Red Dirt In The Woodlands/Conroe

[citykid09]

Have any of you ever noticed that north of Houston there is red dirt like in Georgia? I never really noticed it until driving to Houston a while back and you could kind of see it popping out of the ground (Hempsted area). Then I really noticed it when I went to the Woodlands area and saw red dirt for sale. I thought it was kind of neat how this area has some true red dirt.

[UrbaNerd]

You and your Atlanta fetish....

[bachanon]

it has to do with the transition from coastal soil to a more inner continental soil.

[citykid09]

Explain???

[WesternGulf]

Explain???

You really do not see red soil in lower elevations that are close to sea level, i.e. Houston.

[ConstructionManagerMAS]

In some areas around The Woodlands there are also some pockets of iron ore on the surface. Most of these were stripped a long time ago for road material and all that is left is very infertile subsoil, so there will be patches where nothing will grow (my house sits on one of them).

[torvald]

it has to do with the transition from coastal soil to a more inner continental soil.

when i was a kid, we lived in spring for a bit and you could

dig an inch or so and get to that clay. my grandma told us,

when we were kids, that it was called "indian blood" which

really upset me... of course, later on i know it's not but i

have heard other older folks refer to it as that. has anyone

else heard that slang for it?

[Heights2Bastrop]

This thread reminds me of "My Cousin Vinnie" and the red mud.

"You got mud in your tires!"

[H-Town Man]

Where I grew up in Spring, near Klein High, the clay with the red streaks was about twelve inches down. I know this because one of my childhood pastimes was digging holes.

If you go to the Brazos River about an hour west of here, you will notice that the banks and the water itself are red. This is because the Brazos originates in an area of red rock on the llano estacado in New Mexico. The Red River also originates there.

[TheNiche]

Where I grew up in Spring, near Klein High, the clay with the red streaks was about twelve inches down. I know this because one of my childhood pastimes was digging holes.

If you go to the Brazos River about an hour west of here, you will notice that the banks and the water itself are red. This is because the Brazos originates in an area of red rock on the llano estacado in New Mexico. The Red River also originates there.

That can't be. I read an article in Texas Highways (great magazine) a few months ago that had numerous photos of the Brazos up near Possum Kingdom lake. I recall seeing limestone bluffs and the water was clear-to-green, like the Central Texas streams. I think it picks up the red color further downstream where the soil transitions from a limestone base to the brownish-red alluvial soils more typical of east Texas. Besides, the dam at Possum Kingdom probably takes a lot of the sediment out of the water. I know that that's what happens at the B.A. Steinhagen dam on the Neches...except that dam filters out the muddy-brown tanneric acid instead of red sediment.

[RedScare]

Yeah, Niche is right. The Brazos does not become muddy until south of Waco. It doesn't begin in New Mexico, either. It is the creation of 3 separate streams.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/p...tx_brazos.phtml

[jm1fd]

Have any of you ever noticed that north of Houston there is red dirt like in Georgia? I never really noticed it until driving to Houston a while back and you could kind of see it popping out of the ground (Hempsted area). Then I really noticed it when I went to the Woodlands area and saw red dirt for sale. I thought it was kind of neat how this area has some true red dirt.

That red dirt stretches way up north, into deep east texas....I'm not exactly sure how far north it goes...I'd say at least as far as Jacksonville, probably further.

[editor]

I've seen lots of red dirt in central Ohio, and in Wyoming.

There's a kind of white dirt in Georgia that some women get addicted to. They dig it up and eat it. Trade it at meetings that resemble Tupperware parties. Part of a disorder called geophagy, or something.

[bachanon]

Red dirt has large amounts of iron from the hematite content. The dirt is red for the same reason our blood is red. (i. e. Iron-rich blood. Hemaglobin.)

[dbigtex56]

I've seen lots of red dirt in central Ohio, and in Wyoming.

There's a kind of white dirt in Georgia that some women get addicted to. They dig it up and eat it. Trade it at meetings that resemble Tupperware parties. Part of a disorder called geophagy, or something.

AKA pica.

"Individuals presenting with pica have been reported to mouth and/or ingest a wide variety of nonfood substances, including, but not limited to, clay, dirt, sand, stones, pebbles, hair, feces, lead, laundry starch, vinyl gloves, plastic, pencil erasers, ice, fingernails, paper, paint chips, coal, chalk, wood, plaster, light bulbs, needles, string, cigarette butts, wire, and burnt matches."

Sounds like the worst Baskin-Robbins ever.

Perhaps the white clay has a high chalk content? or some trace mineral...? Or maybe women is nuts?

I had a friend who ate burnt paper; but only from one particular free local newspaper. True, she had her issues...

She was complex and multilayered, like sedimentary soil.

There. Back on topic.

Edited April 21, 2006 by dbigtex56

[editor]

I believe you're right -- there was some mineral in the soil that attracted them. Much the way pregnant woman crave ice cubes because their bodies mistakenly think they're rich in iron.

[RedScare]

I had a friend who ate burnt paper; but only from one particular free local newspaper. True, she had her issues...

She was complex and multilayered, like sedimentary soil.

There. Back on topic.

You know, there are tangents, and then there are TANGENTS...