Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1993
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The 74,000 miles of paved roads in Texas cross landscapes and geologic structure of tremendous variety. With its abundant photographs and interpretive sketches, this book gives the traveler an excellent opportunity to understand and appreciate both the grand and the more subtle features visible along the Texas highways. Texas is considerably more geologically diverse than the other plains states, and this is not just a simple function of its greater size. Many of North American's greatest geologic sites are there: Llano (granite), Terlingua (volcanics), Marathon (fold and thrust belt), Glass Mountains {invertebrate fossils}, and Paluxy River (dinosaur tracks). Why so much oil in Texas? Spearing points out that a buried Paleozoic mountain range (and its attendant down-warped sedimentary basins) accounts for much of the production. A late period of hydrocarbon generation ensued when tectonic forces opened the Gulf of Mexico and allowed deposition of a thick sequence of organic-rich sediments. After reading about all these Texas riches, as a resident of oil-poor Nebraska (where, however, 65% of the water in the High Plains aquifer is stored), I was disappointed with the brevity of the discussion of the water problems in west Texas (where this same aquifer is being drastically depleted by irrigation projects).
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 13:1 (Winter 1993). Copyright © 1993 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.