Digital Compilation of Submerged Lands Sediment Textures, Sediment Geochemistry, and Washover Areas of the Texas Coast

This report summarizes the methods used by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) to produce electronic files of sample locations, sediment textures, and geochemical analyses for about 6,700 sediment samples collected from the Submerged Lands of Texas, including all coastal bays, estuaries, lagoons, and the inner continental shelf extending 10.3 mi into the Gulf of Mexico. Active washover areas and other potential sites of oil invasion along the Texas Gulf shore were also mapped and digitized for inclusion in the Texas Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) ARC/INFO geographic information system (GIS). The major categories of the NRI program addressed by this project include 1.2a2 (sediment metals), 1.2a9 (sediment grain size), 1.2a10 (sediment total organic carbon), 1.7e (sediment percent sand), and 2.6e(c) (morphology of washover areas).

The primary results of the project were electronic files containing the locations and attributes of surficial sediments and washover areas of the following seven coastal regions: Beaumont-Port Arthur (Sabine Lake), Houston Galveston (Galveston Bay), Bay City-Freeport, Port Lavaca (Matagorda Bay), Corpus Christi (Corpus Christi Bay), Kingsville (upper Laguna Madre), and Brownsville-Harlingen (lower Laguna Madre). These seven regions cover the entire Texas coast and include all of the NRI highest priority areas.