On the hydrology of the Edwards Limestone, south-central Texas

Abstract

The Edwards Limestone (Albian) is a mosaic of shallow water, back-reef, carbonate lithofacies averaging about 150 m thick, that have been dolomitized, chertified, and calcitized. Intermittent subaerial exposure during and shortly after deposition of the Edwards resulted in solution-enlargement of some primary voids. Slow upwarping of the northwestern margin of the subsiding ancestral Gulf of Mexico basin elevated the Edwards Group above sea level late in the Cretaceous. Down-to-the-coast, en echelon, normal faulting along the Balcones system during the Early Miocene accentuated the topographic position of the Edwards above sea level. Rejuvenated Gulf-ward flowing streams cut into the upthrown fault block and exposed the uppermost Edwards Limestone in the bottoms of deep canyons, which created the discharge sites that initiated a continuously circulating groundwater system within the Edwards Limestone in the Miocene. The early porosity systems have increased in volume through the self-ramifying cavern solution process that occurs in carbonate rocks. The down-dip boundary of the aquifer, or “bad-water line”, represents an early bypass boundary of the aquifer that has become deeply ingrained with time. Cavern development is largely sub-horizontal and reflects the control of bedding partings and beds of differing lithology. The Edwards Limestone aquifer has only a few widely separated natural discharge sites which, when viewed in scale, make the confined aquifer appear like a regional master conduit. This cavernous system is known as the Edwards underground reservoir and it supplies the water for most of south-central Texas.