Historical monitoring along Brazos and south Padre Islands records the nature and magnitude of changes in position of the shoreline and vegetation line and provides insight into the factors affecting those changes.

Knowledge of the regional sand distribution and its relationship to formation temperature and pressure is a preliminary step in evaluating the geothermal resources of the Frio Formation. At depths generally greater than 7,000 feet, the sands and shales of the Frio Formation are overpressured and undercompacted.

Nitrogen isotope ratios of ammonium and nitrate ions from soil and water samples can be analyzed reproducibly with an experimental error of approximately +/-1 parts per thousand (ppt). Two isotopic ranges of soil nitrate are found in the soils of southern Runnels County, Texas.

Nelson and others (1962) define a bank as " ... a skeletal deposit formed by organisms which do not have the ecologic potential to erect a rigid wave-resistant structure." They explain that a bank may have any geometry.