Geology topics

Research about Houston

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Houston.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2014

Coefficients of storage and transmissibility obtained from pumping tests in the Houston District, Texas

An investigation of the ground‐water supply of the Houston District, in Texas, has been in progress since December, 1930, under the general direction of O. E. Meinzer, Geologist‐in‐Charge of the Division of Ground Water of the Geological Survey. The Houston District, as the term is used here, comprises all of Harris County and parts of Montgomery, Waller, and Fort Bend counties, lying between the Trinity and Brazos rivers. The investigation in this area has consisted primarily of inventorying well‐logs and pumpage‐records, of obtaining water‐level data and information regarding the chemical character of the ground‐water, and wherever possible of correlating these data.

Texas↗

USGS2014

Application of coefficients of transmissibility and storage to regional problems in the Houston District, Texas

The Houston District, as the term is used in this paper, comprises an area between the Trinity and Brazos rivers in Harris County and parts of Montgomery, Waller, and Fort Bend counties, Texas. It consists of a plain of low relief that lies not far above sea‐level, and is a part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. A part of the District is shown in Figure 1. Large quantities of ground‐water are pumped in the Houston District from a succession of beds of sand that occur between 300 and 1,900 feet below the surface. These sands are interbedded with relatively impermeable clays. The formations range in age from Miocene to Recent and were deposited during several cycles of marine and continental deposition. They may be classified into several zones which are predominantly clay or predominantly sand, but in which the individual beds at most horizons can not be traced very far. Most of the beds interfinger and grade into one another laterally and vertically in short distances, the thinner beds in many places changing character or pinching out within a few hundred feet. The formations dip to the southeastward, the dip ranging from about 35 feet to the mile in the older formations to about 20 feet to the mile in the younger. In the outcrop‐areas of the formations, and for considerable distances down the dip, the sediments are in general dominantly sandy. Far to the southeastward, in the direction of the Gulf, clay predominates.

Texas↗

USGS2001

Effects of urban development on stormwater runoff characteristics for the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area

A study was done to estimate the effects of urban development in the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area on nine stormwater runoff characteristics. Three of the nine characteristics define the magnitude of stormwater runoff, and the remaining six characteristics describe the shape and duration of a storm hydrograph. Multiple linear regression was used to develop equations to estimate the nine stormwater runoff characteristics from basin and rainfall characteristics. Five basin characteristics and five rainfall characteristics were tested in the regressions to determine which basin and rainfall characteristics significantly affect stormwater runoff characteristics. Basin development factor was found to be significant in equations for eight of the nine stormwater runoff characteristics. Two sets of equations were developed, one for each of two regions based on soil type, from a database containing 1,089 storm discharge hydrographs for 42 sites compiled during 1964–89. The effects of urban development on the eight stormwater runoff characteristics were quantified by varying basin development factor in the equations and recomputing the stormwater runoff characteristics. The largest observed increase in basin development factor for region 1 (north of Buffalo Bayou) during the study resulted in corresponding increases in the characteristics that define magnitude of stormwater runoff ranging from about 40 percent (for direct runoff) to 235 percent (for peak yield); and corresponding decreases in the characteristics that describe hydrograph shape and duration ranging from about 22 percent (for direct runoff duration) to about 58 percent (for basin lag). The largest observed increase in basin development factor for region 2 (south of Buffalo Bayou) during the study resulted in corresponding increases in the characteristics that define magnitude of stormwater runoff ranging from about 33 percent (for direct runoff) to about 210 percent (for both peak flow and peak yield); and corresponding decreases in the characteristics that describe hydrograph shape and duration ranging from about 38 percent (for direct runoff duration) to about 64 percent (for basin lag).

Houston↗