AAPG Mid-Continent Field Conference 2024
The Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway:
Depositional Environment and Paleontology
FIELD TRIP
SATURDAY, OCT. 19
Link to Special Spouse/Guest Field Trip.
Spouse/Guest registrants will have the opportunity to participate in a special surprise trip also on Saturday, check the separate link for details.
Departure Time: 8:30 am
Departure Location: FHSU Campus, Gross Memorial Coliseum Parking lot
This field trip focuses on the Western Interior Seaway, a vast inland sea that divided the North American continent into two landmasses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east, during the Cretaceous period. The seaway was approximately 2,600 feet deep, 620 miles wide, and over 2,000 miles long. It formed during a period of high global sea level in the Phanerozoic, connecting the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
Participants will visit sedimentary sequences deposited in Western Kansas during the incursion of the Western Interior Seaway. Outcrops of the Dakota Formation, Graneros Shale, Greenhorn Formation, Cordell Sandstone member, and the Niobrara Formation in Western Kansas will be examined by participants to illustrate varying depositional environments during the incursion of the Western Interior Seaway.
Group transportation will be provided for this field trip. Boxed Lunch will be provided for all registered participants.
Locations of some outcrops of sedimentary units deposited during the incursion of Western Interior Seaway in Western Kansas, KS (X- Fort Hays State University; A - Dakota Formation; B - Greenhorn Formation; C - Graneros Shales; D – Cordell Sandstone Member; F – Niobrara Formation)
Outcrop of the Niobrara Formation, Gove County, KS
Roadcut revealing the Greenhorn Formation, Russel County, KS
STERNBERG MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
SUNDAY, OCT. 20
Exploration of the collections and operations of the museum with emphasis on curated fossils illustrating fauna and flora associated with the incursion of the Western Interior Seaway in the Cretaceous in Western Kansas.
Two tour time options available: 8:00 am-10:00 am & 10:00 am -12:00 pm
Please select your preferred tour time on your registration form
A fossil of Xiphactinus with a Gillicus arcuatus within its stomach. The fossils were recovered from Gove County, Kansas in 1952 by George F. Sternberg ("Fish Within a Fish at Sternberg Museum" (2021). Sternberg Photograph Collection.52. https://scholars.fhsu.edu/sternberg_photos/52)