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The land surface in and around the city of Houston is composed of alternating layers of red gray sandy brown and black organic clay; these strata generally dip to the southeast at a slope of 0.06% (3 feet (0.91 m) of vertical change for every 1 mile (1.6 km) of distance traveled). These soils were deposited by tributaries of local waterways particularly the Brazos and Trinity rivers. There is a considerable contrast in soil composition to the north around Cypress Creek; most of the surface there consists of tan-colored sand with small amounts of gray clay the north and northwestern regions of Houston and Harris County feature a slightly steeper slope than other parts of the city with occasional escarpments caused by faulting or erosion, Houston Press headquarters in Midtown Houston, German advance into Belgium and Northern France 10 May-4 June 1940 swept past the Maginot Line (shown in dark red). . Houston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas, fourth most populous city in the United States as well as the sixth most populous in North America with an estimated 2018 population of 2,325,502. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico it is the seat of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area which is the fifth most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second most populous in Texas after the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with a population of 6,997,384 in 2018, The Houston Theater District located in Downtown is home to nine major performing arts organizations and six performance halls It is the second-largest concentration of theater seats in a downtown area in the United States. Ship design 14 Footnotes Language Percentage of population 1950 7,711,194 20.2% Houston Texas Business Directory The normal annual precipitation measures 49.77 inches (1,264 mm) Occasional severe weather of Houston mostly takes the form of flooding which happens a lot during between May to October which is the city's wet season Supercell thunderstorms sometimes bring tornadoes to the area most commonly during spring Houston sometimes experiences tropical cyclones during the Atlantic hurricane season which can bring heavy rain and significant damage to the city the last hurricane to hit was Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Main article: French colonization of Texas, An expedition commanded by Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama reaching Inca territory by 1526. After one more expedition in 1529 Pizarro received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy the approval read: "In July 1529 the queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in New Castile" the Viceroyalty of Peru was established in 1542 encompassing all Spanish holdings in South America. . . The Spanish introduced European livestock including cattle horses and mules to Texas as early as the 1690s. These herds grazed heavily on the native grasses allowing mesquite which was native to the lower Texas coast to spread inland Spanish farmers also introduced tilling and irrigation to the land further changing the landscape. The American researcher H.F Dobyns said that 95% of the total population of the Americas died in the first 130 years and that 90% of the population of the Inca Empire died in epidemics. Cook and Borah of the University of California at Berkeley believe that the indigenous population in Mexico declined from 25.2 million in 1518 to 700,000 people in 1623 less than 3% of the original population, 1 Geology In July 2015 BP reached an $18.7bn settlement with the US government the states of Alabama Florida Louisiana Mississippi and Texas as well as 400 local authorities to date BP's cost for the clean-up environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $54bn. 1940 6,414,824 10.1% Houston has had a troubled past with pollution of many types This is due to the fact that Houston has been the home for the oil and gas industry since its inception in the early 1900s when there was little environmental regulation Harris County where the bulk of the city has been historically located is home to 15 Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites more than any other area in Texas the list contains numerous companies streets and waterways that have been considered hazardous to humans in various ways! .