Title: Karst in Permian evaporite rocks of western Oklahoma
Abstract: Bedded evaporites (gypsum and salt) of Permian age have been dissolved naturally by ground water to form a major evaporite-karst region in western Oklahoma. The Blaine Formation and associated evaporites comprise 100--800 ft of strata that dip gently into broad, structural basins. Outcropping gypsum, dolomite, and red-bed shales of the Blaine display typical karstic features, such as sinkholes, caves, disappearing streams, and springs. Large caves are developed in gypsum beds 10--30 ft thick at several places, and a major gypsum/dolomite karst aquifer provides irrigation water to a large region in southwestern Oklahoma, where salt layers above and below the Blaine Formation have been partly dissolved at depths of 30--800 ft below the land surface. Salt dissolution causes development of brine-filled cavities, into which overlying strata collapse, and the brine eventually is emitted at the land surface in large salt plains.
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
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