Reservoir quality of lower Teritary sandstone reservoirs along the Texas Gulf Coast is controlled by sandstone depositional environment, mineralogical composition, and consolidation history (compaction, cementation, and leaching).

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

Three principal depositional systems were defined within the Sparta Formation of Texas using surface and subsurface data: high-constructive delta system in east Texas; strandplain-barrier bar system in central Texas; and high-destructive, wave-dominated delta system in south Texas.

The Catahoula Formation of the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain consists of two depositional systems--the Gueydan bedload fluvial system of the Rio Grande embayment and the Chita-Corrigan mixed load fluvial system of the Houston embayment.

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

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

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

Historical monitoring along Matagorda Island and San Jose Island records the nature and magnitude of changes in position of the shoreline and vegetation line and provides insight into the factors affecting those changes.

The Bureau of Economic Geology has been conducting regional studies of the Frio Formation along the Texas Gulf Coast to evaluate potential geothermal energy from deep, geopressured sandstone reservoirs (Bebout, Dorfman, and Agagu, 1975; Bebout, Agagu, and Dorfman, 1975).

Over 7,000 miles of lineations have been observed on aerial photographic mosaics of the Texas Coastal Zone. These lineations, in part, represent the surface traces of faults originating in the Tertiary sediments and propagating through the Quaternary sediments.