington Formation rises over 100 feet (30 m) above the bottom of the valley. The Hutchinson Salt Member did not extend as far east as these bluffs, so these present bluffs are stable and beyond the eastern extent of the collapse. A head of

920-410: The Smoky Hill River. Roughly 80 feet (24 m) of upper Wellington Shale are exposed from the excavation, including a color change higher on the sides and short waterfalls over resistant layers of dolomite. Indian Rock Park includes this hill and the surrounding area with fields, cliffs, and recreational trails. Glennifer Hill Drive leads to the hilltop for parking, a panoramic city view, and trails into

960-465: The basin. The habitable environment, while initially a marine embayment, was primarily non-marine, with great many cyclic variations between dry, fresh water, brackish water, and brine. The Wellington is not particularly rigorously divided into subunits as few easily identifiable features are consistent other than the dark shale; but certain subdivisions are recognized. Broadly, the Wellington shales are divided into an upper Wellington shale member and

1000-411: The chemical formulas. Distinctly developed crystals are somewhat rare, the mineral usually presenting the form of cleavage masses. The Mohs hardness is 3.5, and the specific gravity is 2.9. The color is white, sometimes greyish, bluish, or purple. On the best developed of the three cleavages, the lustre is pearly; on other surfaces it is glassy. When exposed to water, anhydrite readily transforms to

1040-618: The destructive and fatal 2001 Yaggy/Hutchinson natural gas storage leak. However, these beds might correspond with the Milan Limestone. Hutchinson Salt consists of repeating beds of salt, anhydrite, and gray shale, totaling up to 300 feet (91 m). The unit is present in much of central Kansas and north-central Oklahoma. The member is encountered in oil and gas exploration throughout the region. The salt has been mined with both shaft mining and dissolution mining. Mining communities include Hutchinson , Lyons , Kingman , and Kanoplis . Where

1080-516: The diversion channel as well as to the Wellington shale exposed by the abandoned brick factory quarry now named Indian Rock Lake. Early oil exploration in western Kansas focused largely on the Carboniferous formations, such as the Kansas City - Lansing limestones at a depth of 3,300 feet (1.0 km). The higher Permian formation is important to this exploration both as marker horizons as well as

1120-547: The early 2010s an old one-room school house stood near the townsite, although the schoolhouse could not be observed or approached from public roads. The school house was moved to property owned by Lewis Earl Entz. It has been restored but is on private property. For many years, even after the school closed this was the community center, for 4H and the Women's Farm Bureau which became the EHU Extension Homemakers Units. It

1160-520: The forming Kansas River reached south through the collapse to capture the Smoky Hill River, which is why the river today makes a 24 miles (39 km) jog to the north to the upper Kansas Valley. In the late 1950s, as part of a Diversion By-pass and Flood Control project for Salina , a diversion channel was excavated through the Indian Hill prominence of the Kiowa/Wellington bluffs at the turn of

1200-563: The impression that the substance was a chloride (muriate). A peculiar variety occurring as contorted concretionary masses is known as tripe-stone, and a scaly granular variety, from Volpino , near Bergamo , in Lombardy , as vulpinite; the latter is cut and polished for ornamental purposes. A semi-transparent light blue-grey variety from Peru is referred to by the trade name angelite . The Catalyst Science Discovery Centre in Widnes, England , has

1240-403: The landscape; some are even geologically mappable on the local scale. The very lowest beds of the lower Wellington are the only representation of marine environment within the Wellington Formation. Carlton Limestone is a locally ledge-forming, mappable marker bed for the lower Wellington outcrop. It is associated with "Carlton Insect Beds", although a number of other insect beds are known within

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1280-539: The lowest beds while the remainder features freshwater species and land life, particularly insects and reptiles. Compared to the earlier Permian rock formations in the midcontinent, the Wellington is somewhat more restricted in range. The Wellington is identified in western Kansas, northwest Oklahoma, and the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle , but with no identification in Nebraska (compare with relative extension of

1320-435: The more commonly occurring gypsum , (CaSO 4 ·2H 2 O) by the absorption of water. This transformation is reversible, with gypsum or calcium sulfate hemihydrate forming anhydrite by heating to around 200 °C (400 °F) under normal atmospheric conditions. Anhydrite is commonly associated with calcite , halite , and sulfides such as galena , chalcopyrite , molybdenite , and pyrite in vein deposits. Anhydrite

1360-404: The named limestones. Like the salt, each is not always recognizably present. The upper Wellington consists primarily of interbedded cycles of gray anhydritic mudrock and red mudrock, but includes limited beds of discontinuous limestone and dolomite. Milan Limestone is the marker bed for the top of the upper Wellington, but it is not always present, its absence visibly obscuring the contact with

1400-539: The overlying Ninnescah Shale. Its appearance is typically a succession of discontinuous, thin carbonate beds. One outcrop is in the bank of the Chikaskia River south of Milan, Kansas , where it consists of three beds of dolomite separated by shale, all with green flecks of malachite . Three-finger dolomite is an approximate 20 foot zone containing three relatively thin dolomite beds, informally named in south-central Kansas. These beds are under study for their role in

1440-681: The result of erosion of resistant sandstones in the Kiowa overlying the relatively tough and stable shales of the upper Wellington. The result is lesser bluffs that are geologically similar to those formed by the Dakota Formation over Ninnescah Shale just west of Salina. Coronado Hill is one of the Dakota remnant hills forming the hummocky outliers of the Smoky Hill Buttes range of the Smoky Hills . From

1480-515: The river previously continued to the southeast, but its present course is east across the valley then turning north to Salina. This broad north–south valley is largely the result of collapsing formations as the Hutchinson Salt Member was dissolved. The slopes of Coronado Hill are the Kiowa Shale, the Ninnescah Shale extends from the lower slopes to the valley floor, and the full thickness of the Wellington Formation with intact Hutchinson Salt lies beneath

1520-492: The underlying Chase Group into Nebraska and Eastern Kansas). The surface outcrop lies generally along or between the north–south highways U.S. 81 and U.S. 77 . South of Salina into northern Oklahoma, the westward dipping Wellington lies under a broad, shallow valley; here, the upper Wellington has collapsed as the Hutchinson Salt member has dissolved, forming lowlands including the McPherson Valley Wetlands and

1560-501: The upper and lower Wellington. Hollenberg Limestone is also a ledge-forming, locally mappable marker bed for the lower Wellington surface topography. Annelly gypsum is named for Annelly, Kansas , and overlies the Geuda Springs shale member . The alabaster and selenite forms of gypsum are both also present, and were mined at the mineral springs resort community of Geuda Springs, Kansas . Although not an ideal building material,

1600-440: The wells were not correctly sealed. The lack of cement casing and plugging means that surface fresh water now drains down the well bores and on passing through the salt, anhydrite, and gypsum beds dissolves and carries away those minerals. This dissolution causes water-filled voids 1,300 to 1,600 feet (490 m) below the surface, still enlarging and slowly collapsing today, causing active sinkholes. As no strong formations lie above

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