The Praesel 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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Praesel’s center stands about 450 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 390 ft to 550 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Taylor Mountain, about 650 ft, 7 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Calvert Bluff Formation (claystone), from the Late Paleocene to Early Eocene, 48 to 59 million years old.
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 64×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Claystone. Age: Late Paleocene to Early Eocene, 48 to 59 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Claystone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Clay, sand. Age: Paleocene to Eocene, 34 to 66 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 2 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 Praesel reaches the Gulf of America by way of East Yegua Creek, Yegua Creek and the Brazos: about 320 river miles.
Lake on the way: Somerville Lake.
250 miles of the trip are on the Brazos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Praesel; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
