Big Bend National Park: Geologic and Soil Resources Inventory Summary
Henderson T. 2024. Big Bend National Park: Geologic and Soil Resources Inventory Summary. National Park Service
This document summarizes the status of National Park Service (NPS) Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) and Soil Resources Inventory (SRI) deliverables for Big Bend National Park. It also provides information on current geology and soil resources management concerns, with a focus on identified inventory needs related to geologic heritage, geohazards, and related soil features and processes. This document is intended to assist park staff with prioritizing technical assistance or new inventory and assessment funding requests in the near term (roughly 1–5 years). The GRI hosted a baseline scoping meeting for Big Bend National Park in 2002. Baseline bedrock and surficial geologic maps were delivered to the park in 2011. SRI delivered a legacy soil database and map to the park in 2007, published an “enhanced report” in 2011, and updated the soil database in 2013. Big Bend National Park’s geologic heritage is engrained in its diverse stratigraphic, tectonic, and paleontological records, Indigenous connections, mining history, stratotypes, and connections to NASA mission trainings. The geologic and soil resources inventory needs for the park include various data and/or GIS needs related to the inventory and monitoring of cultural resources, fossils, stratotypes, cave and karst features, hydrological systems, hydrocarbon development, soils and soil erosion, climate change, and geoscience research. Geologic hazards identified in the park include flooding, disturbed lands (e.g., historic ranch lands, abandoned mineral lands), mass wasting (e.g., rockfalls, landslides), swelling clays, seismicity, radon, toxicological soils, and climate change. Inventory needs related to geohazards address monitoring strategies to help quantify and mitigate the damage these processes pose to the park’s geologic and soil resources.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Henderson, Timothy
- Date of Issue
- 2024-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- BIBE , CHDN , GRI , IMR , SRI
- Keywords
- Basin and Range, Faults, Geoheritage, Geologic Features, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Heritage, Geologic History, Geologic Processes, GIS, GSRI, Igneous, Laramide Orogeny, Map Units, Marathon Orogeny, Mesozoic Rifting, Resource Management, Stratotype, Tectonics, Unconformities
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Windblown Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Hillslope Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Stream/River Channel Characteristics , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Subsurface Geologic Processes | Geothermal Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Subsurface Geologic Processes | Cave/Karst Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Subsurface Geologic Processes | Volcanic Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Subsurface Geologic Processes | Seismic Activity , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Soil Quality | Soil Function and Dynamics , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Paleontology | Paleontology