The Balcones Fault Zone is a tensional structural system in Texas Texas ( /ˈtɛksəs/ ) is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States. Located in the South Central United States, Texas is bordered by Mexico to the south, New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 26 (USA The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south) that runs approximately from the southwest part of the state near Del Rio, Texas Del Rio is the principal city of the Del Rio Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Val Verde County; the micropolitan area had an estimated population of 50,000 in 2007. Located across from Del Rio, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, is the city of Ciudad Acuña to the north central region near Waco, Texas Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. The city has a 2008 estimated total population of 124,009. It is the 21st largest city by population in Texas, and 194th in the US. The Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of McLennan County and has a population of 230,213 along Interstate 35 Interstate 35 is a north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. I-35 stretches from Laredo, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border to Duluth, Minnesota, at Minnesota Highway 61 (London Road) and 26th Avenue East. Many interstates used to have splits or spurs indicated with suffixed letters (N/S/E/W), but I-35 is the only one that still. The Balcones Fault zone is made up of many smaller features, including normal faults, grabens A graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. Graben is German for ditch, and horsts In physical geography and geology, a horst is the raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben. A horst is formed from extension of the Earth's crust. The raised block is a portion of the crust that generally remains stationary or is uplifted while the land has dropped on either side.[1] One of the most obvious features is the Mount Bonnell Fault.[2]

The location of the fault zone may be related to the Ouachita Mountains The Ouachita Mountains are a mountain range located in west central Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma and north-east Texas. The range's subterranean roots may extend as far as central Texas, or beyond it to the current location of the Marathon Uplift. Along with the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains form the U.S. Interior Highlands, the only, formed 300 million years ago during a continental collision. Although long-since eroded away in Texas, the roots of these ancient mountains still exist, buried beneath thousands of feet of sediment Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow, and which eventually is deposited. These buried Ouachita Mountains may still be an area of weakness that becomes a preferred site for faulting when stress exists in the Earth's crust In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle. The crusts of Earth, our Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Io, and other planetary bodies have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantles. The Balcones Fault zone was most recently active about 15 million years ago during the Miocene The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 Ma. The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός (kainos, “new”) and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows epoch. This activity was related to subsidence In geology, engineering, surveying, and orthopedic surgery, subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation. There are several types of subsidence, listed below in order of increasing scale: of the Texas Coastal Plain, most likely from the large amount of sediment deposited on it by Texas rivers. The Balcones Fault zone is not active today, and is in one of the lowest risk zones for earthquakes An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment magnitude of an earthquake is conventionally reported, or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being in the United States.[3]

The surface expression of the fault is the Balcones Escarpment In geomorphology, an escarpment is a transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves a sharp, steep elevation differential, characterized by a cliff or steep slope. Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp . But some sources differentiate the two terms, where escarpment refers to the margin between two, which forms the eastern boundary of the Texas Hill Country The Texas Hill Country is a region of Central Texas, USA, that features rolling, somewhat rugged, hills that consist primarily of limestone. It also includes the Llano Uplift and the second largest granite monadnock in the United States, Enchanted Rock, which is located 18 miles north of Fredericksburg. The Hill Country reaches into portions of and the western boundary of the Texas Coastal Plain and consists of cliffs and cliff-like structures. Subterranean features such as Wonder Cave Wonder Cave is a show cave located in the Balcones Fault. The cave is also home to Wonder World amusement park and numerous other smaller caves are found along the fault zone.

Many cities are located along this fault zone, and that is not a coincidence. Frequently, springs such as San Pedro Springs San Pedro Springs is the name of a cluster of springs in Bexar County, Texas, U.S.A. These springs provide water for San Pedro Creek, which flows into the San Antonio River, Comal Springs, San Marcos Springs San Marcos Springs is the second largest natural cluster of springs in Texas. The springs are located in the city of San Marcos, Texas, about 30 miles southwest of Austin and 46 miles (74 km) northeast of San Antonio, Barton Springs Barton Springs is a set of four natural water springs located on the grounds of Zilker Park in Austin, Texas resulting from water flowing through the Edwards Aquifer. The largest spring, Main Barton Spring supplies water to Barton Springs Pool, a popular recreational destination in Austin. The smaller springs are located nearby, two with man-made and Salado Springs Salado Springs is the name of five groups of springs at the town of Salado in Bell County, Texas, in the United States. The springs are located 48 miles north of Austin or 135 miles (217 km) south of Dallas are found in the fault zone and provide a source of fresh water and an obvious place for human settlement.

The Balcones Fault Zone is a demarcation line for certain ecological systems and species distributions. For example, the California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera Washingtonia filifera , common names Desert Fan Palm, American Cotton palm, Arizona Fan Palm, or California Fan Palm) is a palm native to the desert oases of Central, southern and southwestern Arizona, southern Nevada, extreme northwest Mexico and the inland deserts of Southern California) is the only species of palm tree Palm or Palmae or Panamea , the palm family, is a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen that is native to the continental United States west of the Balcones Fault.[4]

References

  1. ^ Grimshaw, Thomas W.; Charles Woodruff, Jr. (1986). "STRUCTURAL STYLE IN AN EN ECHELON FAULT SYSTEM, BALCONES FAULT ZONE, CENTRAL TEXAS: GEOMORPHOLOGIC AND HYDROLOGIC IMPLICATIONS". The University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Texas State Capitol. UT Austin was named one of the original eight Public Ivy institutions. Founded in 1883,. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/geo/balcones_escarpment/pages71-76.html. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
  2. ^ Hill, Robert T. (1891). "A brief description of the Cretaceous rocks of Texas and their economic uses". in E. T. Dumble. First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1889. Austin: State Printing Office. p. 134. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/books/landscapes/publications/txu-oclc-5235917-1/txu-oclc-5235917-1-b134a.html.
  3. ^ "Peak Acceleration (%g) with 10% Probability of Exceedance in 50 Years" (GIF The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability). USGS. 2002-10. Archived from the original on 2007-06-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070627054315rn_1/earthquake.usgs.gov/research/hazmaps/products_data/2002/2002April03/US/USpga500v4.gif.
  4. ^ Hogan, C. Michael (2009-01-05). "California Fan Palm: Washingtonia filifera". GlobalTwitcher.com. http://globaltwitcher.auderis.se/artspec_information.asp?thingid=90942. Retrieved 2009-07-13.

External links

State of Texas Texas ( /ˈtɛksəs/ ) is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States. Located in the South Central United States, Texas is bordered by Mexico to the south, New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 26
Austin Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 15th-largest in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation from 2000 to 2006. According to the 2009 U.S (capital Washington, D.C. has been the capital of the United States since 1800. Eight other cities have served as the meeting place for Congress and are therefore considered to have once been the capital of the United States. In addition, each of the 50 U.S. states and several territories of the United States maintains its own capital)
Topics Architecture | Climate | Culture | Demographics | Economy | Education | Geography | Government | History | Languages | Literature | Politics | Sports | Texans | Transportation | Symbols | Visitor Attractions

Architecture The architecture in the state of Texas comes from a wide variety of sources. Many of the state's buildings reflect Texas' Spanish and Mexican roots; in addition, there is considerable influence from the American South. Rapid economic growth throughout the since the mid twentieth century has led to a wide variety of contemporary architectural | Climate Texas's climate varies widely, from arid in the west to humid in the east. Due to its large size, Texas is home to several different climates. Texas ranks first in tornado occurrence with an average of 139 per year. There are several distinct regions within the state which have varying climates: Northern Plains, Big Bend Country, Texas Hill | Culture The culture of Texas has been a melting pot of the "Southern" and Southwestern (Anglo-Mexican fusion) North American culture, with pockets of colonies of ethnic groups in and around metropolitan and other urban areas while the entire Rio Grande River valley, and increasingly other areas to the east and north of it, have been re-mexicized | Demographics The center of population of Texas is located in Bell County, in the town of Holland | Economy The economy of Texas is one of the largest growing economies in the United States. In 2006, Texas was home to six of the top 50 companies on the Fortune 500 list and 56 overall, more than any other state. Texas has an economy that was the second largest in the nation and the 15th largest in the world based on GDP figures. As the largest exporter | Education There are 181 colleges, universities and dozens of other institutions engaged in the research and development of Texas.[citation needed] Most public universities are members of six different systems: University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Texas State University, and Texas Tech University | Geography The geography of Texas cover a wide and far reaching scope. Occupying about 7% of the total water and land area of the U.S., it is the second largest state after Alaska, and is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which end in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. Texas is in the south-central part of the United | Government The Government of Texas consists of a state government, as well as governments at the county and municipal levels. Austin is the capital of Texas. The State Capitol resembles the federal Capital Building in Washington, D.C., but is faced in Texas pink granite and is topped by a statue of the "Statue of Liberty" holding aloft a five-point | History The written history of Texas begins in 1519, when Alonso Álvarez de Pineda explored the northern Gulf Coast. During the period of 1519 to 1865, parts of Texas were claimed by six countries: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America | Languages Of the languages spoken in Texas none has been de jure designated the official language. Around two-thirds of Texas residents speak solely English at home, while another 29% speak Spanish. Throughout Texas history English, Spanish, and French have all been the primary dominant language used by government officials | Literature Texas literature is literature about the history and culture of Texas. It includes every literary genre and dates from the time of the first European contact | Politics For approximately 100 years, from the end of Reconstruction until the 1970s, the Democratic Party was dominant in Texas politics. However, since the 1970s the Republican Party has grown more prominent within the state, and is now the state's dominant political party. This trend mirrors a national political realignment that has seen the once | Sports Many Texans are passionate about American football and intensely follow high school and college football teams—often they dominate social and leisure activity. Texas is home to two NFL teams, the Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys, commonly referred to as "America's Team". The Cowboys are the most recognizable team in the state due | Texans Architecture | Climate | Culture | Demographics | Economy | Education | Geography | Government | History | Languages | Literature | Politics | Sports | Texans | Transportation | Symbols | Visitor Attractions | Transportation The Texas Department of Transportation is a governmental agency and its purpose is to "provide safe, effective, and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with maintenance of the state's immense highway system, the agency is also responsible for aviation | Symbols Four ships of the United States Navy and one in the Confederate States Navy have borne the name Texas: | Visitor Attractions Categories: Visitor attractions in the United States by state | Tourism in Texas

Regions The Bureau of Reclamation divides the western United States into five major regions

Ark‑La‑Tex The Ark-La-Tex, Arklatex, or ArkLaTex is a U.S. socio-economic region where Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma intersect. Some prefer the more inclusive Arklatexoma. The region is centered on the Shreveport/Bossier metropolitan area in Northwest Louisiana, although Marshall in Northeast Texas, Natchitoches, Louisiana, and both Texarkana, | Big Bend The Big Bend is a colloquial name of a geographic region in the western part of the state of Texas in the United States along the border with Mexico, roughly defined as the counties north of the prominent northward bend in the Rio Grande as it passes through the gap between the Chisos Mountains in Texas and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico | Blackland Prairies The Texas Blackland Prairies are a temperate grassland ecoregion located in Texas that runs roughly from the Red River in North Texas to San Antonio in the south | Brazos Valley The Brazos Valley is a region in the U.S. state of Texas consisting of Brazos County, Robertson County, Grimes County, Washington County, Burleson County, Madison County, and Leon County, with Brazos County and the cities of College Station and Bryan at its center. Although the Brazos River lies at the center of the region, not all areas of the | Central Texas | Coastal Bend | Cross Timbers | Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex | Deep East Texas | East Texas | Edwards Plateau | Galveston Bay | Golden Triangle | Greater Houston | Hill Country | Llano Estacado | Longview–Marshall | Northeast Texas | North Texas | Osage Plains | Panhandle | Permian Basin | Piney Woods | Rio Grande Valley | Southeast Texas | South Plains | South Texas | West Texas
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Abilene | Amarillo | Austin–Round Rock | Beaumont–Port Arthur | Brownsville–Harlingen | College Station–Bryan | Corpus Christi | Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington | El Paso | Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown | Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood | Laredo | Longview | Lubbock | McAllen–Edinburg–Mission | Midland | Odessa | San Angelo | San Antonio | Sherman–Denison | Texarkana | Tyler | Victoria | Waco | Wichita Falls
Counties

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Categories: Escarpments | Geology of Texas

 

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