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.

Samples collected from 20 geographically widespread wells in the sparsely drilled Palo Duro Basin were analyzed for total organic carbon content (TOC). Highest values of TOC, up to 6.9 percent, occur in Upper Permian San Andres dolomite in the southern part of the basin. Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) basinal shales contain up to 2.4 percent TOC and are fair to very good source rocks. Kerogen color and vitrinite reflectance, which indicate maximum paleotemperatures, were analyzed in all samples containing greater than 0.5 percent TOC.

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.

The Red Cave Formation (Permian, Leonard Series) in the Texas Panhandle consists of cyclic, red-bed clastic and carbonate-evaporite members that reflect deposition in extensive coastal sabkhas. These environments were bounded on the north by a desert wadi plain and on the south by a carbonate inner shelf that bordered the northern Midland Basin. Evaporite members were deposited in carbonate evaporite coastal sabkhas, and clastic members were deposited in mud-rich coastal to continental sabkhas that passed inland to wadi-plain environments.

The climate of the Texas Panhandle is primarily semiarid continental, exhibiting a pronounced peak in precipitation during the months of May through July. Storm data from a 22-county study area show a pattern of heavy, localized rainfall with high (1 to 5 inches/h or 25 to 127 mm/h) rainfall intensities for periods of 5 to 60 minutes. These characteristics are typical of the thunderstorm rainfall of the area.