Stop 11
This is the best place for a good look at Konza Prairie. See the scalloped terraces of the hills? Those scallops are remnants of alternating limestone and shale rock layers that were formed between 200 – 300 million years ago when this area was covered with a giant inland sea.
This sea would periodically dry up, and when this happened dust and dirt accumulated on the dry sea bed – we call this rock layer that was formed of ancient dirt “shale” or “mudrock”. When water would seep back on top of the shale, in creatures that lived in the sea would periodically die and fall to the sea floor. We know this layer of compressed seashells as “limestone”. The sea would then dry up and a new layer of shale would form. At Konza Prairie we have 12 layers of limestone intermixed with 12 layers of shale, indicating the periods when the ocean was present and when it was dry.
