The Caddo Oil and Gas Field, Louisiana and Texas Page: 13
68 p. : ill.View a full description of this report.
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proves that they were not made by men. Somewhat more credible is
the theory that they were made by animals, and of these, ants seem
a more probable agent than burrowing animals. The peculiar dis-
tribution of the mounds in large numbers where the surface is level
makes it improbable that they are wind-made, and their shape and
size is an additional objection, because the wind usually builds large,
irregular deposits in the most exposed situations, where conditions
are most favorable for its activity. There is a further objection in
the fact that the wind acts on a large scale only in regions of small
rainfall and scanty vegetation, whereas the mounds are in a region
where rainfall is abundant and vegetation luxuriant. There is, more-
over, good reason to believe that uniform climatic conditions have
prevailed since the formation of the plains that carry most of the
mounds.
The theory that the mounds were formed by erosion does not ap-
pear tenable, because the effects of erosive action have been observed
in many localities, and the only forms even remotely approaching
those of the mounds are the low irregular ridges produced by floods.
The pressure of surface clay on fine sands or sandy loam filled
with water might cause the sands to be forced up through weak
places in the clays to form mounds, though it is not probable that
this process would operate on a scale large enough to produce such a
great number of mounds. Probably in different places there have
been several agencies at work to produce similar results, but it is not
possible with the information available to determine the origin of all
the mounds. Of all the agencies suggested the best explanation of
the origin of a large number of mounds seems to be that they are the
work of ants. The chief facts of economic importance are that most
of the mounds were not produced by gas, and that even though they
are found on level lands in gas and oil fields they are also found on
similar areas where there is little or no gas or oil.
GEOLOGY.
STRATIGRAPHY AND LITHOLOGY.
GENERAL GEOLOGIC FEATURES.
If it were possible to examine the deposits in the Caddo oil field,
layers of sands, clays, and limestones would be found arranged one
above another in a manner similar to layers of masonry, only the
layers or beds of the natural formations vary in thickness and in com-
position. Near the surface sands and clays predominate. In some
places the sands are arranged in lenses or thin laminae in the clay; in
other places the clay occurs in lenses or thin laminae scattered through13
GEOLOGY.
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Matson, George Charlton. The Caddo Oil and Gas Field, Louisiana and Texas, report, 1916; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1065591/m1/15/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.