Sabine Lake Research Articles

"The Outer Limits of Probability": A Janis Joplin Retrospective

If you can get them once, man, get them standing up when they should be sitting down, sweaty when they should be decorous, smile when they should be applauding politely ... and I think you sort of switch on their brain, man, so that makes them say: `Wait a minute, maybe I can do anything.' Whoooooo! life. That's what rock and roll is for. Turn that switch on, and man, it can all be. --Janis Joplin, 1970 Man, I'd rather have ten years of superhypermost than live to be seventy by sitting in some goddamn chair watching TV, Janis Joplin said in 1969. A little more than a year later on October 4, 1970, her superhypermost life came to a heroin- and alcohol-induced end in a Los Angeles hotel room. was 43 years shy of her seventieth birthday. The drugged escape from her own internal demons put a tragically fitting end to a woman torn apart by conflicting urges to embrace and to reject the values of her Port Arthur, Texas, childhood. Although Janis Joplin adopted Southern Comfort as her drink of choice, neither whiskey nor the South brought her much comfort. Janis was southern white womanhood gone haywire: a San Francisco hippie with east Texas roots, emotionally whipsawed between her desire to be a free-lovin' mama and a refined lady. With a sense of bafflement she told one interviewer, Well, you know, I'm a middle-class white chick from a family that would love to send me to college and I didn't want to. I had a job, I didn't dig it. I had a car, I didn't dig it. I had it real easy. never quite understood why she didn't follow a more familiar path. Only a few months before her death she devoured a biography of the Alabama belle Zelda Sayre, whose 1920 marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald broke the shackles of her southern upbringing. Janis admired Zelda's full-tilt, hell-bent lifestyle, and she shared Zelda's inability to withstand the emotional incongruities she lived. She was as fucking crazy as I am, Janis marveled. As with Zelda, the competing impulses of rebellion and conformity that roiled through Janis's psyche exploded for a few short years into vitality and creativity before descending into obliteration. It's not easy, she told her publicist Myra Friedman, living up to Janis Joplin, you know. It wasn't easy creating Janis Joplin either. Located on the banks of Sabine Lake near the Louisiana border, Janis's hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, was the brainchild of the Kansas City railroad tycoon Arthur E. Stilwell. He envisioned the town as part of his plan to link Kansas City with the Gulf of Mexico, and he chose its site under the guidance of Brownie fairies. These Brownies advised him in a dream not only where to locate the town but also to name it after himself. In 1895 he began surveying the land. He envisioned Port Arthur as a busy seaport that catered both to international shipping and to wealthy vacationers, and consequently he designed the town around wide avenues and beautiful homes. Plans and reality didn't match in the early years. Recalling the town in its youth one resident related that best Port Arthur was a gloomy place, the abode of hogs, mosquitoes, and cattle, and at night droves of rats took possession of the dark wash-board streets. The 1901 discovery of oil at the Spindletop gusher in nearby Beaumont forever doomed Stilwell's genteel resort, transforming it instead into an oil refining hub. By 1914 Port Arthur was the nation's second largest oil refining center, and the industry dominated the city. A local contest in 1937 to come up with a catchy city slogan resulted in: We Oil the World. The 1940 census, taken just three years before Janis Joplin's birth, counted slightly more than 50,000 residents. A mixture of Cajuns, Creoles, Mexicans, whites, and what the 1940 W.P.A. city guide called smiling coastal Negroes made the city unique for its ethnic diversity. In most other ways, however, Port Arthur was like countless other cities and towns sprinkled throughout the South. …

Comparative analysis of sediment extracts from NOAA's bioeffects studies by the biomarker, P450 Reporter Gene System

Sediment samples collected from nine coastal and estuarine areas have been analyzed to determine response of a biomarker, P450 Reporter Gene System (RGS). This biomarker, using a transgenic cell line, detects the presence and potency of organic compounds that typically induce the CYP1A gene. Previous investigations have shown that sediments containing chemicals which produce a response of 60 or more μg/g of benzo[a]pyrene equivalents (B[a]PEq) also exhibited a degraded community structure. RGS data from all study areas combined (527 samples) show that the mean response is 22.7 μg/g B[a]PEq, and the mean upper 99% confidence interval is 32. We believe that sediments exhibiting B[a]PEq values of 32–60 are possibly contaminated to the extent that effects on benthic organisms may be observed, and those producing an RGS response of 60 and greater are likely to contain levels of chemicals that will produce chronic toxicity. The majority of the stations investigated produced responses below 32 μg/g B[a]PEq. No samples from coastal southern California produced responses greater than 39. However, samples producing induction over 60 μg/g B[a]PEq were: 50%, San Diego Bay; 16%, Delaware Bay; 8%, Sabine Lake; 4%, Northern Puget Sound; and 3%, Charleston Harbor. A strong statistical correlation was observed between the RGS responses and high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in the sediments from several of the study areas. Of the 2694 km 2 encompassed in the surveys, only 0.42% of the area exhibited responses above 32 μg/g B[a]PEq, which represented 11.4 km 2. This assay is useful in identifying high levels of toxic and carcinogenic compounds in the sediments and predicting the potential impact of these chemicals on the biological community.

Nonprofit Could File Suit Under CWA

The Friends of the Earth Inc. (FOE) is a nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the District of Columbia to promote a broad agenda of environmental awareness and improvement projects. FOE did not have any members under the laws of the District of Columbia. The Chevron Chemical Co. manufactures polyethylene in its facility in Orange, Texas. Under its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, Chevron discharges process water into a gully that ultimately enters Sabine Lake. The permit includes mass limitations on the amount of total suspended solids (TsS) that Chevron can discharge. Between 1990 and 1994, Chevron exceeded its TSS limits. FOE filed a private civil enforcement suit against Chevron pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) alleging permit violations. FOE asserted that it represented its members, four of whom had allegedly been injured by Chevron's discharges. Chevron sought to have the suit dismissed because FOE had no legal members under the corporate laws of the District of Columbia. The trial court dismissed FOE's suit. The appellate court said that the suit could proceed if one or more FOE members would have the right to sue on his or her own. The court noted that FOE has a clearly articulated and understandable membership structure and that purported members had the “indicia of membership” in the corporation, so the corporation had associational standing to represent them. The court also said that this suit was clearly within FOE's central purpose and thus within the scope of reasons individuals joined the organization. The trial court decision was reversed.

Carbon Cycling in a Shallow Turbid Estuary of Southeast Texas: The Use of Plant Pigment Biomarkers and Water Quality Parameters

Particulate organic carbon (POC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and plant pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids) were measured approximately bimonthly from March 1992 to October 1993 in the Sabine-Neches estuary (Sabine Lake region), located on the Texas-Louisiana border. High freshwater inflow into this shallow turbid estuary results in the shortest hydraulic residence time (ca. 7 d) of all Texas estuaries (Baskaran et al. in press). Annual averages of chlorophyll-a (3.0 μg l−1) and particulate organic carbon (1.1 mg l−1) in the water column were extremely low in comparison to other shallow estuaries. The highest chlorophyll-a concentrations were observed in October 1993, in the mid and lower regions of the estuary, during the lowest river discharge. Zeaxanthin and fucoxanthin concentrations suggested that much of the chlorophyll-a during this low flow period was represented by cyanobacteria and diatoms that entered from the Gulf of Mexico. The range of DOC concentrations was generally high (4.4–20.9 mg l−1) and were significantly correlated with POC, but not with chlorophyll-a concentrations. When total suspended particulate (TSP) concentrations were below 20 to 30 mg l−1, there were significant increases in %POC and %PON of the TSP. The unusually high POC: chlorophyll-a ratios (highest value of 1423) suggested that much of the POC contained low concentrations of chlorophyll-a that had degraded during transport from wetlands in the Sabine and Neches rivers. Based on these data, this estuary can be characterized as a predominantly heterotrophic system, with low light penetrance, short particle-residence times, high DOC, and low inputs from autochthonous carbon sources.

Mercury phase speciation in the surface waters of three Texas estuaries: Importance of colloidal forms

Surface‐water samples were collected from Galveston Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, Sabine Lake, and Laguna Madre and analyzed for Hg in the <0.45‐µm, 0.45‐µm‐1‐kDa, and <1‐kDa fractions. Colloidal material was isolated with an Amicon cross‐flow ultrafiltration system which was rigorously tested. Filter‐passing Hg concentrations (< 0.45 µm) ranged from 0.12 to 13.6 pM, with the highest values in Corpus Christi Bay. Within Galveston and Corpus Christi Bays, filter‐passing Hg exhibited nonconservative estuarine mixing behavior. The colloidal Hg fraction ranged from 12 to 93% of the filter‐passing pool and averaged 57 ± 20%, indicating that a major portion of the operationally defined “dissolved” Hg is associated with submicron particles and macromolecules > 1 kDa. Colloidal Hg covaries with colloidal organic C concentrations in Galveston Bay waters, suggesting that most of the filter‐passing Hg pool is associated with large organic macromolecules. The log of the particle‐water partition coefficient (Kd) ranged from 4.6 to 5.2, and covaried with suspended particulate matter concentrations, likely due to the presence of colloidal Hg.

Holocene Development of the Southeastern Texas Coast, Sabine Lake Area, from Foraminiferal Biofacies: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Foraminifera were analyzed in cores of Holocene sediments from the southeastern Texas coast to better understand the post-glacial evolution of the Texas chenier plain and incised valley of the Sabine and Neches Rivers. Foraminifera are rare to absent in highstand interfluve marsh and in incised-valley fluvial floodplain deposits, whereas nearshore marine, estuarine, and chenier plain deposits contain abundant foraminifera. Overall foraminiferal diversity is low, and sample assemblages are dominated by Ammonia parkinsoniana and Elphidium gunteri. These species comprise about 78% of the fauna; the remaining taxa include Elphidium spp., miliolids, Brizalina spp., Bucella hannai, and Palmerinella palmerae. Samples are characterized by mixtures of well-preserved and poorly-preserved tests. This, along with the presence of Cretaceous foraminifera, suggests that many of the microfossils are reworked. Small adult foraminifera are common in cores from the chenier plain and are generally associated with fine-grained sediments deposited as mudflats between the sand-rich beach-ridges. Agglutinated foraminifera are surprisingly rare probably because geochemical conditions do not favor the preservation of agglutinated tests below about 2 m. Foraminiferal biofacies include a very low diversity, brackish (marsh) assemblage, a moderate diversity beach assemblage, a moderate diversity shallow marine assemblage, and a relatively high diversity, slightly deeper (but still nearshore) marine assemblage. These biofacies are consistent with those described from the Louisiana chenier plain. The faunal associations, diversity, abundance, and preservation provide insight to the paleoenvironments and depositional processes of the chenier plain.

Clinal variation at aspartate aminotransferase‐2 in spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus (Cuvier), inhabiting the north‐western Gulf of Mexico

SummaryClinal variation was observed at the aspartate aminotransferase‐2 (AAT‐2) locus in the marine fish Cynoscion nebulosus (Cuvier) inhabiting the bays and estuaries of the Texas and northern Mexico Gulf coasts. Frequency of the AAT‐2(80) allele increased from 0.9% at Sabine Lake, Texas to 17.1% at Rio Soto La Marina, Mexico. A statistically significant correlation existed in the frequency of this allele with degrees north latitude and west longitude. This information, if properly incorporated into a comprehensive enhancement programme, could facilitate supplemental stocking success.

Origin and Evolution of Sabine Lake, Texas-Louisiana

ABSTRACT High resolution (uniboom) seismic reflection profiles and vibracores acquired from Sabine Lake, Texas, during 1987 aid in the reconstruction of the bay's history. Seismic records show that the bay is located over an incised valley, initially carved during an early lowstand, tentatively assigned to 18O Stage 5d. Thus, the valley fill sequence represents more than one stage of incision and fill. Sediment cores collected along the flanks of the valley penetrated bay muds resting directly on Pleistocene clays. Radio-carbon dates suggest that the broad, shallow bay floor was flooded approximately 4,000 years ago. Prior to this time the bay was confined to the narrow, deep incised valley. None of the cores that penetrated beyond the Holocene fill contain transitional (deepening upwards) deposits, implying either that flooding was rapid or that erosion had removed these transitional deposits. Cores from the upper portion of the bay were characterized by coarsening-upward sequences which appear to reflect increasing fluvial input of sand with time. Cores from the marsh area at the southern end of the lake penetrated marsh deposits resting on flood-tidal delta and bay deposits. A strong dominance of the bivalve Rangia cuneata (a species generally found in fresh to brackish waters) occurs throughout the Holocene section of sediment cores. Carbon isotopic values of these molluscan shells are generally low and consistent with low salinities. The only exception to this is seen in the very base of these cores, where the microfossil assemblage and isotopic results indicate a brief period during which salinities were higher than at present. Otherwise, the salinity structure of the bay and its fauna have changed little during the past 4,000 years.

North Sabine Lake Field: Complex Deposition and Reservoir Morphology of Lower Hackberry (Oligocene), Southwest Louisiana: ERRATUM

North Sabine Lake Field: Complex Deposition and Reservoir Morphology of Lower Hackberry (Oligocene), Southwest Louisiana: ERRATUM

North Sabine Lake Field: Complex Deposition and Reservoir Morphology of Lower Hackberry (Oligocene), Southwest Louisiana

Gas and condensate production at the North Sabine Lake field is from sands of the Hackberry wedge of the Oligocene Frio Formation. These lower Hackberry sands were deposited in a preexisting submarine canyon. Multiple sand bodies are present, and five patterns of sand deposition are recognized from SP logs: (1) incised channel fill, (2) braided fan channel, (3) intermediate suprafan, (4) proximal suprafan, and (5) overbank. Although three faults surround the field, the primary trapping mechanism is stratigraphic. The development and production history of the field indicate that many small sand lenses have coalesced to form a single large reservoir; however, differences in permeability have caused variations in water influx and in the levels of gas-water contacts. Sand lenses that are not connected to the larger reservoir are of limited size and have produced small amounts of hydrocarbon. Development of the field has been complicated by casing damage probably caused by reservoir compaction.

Utilization of diversity indices in evaluating the effect of a paper mill effluent on bottom fauna

Bottom fauna surveys of the Lower Sabine River in the vicinity of Orange, Texas were performed from 1967 to 1969. During this time samples were taken before and after effluent from a black-liquor paper mill was discharge into the Sabine River. Species diversity indices were determined for each station (one station above the discharge canal and four below it). The results obtained indicated that the paper mill effluent was not disturbing the river to a degree that it would cause damage. However, the proximity of Sabine Lake (an estuary) and the very low flow often encountered on the Sabine River makes it imperative that high standards be imposed in treatment of the waste water and that qualified personnel make periodic studies on the river.

Application of Information Theory to Paleontologic Problems: I. Taxonomic Diversity: ABSTRACT

Information theory deals with the relative frequencies of nominal classes by treatment of average uncertainty, [EQUATION] where pi is the relative frequency of the ith class, connected with observation of the system. Applied directly to proportions of the taxa in a collection, the equation yields a diversity measure. One may then generate an equitability measure E=s^prime/s, where s^prime is the number of taxa necessary to yield the observed diversity if the proportions of taxa were random and s is the observed number of taxa. Applied to foraminifer data from Sabine Lake, La.-Tex., diversity/equitability parameters define salinity gradients more clearly than the presence of particular taxa. Similarly, where applied to invertebrate fossils from the Mississippian of Scotland, these parameters make it possible to subdivide a transgressive sequence in finer detail than an analysis of ta onomic composition. Interpretations in terms of community structure are not justified, but empirical treatment of contemporaneous and successional patterns appears to be a useful paleoecologic tool. End_of_Article - Last_Page 706------------

Moreau-Caminada Chenier Complex, Southeastern Louisiana: ABSTRACT

The Moreau-Caminada chenier complex south of New Orleans is the only sub-Holocene chenier system on the surface in Louisiana east of the classic western Louisiana cheniers. It occupies an area 16 km long and up to 5 km wide east of the mouth of Bayou Lafourche. About 60 ridges, 50-120 m wide and up to 7.5 km long, form the complex; the highest ridge elevation is only 1.2 m. Large new exposures along Louisiana Highway 1 revealed that the sand, which at places is at least 30 ft thick, is very fine grained and very well sorted. Detrital lignite grains make up as much as 7.6% of this chenier sand. Shell fragments, abundant in the western Louisiana cheniers, are absent. Autochthonous and detrital peat layers and laminae 1 mm or more thick are interlayered with the sand. Dating of three autochthonous peat samples from the Louisiana Construction Company and Plaisance Dragline and Dredging Company sand borrow pits revealed 2,940±120 to 2,340±120 years B.P. ages. Thus the cheniers are much older than the surrounding Lafourche- and Lafourche-Terrebonne subdelta sediments. After the last Lafourche distributary stream lost its water supply, substantial erosion started the destruction of the chenier complex. A coastal strip up to 2 km wide was eroded between 1890 and 1934, due to the closing off of the Bayou Lafourche discharge. New information about the Mississippi deltaic plain stratigraphy refutes suggestions that the southwest Louisiana chenier ridges formed during periods when the active delta lobes were on the other end of the deltaic plain. Seven sets of chenier ridges formed in the southwest Louisiana chenier plain between 2,800±600 B.P., while not only the distant St. Bernard distributaries were active but also the much closer Lafourche distributaries. The Moreau-Caminada cheniers were forming also in the proximity of one of the active Lafourche subdeltas. Cyclicity in chenier progradation should be attributed to fluctuations in local sediment supply and hydraulic conditions. Enough sediment must have been present in the littoral drift to prevent the wholesale erosion of the shore and to allow t e construction of ridges. Low ridge elevations in the Moreau-Caminada area are attributed to the great thickness of underlying post-Pleistocene sediments in contrast to the shallow Pleistocene surface in southwestern Louisiana. Shore recession in the chenier plain was accompanied by the reversal of littoral drift directions. The Moreau-Caminada cheniers indicate westward drift whereas the presently prevailing drift direction in the area is eastward. The present drift direction may date back to the construction of the Plaquemines subdelta End_Page 2041------------------------------ which since about 800 B.P. reduced the strength of the currents and waves from the east. Chenier ridge configurations depend primarily on the original outline of the shoreline and upon the conditions of sediment supply from the sea, from deltas, or from the estuaries. Different ridge patterns develop if the dominant littoral drift approach direction is similar or identical with that of the main sediment source area. In the present case a substantial part of the ridge sands came by the drift from the east, and most of the sediment probably came from the west, the area of an active Mississippi subdelta. A similar situation exists on the western bank of the Sabine Pass, eastern Texas, where the ridges developed from the southwest and most of the sediment supply came from the east with the prevailing drift and from the direction of Sabine Lake on the north. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2042------------

Sediments of Sabine Lake, the Gulf of Mexico and Adjacent Water Bodies, Texas-Louisiana

ABSTRACT Sabine Lake, a lake estuary, and the adjacent parts of the Gulf of Mexico, a nearshore neritic environment, were cored and clam-shell sampled to determine if certain physical characteristics of their sediments could be used to differentiate between the two sedimentary environments. Megascopically, in the wet state, the sediments of the two environments appear mainly as grayish to blackish, very fine sandy and silty mud or silty and clayey mud. Some very fine sand and fine sand occur in the northern part of Sabine Lake; very fine sand also occurs along the western part of the Gulf of Mexico shoreline. The sediments of the two environments are usually soft with a high water content and contain variable amounts of shell and plant materials. In the dry state, megascopically, the sediments are seen to be sand, silt or clay, or admixtures of these types and exhibit lighter shades of gray or black color. Analysis of laboratory data shows that the dominant sedimentary type in the two environments, based on mean grain size, is silt with the secondary occurrence of very fine sand and fine sand. Poor sorting is usually characteristic of the sediments of both environments. Comparison of all data indicates that the described sedimentary characteristics would make poor criteria in differentiating between the two sedimentary environments.

Patterns of Foraminiferal Distribution, Northwest Gulf of Mexico: ABSTRACT

Within the past 30 years, several investigators have collected material and reported on Recent Foraminifera in the northwest Gulf of Mexico. The investigations include lagoon, delta, shelf, slope, and abyssal environments. Each report, however, includes only a limited area of investigation. This report is an attempt to evaluate and integrate the existing data in the form of geographic-distribution patterns. The species reported in approximately 1,200 samples form the basis of this study; environmental data come from sedimentologic and oceanographic investigations. Marginal marine environments: Faunas reported primarily from Texas bays and lagoons change geographically in composition. On the southwest, the Laguna Madre and lower Corpus Christi and lower Aransas bays are dominated primarily by miliolids and secondarily by species of Elphidium and Streblus. The miliolids are replaced by the Elphidium-Streblus fauna in Aransas, lower San Antonio, Matagorda, and Galveston Bays and in the pass area of Sabine Lake. These areas contain the so-called Lower Bay fauna. The landward parts of these same water bodies contain an Upper Bay fauna, usually dominated by the arenaceous Ammotium salsum; where streams enter the bays, Eponidella usually is characteristic. Sparse data from Louisiana bays indicate that the Upper Bay fauna predominates throughout the coastal area. The southwest-t -northeast changes occur in response to changing climatic zones, increasing stream discharge, and sediment type. Marine environments: The continental shelf extending from the Gulf beach to about 70 fm. contains a variety of geographically bounded faunas. Despite the emphasis on depth facies, many shelf genera show a pronounced change along strike. For example, the inner shelf from the beach to about 20 fm. generally is dominated by species of Elphidium and Streblus. Offshore from south Texas, a band of Elphidium is dominant nearshore and is succeeded by a band of Streblus in somewhat deeper water; the bands are reversed offshore from southeast Texas and Louisiana. The middle shelf, 20-50 fm. deep, is characterized by a laterally diverse system of dominant taxa. Hanzawaia, Virgulina, and Proteonina occur in elongate and commonly interfingering bands. These dominant forms, however, are replaced in the vicinity of the Mississippi delta by Nonionella, Buliminella, and Epistominella. The outer shelf contains dominant abundances of Cibicides, Uvigerina, and Bigenerina; species of Bolivina occur mainly on the outer shelf off southeastern Louisiana. The continental slope, in contrast to the shelf, is characterized by more uniform lateral distributions of genera. The upper slope from 70 to approximately 500 fm. is strongly dominated by species of Bolivina. This genus is replaced by Bulimina from 500 to 900 fm. and can be considered as indicative of the middle-slope environment. The lower-slope and abyssal environments deeper than 900 fm. are characterized by Pseudoparrella, Eponides, and Glomospira. The number of species per sample increases from a low average of about 10-12 in the bays and nearshore zone to a maximum of more than 55 at or near the shelf-slope break. The faunal diversity decreases again on the slope reaching a minimum of 10-15 species in abyssal samples. Planktonics increase uniformly in abundance from the beach into the Sigsbee Deep. Their increase is related directly to decreasing rates of dilution by sediments and other organisms. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2322------------

Minor internal sedimentary structures in the cored sediments of Sabine Lake and adjacent water bodies, Texas-Louisiana

Minor internal sedimentary structures in the uppermost layer of cored sediments are described and distribution of types is mapped for Sabine Lake, a lake estuary in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. Terminology and criteria of identificatiin are adapted from the study of Gulf of Mexico sediments by D. G. Moore and P. C. Scruton (1957), except that the term 9mixed structures9 has been substituted for 9mottled structures9 to avoid confusion with color. Mixed structures are the dominant type in Sabine Lake; fine homogeneous structures are next most prevalent, occurring along the southwest shore. Coarse and fine homogeneous, regular-layered, and irregular-layered structures occur in small areas. Possible formation processes are discussed.

Mineralogy of some sand-size samples from Sabine Lake and vicinity

Mineralogy of some sand-size samples from Sabine Lake and vicinity

Occurrence of Rangia cuneata Gray and Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin) in Sabine Lake, Texas-Louisiana

Sabine Lake is a lake estuary in the extreme south eastern corner of Texas. Field data were obtained from the present-day surface and from depths up to 9 ft. below the surface through the use of a coring device. Rangia cuneata Gray is an estuarine genus and occurs in Sabine Lake mainly N. of 29 degrees 509N. It occupies the fresher portion of the lake and could be used as an index for this biotope. Shells generally occur as scattered individuals. Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin) occurs singly or in reefs S. of 29 degrees 509N. This species serves as an index for the more saline portion of the lake. The pattern of core spacing was too widespread to delineate the geometry of occurrence of either form.

Late Quaternary Geology of Sabine Lake and Vicinity, Texas and Louisiana: ABSTRACT

The late Pleistocene and Recent sediments, faunas, and geomorphology were mapped in the vicinity of Sabine Lake, in an area that straddles the Texas-Louisiana state line and extends into the Gulf of Mexico. The former valley of the Neches and Sabine rivers is entrenched into oxidized Pleistocene deposits to a minimum depth of 120 feet at the Gulf of Mexico shoreline. This valley has been filled in by the streams and closed off at its southern end, except for Sabine Pass, by prograding of the Gulf shoreline to form the present lake estuary, Sabine Lake. The erosion and subsequent alluviation were caused by a fall and rise in sea-level due to waxing and waning of continental glaciers late in Quaternary time. Lithology and fauna, especially the Foraminifera, were determined from cores and clam-shell samples taken in the Sabine Lake estuary and Gulf of Mexico nearshore neritic environments. No End_Page 2519------------------------------ lithologic criteria for distinguishing these two environments were evident in the surface sediments or in core samples taken 3 feet and 6 feet below the surface. Foraminiferal biofacies, however, do differentiate clearly the estuarine and the nearshore neritic environments. The species and their percentages in the bottom sediments of Sabine Lake differ from those of the Gulf of Mexico, and from those in the core samples from 3 and 6 feet. The biofacies of the core samples from under the lake are similar to those of the present Gulf, indicating greater circulation of saline waters from the Gulf of Mexico before the south end of Sabine Lake was restricted. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2520------------