Today’s News from the University of Kansas
From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
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LAWRENCE – If you love music, collect vinyl records or simply need to update your stereo system, you can do that all from the comfort of your home as Audio-Reader’s annual benefit sale, For Your Ears Only, is going virtual this year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what normally is a two-day sale in the fall is transitioning into a series of online events. The first sale begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 16, on Audio-Reader’s Facebook Live page.
Geologic map for Bourbon County now available
LAWRENCE — Layers of limestone, coal and other rocks formed about 310 million years ago and now found on or near the surface throughout Bourbon County are featured on a newly revised map available from the Kansas Geological Survey. An update to the KGS Bourbon County geologic map published in 2002, the new map illustrates the distribution of coal resources and location of coal-mined areas in greater detail. Shaded relief also has been added to accentuate hills and valleys, giving the map a three-dimensional quality.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Meredith Johanning, Kansas Audio-Reader Network, 785-864-4634, [email protected], @KUAudioReader
For Your Ears Only annual audio sale moving to series of online fundraisers
LAWRENCE – If you love music, collect vinyl records or simply need to update your stereo system, you can do that all from the comfort of your home as Audio-Reader’s annual benefit sale, For Your Ears Only, is going virtual this year. What normally is a two-day sale in the fall is transitioning into a series of online sales to benefit Audio-Reader.
“Given the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and out of an abundance of caution and safety for the community, our staff and our volunteers, we decided to change our event to a series of virtual sales,” said Beth McKenzie, development director of Audio-Reader.
The first virtual sale begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 16, on Audio-Reader’s Facebook Live page. Hosts will showcase 20 pieces of numbered audio equipment, each priced below market value. This first sale will feature only audio equipment and will include unique pieces such as stereo receivers, turntables, speakers, reel-to-reel tape decks and more. Simply comment “Sold” along with the equipment number to secure the item. Audio-Reader will send a link via Facebook Messenger to pay directly online for the item. Customers will be able to pick up their equipment at Audio-Reader by appointment July 17-18. Audio-Reader is only offering local pick-up and is unable to ship or deliver at this time.
Future sale dates, to be announced, will include more items that normally would be featured at the annual sale, such as vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, musical instruments and more.
“While we are sad we cannot have the sale in the same format as we normally do this year, we think this can be a great opportunity to reach more people who didn’t know about our sale or who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. As we continue these virtual sales, we plan to have fun with them, focusing on specific equipment, records, instruments and much more. We will have Kansas Public Radio guests and audio technician guests that will make the show even more entertaining,” said Meredith Johanning, Audio-Reader’s assistant development director and virtual sale organizer.
Audio-Reader is not taking in donations for the sale this year. Instead, the audio equipment, records, instruments and other items that will be featured in these virtual sales are excess inventory received over the last year. Dedicated Audio-Reader volunteers have inspected, cleaned and repaired the items so quality pieces can be provided at discounted prices.
Proceeds from the sale benefit Audio-Reader, a service organization providing free reading and information services for individuals who are blind and visually impaired. The University of Kansas decided in the last few years to cease direct funding to Audio-Reader, making fundraisers like these virtual benefit sales vital to Audio-Reader’s operation.
Funds from the sale go directly to helping Audio-Reader listeners stay connected with their communities and live a life of greatest, possible personal independence. More information about Audio-Reader and its upcoming Facebook Live sales is available at https://reader.ku.edu or by calling (800) 772-8898.
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Contact: Cathy Evans, Kansas Geological Survey, 785-864-2195, [email protected], @ksgeology
Geologic map for Bourbon County now available
LAWRENCE — Layers of limestone, coal and other rocks formed about 310 million years ago and now found on or near the surface throughout Bourbon County are featured on a newly revised map available from the Kansas Geological Survey.
An update to the KGS Bourbon County geologic map published in 2002, the new map illustrates the distribution of coal resources and location of coal-mined areas in greater detail. Shaded relief also has been added to accentuate hills and valleys, giving the map a three-dimensional quality.
Robert Sawin, KGS geologist emeritus, and Ronald West, Kansas State University professor emeritus, are the authors of the original and revised maps. Larry Brady, KGS geologist emeritus, provided the coal upgrades.
Bourbon County’s surface geology is mainly characterized by Pennsylvanian-age rocks that crop out at the surface or directly underlie the soil and vegetation. The rocks range from marine shales, siltstones, sandstones and fossil-bearing limestones to coal formed from thick vegetation in a swamp environment. During the Pennsylvanian subperiod, which lasted from 323 to 299 million years ago, the state as a whole was often inundated by shallow seas that rose and fell.
“An unusual group of marine fossils called chaetetids occur in the Pennsylvanian rocks in Bourbon County,” West said. “Originally thought to be corals, but later classified as sponges, chaetetids are calcareous, encrusting organisms that can build into large columns and domes that often serve as a substrate for other invertebrates in a reef-like setting.”
Coal mining, which began in the mid-19th century in Bourbon County near Fort Scott, continued into the early 21st century. The last coal mine in the state, in neighboring Linn County, discontinued operations in 2016. For decades, southeast Kansas coal was used for residential heating, railroads, cement manufacturing and power plant energy generation.
“Coal mined in the county, as well as most of southeast Kansas, was a high-quality bituminous coal, but it commonly had a high sulfur content,” Brady said. “In total, Bourbon County produced approximately 8 million tons of quality coal. Over half of that was mined in the last 60 years.”
Although there was a small amount of underground mining in Bourbon County, most of the coal was produced through strip-mining, in which power shovels are used to strip away overlying soil and rock to expose coal beds too thin to be mined underground.
Besides the map, the 62-by-42-inch sheet contains a cross section and an illustrated rock column. The cross-section depicts a vertical slice of subsurface rock layers along a line running east to west across the middle of the county. The rock column shows the order rock units were deposited over time and a description of each unit. Towns, roads (from highways to unimproved roadways), elevation contours at 20-foot intervals and township and range boundaries also appear on the map. The scale is 1:50,000, so that 1 inch on the map equals about 3/4 mile of actual distance.
The map, “Surficial Geology of Bourbon County, Kansas,” can be accessed online.
Paper copies of the map will be available when the Kansas Geological Survey fully reopens later this year. Contact the KGS publication sales office at 1930 Constant Ave., Lawrence, KS 66047-3724 (phone 785-864-3965, email [email protected]) if you want to be notified when a printed version of the map is available.
The cost is $20 plus shipping and handling and, for Kansas residents, sales tax. More information about county geologic maps and other KGS products is available at the KGS website.
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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
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