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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Fault control of subsidence, Houston-Galveston area, Texas

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7286853
Land subsidence increases the area in the Texas Coastal Zone which will be inundated by marine waters from hurricane flooding. Storm surge from a Carla-sized hurricane in 1976 would flood at least 25 square miles more land than Hurricane Carla did in 1961. Land subsidence in Harris and Galveston Couunties results primarily from ground-water production. The two-county area is interlaced with active surface faults with topographic escarpments and surface faults with no topographic escarpments that control drainage patterns and create subtle photographic linear patterns. Ground-water production activates these faults by differential compaction of the aquifer. The faults appear to be partial hydrologic barriers that compartmentalize land subsidence into several individual basins.
Research Organization:
Texas Univ., Austin (USA). Bureau of Economic Geology
OSTI ID:
7286853
Report Number(s):
NP-23160
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English