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Research about Montana

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Montana.

At least 1,099 records · Page 61Linked to original sources

A new fauna from the Colorado group of southern Montana

This paper describes a small but interesting fauna collected in 1921 by W. T. Thorn, Jr., Gail F. Moulton, T. W. Stanton, and K. C. Heald in the Crow Indian Reservation in southern Montana. The locality is in sec. 36, T. 6 S., R. 32 E., Big Horn County, and is 2 miles east of the Soap Creek oil field.

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Geology of northeastern Montana

A large region in northeastern Montana has never been thoroughly explored by geologists, owing to the fact that it is a part of the Great Plains and the belief that it is too monotonous and uninteresting to tempt anyone to turn aside from the pronounced geologic features a little farther west, for which Montana is noted. This region includes parts of Sheridan, Valley, Phillips, and Blaine counties. Its investigation was begun by Smith in 1908, when he made a geologic survey of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Beekly explored a strip of land along the Montana-North Dakota line from Missouri River to the international boundary, and Bauer examined the townships in which Plentywood and Scobey are situated. Their results are here included with those of the writer, who during the field seasons of 1915 and 1916 was engaged in an investigation of the lignite resources of the remainder of this region, which extends from a line within 12 miles of the Montana-North Dakota boundary westward about 200 miles.

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Baked shale and slag formed by the burning of coal beds

The baking and reddening of large masses of strata caused by the burning of coal beds is a striking feature of the landscape in most of the great western coal-bearing areas. The general character and broader effects of the burning have been described by many writers, but the fact that in places enough heat is generated to fuse and thoroughly recrystallize the overlying shale and sandstone has received less attention. Some of the natural slags thus formed simulate somewhat abnormal igneous rocks, but others consist largely of rare and little known minerals. A wide range in the mineral composition of such slags is to be expected, depending on the composition of the original sediment and the conditions of fusion and cooling. These products of purely thermal metamorphism offer a fertile field for petrologic investigation. The writer has observed the effects produced by the burning of coal beds in several localities in Montana, particularly along upper Tongue River in the southern part of the State, in the district lying southeast of the mouth of Bighorn River, and in the Little Sheep Mountain coal field north of Miles City. A number of specimens of the rock formed have been examined under the microscope, though time has not been available for a systematic examination. The writer is greatly indebted to Mr. E. S. Larsen for assistance in the study of some of the minerals.

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