Dramatic changes in the landscape occur across this crustal discontinuity. On the west are plateau uplands and ruggedly dissected limestone hills. Soils are thin and stony, and the main agricultural use of the land is for range. The dominant native vegetation assemblage is juniper-live oak savannah, and groundwater is generally of good quality with ample quantities occurring at shallow depths from limestone aquifers. On the east side of the escarpment, terrain consists of rolling prairies and broad river bottoms.
Soils are thick fertile clays, which compose prime arable land.
Native prairie grasses were dominant before the agricultural activities supplanted them, and groundwater in large amounts is available only at considerable depth and is commonly tepid and brackish. The escarpment is also a major weather-maker. Maximum relief is only a few hundred feet, but it is the first topographic break inland from the Gulf of Mexico and thus acts as an orographic influence on unstable, water-laden air masses. These combined factors have resulted in the Balcones Escarpment being the locus of the largest flood-producing storm in the conterminous United States. The greatest single rainfall event ever recorded in the contiguous U.S. occurred in 1921, when 38 inches of rain fell in 24 hours near Thrall in Williamson County.