The Blanco plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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Blanco’s center stands about 1,310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,270 ft to 1,640 ft, a difference of 370 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Meta Mountain, about 1,900 ft, 14 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Glen Rose Limestone (limestone, marlstone), from the Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 24×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Limestone, marlstone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 23 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 113 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Blanco reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Blanco, the San Marcos, the Guadalupe and the South Guadalupe: about 320 river miles.
180 miles of the trip are on the Guadalupe.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Blanco; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
