Biennial Report - State Geological Survey of North Dakota, Issue 3The Survey, 1904 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abundant acres average bad lands basin Beaver creek beds bluffs boulders brown clay shale burned Cannon Ball channel Chocolate brown coal seams Coteau du Missouri Cretaceous crops DAKOTA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY deposits depth Dickinson drift east elevation erosion feet thick fine-grained flow fossils grass gravel Gray and yellow Gray clay shale Heart river hills inches irrigation Kildeer Kildeer mountains Knife river Lake Laramie formation layers lignite outcrops Lignite seam lower material Medora Mikkleson miles north Missouri river mouth Niobrara North Dakota NORTH DAKOTA GEOLOGICAL Northern Pacific railroad occur Pembina plain plant portion pumping railroad rainfall ranch Range region river level rock sand sandstone sandy clay seen Sentinel Butte side slopes Spring creek square miles strata stream summer surface temperature terraces thin tion Tobacco Garden creek topography Township tributaries upland upper velocity vicinity water level weir width Williston winds
Popular passages
Page 94 - This is not the place to enter upon a discussion of the vexed questions connected with the historical topography of the Holy City.
Page 9 - In view of the fertile terraces in the valle}-s of the streams themselves ranging in elevation from fifteen to 100 feet and the abundance of lignite along them, it seemed desirable to consider the possibility of irrigating the 250,000 or more acres included in the stream terraces, by pumping from the streams directly, using lignite as fuel. Co-operating with the Department of Hydrography of the United States Geological Survey, therefore, the lignite area has been studied, and practical tests have...
Page 13 - The lignites taken as a whole will probably average better than the samples analized indicate, for in many cases fresh material could not be obtained and the weathering on the surface of a natural exposure is sufficient to lessen the carbon values for some feet from the surface. In the discussion which follows lignites which are reported as good have not more than 8 per cent of ash and fixed carbon between 40 per cent and 50 per cent.
Page 9 - Opportunities to irrigate in North Dakota are confined to the broad terraces along the Missouri and its tributaries. These streams are deeply intrenched, and it does not seem possible by any means now available to raise water from them over the bluffs that rather sharply bound the broad valleys— a vertical distance of from 150 to 400 feet — and irrigate the upland. Missouri River has a fall of about 2 feet per mile and...
Page 10 - ... which may be roughly bounded on the east by a line beginning at the northern boundary of the state and thirty miles east of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie RR, and extending southeast to Harvey, thence south through Steele to the southern boundary. More minute study, aided by well borings which will doubtless be made as the country is settled, will probably shift this line east or west at certain points, thirty or forty miles. The state lines are its boundaries on the north, west,...
Page 172 - I am not now prepared to admit that the open ocean made incursions upon the great Laramie inland sea after it had become established as such at the close of the Montana epoch, it is reasonable to infer that it had somewhere a more or less restricted outlet to oceanic waters until all the area which it had occupied became in part dry land and in part the bed of the great fresh water Tertiary lake or lakes which immediately succeeded it. What we now know of the various epeirogenic movements which resulted...
Page 16 - Muddy is the main tributary of the Missouri from the east and north in North Dakota. Its drainage area includes nearly one-half of Williams County, or 700 square miles. In addition to a water supply from direct rainfall, it is fed by a number of perennial springs. On June 27, 1903, it had a flow of 18 secondfeet, an amount said to be normal for that season of the year.
Page 11 - Five well developed beds outcrop in the bluffs of the Little Missouri at Medora, and may be traced for miles both north and south of this point. Along the Missouri south of Williston five and six beds show in a single section, and can be traced for long distances, while on the Fort Berthold reservation nine well developed beds occur in a single exposure.
Page 39 - ... necessary where the land is already in part or wholly private property. With these conditions in mind, the flats at Buford and Trenton and the Nesson-Hofflund tract deserve first consideration. The former lies directly on the railroad. Lignite is not abundant here, however, and will cost about $2 a ton, whether mined in the vicinity or hauled from Williston.
Page 193 - ... maintained during the periods of slight rainfall, for the rainfall is frequently, for months together, much less than the combined demands of evaporation, plant growth, and stream flow. These demands are inexorable, and it is the ground storage which is called upon to supply them when rain fails to do so.