Since early 1977, the Bureau of Economic Geology has been evaluating several salt-bearing basins within the State of Texas as part of the national nuclear repository program. The Bureau, a research unit of The University of Texas at Austin and the State of Texas, is carrying out a long-term program to gather and interpret all geologic and hydrologic information necessary for description, delineation, and evaluation of salt-bearing strata in the Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins of the Texas Panhandle.

For the past decade, geologists at the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, have prepared various maps of the Texas Coastal Zone. The Environmental Geologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone, a seven-volume series, includes environmental geologic maps as well as other maps depicting special features of the region such as land use, mineral and energy resources, and natural processes. A special atlas, Natural Hazards of the Texas Coastal Zone, illustrates the occurrence and significance of hazards such as hurricane tidal flooding, coastal erosion, and land subsidence.

Secondary leached porosity is common to dominant in near surface to deep subsurface lower Tertiary sandstone reservoirs along the Texas Gulf Coast. This secondary porosity is in the form of leached feldspar grains, volcanic rock fragments, carbonate cements, and carbonate-replaced grains. Leached porosity occurs in sandstones with compositions ranging from volcanic litharenite and lithic arkose to quartzose sublitharenite and quartzose subarkose.