Water School

A spring is a place where groundwater flows naturally from the Earth’s surface. There are two types: gravity springs and non-gravity springs. Gravity springs can be depression spring, surface springs, or artesian springs.  Depression springs: form when a water table intersects with the ground surface, and the water overflows. A water table is an underground boundary of soil saturation. These types of springs vary depending on the raising and lowering of the water table. ...

Alluvium is sand, clay, gravel, silt or other material deposited by a stream in a streambed, on a flood plain, delta, or base of a mountain.

There are 14 sub-watersheds within the basin, including the Caprock, Salt and Double Mountain Forks, Clear Fork,  and the Upper, Central and Lower watersheds. The Bosque, Leon, Lampasas, Navasota and Little rivers as well as Aquilla, Yegua and Upper Oyster creeks also have sub-watersheds in the basin.

Major aquifers that lie within the basin or that are crossed by it include the Edwards BFZ, Seymour, Edwards-Trinity Plateau, Trinity, Ogallala, Carrizo-Wilcox and Gulf Coast.  For a full sized map, click here.

The Brazos River draw lies approximately 50 miles west of the Texas-New Mexico border beginning a watershed that stretches 1,050 miles and comprises 44,620 square miles, 42,000 of which are in Texas.  For a full-sized map, click here.

Forming the Brazos’ main stem when it joins with the Salt Fork in Stonewall County, this stretch of river begins near the Llano Estacado in Lynn County. The Double Mountain Fork gets its name from a geological feature nearby in Stonewall County.The river here is typically shallow and meandering. The land it passes through is mainly farm and ranchland and has little development. The fork extends about 213 river miles from its headwaters to where it joins the main stem. This fork also passes...