Early middle Pleistocene glacial sediments (780000-620000 BP) near Kansas City, northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri, USA

Two lithologically distinct tills are present near the pre-Illinoian glacial boundary in northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri. The tills are probably early middle Pleistocene (780 000-620 000 BP) based on normal polarity and their stratigraphic relationship to dated terraces. The upper till is sandier than the lower till and contains more expandable clay minerals and less illite than the lower till. Glaciofluvial and supraglacial sediments are preserved between the tills, yet palaeosols, or other evidence of an interglacial, are not present, suggesting that the tills were deposited during a single glaciation. Southeasterly and southwesterly trending striae and till fabric suggest that the glacial succession was deposited by at least two fluctuations (phases) of a lobe, which probably advanced down the axis of the present Missouri River lowland. These tills probably correlate to early middle Pleistocene tills in southwestern Iowa and eastern Nebraska, although it is possible that the lower till may correlate to even older tills in these areas.