How did the Niobrara rocks form?
The chalk formed from the accumulation of coccoliths from microorganisms living in what was once the Western Interior Seaway, an inland sea that divided the continent of North America during much of the Cretaceous. It underlies much of the Great Plains of the US and Canada.
Where is the Niobrara Formation?
The Niobrara Formation, commonly referred to as the Niobrara Shale, but also known as the Niobrara Chalk, was deposited in the Western Interior Seaway in the middle of North America during late Cretaceous Age.
Is Niobrara a shale?
2.22 Niobrara Shale The Niobrara shale formation (Denver-Julesburg Basin, Colorado) is a shale rock formation located in Northeast Colorado, Northwest Kansas, Southwest Nebraska, and Southeast Wyoming. Oil and natural gas can be found deep below the earth’s surface at depths of 3000–14,000.
Where was the Niobrara Chalk?
The Cretaceous-age Niobrara Chalk in western Kansas was deposited in a massive inland sea that ran north to south across west-central North America about 80 million years ago.
How wide is the Niobrara River?
əˈbrærə/; Omaha-Ponca: Ní Ubthátha khe, pronounced [nĩꜜ ubɫᶞaꜜɫᶞa kʰe], literally “water spread-out horizontal-the” or “The Wide-Spreading Water”) is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 568 miles (914 km) long, running through the U.S. states of Wyoming and Nebraska….
| Niobrara River | |
|---|---|
| • right | Snake River |
How is chalk formed?
They’re formed from the skeletal remains of minute planktonic green algae that lived floating in the upper levels of the ocean. When the algae died, their remains sank to the bottom of the ocean and combined with the remains of other creatures to form the chalk that shapes the cliffs today.
What oil basin is in Oklahoma?
Anadarko Basin
The Anadarko Basin is a geologic feature covering approximately fifty thousand square miles primarily in west-central Oklahoma, but including the upper Texas Panhandle, southwestern Kansas, and south-eastern Colorado.
Are there snakes in the Niobrara River?
The ringneck snake occurs in deciduous forest oriented areas of the valley and reaches its western limits there, while the eastern hognose snake also occurs in the valley and is otherwise only marginally distributed across the Sandhills.
What does the word Niobrara mean?
Niobrara in American English (ˌnaiəˈbrɛərə) noun. a river flowing E from E Wyoming through Nebraska to the Missouri.
How is chalk formed from magma?
The mid-ocean ridges became swollen, and large volumes of magma spilled out elsewhere onto the ocean floor, displacing water onto the continents (causing sea-level to rise). Chalks formed in the sea-ways of the flooded Cretaceous continents.