Colorado River (Texas)
Running through Central Texas, close to where I live, is the
Colorado River. Not the one that most
people think of, but a second, shorter river that has its source in north
Texas. The Colorado River appears red,
particularly in the zone of sediment production near the headwaters along the
Caprock Escarpment. This is due to the
high concentration of red clay present in the river's suspended load.
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| Caprock Escarpment at the source of the Colorado River |
Much of the area that the Colorado River covers is also rich
in limestone, which is susceptible to corrosion and dissolved in the water. One area that my family frequently camps is
right next to a valley of the river, created by the downcutting of
limestone. During the hot summer months,
we like to visit several of the man-made lakes that are created by dams along
the river. The Mansfield Dam is used to
control flooding and the area residents often measure flooding by the level of
Lake Travis above the dam. It is also common
for the local weather to report on the number of open floodgates, particularly
following heavy rainfall. The Mansfield Dam
also contains a hydroelectric power plant that provides some power to the area.
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| Mansfield Dam and Lake Travis |
The river covers such a large area of texas that 15% of the state is part of the Colorado River basin. The mouth of the river is along the Texas coast, near Bay
City, where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda Bay.
References
Colorado River (Texas). (2019). Retrieved 17 November 2019,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_(Texas)
Lower Colorado River Authority. (2019). Retrieved 18
November 2019, from https://www.lcra.org/water/dams-and-lakes/Pages/default.aspx
About The River. (2019).
Retrieved 17 November 2019, from https://coloradoriver.org/about-the-river/
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