The Rising Star 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.
Rising Star’s center stands about 1,650 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,580 ft to 1,770 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mexican Hat Hill, about 2,050 ft, 14 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Antlers Sand (sandstone, claystone), from the Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 54×. 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, claystone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Black-shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Black-shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Claystone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Rising Star reaches the Gulf of America by way of Copperas Creek, Rush Creek, the Leon, the Little River and the Brazos: about 680 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Belton Lake and Proctor Lake.
320 miles of the trip are on the Brazos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Rising Star; river miles along the main stem, rounded.