The Kansan ice sheet extended southward to the proximity of the present Lower Kansas River, which developed as an ice-marginal river. Results of glaciation included ice-dammed lakes and spillways, and extensive deposition of till and outwash. The Illinoian ice sheet may have occupied small portions of the Little Blue River Basin in Nebraska, a tributary of the Kansas River. Early researchers in the Kansas River Valley, as in the Lower Mississippi River Valley, attempted to relate terrace formations to each of the four known episodes of glaciation by postulating that climatic changes in the river basin would have resulted in cycles of aggradation and incision even if glaciers did not occupy the basin. An idealized version of the early model is presented below, as well as a more recent view of recognized terrace formations. Kansan glacial outwash deposits constitute the Menoken Terrace; all others are non-glacial.
Sources:
First image adapted from Beck, Henry V., 1959. Geology and Ground-Water Resources of Kansas River between Wamego and Topeka Vicinity. Bulletin 135. Lawrence: Kansas Geological Survey.
Second image adapted from Johnson, William C. (ed.), 1987. Quaternary Environments of Kansas. Guidebook Series #5. Lawrence: Kansas Geological Survey.