Balcones Fault

Balcones Fault is a zone, which is a tensional structural structure in the Texas State in the United States. This zone runs just about from the southwestern part of the Texas state close to Del Rio to the north central area close to Waco in the length of the Interstate 35. The Balcones Fault zone is composed of a lot of smaller features, as well as normal grabens, faults, and horsts. One among the obvious features of the Balcones Fault zone is the Mount Bonnell Fault.

The site of the fault zone may be associated with the Ouachita Mountains, which were formed some 300 million years ago at the time of a continental crash. Even though these ancient mountains have been eroded away long back in Texas, the origins of these antique mountains still subsist, buried under thousands of feet of residue. These obscured Ouachita Mountains may still be a region of weakness that turns out to be a preferred place for faulting when stress subsists in the crust of the earth.

The Balcones Fault had stayed stationary for almost 15 million years, with the very last activity being at the time of the Miocene Era. This activity was associated with the collapse of the Texas Coastal Plain, almost certainly from the huge amount of residue, deposited on it by the rivers in Texas. Even though recently, the Balcones Fault zone has been active, it lies in one among the lowest-hazard zones for the earthquakes in the United States of America.

The surface appearance of the Balcones Fault is the Balcones Escarpment that forms the western border of the Texas Coastal Plain and the eastern border of the Texas Hill Country, and is made up of cliffs and cliff-like configurations. Subterranean feature, like Wonder Cave and many other minor caves can be seen along the Balcones Fault Zone.

Driving on the Interstate Freeway 35 between San Antonio and Austin, the terrain to the east is for the majority are relatively even, whereas the western side land is more rocky and higher, San Marcos, Austin, San Antonio and other towns down this part of the Interstate freeway 35 are all situated at or close to this obvious change in geography, which is generally called an escarpment. In general, an escarpment is the fairly steep face that divides the two areas of markedly dissimilar elevation. Along with the majority of the Balcones Escarpment, the terrain to the west has an average height of 300 feet (90.9 meters) higher than the terrain to the east.

A lot of cities in the United States are situated along this Balcones Fault Zone. Springs, like San Pedro Springs, San Marcos Springs, Comal Springs, Salado Springs and Barton Springs can be found in this fault zone and supply a resource of fresh water and a site for human survival.

The Balcones Fault Zone is a segregation line of some environmental systems and group distributions, such as the California Fan Palm, which is the only genus of palm tree that is indigenous to the continental United States on the western side of the Balcones Fault.