Location
Robert Keyes Gabrysch
Years: 1933–2017 | Role: Hydrologist | County: Harris
Topics
Description
With a degree in engineering from Texas A&M, Gabrysch served for decades in the Houston office of the USGS, where he led studies correlating groundwater pumpage, water-level declines, land surface subsidence, and fault activation. His evidence that heavy pumping in the Houston Ship Channel area drove regional sinking provided a technical basis for the creation of the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District and the switch to surface water sources.
Location Notes
Gabrysch's widely-cited 1974 report describes historic subsidence in the general Houston and Galveston area, but focuses on the dramatic declines in and around the area of the former Brownwood subdivision, now the Baytown Nature Center. A marker could be placed at 119 West Bayshore Drive, in Baytown, at an overlook of Crystal and Burnett Bays.
Files
- Gabrysch and Bonnet, Land-Surface Subsidence in the Area of Burnett, Scott, and Crystal Bays near Baytown, Texas (1974)
- Gabrysch and Bonnet, Land Surface Subsidence in the Houston-Galveston Region, Texas (1975)
- Gabrysch, Ground-Water Withdrawals and Land-Surface Subsidence in the Houston-Galveston Region, Texas, 1906-80 (1982)
Bibliography
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R.K. Gabrysch and C.W. Bonnet. “Land-Surface Subsidence in the Houston-Galveston Region, Texas.” Texas Water Development Board Report 188. Prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey under cooperative agreement with the Texas Water Development Board and the cities of Houston and Galveston. February 1975.
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R.K. Gabrysch and C.W. Bonnet. “Land-Surface Subsidence in the Area of Burnett, Scott, and Crystal Bays near Baytown, Texas.” U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations 21-74. Prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in Cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. September 1974
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R.K. Gabrysch. “Ground-Water Withdrawals and Land-Surface Subsidence in the Houston-Galveston Region, Texas, 1906-80.” U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 82-571. Prepared in cooperation with the Texas Department of Water Resources and the Harris-Galveston Coastal Subsidence District. Austin, Texas. 1982.
Archives
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Many of Mr. Gabrysch’s reports are held in the USGS Publications Warehouse, at https://pubs.usgs.gov/