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Structure, Stratigraphy, And Tectonics Preserved Of The Northwestern Bays Mountain Synclinorium, Greene And Hawkins Counties, Northeast Tennessee, John G. Bultman

Masters Theses

The Bays Mountain synclinorium and surrounding area provide critical facies data to address Sevier-Bountian basin development. This area preserves the Middle Ordovician post-Knox unconformity, the Sevier-Blountian basin depositional sequence, overlying Bays Formation quartz arenite-redbed sequence, the Bays/Martinsburg unconformity, and the base of the overlying Caradocian Martinsburg clastic wedge. Detailed geologic mapping in the Northwestern half of the Sevier-Blountian basin has divided the Sevier Shale into three members: a lower thin-bedded, dark gray-black, graptolite-bearing shale overlain by dark gray-black micritic limestone; a middle siltysandy limestone interbedded with light gray silty shale and calcareous sandstone; and an upper thick-bedded light gray shale …

A Detailed Sequential Extraction Study Of Selenium In Coal And Coal-Associated Strata From A Coal Mine In West Virginia, Mimi Roy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study of the mode of occurrence and distribution of selenium in a rock core from southcentral West Virginia reveals that total selenium concentration varies by rock type. Rocks with total selenium >1 mg/kg were of circum-neutral pH based on acid base accounting data. No direct correlation was found between selenium concentration in the rocks and that of sulfur and/or total organic carbon. The distribution of total selenium was also controlled by stratigraphy. The amount of total selenium extracted from various rock types like coal, shale, sandstone, mudstone and "carbolith" materials ranged from 50%. Selenium extracted from coal was mostly …

Relationship Between Fault Zone Architecture And Groundwater Compartmentalization In The East Tintic Mining District, Utah, Sandra Myrtle Conrad Hamaker

Theses and Dissertations

The Eureka Lilly fault zone provides an impermeable barrier for groundwater flow in the East Tintic mining district. The fault zone separates two distinct groundwaters that have different temperatures, compositions, and potentiometric surfaces. The damage zone of the fault is an extensive network of interconnected open fractures and fault intersections that provide conduits for groundwater flow in otherwise impermeable units. The fault core breccia has been re-cemented and mineralized, which eliminates porosity in the rock by creating a thick impermeable zone, which has compartmentalized groundwaters across the fault zone. The compartmentalization of groundwater shows that fault zone variability (from strain …

Piecing Together The Triassic/Jurassic Stratigraphy Along The South Flank Of The Uinta Mountains, Northeast Utah: A Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Bell Springs Member Of The Nugget Sandstone, Paul H. Jensen Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Nomenclature for the Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic strata along the south flank of the Uinta Mountains has been somewhat confusing because of the position of the study area between southern Wyoming, where one set of names is used, and central/southern Utah where a different set of formation names is used. The Nugget Sandstone or Glen Canyon Sandstone of the eastern Uinta Mountains overlies the Upper Triassic Popo Agie or Chinle Formation. The nature of the contact between these two formations is unclear both in stratigraphic location and conformability. The Chinle Formation consists, in ascending order, of the Gartra Member, …

Gradient And Recurrence Analyses Of Four Marine Zones In The Glenshaw Formation (Upper Pennsylvanian, Appalachian Basin), Joseph G. Lebold

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Upper Pennsylvanian Glenshaw Formation contains a series of marine zones that were deposited on the detrital slope of the Appalachian highlands during the last major transgressions from the Midcontinent Sea in the Paleozoic of eastern North America. These marine zones contain distinctive fossil assemblages characterized as biofacies that inhabited a variety of shallow marine environments.;The first chapter of this paper focuses on the Ames marine zone sampled along a northwest-southeast transect across the Appalachian Basin. The Ames marine zone was deposited during the most extensive marine transgression of the Pennsylvanian in this region. Gradient analysis of the proportional abundance …

3d P- And Converted Shear Wave Characteristics Of The Morrow Production Trend In The Buffalo Valley Field, Chaves-Eddy County, New Mexico, Sandeep Pyakurel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Regional and local subsurface log and 3D seismic interpretations were undertaken in the vicinity of the Buffalo Valley field in southeastern New Mexico. Oil production in the field is trapped in early Pennsylvanian basal Morrow Formation Harris Channel. Regional interpretation shows that the field is located on the Northwestern Shelf along the rim of the Delaware basin. Structure and isopach maps reveal that high production is associated with a structural low that actively developed during deposition of the reservoir interval. The Harris Channel scoured into the upper Mississippian Barnett shale. Areas of thin Barnett Shale coincide with production and define …

Geologic And Geomorphic Controls Of Alluvial Island Location In Cheat River, West Virginia, Mitzy L. Schaney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Cheat River of north central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania is a stable moderately sinuous mountain river with numerous anabranching reaches that include 81 alluvial islands. Relatively stable features, Cheat River alluvial islands are characterized by woody vegetation or human habitation, an elevation equal to or greater than the surrounding floodplain, and a perennially exposed emergent surface surrounded by active channels. Valley geometry, lithology, and tributary input are the main geologic and geomorphic controls selected to assess island location in Cheat River. Islands are more numerous in wide valleys with extensive floodplains; these valleys occur in lithologic segments dominated by …

Reservoir Characterization Using Intelligent Seismic Inversion, F. Emre Artun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Integrating different types of data having different scales is the major challenge in reservoir characterization studies. Seismic data is among those different types of data, which is usually used by geoscientists for structural mapping of the subsurface and making interpretations of the reservoir's facies distribution. Yet, it has been a common aim of geoscientists to incorporate seismic data in high-resolution reservoir description through a process called seismic inversion.;In this study, an intelligent seismic inversion methodology is presented to achieve a desirable correlation between relatively low-frequency seismic signals, and the much higher frequency wireline-log data. Vertical seismic profile (VSP) is used …

Gps Velocity Field In The Transition From Subduction To Collision Of The Eastern Sunda And Banda Arcs, Indonesia, Hendro Nugroho

Theses and Dissertations

Campaign GPS measurements during 2001-2003 in the transition between subduction and collision of the Banda arc reveal how strain is partitioned away from the trench and distributed to other parts of the arc-trench system. Genrich, et. al. (1996) conducted a GPS campaign (1992-1994) throughout the Eastern Sunda and Banda arcs that demonstrated partial accretion of the arc to the Australian plate. We reoccupied many of the sites from this earlier study and 7 additional stations, 3 of which are new benchmarks. Our study shortened many baselines and extended the observation epoch to ten years for many key stations. The resulting …

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Of The Upper Mississippian Reynolds Limestone In The Central Appalachian Basin Of West Virginia, Simon L. Cole Iii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Upper Mississippian strata in West Virginia, southern Pennsylvania, and western Maryland are predominantly composed of interbedded limestones and shales. The focus of this study, the Reynolds Limestone, is a formal member of the lower part of the Bluefield Formation, in the Mauch Chunk Group, of the Chesterian Series.;This research addresses fades changes in terms of sea level fluctuations and basinal settings during the deposition of the Reynolds Limestone. Specifically, this research consists of the measurement and description of the seven field localities and thin section analysis of carbonate units within the identified study interval.;Primary objectives were to determine the …

Channel Development On Unreclaimed Surface Mines In The Beaver Creek Watershed, Tucker County, West Virginia, Wendy Dawn Igo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Surface mining has impacted channels in the Beaver Creek watershed of Tucker County, West Virginia. Three streams located in areas with similar geology, topography, climate, and mining disturbances were assessed to define similarities in channel development. Soil properties, vegetation coverage, bank stability, and geomorphology were quantified to determine dominant controls on stream form and process.;Streams were unstable and readjusting as evident by inconsistent width-depth ratios, bank instabilities, variable channel gradients, knickpoints, channel incisions, and erosive channels. Dominant controls on channel form were gradient alteration, bank failures, and vegetation coverage. Six classifications of channel types were established.;Without human intervention, instabilities in …

Regional Characterization Of A Carbon Sequestration Pilot Site With Implications For Enhanced Oil Recovery, William O. Carpenter Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In 2001, the Department of Energy National Energy Technology Lab initiated a carbon sequestration pilot study in the West Pearl Queen field, located in Lea County, New Mexico. Two thousand and ninety tons of CO 2 were injected into the Permian Shattuck Sandstone Member of the Queen Formation, approximately 4,500 ft beneath the surface to evaluate the effectiveness of the reservoir for long-term sequestration of CO2 and to evaluate the possibility that CO2 can enhance oil recovery from this depleted reservoir interval.;The main objective of this study was to provide detailed structure maps in the regional study area and to …

Geology Of The Tierras Blancas Area In The Southeastern Acambay Graben, Central Mexico, Lonnie T. Mercer

Theses and Dissertations

Pliocene-Pleistocene sediments in the southeastern Acambay graben, central Mexico have yielded mammal fossils, including Equus simplicidens, cf. Rhynchotherium, ?Camelops, Mammuthus sp., Bison sp., and Antilocapra sp. The fossiliferous sediments include a period of lacustrine sedimentation in the late Pliocene-early Pleistocene that interrupted fluvial and alluvial sedimentation during the early Pliocene and Pleistocene. The sediments deposited in this late Pliocene paleolake record a history of lake level fluctuations, shown by lithologic variations in lacustrine sediments and abundance of vertebrate burrows. Volcanic and tectonic events in the Acambay graben were the major controls on sedimentation during Pliocene-Pleistocene time. …

Sequence Stratigraphy Of The Bridal Veil Falls Limestone, Carboniferous, Lower Oquirrh Group, On Cascade Mountain, Utah: A Standard Morrowan Cyclostratigraphy For The Oquirrh Basin, David Joseph Shoore

Theses and Dissertations

The Bridal Veil Falls Limestone (lowest 400 meters of the Permo-Carboniferous Oquirrh Group) is well exposed on the flanks of Cascade Mountain (Wasatch Front and adjacent mountain ranges) near Provo, Utah. Because of its excellent exposure and location in the heart of the Oquirrh depocenter, this area was selected to develop a sequence stratigraphic framework for Morrowan rocks that may be applied throughout the Oquirrh basin (NW Utah and southern Idaho) as well as the adjacent Ely and Bird Springs troughs. Eleven partial to complete sections of the Bridal Veil Falls Limestone were measured along the west and north flanks …

A Uintan (Late Middle Eocene) Flora And Fauna From The Uinta Basin, Utah, Stephen Dee Sandau

Theses and Dissertations

Late Middle Eocene time marks one of the most dynamic periods of the Paleogene in the western interior of North America. Analysis of an extensive, new collection of plant, invertebrate, and vertebrae fossils from the Uinta Formation in the Uinta Basin, south of Myton, Utah, USA, provides evidence of environmental change. Paleobotanical specimens are preserved in late stage Uinta Lake sediments and coarse-grained fluvial sediments which are stratigraphically 650 to 660 m above the Green River Formation. Deposition rates estimates of 18 to 55 cm/kyr, for Uinta Lake sediments in the Uinta Basin suggest a period of 1.18 Ma to …

Glaciochemical Records From The Saint Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada, Kaplan B. Yalcin

Doctoral Dissertations

While many paleoclimate records have been recovered from the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic, there is a gap in our understanding of climactic and environmental change in the North Pacific. Glaciochemical records from the St. Elias Mountains spanning an elevation range of three to five km provide a three-dimensional view of the paleo-atmosphere in this region. Three ice cores from Eclipse Icefield provide a high-resolution record of precipitation chemistry in the remote northwestern North America mid-troposphere and allow investigation of spatial and temporal variability in glaciochemical signals. Greater spatial variability is observed for species present as coarse mode dust …

Integrating Visible, Near Infrared And Short Wave Infrared Hyperspectral And Multispectral Thermal Imagery For Geological Mapping At Cuprite, Nevada, Xianfeng Chen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Visible, near infrared (VNIR), and short wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral and thermal infrared (TIR) multispectral remote sensing have become potential tool for geological mapping. In this dissertation, a series of studies were carried out to investigate the potential impact of combining VNIR/SWIR hyperspectral and TIR multispectral data for surface geological mapping. First, a series of simulated data sets based on the characteristics of hyperspectral AVIRIS and multispectral TIR MASTER sensors was created from surface reflectance and emissivity library spectra. Five common used classification methods including minimum distance, maximum likelihood, spectral angle mapper (SAM), spectral feature fitting (SFF), and binary encoding …

Constraining Temporal Relationships Among The Draining Of Glacial Lake Missoula The Retreat Of The Flathead Ice Lobe And The Development Of The Lower Flathead River Valley, Garrett K. Timmerman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Petrologic Study Of The Chamberlain Carbonate The Newland Limestone The Helena Formation And The Wallace Formation Of The Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup Montana, Rachele B. Ambrose

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Interactive Computer Animations On Introductory Geology Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Mountain Building Processes, Michelle (Michelle Alicia) Malone

WWU Graduate School Collection

The use of computer animations to help students visualize processes they cannot observe directly is becoming more widespread in geoscience classrooms, but few studies have formally assessed the effectiveness of these technological aids as learning tools. This research project evaluated the effect of interactive computer animations on undergraduate introductory geology students' understanding of mountain building processes. The study focused on introductory geology students’ misconceptions about the formation of mountains. With the assistance of Flash programmers, an online interactive web activity was developed. This tool was aimed at reducing misconceptions, and included activities related to plate tectonics, isostasy, erosion and rock …

Upper Triassic Carbonates And Scleractinian Corals From Wrangellia And The Alexander Terrane ( Alaska And Vancouver Island Canada ): Depositional Environments And Paleobiogeography, Andrew H. Caruthers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Sediment Pulses On Channel Morphology And Sediment Transport In A Gravel-Bed River, Daniel F. Hoffman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

K-Bentonites Of The Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup Western Montana, Michelle L. Foster

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Regional Stratigraphy Of The Newcastle Formation (Lower Cretaceous) In Eastern Montana And Western North Dakota, Adam J. Ulishney

Theses and Dissertations

The Newcastle Formation (Lower Cretaceous) consists of sandstone with interbedded shale, siltstone, and mudstone facies. This work shows that the regional stratigraphy of the unit is detailed enough for the interpretation of its depositional history and environments in eastern Montana. This work also illustrates the possible lowstand position of the Western Interior Seaway along with probable source areas providing sediments into the study area.

A total of 3446 geophysical wireline logs were used to determine formation tops of the Greenhorn, Mowry, Newcastle, Skull Creek, and Inyan Kara Formations. The log character of the Newcastle Formation was also described for all …

Geologic Mapping And Sedimentologic Analysis Of Quaternary Deposits Along The Western Shore Of Flathead Lake Northwest Montana ; Documenting The Record Of Deglaciation, Amy K. Bondurant

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Persistence Of Isolated Fish Populations In The Alexander Archipelago, Kim Hastings

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Sedimentary Record Of Glacial Dynamics Lake Level Fluctuations And Tectonics: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Structural And Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Flathead Lake Basin And The Mission Valley Montana United States America, Michael H. Hofmann

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.