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STS034-73-70 Austin, Texas, U.S.A. October 1989 Centered on Austin; extends from Buda to Georgetown. Austin, the state capital, shows two different geologic provinces--the low, rolling Black Prairie to the east where agriculture and ranching predominate, and a dissected, uplifted plateau of limestone to the west. The Balcones fault, a northeast-southwest demarcation of these two geologic areas, creates the Balcones escarpment that extends through the western half of Austin. Visible are natural and manmade features--the southeast-flowing Colorado River along the southern edge of downtown Austin; eastern part of dark, serpentine Lake Travis almost to Bastrop (bottom center); the runway of Bergstrom Air Force Base southeast of the city; and several white limestone mines north and south of the city and west of Interstate Highway 35. | |