Surface Casing Database Project

In 2005, the Bureau of Economic Geology expanded the surface casing database developed in 2004 for Brazos County to include three additional counties: Robertson, Madison, and Leon. All work was funded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) under the oversight of John Estepp. Methods employed and the functionality of the database, which is designed to be accessed by the public using the Internet, are essentially the same as those of the prototype project for Brazos County. All TCEQ "Q-Logs" for the three counties were scanned and delivered to TCEQ. This letter report is a summary of a few refinements and changes from the initial project, and some recommendations for how the project may be expanded in the future. Bureau personnel are essentially the same as for the initial project, which greatly facilitated the work. The geology of the study area is mostly updip from Brazos County, and the three-county area includes a salt dome and an impact structure.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Review of the Geology and Hydrology of the Eagle Flat Area, Hudspeth County, Texas

On February 27, 1991, the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority requested that the Bureau of Economic Geology perform a preliminary review of the geology and hydrology of the Eagle Flat area in eastern Hudspeth County, Texas. The purpose of this review was to briefly summarize what is known about the geology and hydrology of the area from a survey of the published literature, to conduct a field reconnaissance of the area, and to comment on factors that the Authority may want to consider in its general assessment of the suitability of the area as a host for a repository for low-level radioactive wastes. Recent maps of land ownership indicate that the State does not own any sections in the main Eagle Flat area, although the State does retain an interest in the mineral rights on some sections. To minimize upstream drainage, avoid drainage basins that flow to the Rio Grande, and maximize the potential for thick basin-fill deposits, the portion of Eagle Flat that lies southeast of the road to Grayton Lake, west of the drainage divide between Grayton Lake and Eagle Flat Draw, and between the Texas and Pacific and Southern Pacific railroad tracks, has been indicated as an area of potential interest. For the purposes of this report, this block of land is referred to as the "Eagle Flat site." The Eagle Flat site is shown on the Grayton Lake 7.5-minute quadrangle topographic map published by the U.S. Geological Survey.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Comparative Gross and Histologic Anatomy of the Gastrointestinal Tract of Pronghorn Antelope and Domestic Sheep

The relationship between the domesticated sheep, Ovis aries, and the pronghorn antelope, Antilocapra americana americana, is close enough to validate a comparative gastrointestinal tract analysis (Table 1). This analysis is intended to compare and describe the various parts of the gastrointestinal tract of each species in the order of their occurrence from the esophagus through the rectum. . . . An attempt was made in this study to compare the gastrointestinal tract of the sheep and the pronghorn antelope, using the sheep as a guide because of its similarity and availability. The purpose of this study is not to prove any anatomical differences, but to compare the gastrointestinal tract of the two species. This comparison is to show correlation between species, with emphasis on pronghorn antelope because of lack of information on wild game ruminants

From Housewife to Household Weapon: Women from the Bolivian Mines Organize Against Economic Exploitation and Political Oppression

Drawing from oral histories which I gathered while living in Bolivia, this thesis tracks the start, growth, and development of the political movement led by women from the Bolivian mines from 1961 to 1987. This movement helped create a new political culture that recognized the importance of women’s participation in politics and human rights. Today, this culture lives on. Bolivia has not experienced a coup since 1980, and the nation’s human rights record has improved dramatically since the 1980s as well. Prior to the mid-1980s, Bolivia was often under the control of oppressive military regimes that resorted to many different types of coercion in attempts to silence resistance in the mining centers, the national government’s main source of conflict. This uneven power struggle between working class activists and the national government motivated many women to challenge gender roles and involve themselves in politics. After establishing their political organization called the Housewives’ Committee, women activists organized and acted collectively to challenge political oppression and mitigate the effects of extreme poverty. They frequently employed compelling tactics, most commonly hunger strikes, to win attention for their issues. They also involved themselves in many other diverse projects and demonstrations depending on their communities’ need. Women’s political development resulted in a number of personal transformations among those who participated: it awakened a political consciousness and also enabled women to recognize the importance of their paid and unpaid work in the mining economy. These changes eventually altered women’s understanding of how women’s oppression fit into the broader struggle of working class activism by convincing them of the deep connection between women’s liberation and the liberation of their community. These transformations led to the acceptance of women as political activists and leaders, which continues in the present. This work also tracks the United States’ impact on the relationship between the mining centers and the state. This analysis serves to remind us that as United States citizens we must be very critical of our nation’s impact; because of our ability to enormously affect small land-locked countries like Bolivia, we must also hold ourselves accountable to understanding our historical impact so that we can make informed decisions in the present

Regional Ecological Resource Assessment of the Rio Grande Riparian Corridor: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding Anthropogenic Effects on Riparian Communities in Semiarid Environments

Data for this report is available at the Texas Data Repository: https://doi.org/10.18738/T8/AAB1LYRiparian ecosystems of the southwestern United States are among the most productive ecosystems of North America. The rapid decline of these ecosystems throughout the United States, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley, has made riparian conservation a focal issue. This multidisciplinary study of riparian communities along the Lower Rio Grande of Texas and Mexico had several objectives, including (1) acquiring and analyzing high-resolution, remotely sensed data from multiple sensors; (2) integrating existing and new field data and remotely sensed data into a geographic information system (GIS); (3) ascertaining whether the native vegetation communities are maintaining themselves and identifying the topographic, edaphic, and other ecological factors that perpetuate these communities; (4) interpreting spatial variations in riparian habitats, including comparisons of the north and south banks of the Rio Grande; (5) analyzing temporal changes at specific locations; and (6) developing a foundation for future analysis of riparian floodplain communities by linking local and remotely sensed regional data using GIS. Analysis and classification of riparian vegetation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley using remote sensing data supported by field surveys confirmed what other researchers have qualitatively suggested, that riparian vegetation has been greatly diminished since the early 1900s. Digital analysis of historical maps and aerial photographs of woodland distribution in Cameron County as part of this study revealed that in the mid-1930s there were ~81,887 ha of woodlands in Cameron County. By the early to mid-1980s, only 7,337 ha of woodlands in this original area remained, indicating a loss of ~91% of this resource. This quantitative assessment of woodland loss helps confirm the earlier qualitative estimates of up to 95% loss.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Reading foreign policy archives: how regime-made disasters, pointillism, and citizen-perpetrators underpin U.S. Empire-building

This political project analyzes documents within the foreign policy archives of the Bush Jr., Obama, and Trump administrations to tell a story of how U.S. imperial relations are constructed to reproduce differential rule, exploitation, and the distribution of subject positions. Through a combination of postcolonial critiques of imperial knowledge production and poststructuralist discourse analysis, I argue that these documents expose how U.S. officials construct Afghanistan as a regime-made disaster, a nation-state enclave for unfettered U.S. pointillism and unequal integration into the imperial world order. In addition, the documents reveal how U.S. officials reproduce the nation and perpetuate the imperial condition through the construction of U.S. citizens as citizen-perpetrators, figures outside and above the “realm of imperial accountability” (Azoulay, Potential History, 554). This project is meant to serve as a commitment to ongoing efforts for U.S. citizens to reclaim the right to not be a perpetrator and begin the labor of reparations necessary to revive a shared world

Kentucky’s Rebel Press: Pro-Confederate Media and the Secession Crisis

As the secession crisis yielded the bitter fruit of civil war in the spring of 1861, Abraham Lincoln understood well the multifaceted importance of the border states, including his native state of Kentucky. He is said to have remarked that, while he hoped that God was on his side, he needed Kentucky. Indeed, Union and Confederate partisans in and out of the state coveted Kentucky’s manufacturing capacity as well as its ability to provide military resources such as soldiers and draft animals. The state’s geographical position was vital as well. Kentucky offered a springboard for invasion of the North or the South, and the forces that controlled the state’s portions of the Cumberland, Ohio, and Tennessee rivers would be well positioned to drive deep into enemy territory—a fact that Ulysses S. Grant demonstrated effectively with his seizure of Forts Henry and Donelson in February of 1862

Learning Politics through Entertainment: Exploring the Effects of Biographical Films on Political Learning and Attitude Toward Female Politicians

This study examined the effects of semi-fictional biographical political films on political learning and attitude change in audiences of fictionalized accounts of female politicians. Data from 310 participants indicated that content-related political learning significantly increased and attitude toward female politicians positively changed after exposure. A conceptual model of the political entertainment effects indicated that initial political learning transported the audience into the biographical narrative, which led to greater enjoyment, as well as learning gain and a positive attitude toward female politicians. Our findings provide important clarification to existing research and offer both theoretical, methodological, and practical implications

Summary Report for the 2003-2004 STATEMAP Project: Geologic Mapping to Support Improved Database Development and Understanding of Urban Corridors, Critical Aquifers and Special Areas of Environmental Concern in Texas

This Texas STATEMAP project involves geologic mapping of areas where improved geologic information can assist the management and use of land and water resources. Work during the past year focused on new geologic mapping within two project study areas (fig. 1): (1) Hill Country Trinity aquifer near Kerrville and Bandera, Central Texas, and (2) Christmas Point quadrangle-San Luis Pass area, Texas Gulf of Mexico coast. The geologic maps produced by this project will aid professionals and the public in making informed decisions regarding land use, aquifer management, and environmental protection for urban-growth corridors in Texas. Maps of the project 1 Hill Country Trinity aquifer area will be used to make decisions regarding aquifer management and modeling, land use, and environmental protection for Central Texas; a region where population growth is causing greater demands for the use of water and Earth resources. The map produced for project 2 involves a Texas Gulf of Mexico coast area near San Luis Pass, the Christmas Point quadrangle. Mapping Holocene and Pleistocene environmental geologic units associated with coastal depositional environments within this important tidal-folet area of the Texas Gulf Coast will support crucial activities such as evaluating historic changes of coastal depositional environments, addressing erosion issues, educating the public, and establishing a framework for conducting studies and presenting data for the management of other Texas inlets. Deliverables produced for this 2003-2004 contract year are (1) project 1: 10 open-file geologic quadrangle maps (1:24,000) of the Hill Country Trinity aquifer near Kerrville and Bandera, Central Texas, and (2) project 2: open-file geologic quadrangle map (1:24,000) of the Christmas Point quadrangle-San Luis Pass area, Texas Gulf Coast. Methods used for the projects included standard field techniques, study of aerial photographs, and review of previous work. Mapping of the Christmas Point quadrangle also involved digital photography and mapping techniques. Existing regional geologic maps that encompass project 1, Hill Country Trinity aquifer area near Kerrville and Bandera, are the 1:250,000-scale Llano sheet (Barnes, 1981) and San Antonio sheet (Brown and others, 1974). A regional map, scale 1:250,000, of Edwards Group strata was constructed by Rose (1972) during his investigation of Edwards strata. Regional maps that cover project 2, Christmas Point quadrangle-San Luis Pass area, include the 1:125,000-scale Environmental Geologic Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone-Galveston-Houston Sheet (Fisher and others, 1972) and the 1:125,000-scale map of Submerged Lands of Texas, Galveston-Houston Area (White and others, 1985).Bureau of Economic Geolog

Exploring the Role of Identification and Moral Disengagement in the Enjoyment of an Antihero Television Series

Affective disposition theory explains well the process of enjoying hero narratives but not the appeal of narratives featuring antiheroes. Recent antihero studies suggest that character identification and moral disengagement might be important factors in the enjoyment of such fare. The current study builds on this work. A sample of 101 self-identified fans and nonfans of the television series 24 viewed a condensed version of Season 1, providing evaluation of various protagonist perceptions, moral judgments, and emotional responses to the narrative, as well as overall enjoyment. As expected, fans reported greater liking of the protagonist and greater enjoyment. But more importantly, regression analyses illuminated key differences between the groups in terms of the factors predicting enjoyment, providing a clearer picture of how we enjoy antihero narratives