One of the basic mineral resources of Texas is abundant deposits of lignite in Eocene rocks of the Gulf Coastal Plain.

In the past 100 years, more than 100 names have been used to designate parts or all of the outcropping Midway and Wilcox rocks in the Gulf Coastal Plain; less than half of these names are used currently by Coastal Plain geologists, and the validity of some of the remaining named rock units has be

This report provides a data base for decisions about lignite mining and reclamation in the Wilcox Group of East Texas. Kaiser (1974, 1978) estimates that about 12.2 billion short tons of potentially strip-minable lignite resources occur in East and South Texas.

Eocene stratigraphic units in the East Texas Basin are composed of a thick sedimentary sequence (approximately 2,000 ft [600 m]) of fresh-water aquifers and aquitards covering an area of approximately 15,000 mi2 (51,000 km2).

The Nacatoch Formation of the East Texas Basin is the middle formation of the Navarro Group and consists of marine sandstones and mudstones derived largely from source areas to the northwest, north, and northeast of the East Texas Embayment.

Post-Aptian strata (younger than 112 ma) in the East Texas Basin were strongly influenced by halokinesis and recorded the evolution associated sate structures.

Although the mature, supergiant East Texas field on the west flank of the Sabine Uplift has been producing from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) siliciclastic Woodbine Group for more than 75 years, no modern comprehensive geologic study of it has been completed.