Geologic map of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, south-central Texas
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Ted A. Small
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Geologic framework and hydrogeologic characteristics of the Edwards Aquifer outcrop, Medina County, Texas
The hydrogeologic subdivisions of the Edwards aquifer outcrop in Medina County generally are porous and permeable. The most porous and permeable appear to be hydrogeologic subdivision VI, the Kirschberg evaporite member of the Kainer Formation; and hydrogeologic subdivision III, the leached and collapsed members, undivided, of the Person Formation. The most porous and permeable rocks of the Devils River Formation in Medina County appear to be in the top layer. The upper member of the Glen Rose Limestone, the lower confining unit, has much less porosity and permeability than that observed in the Edwards aquifer. The Edwards aquifer has relatively large porosity and permeability resulting, in part, from the development or redistribution of secondary porosity. Lithology, stratigraphy, diagenesis, and karstification account for the effective porosity and permeability in the Edwards aquifer outcrop. Karst features that can greatly enhance effective porosity and permeability in the Edwards aquifer outcrop include sinkholes, dolines, and caves. The Edwards aquifer rocks in Medina County change from the eight-member Edwards Group to the essentially indivisible Devils River Formation. The facies change occurs along a line extending northwestward from just south of Medina Lake.
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Geologic framework and hydrogeologic characteristics of the outcrops of the Edwards and Trinity aquifers, Medina Lake area, Texas
The hydrogeologic subdivisions of the Edwards aquifer outcrop in the Medina Lake area in Medina and Bandera Counties generally are porous and permeable. The most porous and permeable appear to be hydrogeologic subdivision VI, the Kirschberg evaporite member of the Kainer Formation; and hydrogeologic subdivision III, the leached and collapsed members, undivided, of the Person Formation. The porosity of the rocks in the Edwards aquifer outcrop is related to depositional or diagenetic elements along specific stratigraphic horizons (fabric selective) and to dissolution and structural elements that can occur in any lithostratigraphic horizon (not fabric selective). Permeability depends on the physical properties of the rock such as size, shape, and distribution of pores. The Edwards aquifer has relatively large porosity and permeability resulting, in part, from the development or redistribution of secondary porosity. Lithology, stratigraphy, diagenesis, and karstification account for the effective porosity and permeability in the Edwards aquifer outcrop. Karst features that can greatly enhance effective porosity and permeability in the Edwards aquifer outcrop include sinkholes, dolines, and caves. Field observations in the Medina Lake area confirm the findings of previous investigators that Medina Lake mostly overlies rocks of the upper member of the Glen Rose Limestone. The channel downstream of Medina Dam to the upper end of Diversion Lake also overlies the upper member of the Glen Rose Limestone. Most of Diversion Lake overlies a thin section of the Edwards aquifer— hydrogeologic subdivision VIII (basal nodular member) and the basal part of hydrogeologic subdivision VII (dolomitic member). Hydrogeologic subdivisions VIII and VII might be hydraulically connected to Medina Lake at high lake stages. The Trinity aquifer, which crops out in the northern part of the Medina Lake area and underlies the Edwards aquifer in the southern part, is much less permeable and productive than the Edwards aquifer. Where the Trinity aquifer underlies the Edwards, the Trinity acts as a lower confining unit on the Edwards.
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Geologic framework of the Edwards Aquifer and upper confining unit, and hydrogeologic characteristics of the Edwards Aquifer, south-central Uvalde County, Texas
The stratigraphic units of the Edwards aquifer in south-central Uvalde County generally are porous and permeable. The stratigraphic units that compose the Edwards aquifer in south-central Uvalde County are the Devils River Formation in the Devils River trend; and the West Nueces, McKnight, and Salmon Peak Formations in the Maverick Basin. The Balcones fault zone is the principal structural feature in Uvalde County; however, the displacement along the fault zone is less in Uvalde County than in adjacent Medina and Bexar Counties to the east. The Uvalde Salient is a structural high in south-central Uvalde County, and consists of several closely connected crustal uplifts that bring Edwards aquifer strata to the surface generally forming prominent hills. The crustal uplifts forming this structural high are the remnants of intrusive and extrusive magnatic activity. Six primary faults—Cooks, Black Mountain, Blue Mountain, Uvalde, Agape, and Connor—cross the length of the study area from the southwest to the northeast juxtaposing the Lower Cretaceous Salmon Peak Formation at the surface in the northwestern part of the study area against Upper Cretaceous formations in the central part of the study area. In the study area, the porosity of the rocks in the Edwards aquifer is related to depositional or diagenetic elements along specific stratigraphic horizons (fabric selective) and to dissolution and structural elements that can occur in any lithostratigraphic horizon (not fabric selective). Permeability depends on the physical properties of the rock such as size, shape, distribution of pores, and fissuring and dissolution. The middle 185 feet of the lower part of the Devils River Formation, the upper part of the Devils River Formation, and the upper unit of the Salmon Peak Formation probably are the most porous and permeable stratigraphic zones of the Edwards aquifer in south-central Uvalde County.
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Geologic framework and hydrogeologic characteristics of the Edwards aquifer outcrop (Barton Springs segment), northeastern Hays and southwestern Travis Counties, Texas
The hydrogeologic subdivisions within the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards aquifer outcrop in northeastern Hays and southwestern Travis Counties generally are porous and permeable. The most porous and permeable appear to be hydrogeologic subdivision VI, the Kirschberg evaporite member of the Kainer Formation; and hydrogeologic subdivision III, the leached and collapsed members, undivided, of the Person Formation. Hydrogeologic subdivision II, the cyclic and marine members, undivided, of the Person Formation, also is quite porous and permeable in Hays County. The porosity of the rocks in the Edwards aquifer outcrop is related to depositional or diagenetic elements along specific stratigraphic horizons (fabric selective) and to dissolution and structural elements that can occur in any lithostratigraphic horizon (not fabric selective). Permeability depends on the physical properties of the rock such as pore size, shape, distribution, fissuring, dissolution, and interconnection of pores and vugs. The Edwards aquifer rocks that crop out in the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards aquifer generally have the same lithologic characteristics as the Edwards aquifer rocks that crop out in Comal and southwestern Hays Counties. However, in the northeastern part of the segment in Travis County, the rock unit that is apparently equivalent to the basal nodular member of the Kainer Formation is called the Walnut Formation. Because the units appear to be stratigraphically and lithologically equivalent, the basal nodular member is used instead of the Walnut Formation for this report. Essentially all of hydrogeologic subdivision II, which is about 70 feet thick in Hays County, is missing in Travis County. In the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards aquifer, the aquifer probably is most vulnerable to surface contamination in the rapidly urbanizing areas on the Edwards aquifer outcrop. Contamination can result from spills or leakage of hazardous materials; or runoff on the intensely faulted and fractured, karstic limestone outcrops characteristic of the recharge zone.
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Geologic framework and hydrogeologic characteristics of the Edwards Aquifer outcrop, Hays County, Texas
All of the hydrogeologic subdivisions within the Edwards aquifer outcrop in Hays County have some porosity and permeability. The most porous and permeable appear to be hydrogeologic subdivision VI, the Kirschberg evaporite member of the Kainer Formation; hydrogeologic subdivision III, the leached and collapsed members, undivided; and hydrogeologic subdivision II, the cyclic and marine members, undivided, of the Person Formation. The two types of porosity in the Edwards aquifer outcrop are fabric selective, which is related to depositional or diagenetic elements and typically exists in specific stratigraphic horizons; and not fabric selective, which can exist in any lithostratigraphic horizon. Permeability, the capacity of porous rock to transmit water, depends on the physical properties of the rock such as size, shape, and distribution of pores, and fissuring and dissolution. Two faults, San Marcos Springs and Mustang Branch, completely, or almost completely, offset the Edwards aquifer by juxtaposing Edwards aquifer limestone against nearly impermeable upper confining units along parts of their traces across Hays County. These faults are thought to be barriers, or partial barriers, to groundwater flow where the beds are juxtaposed. In Hays County, the Edwards aquifer probably is most vulnerable to surface contamination in the rapidly urbanizing areas on the Edwards aquifer outcrop. Contamination can result from spills or leakage of hazardous materials; or runoff on the intensely faulted and fractured, karstic limestone outcrops characteristic of the recharge zone.
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Hydrogeologic sections of the Edwards Aquifer and its confining units in the San Antonio area, Texas
Twenty-seven geohydrology sections illustrate structural and stratigraphic relationships within the 180-mi-long Edwards aquifer. These sections were used to interpret the location of barriers within the Edwards aquifer. The sections are oriented generally south-southeast, which is approximately normal to both the east-northeast trending Edwards aquifer and the strike of the major faults of the Balcones fault zone. Section lengths represent the distance necessary to cross the aquifer, which is 5 to 40 mi wide. The updip (north) end of the sections are drawn to indicate exposures of the Glen Rose Formation; from there the sections indicate downdip geologic conditions within the freshwater zone and the saline water zone. The sections are approximately parallel and illustrate geologic conditions at 5- to 10-mile intervals. The sections indicate the geologic conditions from near the eastern boundary of the aquifer in Hays County to near the western boundary of the aquifer in Uvalde County. Several sections show places where faults have sufficient vertical displacement to offset the entire, or almost entire, thickness of the aquifer. At these places the faults are barriers to groundwater flow directly downdip across the fault. (Author 's abstract)
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Progress report on geology of the Edwards aquifer, San Antonio area, Texas, and preliminary interpretation of borehole geophysical and laboratory data on carbonate rocks
This report describes the geology and porosity of the rocks of the Edwards aquifer, with particular attention to the eastern half of the San Antonio area. The data were obtained from geologic and geophysical studies of nine cored test holes, from laboratory analyses of samples of the aquifer materials, and from recent stratigraphic studies by other investigators. The Georgetown Formation and the Edwards Group or their equivalent stratigraphic units are extensively exposed in central Texas and they occur in the subsurface throughout southern Texas. They consist of a complex sequence of carbonate rocks deposited during Early Cretaceous time under different depositional conditions. Within the study area, the thickness of the carbonate rocks ranges from less than 400 feet (122 m) in the eastern part of the area to more than 600 feet (183 m) in the southwestern part. The depositional environments significantly affected the texture and the composition of the sediments. The Maverick Basin in the southwestern part of the study area was a euxinic basin surrounded by a barrier rudistid reef. Fine-grained carbonates and some associated evaporites occur within this basin. The San Marcos Platform in the eastern part of the study area was intermittently submerged by a transgressing continental sea. Much of the sediments are extensively reworked and burrowed by marine organisms. Several thick sequences of dolomites, evaporites, and associated collapsed deposits occur on the San Marcos Platform. The carbonates of the San Marcos Platform are extensively dissolved within the fresh-water zone. Much of the dissolution is selective of beds containing evaporites or porous dolomites. The dominant structural feature of the study area is a broad homocline that extends from nearly flat-lying beds on the Edwards Plateau to steeply dipping beds of the deep subsurface of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The homocline is interrupted by the Balcones Fault Zone, which is a zone of normal faults that extend across the study area. The intensity and complexity of faulting increases eastward as part of a progression from gentle flexures in the southwestern part of the study area to a complex pattern of tilted fault blocks on the San Marcos Platform.
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