On a Quaternary Section Eight Miles South-East of Des Moines, Iowa

Authors

Charles R. KeyesFollow
R. Ellsworth CallFollow

Document Type

Research

Abstract

The section is located on the line of the Wabash railway about two miles below the little station of Hastie. It forms a continuous exposure of nearly three-fourths of a mile in length; and in some places has almost a vertical face of from 125 to 150 feet. It is capped by twenty feet of loess, carrying characteristic fossils such as Succinea arara Say; Succinea obliqua Say; Helicina occulta Say; Pupa muscorum Linne; Vallonia pulchella Muller; Zonites arboreus, Say; Patula strigosa, Gould; and a large Helix, probably Mesodon thyroides, Say. Below the loess to the track level the section is made up of blue clays and straticulate sands and gravels with occasional large boulders. In the gravel several large fragments of carboniferous limestone with fossils were found. The lower sands rest directly upon the coal measure shales probably since these are well shown in the river bed 10 feet below the track. The section is of special interest, inasmuch as it is near the terminal moraine of the Des Moines lobe of the great glacier usually referred to the second epoch of the North American Ice Age.

Publication Date

1890

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Sciences

Volume

1

Issue

Pt. 2

First Page

30

Last Page

30

Copyright

©1890 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Keyes, Charles R. and Call, R. Ellsworth (1890) "On a Quaternary Section Eight Miles South-East of Des Moines, Iowa," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 1(Pt. 2), 30-30.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol1/iss2/19