Hill Country - Texas
Texas - Hill Country - my residence surroundings, at about the 98th meridian (separating the arid dry west from the fertile wet east areas of Texas). Hill Country terrain is water-carved canyons and steep hillsides forested with oak, juniper, and mesquite trees - its elevation ranges from 600-3000 ft. (180-900 m) and rainfall between 23-35 in. (58-89 cm) annually. Its geology is predominately composed of sedimentary limestone rock, with the Llano Uplift (Precambrian igneous granite rock, > 542 million yrs. old) protruding from within. Hill Country is part of the Edwards Plateau, which is bounded by the Pecos River and Chihuahuan Desert to the west, Llano Estacado (Staked Plain) to the north, and the Balcones Fault to the south and east. Hill Country is also part of the Colorado River Basin and Edwards Plateau ecoregion.
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"Exfoliation Domes" of Little Rock and Enchanted Rock - this geological process occurs when these molten bodies, or plutons, solidified deep underground - subsequent faulting and weather erosion has unroofed the granite plutons of this volcanic rock from the Precambrian rock (prior to about 540 million years ago), geologist actually date this rock to around 1 billion years old, making it some of the oldest volcanic rock in the USA, as a result the solid rock acquired fine cracks through pressure-release jointing, time weathering has opened up the joints further and loosened these slabs, forming concentric layers of rounded boulder masses called "exfoliation domes".