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