But the present is rooted in the past, and the history of the river and the laws surrounding it shaped today the same way the river literally shaped the countries that border it.
Roughly two-thirds of the Rio Grande’s length and 50,000 square miles of its watershed can be found in what today is known as Texas. In the often-dry landscape of South and West Texas, the use, management and value of the Rio Grande’s water has long been a hot topic in Texas, said Carlos Rubenstein, former chairman of the Texas Development Board and former commissioner and Rio Grande Watermaster for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“You can’t talk about Texas water history without starting with the Rio Grande. You just can’t,” Rubinstein said.
The Rio Grande Valley isn’t really a valley.
The history of the Rio Grande starts with what’s under your feet, said Jude Benavides, Ph.D., associate professor in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's School of Earth Environmental and Marine Sciences.
Roughly two-thirds of the Rio Grande’s length and 50,000 square miles of its watershed can be found in what today is known as Texas. In the often-dry landscape of South and West Texas, the use, management and value of the Rio Grande’s water has long been a hot topic in Texas, said Carlos Rubenstein, former chairman of the Texas Development Board and former commissioner and Rio Grande Watermaster for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“You can’t talk about Texas water history without starting with the Rio Grande. You just can’t,” Rubinstein said.
From the ground up
The Rio Grande Valley isn’t really a valley.
The history of the Rio Grande starts with what’s under your feet, said Jude Benavides, Ph.D., associate professor in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's School of Earth Environmental and Marine Sciences.
What’s underfoot in the Rio Grande Valley – the area along the southernmost part of the river – is misnamed. The Rio Grande Valley is actually a delta.
Being called the wrong name is significant, Benavides said. It means people know less about where they are, how to identify with the land and how history has shaped that land.
“It sounds like playing semantics, but it’s a big deal if you don’t know exactly what the land is, how your region was created, how the very soil that farmers rely on was created,” he said.
Understanding the Rio Grande, as well as the people, ecosystems and economies along it, requires looking back — way back.
“All history starts with geologic history,” said Jaime Flores, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension program coordinator at the Texas Water Resources Institute. “You have to start there to get to the point where it was the 1900s and they were going to start developing this area.”
About 140 million years ago, much of what would become Texas was under a vast shallow sea. The remains of marine organisms formed limestone rocks that are still visible around Texas. Dinosaurs roamed the region; just over 65 million years ago, the world’s largest known flying creature, Quetzalcoatlus, soared over Big Bend.
The Earth’s crust began to stretch and thin in southern Colorado and New Mexico some 36 million years ago, triggering volcanoes and eventually creating a rift. Over the next 35 million years or so, streams followed the rift and coalesced into the ancestral Rio Grande, gradually pushing toward the Gulf of Mexico. The river finally reached the Gulf less than 2 million years ago, depositing fertile soils and creating the delta now known as the Rio Grande Valley.
Being called the wrong name is significant, Benavides said. It means people know less about where they are, how to identify with the land and how history has shaped that land.
“It sounds like playing semantics, but it’s a big deal if you don’t know exactly what the land is, how your region was created, how the very soil that farmers rely on was created,” he said.
Understanding the Rio Grande, as well as the people, ecosystems and economies along it, requires looking back — way back.
“All history starts with geologic history,” said Jaime Flores, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension program coordinator at the Texas Water Resources Institute. “You have to start there to get to the point where it was the 1900s and they were going to start developing this area.”
About 140 million years ago, much of what would become Texas was under a vast shallow sea. The remains of marine organisms formed limestone rocks that are still visible around Texas. Dinosaurs roamed the region; just over 65 million years ago, the world’s largest known flying creature, Quetzalcoatlus, soared over Big Bend.
The Earth’s crust began to stretch and thin in southern Colorado and New Mexico some 36 million years ago, triggering volcanoes and eventually creating a rift. Over the next 35 million years or so, streams followed the rift and coalesced into the ancestral Rio Grande, gradually pushing toward the Gulf of Mexico. The river finally reached the Gulf less than 2 million years ago, depositing fertile soils and creating the delta now known as the Rio Grande Valley.
To read the rest of the story, click on link below:
https://twri.tamu.edu/publications/txh2o/2021/winter-2021/how-the-rio-grande-came-to-be/
https://twri.tamu.edu/publications/txh2o/2021/winter-2021/how-the-rio-grande-came-to-be/
1 comment:
sounds like that state rep
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