lecture notes coastal plains interior lowlands PDF

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Summary

Notes on Dr Prout's lecture over coastal plains and interior lowlands at Texas A&M...

Description

 Interior Lowlands Region:  Larger North America  Located: 

Caprock escarpment (W)



100*W and red river (political boundary)



South geological- Edwards and Llano



East- transitional border toward the coastal plain



Abilene, Wichita falls, Fort Worth (east border)

 Physiography: 

Variable relief and rolling plains



Lower elevations (lower than 2000ft of high plains)



Transitional climates N-S and W-E 



Tornado alley, temperatures vary

Fluvial (rivers)- river affects how land surrounding looks 

Affects irrigation and agricultural productivity

 Osage Plains- west Texas, blue area on physiographic map 

“north central plains”



“lower plains”





Callahan divide- south



Brazos and Colorado boundary

“rolling plains” 

West Texas rolling plains: western 2/3 of Osage and north central region



large cattle ranching (cross timbers ranching hearth)

 North Texas transitional zone 

North eastern chunk (DFW area)



Physiography: 

Lower elevations, grasslands



Flat or rolling hills



Trinity river headwaters





Grand Prairie: grassland in between cross timbers 

Limestone and treeless



Comanche Plateau: underneath Grand Prairie and Cut-Plain

Cross Timbers: 

Where vegetation woodlands



Western Cross Timbers: wider, more extensive than eastern



Palo Pinto: older and underneath WCT



Eastern cross timbers: practical boundary between interior lowland and coastal plain



“Texas Appalachia”

 Coastal plain Region: Atlantic and gulf coast  Eastern north America  Highly populated, a majority of Texas live on the coastal plain  Landscape independent of nature  Located: 

gulf of Mexico coastline



Important to TX history



Many cities and settlements: 

Mega-Houston



I-35 corridor:  Laredo  San Antonio  Austin  Waco  Dallas



West- Del Rio

 Physiography: 

Flat, minimal topographic relief 

Cuestas- sloped pattern because of layers of land that are eroded, slopes point away from the coast



Lowest elevations in TX



Coastal landforms: 

Bays, deltas, estuaries, barrier islands

 

Tidal change and wave energy

Fluvial action (rivers)- sources: 

Exotic origins (further W/NW) flow onto plain



Springs that flow onto plain and feed rivers



High precipitation areas that produce flows  Sabine and Nueces rivers



Sediments (ongoing and recent process) that get moved around

 Major components: 

Inland to gulf pattern:



Blackland and prairie belt



Interior coastal plain





Newer parts of coastal plain



TAMU is here



Heavily settled



Alternating grassland and woodlands because of precipitation

Costal prairies 

Flat, adjacent to gulf



Inundated during storms and sea level changes



Plants have tolerance to salt



Grassland towards coastline



North to south along coast:



Upper coast





East and northern coastline



High precipitation



Hurricane track

Coastal bend 

Cartographic shape of Texas from Houston to corpus



Padre Island- largest one



Embayment area



Rio Grande embayment...