Palacios High School
School Website: https://www.palaciosisd.org/
2023-2024 field trip data: PalaciosHS2024.pdf
Galleries: 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025
Students from Palacios High School collect data at MAT02, which is northeast of the vehicular beach access point on Matagorda Peninsula (Fig. 1). Van Vleck and Palacios High School students also collect GPS vegetation line and shoreline data at MAT03 (Fig. 1), a site adjacent to the Matagorda Bay Nature Park fishing pier and on the updrift side of the jetty at the mouth of the Colorado River.
Figure 1. Location map of Palacios High School monitoring sites MAT02 and MAT03.
Figure 2. Changes to the beach and dune system at MAT02 on Matagorda Peninsula. (A) Beach profile plot showing the impacts of Hurricane Ike between September 2007 and October 2008 and recovery and seaward expansion of the dunes through 2024. (B) Series of photos taken September 18, 2009; September 20, 2017; and February 6, 2024 showing the seaward movement of the vegetation line and shoreline and expansion of the dunes. All three photos were taken from the primary dune crest looking northeast.
Figure 3. Changes at location MAT03 at Matagorda Bay Nature Park due to the construction of a jetty at the mouth of the Colorado River. (A) GPS mapped shorelines from September 2011 through October 2024. The mapping has documented that the shoreline position at MAT03 moved 125-m seaward over a decade at an average rate of 12.5 m per year. (B) Shoreline, vegetation line, and beach profile volume change. Notice that the shoreline and vegetation lines have stabilized after a decade of advancement. (C) September 26, 2009 and September 21, 2016 photographs looking southwest toward the Colorado River along the dune crest at MAT03. Note the increase in the coppice dune area seaward of the dune crest in the 2016 photograph.
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