Texas Through Time

October 12, 2016

The Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) has published a new coffee table book that explores the landscapes, rocks, resources and 1.7 billion years of Earth history in Texas.

Written by noted geoscientist Thomas E. Ewing, “Texas Through Time” includes more than 500 full-color photos, illustrations and maps.

As described in its forward, the new book will allow readers to “visit the ancient rocks of the Llano and Van Horn areas, the legacy of now-eroded Himalaya-type ranges that initially rose over 1 billion years ago. Marvel at the giant West Texas Basin, so prolific in oil and gas, and the enigmatic Marathon and Ouachita Mountains.

Watch North America separate from the supercontinent Pangea and create the enclosed, salt-rich Gulf of Mexico in its wake. Discover the vast carbonate platform that today makes up the Edwards Plateau and Texas Hill Country. And witness the complex story of mountain building, uplift, and delta building that formed today’s Texas landscapes.”

Ewing has been an Earth scientist in Texas for 35 years, first with
the bureau and later as owner of Frontera Exploration Consultants and occasional lecturer at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He has given talks and led field trips across Texas for geologists and others, and his extensive publications include the “Tectonic Map of Texas” (BEG, 1990) and “Landscapes, Water, and Man: Geology and History in the San Antonio Area of Texas” (South Texas Geological Society, 2008).

Ewing has held offices in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists,as well as in local and regional geology groups, and has received several awards for his service to the field.

The book can be ordered through the bureau’s book store at begstore.beg.utexas.edu/store.