Texas

Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U.S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second-most populous in the state and seventh largest in the U.S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, respectively. Other major cities include Austin, the second-most populous state capital in the U.S., and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed "The Lone Star State" to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico. The "Lone Star" can be found on the Texas state flag and on the Texan state seal. The origin of Texas's name is from the word taysha, which means "friends" in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U.S. Southern and Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U.S. southwestern deserts, less than 10% of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains of the Big Bend. Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America.

Texas is known under different nicknames; aka Lone Star State and detailed official information about Texas can be found on the homepage at www. texas.gov.

Texas map also illustrates that it shares its border with Oklahoma in the north, New Mexico in the west, Louisiana in the east and Arkansas in the north-east. Besides, it also shares international border with Mexico in the south and coastline along the Mexico Gulf.

Surprisingly, the second largest state of the United States Texas has the maximum number of counties i.e. 254, more than any other state of the United States. Due to vast area, the climate type of state also varies greatly i.e. from cold to semi-arid and arid.

The capital city of Texas is Austin but the other larger and significant cities are Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. However, Texas has four metropolitan areas - Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, San Antonio-New Braunfels, and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos.

The DoSeum, located in San Antonio, is a three-story, interactive museum that's fun for everyone in the family. Exhibits include Spy Academy, where kids can use clues to solve a mystery; Little Town for youngsters; and Sensations Studio, where kids can make music, play with light concepts and more.

The US State Texas occupies 676,634 m², about 7,4 % of the total territory of the USA of 9,148,020 m². The total population of the US State Texas with 28,304,596 inhabitants (in 2017) has already increased by 35,74 % in this millennium. Almost 40 years ago there were 14,075,405 fewer people. The capital Austin alone has 1,001,104 inhabitants.

In 1839, Austin (once named Waterloo) became the capital of Texas. In 1842, the capital moved to Houston and then in 1844, Austin again became the capital. Houston has 2.3 million residents.

Three of its borders are defined by rivers. The Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south. The Red River forms a natural border with Oklahoma and Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east. The Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western border with New Mexico at 103° W. El Paso lies on the state's western tip at 32° N and the Rio Grande. With 10 climatic regions, 14 soil regions and 11 distinct ecological regions, regional classification becomes problematic with differences in soils, topography, geology, rainfall, and plant and animal communities. The Gulf Coastal Plains region wraps around the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast section of the state. Vegetation in this region consists of thick piney woods. The Interior Lowlands region consists of gently rolling to hilly forested land and is part of a larger pine-hardwood forest. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. The continental crust forms a stable Mesoproterozoic craton which changes across a broad continental margin and transitional crust into true oceanic crust of the Gulf of Mexico. The oldest rocks in Texas date from the Mesoproterozoic and are about 1,600 million years old. These Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks underlie most of the state, and are exposed in three places: Llano uplift, Van Horn, and the Franklin Mountains, near El Paso. Sedimentary rocks overlay most of these ancient rocks. The oldest sediments were deposited on the flanks of a rifted continental margin, or passive margin that developed during Cambrian time. The large size of Texas and its location at the intersection of multiple climate zones gives the state highly variable weather. The Panhandle of the state has colder winters than North Texas, while the Gulf Coast has mild winters. Texas has wide variations in precipitation patterns. El Paso, on the western end of the state, averages 8.7 inches (220 mm) of annual rainfall, while parts of southeast Texas average as much as 64 inches (1,600 mm) per year. Dallas in the North Central region averages a more moderate 37 inches (940 mm) per year.