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Long Point Fault Essay

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Area of the Long Point Fault The Long Point Fault is located in Harris County, which covers 83,450 square miles located with in Houston, Teaxas City Limits. Research specifies that there are three sections of the Long Point fault that appear to be active; some sections of the Long Point fault have averaged more than 2 cm per year of vertical offset over the last 20 years. Evidence of the faults concludes it is a natural fault. The reason for activity is not caused by man, even though man’s activities are not helping the issues, but clearly humans are not the initial cause, biological activity can be in fact an adiitional cause for its movement. A brief description of the type of fault and its relationship with the strata and the faults …show more content…

Brief Geology of the Area
Geology of the subsurface rocks and surface sediments along the Long Point Fault its geological make up in Houston was originally developed from stream deposits from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains and now is a combinations of unconsolidated clays, clay shale’s, and poorly-cemented sands encompassed through great depths and goes on for several miles. The sedimentary component consist of a series of sands and clays that have been deposited on decaying organic matter which over time will be transformed into oil and natural gas thought the processes of biochemical activity. Even deeper and beneath these tiers is a water deposited layer of halite, known as rock salt when compressed over time and forced upward, the salt drew surrounding sediments into dome shapes, often trapping more oil and gas from it neighboring soils.
“Houston’s topography is largely in the northern portion of the Gulf coastal plain, a 40- to 50 mile wide swath along the Texas Gulf Coast and its elevation rises approximately one foot per mile inland. Northern and eastern portions of the area are largely forested; and we can find the southern and western sections are in fault zone areas. “. The Long Point Fault consist of Scarps due to prehistoric movement on the Long Point and Eureka Heights faults, for example, they are readily visible on topographic maps based on surveys completed in 1915–16” (Bonnett)
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