The exposed strata at the surface in and around

Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accordin ...

are the products of one ancient period of deposition with a modest amount of recent and modern alteration. In all cases, the strata are products of

terrigenous In oceanography, terrigenous sediments are those derived from the erosion of rocks on land; that is, they are derived from ''terrestrial'' (as opposed to marine) environments. Consisting of sand, mud, and silt carried to sea by rivers, their ...

(non-marine) environments dominated by

fluvial In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...

depositional and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

al systems (rivers and streams).

Brief geologic history

The rocks found in and around Wichita Falls result from southwesterly-flowing

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

streams that deposited sands in channels and silts and clays on the surrounding floodplains. Calcium-carbonate rich soils concurrently developed adjacent to these streams. These were likely buried by further Permian sedimentation and then

lithified Lithification (from the Ancient Greek word ''lithos'' meaning 'rock' and the Latin-derived suffix ''-ific'') is the process in which sediments compact under pressure, expel connate fluids, and gradually become solid rock. Essentially, lithificatio ...

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

erosion removed the younger rocks, exposing the current strata. Exposures of sediments indicate that northeast-flowing streams locally deposited silts, clays, sands, and some gravels on the Permian rocks. These are subsequently modified by modern (

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

) stream erosion and deposition.

Permian Rocks

In the

geologic period, North-Central Texas was a part of the western coastal zone of equatorial

Pangea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...

, a super-continental land mass.Ziegler, A.M., Hulver, M.L. and Rowley, D.B., 1997, Permian World Topography and Climate. In: Late Glacial and Postglacial Environmental Changes – Pleistocene, Carboniferous- Permian and Proterozoic, Ed. I.P. Martini, pp. 111–146. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Nearby uplifts and mountainous regions, such as the Muenster Arch and Red River Uplift, the Wichita, Arbuckle, and Ouachita mountains developed by the end of the Pennsylvanian,Oriel, S., Myers, D.A. and Crosby, E.J., 1967, Paleotectonic investigations of the Permian system in the United States. US Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper, 515, Chapter C, 80 pp. providing elevated topography to the north and east during the Permian. The rocks of the Permian Basin of West Texas record a contemporaneous shallow inland sea. The resulting topography provided northeast-to-southwest gradients for stream flow and sediment movement. The sediments deposited by the Permian streams of North-Central Texas were likely reworked clastic materials from Middle Pennsylvanian stream and fan-delta sediments proximal to the Ouachita foldbelt and Muenster Highlands.Brown, L.F., Jr (1973) Pennsylvanian rocks of North-Central Texas: an introduction. In: Pennsylvanian Depositional Systems in North-Central Texas, Ed. L.F. Brown, Jr,, Bur. Econ. Geol. Guidebook, 14, 1–9. Wiley-Rd-ss6

The Petrolia Formation (of the Late Wolfcampian-Leonardian systems) dominates the exposed Permian strata in Wichita falls, as mapped by the 1987 Texas Atlas of Geology.Hentz, T. F., and Brown, L. F., Jr., 1987, Wichita Falls–Lawton sheet: The University of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, Geologic Atlas of Texas, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. The map describes the formation as 360–400 feet of weakly or unstratified

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...

with laminated, cross-bedded

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

lenses. The formation increases in mudstone content upsection. Sandstone lenses contain terrestrial fossils of plants, vertebrates, and footprints. The unit contains

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...

nodules of varying sizes as well as poorly

indurated Friability ( ), the condition of being friable, describes the tendency of a solid substance to break into smaller pieces under duress or contact, especially by rubbing. The opposite of friable is indurate. Substances that are designated hazardous, ...

"conglomerate" with vertebrate fossils. In general the entire package is only weakly lithified, perhaps indicating that the region was not appreciably covered by a thick package of younger strata. Several correlated sandstone units crop out in the immediate region. These dominate the region adjacent to the Seymour Highway, on the slopes to the south of the Wichita River (locally known as "the bluffs"). The Texas Atlas of Geology mapped these as ss6. Most outcrops are buff-colored, medium-grained, well-sorted quartzose sandstones. These exhibit extensive

cross-bedding In geology, cross-bedding, also known as cross-stratification, is layering within a stratum and at an angle to the main bedding plane. The sedimentary structures which result are roughly horizontal units composed of inclined layers. The origina ...

and

soft-sediment deformation {{Short description, Geologic formation Soft-sediment deformation structures develop at deposition or shortly after, during the first stages of the sediment's consolidation. This is because the sediments need to be "liquid-like" or unsolidified ...

features. Some deposits are

friable Friability ( ), the condition of being friable, describes the tendency of a solid substance to break into smaller pieces under duress or contact, especially by rubbing. The opposite of friable is indurate. Substances that are designated hazardous, ...

, others well cemented. Locally, there appears to be three prominent layers of sandstone separated by mudstone. Because of variable erosion rates, each influences topography by forming ledges and benches, and in places may form

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

-like landforms. In and around the city, these occur roughly at 960, 1000, and 1060 feet above sea level.

Pleistocene and/or early Holocene Sediments

Up to 30 feet of fluvial deposits of unconsolidated gravel,

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

, and

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

mapped as

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

deposition by the 1987 Texas Atlas of Geology. Gravels are granule-to-cobble size, with clasts of angular to well-rounded quartzite, quartz, and chert from distal sources and lesser fragments of local strata. The sands are orange-brown to tan, fine- to coarse-grained with preserved soils.

Holocene Sediments

Up to 30 feet of

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

and

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

, and gravel from the modern stream systems. This includes terrace deposits near floodplain,

colluvium Colluvium (also colluvial material or colluvial soil) is a general name for loose, unconsolidated sediments that have been deposited at the base of hillslopes by either rainwash, sheetwash, slow continuous downslope creep, or a variable combinatio ...

on valley slopes, and local wind-blown sand and silt.

Structural Geology

The region is largely underlain with shallowly west-dipping strata, but a significant uplifted block is found in the subsurface immediately north of Wichita Falls. This block, locally known as the Red River uplift, may be part of an uplifted system that extends eastward, joining the Muenster Arch. The uplifts offset Pennsylvanian and older strata in the subsurface and are thought to be contemporaneous with the Ouachita and Ancestral Rocky Orogenies. These Pennsylvanian orogenies resulted from the closure of the

Iapetus In Greek mythology, Iapetus (; ; grc, Ἰαπετός, Iapetós), also Japetus, is a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. He was also called the father of Buphagus and Anchiale in other ...

ocean as the

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

and

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America, althoug ...

continents collided to form

Oil and Gas Resources

Petroleum resources were discovered in the region in the early 1900s, and the area remains a locus of exploration and production.

Water Resources

Groundwater

Groundwater in Wichita Falls is drawn from the Seymour aquifer or from alluvial aquifers associated with local streams.Duffin, G., L., and Beynon, B.E., 1992, Evaluation of Water Resources in Parts of the Rolling Prairies Region of North-Central Texas, Texas Water Development Board, Report 337, 93 p. Groundwater withdrawals are limited to individual property owners and do not feed into the municipal supply for the city of Wichita Falls. However, the nearby city of Burkburnett, located 15 miles north of (and down hydraulic gradient from) Wichita Falls relies in part on this aquifer for municipal supply.McGregor, W., Hancock-White, K., and Oswald, R., 2011, Texoma Water Resources, unpublished student report, Midwestern State University Geosciences. The Seymour aquifer may be locally confined under clay-rich soils and sediments. In the southern part of the city, the distribution and nature of the aquifer is consistent with one hosted by Pleistocene and/or Holocene fluvial channel deposits. The depth to water (hydrostatic head) averages 14 feet below the surface, closely correlated with topography. The water is likely sourced in coarse sands and gravels 10-19' below the surface. Dry holes in this same area contain no typically sand-gravel layers within the first 22 feet. The horizontal distribution of this shallow aquifer is irregular; dry holes may be adjacent to those with water yields.

Cedar Springs Pools

Seymour aquifer groundwater once fed the Cedar Springs Pools, a popular recreational public swimming facility in the 1930s and 40s. The two pools were located between Taft Boulevard and Robin Lane north of Hampstead Rd. in the southern part of Wichita Falls. Long-time residents have vivid memoirs of the frigid waters in these ponds.

Surface water

The Wichita River

Wichita Falls is located along the

Wichita River The Wichita River ( ), part of the Red River watershed, lies in north-central Texas. Rising in northeastern Knox County at the confluence of its North and South Forks, the river flows northeast across Baylor, Archer, Wichita, and Clay count ...

roughly 25 miles southwest of its confluence with the Red River. The river essentially bisects the city into north and south. The river exhibits many of the classic morphological features associated with meandering streams; Lucy Park, an expansive city green space, occupies a large meander bend near downtown and the Tanglewood subdivision surrounds an oxbow lake. The upstream waters of the Wichita River are impounded for flood control and reservoir capacity.

=Lake Diversion

= Lake Diversion was impounded in 1924 in northwest

Archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

and northeast Baylor counties, 71 miles upstream from Wichita Falls. Lake Diversion sits at an elevation of 1,053 feet above sea level, has a surface area of 3,133 acres, and a maximum depth of 35 feet. The lake serves to alleviate flooding, and a source of water for the Dundee fish hatchery, and as an irrigation source, feeding a 135-mile network of irrigation canals that extend to the east side of Wichita Falls (Wichita County Water Improvement District #2).FindLakes website, 2011, http://findlakes.com/lake_diversion_texas~tx01011.htm. accessed November 26, 2011

=Lake Kemp

= Located 8 miles north of Seymour in Baylor County and 40 miles upstream of Wichita Falls, Lake Kemp was developed in 1924 to alleviate persistent flooding issues downstream and to provide irrigation and drinking water for the city and the adjacent farming areas. The elevation of Lake Kemp is 1,142 feet asl and contains 245,308 acre feet (80 billion gallons) at its maximum capacity. The lake has 100 miles of shoreline, some of which is used for housing and recreation."LAKE KEMP," Handbook of Texas Online Published by the Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rol46, accessed November 23, 2011 Lake Kemp was used as a source of drinking water through the 1950s but lost popularity because of its

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

taste. In 2008, the City of Wichita Falls began

reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pre ...

water treatment and is now processing water from Lake Kemp through this

desalination Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...

systemLangdon, J., "City Realizes Dreams of Potable Water From Lake Kemp with Reverse Osmosis Plant", Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas, September 27, 2008. Additionally, Lake Kemp provides water to the American Electric Power Company in Oklaunion, Texas. Lake Kemp is named for entrepreneur

Joseph A. Kemp Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

=Truscott Brine Lake

Truscott Brine Lake was completed in 1987 by the Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District.Haynie, M.M., Burke, G.F., Baldys, S., 2011, "Chloride Control and Monitoring Program in the Wichita River Basin, Texas, 1996-2009", United States Geological Survey Fact Sheet #2011-3018 The lake covers 2.98 acres with 24 miles of shoreline. The lake has a normal storage of 107,000 acre-feet, a maximum capacity of 116,200 acre-feet of water with a maximum discharge rate of 35,400 cubic feet per second. The lake drains a 26-square mile area.FindLakes website, 2011, http://findlakes.com/truscott_brine_lake_texas~tx05996.htm. accessed November 27, 2011. This project is aimed at controlling chloride and other salinity components in the Wichita River watershed. There are naturally occurring salt springs in the area. The salt springs result from the percolation of groundwater through Permian strata rich in

evaporite An evaporite () is a water-soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as ocea ...

minerals. Authorized in 1974, and completed in 1987, a 5-foot tall inflatable collection dam was constructed across the South Wichita River near Guthrie, Texas. During low flow periods, this salty water is piped 23 miles to Truscott Brine Lake, where the water is contained for eventual evaporation. An additional low-water inflatable dam has been installed on the Middle Fork of the Wichita River, but a pipeline to Truscott Lake has not yet been completed."Truscott Brine Lake" Army Corps of Engineers website, 1999, http://www.swt.usace.army.mil/library/Chloride%20Control%20-%20Wichita%20River%20Basin/library/fs-110-00.pdf. accessed November 26, 2011

Holliday Creek

Holliday Creek is a tributary to the Wichita River that originates south of Dundee in

Archer County Archer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 8,560. Its county seat is Archer City. It is part of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area. History In 1858, the Texas Legislat ...

, Texas, to the north edge of Wichita Falls. It is impounded at the southern edge of Wichita Falls to form Lake Wichita.Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2008, "FEMA Flood Insurance Study for Wichita County," FEMA Flood Insurance Study Number 48485CV000A.

=Lake Wichita

= Located on the southern edge of the city limits, partly in Wichita County and partly in Archer County, this lake at 971 feet above sea level was developed in 1901 by the entrepreneur

Frank Kell Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

, his brother-in-law Joseph Kemp, and the Lake Wichita Irrigation and Water Company to alleviate flooding and provide irrigation water for local farms and municipal water for Wichita Falls. The lake is recharged from the Holliday Creek watershed and from irrigation conduits from Lake Diversion. The original lake covered 2,200 acres with a maximum capacity of 14,000

acre-feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre-f ...

of water. In 1995, the city constructed a new spillway that was 4.7 feet lower than the previous spillway.Howell, M., "After 15 years, Lake Wichita is Slowly Reaching Its New Potential", Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas, August 19, 2010. as part a flood control project on Holliday Creek. The current lake now covers 1,224 acres to a maximum depth of 8 feet at its deepest spot. Because of its shallow nature, this lake is currently only used for recreation and not as a municipal reservoir."LAKE WICHITA," Handbook of Texas Online Published by the Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rol85, accessed November 10, 2011.

The Little Wichita River

The

Little Wichita River The Little Wichita River is a river in Texas. See also *List of rivers of Texas *Geology of Wichita Falls, Texas *Little Red River (Texas) The Little Red River is an intermittent stream about long, formed at the confluence of the North Prong a ...

is a near-parallel drainage system to the south of Wichita River and a tributary to the Red River, emptying into the Red about 20 miles downstream of the Wichita River. The Little Wichita River drains the regions to the south and east of the Wichita Falls city limits, and its waters are impounded in two lakes that feed the Wichita Falls municipal water system.

=Lake Arrowhead

= This lower lake in the Little Wichita River watershed is located 15 miles southeast of Wichita Falls on the western edge of Clay County. The most recently built of the region's large reservoirs, it was impounded in 1965 following a prolonged legal battle and the eventual relocation of the residents (living and deceased) of Halsell, Texas. It has a drainage area of 832 square miles, a maximum capacity of 228,000

(74 billion gallons), and sits at 926 feet above sea level "LAKE ARROWHEAD," Handbook of Texas Online Published by the Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rol11, accessed October 26, 2011. Wichita Falls is authorized by the Texas Water Development Board to utilize up to 45,000 acre-feet of water annually for municipal purposes Texas Water Development Board, 2002, "Volumetric Survey of Lake Arrowhead".

=
Lake Kickapoo Lake Kickapoo is a reservoir located on the North Fork Little Wichita River in the Red River Basin of Archer County, Texas. It is neighbored by Archer City, Texas (population of 1,834) and Wichita Falls, Texas (population of 104,553) which resid ...

= This upper lake on the Little Wichita River watershed is located approximately 18 miles southwest of Wichita Falls, in Archer County. Constructed in 1945, the lake is at an elevation of 1,014 feet above sea level, has a surface area of 6,200 acres, and has a maximum capacity of 106,000

acre feet The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows. An acre-f ...

(35 billion gallons)."LAKE KICKAPOO," Handbook of Texas Online Published by the

Texas State Historical Association The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, on March 2, 1897. , TSHA moved their offices from Austin to the University of N ...

. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rol47, accessed October 26, 2011.

=Lake Ringgold

= Lake Ringgold is a proposed reservoir site on the Little Wichita River near the city of

Henrietta Henrietta may refer to: * Henrietta (given name), a feminine given name, derived from the male name Henry Places * Henrietta Island in the Arctic Ocean * Henrietta, Mauritius * Henrietta, Tasmania, a locality in Australia United States * Henrie ...

with a potential of 27,000 acre-feet per year by 2050 to provide 77,003 acre-feet of additional water storage by the year 2060. The total capital costs to develop this additional water resource are $383 million.Texas Water Development Board, 2012, Water for Texas 2012, State Water Plan http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/publications/state_water_plan/2012/2012_SWP.pdf

References

{{reflist Geology of Texas Wichita Falls, Texas