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Subsurface Imaging And Petrophysical Analysis Of The South Georgia Rift Basin, South Carolina, Olusoga Martins Akintunde

Theses and Dissertations

The Triassic-Jurassic South Georgia Rift (SGR) basin, buried beneath Coastal Plain sediments of southern South Carolina, southeastern Georgia, western Florida, and southern Alabama, consists of an assemblage of continental rift deposits (popularly called red beds), and mafic igneous rocks (basalt flows and diabase sills). The red beds are capped by basalts and/or diabase sills, and constitute the target for supercritical CO2 storage as part of a Department of Energy funded project to study feasibility for safe and long-term sequestration. This study addresses key stratigraphic, structural and petrophysical issues critical to determine subsurface suitability for CO2 storage as well as improved …

Tidal Flux Of Trace Metals And Rare Earth Elements In A Barrier Island Salt Marsh, Ryan Antle

Theses and Dissertations

Barrier island salt marshes are known as sources of nutrients to the coastal ocean but it is unclear whether they are also sources or sinks of trace metals in regards to coastal waters. Salt marshes are characterized by steep redox and biogeochemical gradients, which constantly fluctuate as a result of tidal pumping. While several studies have examined metal budgets between terrestrial fresh water, estuarine subterranean fluids, and coastal saline waters, there is little data regarding fluid chemistry for metals in salt water estuaries in the absence of fresh water input. This study investigated a back barrier salt marsh on Cabretta …

Biostratigraphy Of The Halgaito Formation, Cutler Group Near Mexican Hat, San Juan County, Utah, Kimberly Marie Scott

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a better understanding of the paleontology and biostratigraphy of the Halgaito Formation and the position of the Carboniferous-Permian Boundary (CPB) within the Halgaito Formation which would provide useful data that can be extrapolated to other terrestrial ecosystems of the southwestern United States of America that are of comparable age.

Geochemical Source Components In Seafloor Lavas In The Aleutian Back-Arc, Max Thomas Siegrist

Theses and Dissertations

Whole-rock compositions of seafloor lavas are used to constrain the processes and source characteristics contributing to the formation of geochemically distinctive, primitive magma types located in the Aleutian back-arc. Samples were dredged primarily from small volcanic cones on the seafloor, located between the emergent volcanoes and in the back-arc up to 60 km from the volcanic front. Compositions vary from basalt to dacite, with 48-70 % SiO₂ and 4-13 % MgO. Nearly 30% of the samples are primitive, with Mg/Mg+Fe >0.60. Most primitive samples are basalts, which fall into two groups, based on minor and trace element abundances. Low/med-K …

Correcting Heat Flow Data In The United States To Account For Climate Change, Godswill Njoku

Theses and Dissertations

Heat flow measurements may require correction for both recent warming and post-glacial warming signals. Warming during the last century can be detected in borehole temperature profiles. Both climate warming signals during the past century and post-glacial warming signals during the past 10 millennia are greatest near the surface and diminish with depth.

Both atmospheric data and borehole temperature data show that recent warming varies systematically with latitude along a north-south transect in the United States. The systematic increase with latitude from +0.7 oC at 41.6oN to +2.3 oC at 49oN during the last century is consistent with the prediction that …

Hydraulic Fracturing Design For Horizontal Wells In The Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, Hadi Jabbari

Theses and Dissertations

Unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs have proved to be challenging in terms of reservoir characterization, predicting production potential, estimating ultimate recovery, and optimizing hydraulic fracture stimulations. The methods by which these resources are extracted use progressive, or unconventional, technologies. Today, through the use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, extraordinary amounts of oil and natural gas from deep shale formations across the United States and around the world are being safely produced.

Performing a hydraulic fracture design requires modeling of fracture propagation and tracking the fluid front in the created fracture. In this dissertation, the roles of all effective parameters and properties …

Determining Garnet Crystallization Kinetics From Growth Zoning And Mn-Calibrated Sm-Nd Ages, Rose Bloom

WWU Graduate School Collection

By working under the assumption that garnet strongly fractionates Mn, the change in measured XMn from the core to rim of a garnet can be used to represent the progression of time since nucleation. Core, mantle, and rim zones from nine snowball garnets collected at the Pinney Hollow Formation, Townshend Dam, VT were analyzed using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) as well as Sm/Nd isotopic methods. Two-point garnet-matrix Sm/Nd ages are complex, with some showing apparent reverse age zoning and unrealistically young ages. Therefore, some garnet ages were culled, including those with poor 147Sm/144Nd ratios (< 0.75), low Nd concentrations (> 0.2 ppm), and rim ages …

Modeling Slope Failure In The Jones Creek Watershed, Acme, Washington, Brandon M. Brayfield

WWU Graduate School Collection

Mountain watersheds in the Pacific Northwest are particularly susceptible to shallow landslides and debris flows during periods of intense precipitation. The Jones Creek watershed near Acme, WA, is a 6.7 km2 basin that hosts several active landslides. Shallow mass wasting on the unvegetated landslide toes, and deep-seated rotational slide movement can lead to landslide dam outburst floods and debris flows. There are approximately 100 buildings constructed on a 0.75 km2 alluvial fan deposited by debris flows sourced in the watershed. Predicting the occurrence of mass wasting and deep-seated movement events as they relate to the duration and intensity of antecedent …

Thermal And Hydrological Conditions Of The Goethe Rock Glacier, Central Sierra Nevada, California, Jezra Beaulieu

WWU Graduate School Collection

The potential of rock glaciers in the Sierra Nevada to provide critical hydrological reservoirs and ecological habitats in a changing climate remains largely untested. In an effort to constrain the microclimatic contributions of buried ice, continuous temperatures were recorded in the near-surface debris of a variety of ice-cored and associated landforms in the Goethe cirque from August 2011 and July 2012 (Goethe rock glacier=GRG, valley-wall rock glaciers=VRG, Recess Peak debris=RPD, talus=TAL, ranging from most ice to least ice). In addition, continuous meteorological conditions on the rock glacier and stage of the main meltwater outwash stream were recorded to assess temporal …

Characterization Of Coarse Sediment Transport On A Mixed Sand And Gravel Beach: Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve, Blaine, Washington, Meghan E. (Meghan Elizabeth) Weaver

WWU Graduate School Collection

This study examines coarse-sediment transport behavior on a mixed sand and gravel (MSG) beach at Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve in Blaine, Washington. Radio Frequency Identifier (RFId) Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags were used to trace large pebbles and cobbles (51 - 129 mm in diameter) between mid-January and early-March, 2012. Transport data were combined with wind, current and water level data recorded by nearby weather stations, as well as wave data collected by an offshore pressure sensor, into a comprehensive data set. Tide, wind and wave parameters were then input into XBeach, a relatively new nearshore numerical model [Roelvink et …

Metamorphic Evolution Of The Northwest Chelan Block, North Cascades, Washington, Aaron A (Aaron Arthur) Fitts

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Cascades crystalline core (CC) is the fault bound southern extension of the Coast Plutonic Complex, a Cretaceous orogenic welt that forms the northernmost section of the North American Cordillera. Of primary interest in this study is the tectonic history of the Cascade River region in the northwest of CC. The Sibley Creek area of the Cascade River region is a zone of high-grade metamorphic rocks bound by Cretaceous plutons to the north, east, and west and the Tertiary Entiat fault to the south. Analysis of deformed and undeformed granitic plutons in the area could help constrain the absolute ages …

The Tilt Of The Boron Triangle In Tourmaline, Charles J. Badgerow

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The tourmaline mineral group has a highly complex chemical composition and provides a wealth of information on Earth's processes. Past research has revealed numerous mysteries regarding the structure of the boron triangle within tourmaline, especially as it bonds to the Z- and Z'- cation sites. Although the Z- and Z' - are nominally the same site, the Z'-site has a greater effect on the stereochemistry of the boron triangle. Further, the Z' -site has a shorter bond-length with the boron triangle than the Z-site. We hypothesize that this variation affects the stereochemistry of the boron triangle, and have analyzed a …