The Natalia 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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Natalia’s center stands about 690 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 650 ft to 820 ft, a difference of 170 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Flea Hill, about 920 ft, 8 miles north.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 49×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Gravel. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Clay, sand. Age: Paleocene to Eocene, 34 to 66 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mudstone. Age: Late Paleocene to Early Eocene, 48 to 59 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 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 Natalia reaches Corpus Christi Bay and the Gulf of America by way of Chacon Creek, San Miguel Creek, the Frio and the Nueces: about 210 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Horseshoe Tank and Lake Corpus Christi.
70 miles of the trip are on San Miguel Creek.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Natalia; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
