Water and Bridges

More than 80,000 miles of waterway stretch across Texas: about 92 major waterways.  Streams in East Texas usually move slowly in the jungle-like landscape.  Streams in Central Texas tend to flow faster, carving their own paths and often becoming white water.  The streams in West Texas flow more randomly over arid landscapes, cutting and flowing through deep canyons.

Major waterways of Texas

Geographers find the Guadalupe Arroyo particularly interesting.  It is an ephemeral stream (one that flows in response to precipitation events) found on the eastern side of Guadalupe Mountain National Park.

Guadalupe Mountain National Park--The arid landscape of the park allows for little vegetation, but it also creates beautiful views.  Pictured is a section of the Guadalupe Mountains.

The "A" indicates the Guadalupe Arroyo.  The stream runs down the pictured canyon and causes major problems for highway 62-180.

The Guadalupe Arroyo starts in the mountains and disappears several miles later in a dry lake.  It usually flows due to severe flash flooding.  When it does flow, it transports materials ranging from silt to boulders.  This load routinely washes against the bridge on highway 62-180.  This often causes the stream to dam and in turn erode the sidewalls and widen its path.  Maintenance crews routinely clean out the sediment load to keep the bridge in the best possible condition.  They even built barriers to keep the boulders from smashing into and destroying the bridge.  One day a huge flash flood may completely wash out the small bridge.

McKittrick Canyon--Located in Guadalupe Mountain National Park near Guadalupe Arroyo, this canyon shows similar landscape to the Guadalupe Arroyo.  Past streams cut the giant v-shaped valleys in the sides of the mountain.  

An example of a dry stream bed from an ephemeral stream.  Left over bed load appears lighter-colored than the rest of the rock around it.  (This is not the Guadalupe Arroyo)

An example of sediment transported by a stream ranging from very small to large boulders.  The stream carries the sediment and rocks and deposits them where it pleases.  (This is not the Guadalupe Arroyo)

Images: http://geology.com/lakes-rivers-water/texas.shtml
http://www.exploring-america.com/pics/guadalupe-mountains-national-park-texas.jpg
maps.google.com
http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/McKittrick_Canyon_from_a_distance_2006.JPG/180px-McKittrick_Canyon_from_a_distance_2006.JPG
http://thegeographyspot.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/wadi-dry-bed-from-stream.jpg
http://www.sleepingdogstudios.com/Network/Earth%20Science/ES_6.2_files/slide0009_image020.jpg
Information: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/pwd_rp_t3200_1047/03_introduction.phtml
http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=1083145

Severe and Fascinating Texas Weather

While Texas usually experiences decent weather, it is also prone to awesome and devastating weather:

Some of Texas lies in "Tornado Alley."  The worst on record touched down near Waco in 1953 killing 114 people, injuring 597 people, and causing tremendous property damage.  People in Tornado Alley build storm cellars (like my great grandma had) to shelter during tornados.

Tornados are vortexes of air that touch the ground with winds reaching up to 300mph.  Formation requires a strong cold front meeting with warm air, humidity, and the jet stream.  Extremely low pressure hides in the center causing the air to flow from outside to inside because air flows from high to low pressure.  This particular tornado touched down near Childress.

Hurricanes pound the Texas coast about once a decade.  One hurricane (known as the worst US storm ever) occurred in September 1900 when it passed through Galveston killing at least 6000 people.  Current preparation including seawalls and evacuation allow most hurricanes to pass without claiming human lives.  In fact, former Galveston resident Tiffany Terneny reports most people never even leave the island during hurricanes.

Hurricanes are even larger spinning storms but tend to be less violent than tornados.  Formation require the earth to rotate, sea surface temperatures around 78º, constant winds, high water vapor amounts, and convergence (air rising in a column).  Hurricanes also have an "alley" but it is mostly in the Atlantic Ocean between about 5º and 20º latitude.  The above picture is hurricane Ike.

Most people enjoy watching lightning.  A fake lightning strike cracks at the climax of the play "Texas" showing in Palo Duro Canyon.  The "thunder" from it scares people but natural thunder often relaxes people.  

Lightning usually occurs during thunderstorms.  An electrical charge called the "stepped leader" reaches up from the ground.  Then an opposite charges races down to connect with the leader.  That part of the lightning is visible.  Above is lightning near Austin.
Thunder is caused by the extreme heat of lightning pushing through the atmosphere.  Unfortunately, thunder cannot be seen or I would show a picture.  

Particularly large hailstones--another product of thunderstorms--fall in Texas.  One summer I saw cars parked under highways in Amarillo during hailstorms.  Now I understand with much more clarity that the owner's try to protect their cars from damage this way.

Hail is formed through the marriage of the water cycle and wind.  Updrafts and downdrafts carry frozen droplets of water up and down through the atmosphere.  Every time a droplet passes the freezing level (altitude where air is freezing), a layer of ice is added and this eventually becomes hail.  Above are tennis ball to baseball-sized hailstones near Sunray, Tx.

http://www.city-data.com/states/Texas-Climate.html
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Environment/Images/Natural_Disaster/texasmothershiptornado-748992-lw.jpg
http://ticketcity.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/hurricane_ike_texas.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/landerphotography/3627314791/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.examiner.com/extreme-weather-in-national/sunray-tx-massive-hail-storm-video

Water and Rocks

Let's look at forms seen as a result of The Water Cycle and Weathering Cycles.  I define the water cycle as "where water goes: evaporation forming clouds to falling, freezing, and running over and through the ground.

 A huge form in Texas is the Ogallala Aquifer and it isn't even visible!  Aquifers are basically underground pools of water.  The Ogallala Aquifer stretches from Texas through Nebraska.  Many people rely on this as a main source for water.

Water running all the way from the top of the Rocky Mountains seeps through the ground and fills this Aquifer
(Water Cycle-Storage)
<http://hpwd.com/images/Ogallala%20aquifer%20(tan).jpg>

A little further south lie the artesian San Solomon Springs.  They feed a huge swimming pool that is home to catfish, turtles, and other plants and animals.  I visited this pool as a teenager, learned to snorkel, and have always dreamed of returning.

Artesian Springs are springs that are connected to an underground water source and flow from their own pressure.  They don't need a pump or a bucket.
(Water Cycle-Flow)
<http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1041/3164328041_81fe944e96.jpg>

Another key sight in Texas is the Red River.  It mostly creates the border between Texas and Oklahoma.  The river collects in reservoirs for man's use as well as feeds into the Mississippi River.  

The Red River clearly displays the streamflow aspect of the water cycle: it's a flowing stream.  Also, it is a major tributary of contributing stream feeding into a larger stream.  These are both aspects of the water cycle.
(Water Cycle-Flow and Drainage)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Redriverbonhamtx.jpg>

Moving on to weathering (the breaking down of rocks in place), let's look at Lighthouse Rock in Palo Duro Canyon.  This rock shoots into the sky in the second largest canyon in the USA.  People visit to view this rock, the canyon, and a musical.

Light House Rock
Weathering plays a huge roll in the current shape of this rock.  There are joints (cracks in the rock)  which allow for  frost weathering to occur.  Also, the white colors and odd shape give evidence to salt weathering (salt literally breaking down the rock).  Below it looks like rock also sloughed off of the larger, solid piece above.
(Weathering)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Palodurolighthouse.jpg>

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Ogallala-Aquifer.html

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/balmorhea/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_(Mississippi_River)

http://stormeyes.org/wp/2010/01/geography-of-the-christmas-eve-blizzard/

Franklin and Big Ben(d)

Taking a look at the far west and the far south of Texas, we see the Franklin Mountains and Big Bend National Park.

First, the Franklin Mountains are a small mountain range that lie along a couple of major fault lines.  They're mostly created from folding but there's also a lot of strata showing many sedimentary deposits.  And, my favorite scene is what appears to be a hogback.

Hogback in Franklin Mountains

Layers in Franklin Mountains

A little east and farther south, one can roam all around Big Bend National Park. It's full of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks as well as ancient lava flows and pyroclastics.  All of these came about either by deposition, heating/melting and cooling inside the earth, contact metamorphosis, and lava flow.  There's only one place that has any exposed metamorphic rock.

Visible layers and tuff from volcanos make up Burro Mesa

Conglomerate rock (a type of sedimentary rock) in Big Bend

The small mention in this blog is only the tip of the iceberg of the geologic features available for our enjoyment in these two areas.  Today, the town of El Paso is at the base of the Franklin Mountains and people come from all over America to go visit Big Bend (I've been there).  They go around hiking and stuff, but they probably don't realize the amount of incredible forms around (I didn't).

Picture Credits:
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/UTopia/contentpg_images/franklin/franklin_bb.jpg
http://www.maroon.com/bigbend/intro/index.html
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/UTopia/contentpg_images/franklin/franklin_mckelligon.jpg
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/UTopia/contentpg_images/franklin/franklin_layers.jpg
http://www.maroon.com/bigbend/ig/d20b.jpg
http://www.maroon.com/bigbend/sed/d19b.jpg

Introduction

This is a blog created by Travis Moore.

I have chosen to write my entire blog on Texas.

I chose it because I have a slight agenda to prove that Texas is not just a desert wasteland but actually has some really cool scenery.  Also, I must be honest: 1) I was born in Amarillo, TX and they breed loyalty down there, and 2) the state is huge so I thought it would be easy to write about for my geography class.  I am confident I'll be able to pull enough geographical information out of a state that has an area of 268,580 square miles.

Images from: http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/098/d/3/Honor_the_Texas_Flag_Wallpaper_by_Merides.jpg
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/images/usa/texas.jpg