The State-owned submerged lands of Texas encompass almost 6,000 mi2 (15,540 km2). They lie below waters of the bay-estuary-lagoon system and the Gulf of Mexico and extend 10.3 mi (16.6 km) seaward from the Gulf shoreline (fig. 1).

The State-owned submerged lands of Texas encompass almost 6,000 mi2 (15,540 km2). They lie below waters of the bay-estuary-lagoon system and the Gulf of Mexico and extend 10.3 mi (16.6 km) seaward from the Gulf shoreline (fig. 1).

The Texas Coastal Zone is marked by diversity in geography, resources, climate, and industry.

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.

Barrier islands along the Texas Coastal Zone are part of a complex and dynamic system represented by many distinct yet interrelated environments affected by a variety of resources, natural processes, climatic conditions, and human activities.

Land and water resources have been analyzed in the Corpus Christi area--Aransas, Nueces, Refugio, and San Patricio Counties along the central Texas coast. The city and port of Corpus Christi compose the largest metropolitan center in the area.

Combining process and geomorphic description (supplied by studies of modern depositional systems) with the three-dimensional description of sedimentary units and their internal structures (accomplished in the stratigraphic record) produces an integrated facies model that can be applied to the int