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Padre Island National Seashore protects a 105-kilometer (65.5-mile) stretch of Padre Island on the Texas Gulf Coast, in Kenedy, Kleberg and Willacy counties — one of the longest stretches of undeveloped barrier island in the United States.
The park's Geologic Resources Inventory report. Credit: National Park Service.
The park
| Established | April 6, 1968 |
| Area | About 52,784 hectares (130,434 acres) |
| Bounded by | The Gulf of Mexico to the east, Laguna Madre to the west |
| Habitats | Sandy shores, grasslands, dunes, hardwood hammocks, wetlands, ponds, mudflats and marine waters; a major share of Texas's remaining coastal prairie |
| Wildlife | Nesting grounds for the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle and four other protected sea turtles; more than 380 bird species recorded |
| Recognition | Globally Important Bird Area (American Bird Conservancy); Site of International Importance (Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network) |
Visitors come for beaches, open views and wildlife, and to windsurf, swim, fish, beachcomb and kayak.
A landscape always on the move
The island lies in the Coastal Plain province of southeast Texas, a relatively young region of gently sloping Cenozoic sediments. It is geologically restless, constantly reshaped by wind, waves, tides, storms and changing sea level, and by people, through dredging and shoreline engineering.
The landforms mapped in the park are only several thousand years old, from the Holocene, and vary considerably across the island:
| System | Deposits | Made of |
|---|---|---|
| Barrier | Beach, dune, sand flat, salt marsh, brackish-to-fresh marsh, dredged channel and washover deposits | Mostly loose sand, mud, shells and plant debris |
| Lagoon | Tidal flats, grass flats and lagoon-margin sands and muds | Along the island's west side, by the hypersaline Laguna Madre |
A sand flat. Image from the National Park Service's Geodiversity Atlas page for the park.
The park's geologic map. Credit: National Park Service.
Padre Island shares its geologic history with the wider Coastal Plain province. Its Geologic Resources Inventory maps and report, and a completed Soil Resources Inventory, are on the NPS DataStore.
Sources
Based on "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Padre Island National Seashore, Texas," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licens: CC0 1.0 (offentligt eje) · Bearbejdet efter www.nps.gov
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