Surface fissures have been observed in many desert basins in the western United States. These surface-collapse features are usually discovered after a normally dry surface has been covered with water, either by runoff from intense rainfall, by flooding, or by irrigation. Their sudden appearance attracts the attention of local residents, especially when the fissures render unpaved roads impassable. Collapse features begin as near-surface tension fractures that are enlarged by erosion and piping.

The Atlas of Major Central and Eastern Gulf Coast Gas Reservoirs is the second in a series compiling geologic and engineering data on natural gas reservoirs in the major gas-producing regions of the United States. The first in the series, the Atlas of Major Texas Gas Reservoirs, was published in 1989.

Plio-Pleistocene strata of offshore Texas having hydrocarbon exploration potential are restricted to the southeastern continental shelf and upper continental slope. This thick wedge of nearshore and deep-marine sediments firms the west margin of a late Neogene and Quaternary depocenter. The wedge is divided into eight genetic sequences on the basis of well logs, paleontological reports, and seismic profiles.