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Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Geological Engineering

Climbing The Crustal Ladder: Magma Storage-Depth Evolution During A Volcanic Flare-Up, Guilherme A. R. Gualda, Darren M. Gravley, Michelle Connor, Brooke Hollmann, Ayla S. Pamukcu, Florence Begue, Mark S. Ghiorso, Chad Deering Oct 2018

Climbing The Crustal Ladder: Magma Storage-Depth Evolution During A Volcanic Flare-Up, Guilherme A. R. Gualda, Darren M. Gravley, Michelle Connor, Brooke Hollmann, Ayla S. Pamukcu, Florence Begue, Mark S. Ghiorso, Chad Deering

Michigan Tech Publications

Very large eruptions (>50 km3) and supereruptions (>450 km3) reveal Earth’s capacity to produce and store enormous quantities (>1000 km3) of crystal-poor, eruptible magma in the shallow crust. We explore the interplay between crustal evolution and volcanism during a volcanic flare-up in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ, New Zealand) using a combination of quartz-feldspar-melt equilibration pressures and time scales of quartz crystallization. Over the course of the flare-up, crystallization depths became progressively shallower, showing the gradual conditioning of the crust. Yet, quartz crystallization times were invariably very short (<100 years), demonstrating that very large reservoirs of eruptible magma were transient crustal features. We conclude that the dynamic nature of the TVZ crust favored magma eruption over storage. Episodic tapping of eruptible magmas likely prevented a supereruption. Instead, multiple very large bodies of eruptible magma were assembled and erupted in decadal time scales.


An Evaluation Of The Deployment Of A Distributed Strain And Temperature (Dst) Fiber Optic Sensing System In An Underground Facility, Calvin Kammerer Oct 2018

An Evaluation Of The Deployment Of A Distributed Strain And Temperature (Dst) Fiber Optic Sensing System In An Underground Facility, Calvin Kammerer

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

In an effort to further mine safety and utilize the recent advances in fiber optic sensors’ distributed sensing capabilities, a research project at Montana Tech has deployed fiber optic sensors in an underground environment. The method of Brillouin scattering that has documented success in a mining environment will be used because it shows the greatest potential for detecting both temperature and strain in the deployed environment, as well as the ability to differentiate between the two. The primary objective of the Montana Tech research is to create a scenario where the distributed sensing technology can be evaluated for its sensing …


Landsliding Near Enguri Dam (Caucasus, Georgia) And Possible Seismoectonic Effects, Alessandro Tibaldi, Paolo Oppizzi, John S. Gierke, Thomas Oommen, Nino Tsereteli, Davit Odilavadze Aug 2018

Landsliding Near Enguri Dam (Caucasus, Georgia) And Possible Seismoectonic Effects, Alessandro Tibaldi, Paolo Oppizzi, John S. Gierke, Thomas Oommen, Nino Tsereteli, Davit Odilavadze

Michigan Tech Publications

The Enguri dam and water reservoir, nested in southwestern Caucasus (Republic of Georgia), are surrounded by steep mountain slopes. At a distance of 2.5 km from the dam, a mountain ridge along the reservoir is affected by active deformations with a double vergence. The western slope, directly facing the reservoir, has deformations that involve a subaerial area of 1.2 km2. The head scarp interests the main Jvari-Khaishi-Mestia road with offset of man-made features that indicate slip rates of 2-9 cm/y. Static, pseudostatic and Newmark numerical analyses, based on field and seismological data, suggest different unstable rock volumes basing on the …


Slalom: An All-Surface Snow Water Path Retrieval Algorithm For The Gpm Microwave Imager, Jean-François Rysman, Giulia Panegrossi, Paolo Sanò, Anna Cinzia Marra, Stefano Dietrich, Lisa Milani, Mark S. Kulie Aug 2018

Slalom: An All-Surface Snow Water Path Retrieval Algorithm For The Gpm Microwave Imager, Jean-François Rysman, Giulia Panegrossi, Paolo Sanò, Anna Cinzia Marra, Stefano Dietrich, Lisa Milani, Mark S. Kulie

Michigan Tech Publications

This paper describes a new algorithm that is able to detect snowfall and retrieve the associated snow water path (SWP), for any surface type, using the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI). The algorithm is tuned and evaluated against coincident observations of the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) onboard CloudSat. It is composed of three modules for (i) snowfall detection, (ii) supercooled droplet detection and (iii) SWP retrieval. This algorithm takes into account environmental conditions to retrieve SWP and does not rely on any surface classification scheme. The snowfall detection module is able to detect 83% of snowfall events including …


Sensitivity Of Atmospheric Aerosol Scavenging To Precipitation Intensity And Frequency In The Context Of Global Climate Change, Pei Hou, Shiliang Wu, Jessica L. Mccarty, Yang Gao Jun 2018

Sensitivity Of Atmospheric Aerosol Scavenging To Precipitation Intensity And Frequency In The Context Of Global Climate Change, Pei Hou, Shiliang Wu, Jessica L. Mccarty, Yang Gao

Michigan Tech Publications

Wet deposition driven by precipitation is an important sink for atmospheric aerosols and soluble gases. We investigate the sensitivity of atmospheric aerosol lifetimes to precipitation intensity and frequency in the context of global climate change. Our sensitivity model simulations, through some simplified perturbations to precipitation in the GEOS-Chem model, show that the removal efficiency and hence the atmospheric lifetime of aerosols have significantly higher sensitivities to precipitation frequencies than to precipitation intensities, indicating that the same amount of precipitation may lead to different removal efficiencies of atmospheric aerosols. Combining the long-term trends of precipitation patterns for various regions with the …


The Ozone Monitoring Instrument: Overview Of 14 Years In Space, Pieternel F. Levelt, Joanna Joiner, Johanna Tamminen, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Pawan K. Bhartia, Simon Carn, Et. Al. Apr 2018

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument: Overview Of 14 Years In Space, Pieternel F. Levelt, Joanna Joiner, Johanna Tamminen, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Pawan K. Bhartia, Simon Carn, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

This overview paper highlights the successes of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the Aura satellite spanning a period of nearly 14 years. Data from OMI has been used in a wide range of applications and research resulting in many new findings. Due to its unprecedented spatial resolution, in combination with daily global coverage, OMI plays a unique role in measuring trace gases important for the ozone layer, air quality, and climate change. With the operational very fast delivery (VFD; direct readout) and near real-time (NRT) availability of the data, OMI also plays an important role in the development …


Hawai'i Wildlife Fund V. County Of Maui, Lowell J. Chandler Apr 2018

Hawai'i Wildlife Fund V. County Of Maui, Lowell J. Chandler

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the Ninth Circuit held that the plain language of the Clean Water Act provides jurisdiction over indirect discharges of pollutants from a point source into groundwater that is shown to be connected to navigable waters. The court found that studies confirmed pollutants entering the Pacific Ocean were fairly traceable to the County of Maui’s sewage disposal wells. In affirming the district court’s ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that Maui County violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into a navigable water without the required permit. The court also concluded the …


Vertical Stress And Stability Of Interburden Over An Abandoned Pillar Working Before Upward Mining: A Case Study, Jinwen Bai, Guorui Feng, Shanyong Wang, Tingye Qi, Jian Yang, Jun Guo, Zhen Li, Xianjie Du, Zehua Wang, Yunlou Du, Yujiang Zhang Jan 2018

Vertical Stress And Stability Of Interburden Over An Abandoned Pillar Working Before Upward Mining: A Case Study, Jinwen Bai, Guorui Feng, Shanyong Wang, Tingye Qi, Jian Yang, Jun Guo, Zhen Li, Xianjie Du, Zehua Wang, Yunlou Du, Yujiang Zhang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Upward mining of the residual coal seam over an abandoned pillar working is one of the effective measures to alleviate the contradiction between limited resources and increased consumption. Interburden stability over an abandoned pillar working plays a significant role in guaranteeing the safety of upward mining; however, it has not yet been extensively studied and understood. In this study, the vertical stress of the interburden over an abandoned pillar working was first investigated. The mechanical model of the interburden was established and the damage conditions were analysed. Then, the stability of the interburden over 38502 abandoned workings in Baijiazhuang coal …


Shale Characterization And Size-Effect Study Using Scanning Electron Microscopy And X-Ray Diffraction, Debashis Das Jan 2018

Shale Characterization And Size-Effect Study Using Scanning Electron Microscopy And X-Ray Diffraction, Debashis Das

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Ground failure is a major contributor of the total fatalities in underground mines in the US. Underground coal mines in the Northern Appalachian region have weak roof rock mainly composed of shale and sandstone. Characterization of shale is indispensable for developing an effective ground control plan. However, this has not been done extensively. This thesis attempts to address this issue. It investigates the variation in mechanical properties of shale with variation in size. In addition, an attempt has been made to relate the strength of shale with its petrographic parameters. X-ray diffraction technique was used to estimate the compositional parameters …


Evaluation Of Wax Deposition Prevention For Crude Oil Production From Mae Soon Oil Field, Htet Myat Min Jan 2018

Evaluation Of Wax Deposition Prevention For Crude Oil Production From Mae Soon Oil Field, Htet Myat Min

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Waxy crude oils are normally found in petroleum reservoirs. Crude oil with the wax formation is one of the crucial problems for flow assurance of pipeline transportation in oil and gas production. This issue can commonly cause wax deposition problem and it has made a huge amount of economic losses such as production, time and maintenance cost. Therefore, it is a critical aspect to deal with wax deposition for crude oil flow assurance, especially at the surface region in cold climate. In this study, n-heptane and poly (maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecane) or MA as the inhibitors with different concentrations will be measured …


Utilization Of Biochar Coupled With Coal Combustion Products For Degraded Soil Amendment, Thidphavanh Sengsingkham Jan 2018

Utilization Of Biochar Coupled With Coal Combustion Products For Degraded Soil Amendment, Thidphavanh Sengsingkham

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSWF) has been intensively studied worldwide as it is a low-cost technique. By injecting water with very low salinity compared to formation water in the reservoir, the method changes equilibrium between rock surface, oil and surrounding water, causing wettability alteration through Multi-component Ion Exchange (MIE) mechanism. In this study, ammonium ion is added into low salinity water to facilitate the MIE mechanism in shaly-sandstones reservoir. Experiments are performed with shaly-sandstone rock as it contains both calcium and magnesium ions as part of clays and ammonium ion can express its potential by triggering MIE mechanism. Stirring test, spontaneous …


Effects Of Monovalent Ions On Low Salinity Waterflooding In Shaly-Sandstone Reservoir, Ativish Yomchan Jan 2018

Effects Of Monovalent Ions On Low Salinity Waterflooding In Shaly-Sandstone Reservoir, Ativish Yomchan

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Multi-component Ion Exchange (MIE) was proved to be a major mechanism occurred during Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSWF). Reduction of both total salinity and concentration of divalent ions of injected water together with a presence of monovalent ion results in dissolution of divalent ions linking between rock surface and oil. As a consequence, oil is liberated from rock surface. This study aims to study effects of monovalent ions in MIE mechanism. Stirring test is performed and results show that ion with less hydration radius tends to be more active in MIE; hence, potassium ion and cesium ion illustrate potential in oil …


Effectiveness Of Ammonium Ion In Low Salinity Waterflooding In Shaly-Sandstone Reservoir, Hung Vu Quoc Jan 2018

Effectiveness Of Ammonium Ion In Low Salinity Waterflooding In Shaly-Sandstone Reservoir, Hung Vu Quoc

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In this study was presented the pre-feasibility study of silica sand processing plant in Sihanoukville province. The resources approximately 8,750,000 tons, would be a high potential deposit for the glass industry. In this study focuses on the characteristics of the silica sand, methodology to remove the impurities which contained high Fe2O3, Al2O3 and another major oxide element, and economic evaluation technique. To identification of silica sand which used sieve analysis, Frantz isodynamic magnetic separator following by electrical microscope, XRD, and XRF. Therefore, to upgrade the quality of silica sand, which is using Shaking Table, Wet High-Intensity Magnetic Separator, and Reverse …


Pre-Feasibility Study Of Silica Sand Processing Plant In Sihanoukville Province, Cambodia, Sochea Ros Jan 2018

Pre-Feasibility Study Of Silica Sand Processing Plant In Sihanoukville Province, Cambodia, Sochea Ros

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Nowadays, bottom ash and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum are by-products of the coal combustion process from coal-fired power plant. Bottom ash has been applied in many applications such as landfill, cement industry etc., and FGD gypsum is applied in cement and wallboard industry. Also, they can be used in agricultural activities for soil amendment but the amount of bottom ash and FGD used in this function is still low. Furthermore, biochar has long been used to improve soil fertility. The positive impacts of biochar amendment on soils are that it can increase soil capacity to adsorb plant nutrients, decrease …


Ore Reserves Estimation Of The Nam Nga Coal Deposit, Lao Pdr, Using Geostatistical Method, Tongvang Bliachongvang Jan 2018

Ore Reserves Estimation Of The Nam Nga Coal Deposit, Lao Pdr, Using Geostatistical Method, Tongvang Bliachongvang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research study focuses on estimating the coal deposit quantity and qualities as CV and AC at Nam Nga coal deposit, Lao PDR using OK and SGS geostatistical methods. A total of 295 assays data from 51 exploration drill holes collected from LID Company were used. The results reveal that OK produces geological resource of 2.2 MT with an average CV of 3,733 kcal/kg and an average AC of 48.68 %. The mineable reserve computed from OK's ultimate pit design and pit adjustment are 0.55 MT. The OK method produces 9.32 MT of wastes, yielding a stripping ratio of 10.4:1. …