USGS Open-File Report 2005-1231
In 1983 the United States signed an Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area (La Paz Agreement). In 2002, based upon that agreement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) developed the Border 2012 program to protect the environment and the public’s health in the U.S.-Mexico border region. As part of that cooperative effort, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began the U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Health Project (BEHP). The objective of the USGS project is to provide an earth and biological resources database within a geographic framework using an Internet Map Service (IMS) to further understanding of the linkages between the condition of the physical environment and public health issues. The IMS is now available on the Internet at borderhealth.cr.usgs.gov and a discussion of the IMS has been published.
As part of efforts to characterize the physical environment, the USGS had an aerial survey flown over parts of Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy Counties in Texas. The aerial survey included measurements of the earth's magnetic field and of the radioactivity of the surface rocks and soils. The survey covers a relatively small subset of the BEHP study area (refer to the index map of the aerial survey). In the area of the aerial survey, the geologic units present include the Goliad Formation, Lissie Formation, Beaumont Formation, aeolian sand dunes, and recent floodplain deposits of the Rio Grande. Within the area of the aerial survey the elevation ranges from about 6 m to about 41 m with a mean elevation of 22 m. This publication discusses the radiometric data relative to the mapped geology.
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/of/2005/1231/introduction.htm
Page Contact Information: Stephen Snyder
Page Last Modified: Saturday, 12-Jan-2013 21:28:06 EST
