Bethany Falls Limestone
Bethany Falls Limestone extends from central Iowa to Oklahoma and is an important and recognizable geologic feature in the Kansas City area.
This outcrop along Indian Creek under the Holmes Street Bridge and Watts Mill at 103rd Street and State Line Road is a good example of the limestone and shale beds that compose much of the geology of the Kansas City area. These beds can be followed continuously over long distances in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. Layers of limestone, shale and sandstone are call cyclothems.
The cyclothems indicate that there were changing environments in the Kansas City area approximately 300 million years ago, during the Pennsylvanian Period of geologic history.
ROCK RIFFLES such as the one pictured left, located near the Trailside Center just upstream from the 99th Street Bridge are rare in the Blue River Basin.
U.S. Geological Survey
Missouri Water Science Center-Kansas City
Lee's Summit, MO
http://mo.water.usgs.gov
