Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Volcanic Electrification: A Multiparametric Case Study Of Sakurajima Volcano, Japan, Cassandra M. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrical activity at volcanoes has been recently recognized as a potential new remote sensing technique for plume-forming eruptions. Volcanic electrical activity takes place in the conduit and plume and therefore has the benefit of being a direct indicator of surface activity. This is unlike seismic signals, which indicate magma/gas movement underground, and infrasound signals, which indicate a surface explosion but not necessarily the formation of an ash plume. There are two distinct types of volcanic electrical discharges: volcanic lightning and continual radio frequency (CRF) impulses. This dissertation explores the relationships between these two electrical signals and other commonly monitored volcanic …

High-Resolution Investigation Of Event Driven Sedimentation: Response And Evolution Of The Deepwater Horizon Blowout In The Sedimentary System, Rebekka A. Larson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This Dissertation combines the investigation of the sedimentological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon (DwH) blowout event in the deep-sea benthos, with the refinement and advancement of methods and approaches for high-resolution investigations of events preserved in sedimentary records. An approach that combined, rapid collection of cores, a continued annual time series collection of cores, and high-resolution sampling and analyses, in particular short-lived Radioisotopes (SLRad), enabled the temporal resolution required to detect the sedimentary response to the short-duration DwH event, and evaluate post-event sedimentation patterns at a comparable time scale (months).

The collection of 179 sediment cores from 80 sites between …

Population Fragmentation Leads To Morpho-Functional Variation In British Red Squirrels (Sciurus Vulgaris), Philip G. Cox, Philip J.R. Morris, Andrew C. Kitchener

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

It is well-known that population fragmentation and isolation can lead to rapid morphological and functional divergence, with the effect being particularly well-documented in rodents. Here, we investigated whether such a phenomenon could be identified in the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), which was once widespread across the majority of Great Britain, but suffered a severe population decline across the 20^th century, leaving a highly fragmented distribution. The aim was to test for morphological and biomechanical variation of the mandible between the remaining British red squirrel populations. Linear and geometric morphometric methods were used to analyse shape in …

Estimating Coastal Water Turbidity Using Viirs Nighttime Measurement, Chih-Wei Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal water turbidity is a key environmental factor that influences the relative clarity of the water, which therefore reduces sunlight penetration. The comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage of remote sensing allows mapping of water turbidity near the coast. Even in locations where time-consuming and expensive conventional turbidity monitoring programs exist, local technological limitations prevent complete coverage. Traditional optical satellite techniques using the visible band also have limitations in monitoring turbidity due to non-optimal observing conditions such as clouds, sun-glint, and thick aerosols. In this study, in order to complement the daytime satellite measurements, I used the data from Visible Infrared …

Full-Waveform Inversion Of Common-Offset Ground Penetrating Radar (Gpr) Data, Sajad Jazayeri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maintenance of aging buried infrastructure and reinforced concrete are critical issues in the United States. Inexpensive non-destructive techniques for mapping and imaging infrastructure and defects are an integral component of maintenance. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a widely-used non-destructive tool for locating buried infrastructure and for imaging rebar and other features of interest to civil engineers. Conventional acquisition and interpretation of GPR profiles is based on the arrival times of strong reflected/diffracted returns, and qualitative interpretation of return amplitudes. Features are thereby generally well located, but their material properties are only qualitatively assessed. For example, in the typical imaging of …

Variations Of Sedimentary Biogenic Silica In The Gulf Of Mexico During The Deepwater Horizon And Ixtoc-I Oil Spill., Jong Jin Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to understand the impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the 1970-1980 IXTOC-I oil spill and other anthropogenic activity (e.g. dam construction) on surface water primary productivity by measuring sedimentary biogenic silica. It is known that sedimentary biogenic silica is distinct from mineral – bound silica, therefore it has been used as a proxy record for surface water primary productivity (e.g. diatom blooms). The Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in a widespread Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation and Flocculent Accumulation (MOSSFA) event. The IXTOC-I oil spill was one of the largest oil spills …

Full Issue 48(1)

International Journal of Speleology

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

International Journal of Speleology

No abstract provided.

Assessing Paleo-Coastal Caves Evolution And Sea Level Changes In Mallorca: Results From Radiometric Dating Of Speleothems, Giuseppe Lucia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sea level affects the littoral morphology and structure in different ways. In coastal karst basins, dissolutional and depositional processes are strictly related to sea level variation. A great variety of karst-related geomorphological features and cave deposits exist above, below, and at sea level, and are extremely useful to study past changes of relative sea level. Within these, vadose speleothems such as flowstones and stalagmite, can document unequivocal maximum sea level constraints as well as record phreatic phases of sea level rise. Here we present a series of geochronological data from the eastern Mallorca and show the implication of relative sea …

Examining The Spatial And Temporal Variations In Co2 Partial Pressure In The Deep Vadose Zone Above Jinapsan Cave, Guam, Jamar Regis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Carbon dioxide is the primary driver of dissolution and precipitation reactions in epigene limestone caves. While much work has been conducted on CO2 dynamics involved in dissolution in the phreatic zone, less research has been conducted on vadose CO2 dynamics, especially in tropical caves developed in eogenetic limestones. In this study, we investigate spatial and temporal variation in pCO2 in the deep vadose zone of eogenetic limestone above Jinapsan Cave, located in northern Guam. Five years of carbonate chemistry data from three dripwater sites in Jinapsan Cave (Flatman, Station1, and Trinity) were used to model the theoretical pCO2 with which …

Guano-Related Phosphate-Rich Minerals In European Caves, Philippe Audra, Jo De Waele, Ilham Bentaleb, Alica Chroňáková, Václav Krištůfek, Ilenia M. D'Angeli, Cristina Carbone, Giuliana Madonia, Marco Vattano, Giovanna Scopelliti, Didier Cailhol, Nathalie Vanara, Marjan Temovski, Jean-Yves Bigot, Jean-Claude Nobécourt, Ermanno Galli, Fernando Rull, Aurelio Sanz-Arranz

International Journal of Speleology

Guano is a typical deposit found in caves derived from the excretions of bats and in minor cases of birds. These organic deposits decompose and form a series of acid fluids and gases that can interact with the minerals, sediments, and rocks present in the cave. Over sixty phosphates are known and described from caves, but guano decay also often leads to the formation of nitrates and sulfates. In this study twenty-two European caves were investigated for their guano-related secondary minerals. Using various analytical techniques, seventeen phosphates, along with one sulfate (gypsum), were recognized as secondary products of guano decay. …

Modeled Affinity Constants For Phosphorus Adsorption And Desorption Due To Saltwater Intrusion, Yasemin Taşcı

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is important to understand the processes that regulate phosphorus (P) fluxes to coastal environments, because P is an important nutrient in coastal ecosystems. Phosphorus adsorbs to the surface of minerals in sediment and bedrock, and an influx of seawater can cause some of that P to desorb, raising the P concentration of ambient water. Although seawater-induced P desorption is thought to be an important source of P to coastal environments, the chemical reactions that underlie it have not been established. Previous work provides some relevant surface reactions and associated affinity constants between various aqueous P species and the surface …

Cave Dripwater Isotopic Signals Related To The Altitudinal Gradient Of Mount-Lebanon: Implication For Speleothem Studies, Carole Nehme, Sophie Verheyden, Fadi H. Nader, Jocelyne Adjizian-Gerard, Dominique Genty, Kevin De Bont, Benedicte Minster, Ghada Salem, David Verstraten, Philippe Clayes

International Journal of Speleology

An important step in paleoclimate reconstructions based on vadose cave carbonate deposits or speleothems is to evaluate the sensitivity of the cave environment and speleothems to regional climate. Accordingly, we studied four caves, located at different altitudes along the western flank of Mount-Lebanon (Eastern Mediterranean). The objectives of this study are to identify the present-day variability in temperature, pCO₂, and water isotopic composition and to assess the possible influence of the altitudinal gradient on cave drip waters and cave streams. We present here an overview of the spatial variability of rainwater based on local and regional data, and …

Ice-Cliff Failure Via Retrogressive Slumping, Byron R. Parizek, Knut Christianson, Richard B. Alley, Denis Voytenko, Irena Vaňková, Timothy H. Dixon, Ryan T. Walker, David M. Holland

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Retrogressive slumping could accelerate sea-level rise if ice-sheet retreat generates ice cliffs much taller than observed today. The tallest ice cliffs, which extend roughly 100 m above sea level, calve only after ice-flow processes thin the ice to near flotation. Above some ice-cliff height limit, the stress state in ice will satisfy the material-failure criterion, resulting in faster brittle failure. New terrestrial radar data from Helheim Glacier, Greenland, suggest that taller subaerial cliffs are prone to failure by slumping, unloading submarine ice to allow buoyancy-driven full-thickness calving. Full-Stokes diagnostic modeling shows that the threshold cliff height for slumping is likely …

Mechanical Significance Of Morphological Variation In Diprotodont Incisors, Philip J.R. Morris, Philip G. Cox, Samuel N. Cobb

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

All rodents possess a single pair of enlarged incisors that grow throughout life. This condition (diprotodonty) is characteristic of Rodentia, but is also found in other mammals such as lagomorphs, hyraxes, the aye-aye and common wombat. This study surveyed lower incisor morphology across extant diprotodonts to examine shape variation within and between rodents and other diprotodonts, and to determine if tooth shape varies in a manner predictable from mechanics. Six linear and area variables were recorded from microCT scans of the mandibles of 33 diprotodont mammals. The curvature of the rodent lower incisors, as measured by the proportion of a …

Timing And Rates Of Events In The Generic Volcanic Earthquake Swarm Model, Tianyu Rong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I combine data from 29 volcanic earthquake swarms that follow the pattern predicted by the Generic Volcanic Earthquake Swarm Model (GVESM; Benoit and McNutt, 1996) to investigate whether the relative timing of various parameters of pre-eruptive volcanic earthquake swarms could be used to forecast the time of an impending eruption. Based on the analysis of seismic unrest preceding many eruptions, the GVESM suggests that it is common to see an increase first in high-frequency earthquakes, then low-frequency earthquakes, then the onset of volcanic tremor. While this pattern is useful to volcano-seismologists, the relative timing and durations of …

Time Scavengers: An Educational Website To Communicate Climate Change And Evolutionary Theory To The Public Through Blogs, Web Pages, And Social Media Platforms, Adriane R. Lam, Jennifer E. Bauer, Susanna Fraass, Sarah L. Sheffield, Maggie R. Limbeck, Rose M. Borden, Megan E. Thompson-Munson, Andrew J. Fraass, J. M. Hills, Cameron E. Muskelly, Kyle R. Hartshorn, Raquel Bryant

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Climate change and evolution are topics at the forefront of political discussions, debates, and the public sphere. Regardless of evidence on both topics, the public as a whole still believes they are under debate. It is imperative that the public have access to correct and easy-to-digest information on these topics to make informed environmental and ecological decisions. To date, scientifically accurate digital platforms aimed at informing the public on these topics are overly complex and jargon-ridden. Time Scavengers (www.timescavengers.blog) was created to address these issues and is maintained by a group of academics, graduate students, avocational scientists, and educators. The …

Isolution 1.0: An Isotope Evolution Model Describing The Stable Oxygen (Δ18O) And Carbon (Δ13C) Isotope Values Of Speleothems, Michael Deininger, Denis Scholz

International Journal of Speleology

Stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O) are the most applied climate and environmental proxies in speleothems allowing to infer past changes in cave drip water δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O related to climate and environmental variations from above the cave. However, disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes can modify δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values in speleothems, which is in most cases difficult to estimate due to inter-dependencies on various cave specific parameter. To better understand the effect of these disequilibrium isotope fractionation processes proxy system models were developed in recent …

The Second Decade Of Numeracy: Entering The Seas Of Literacy, H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

This multipurpose editorial explores and tries to count the many types of literacy that are referred to by name in Wikipedia and Numeracy. Wikipedia’s Category:Literacy page identifies 44 kinds of literacy that are the subject of articles, ranging from numeracy and graphicacy to braille literacy and diaspora literacy. In addition, searching Google finds more than 30 adjective-literacy or noun-literacy collocations, including quantitative literacy, adult literacy, and document literacy, that do not have Wikipedia pages of their own but are mentioned on other Wikipedia pages. The sum puts this modest literacy count in line with the more than 70 bodies …

Tracing And Constraining Anthropogenic Aerosol Iron Fluxes To The North Atlantic Ocean Using Iron Isotopes, Tim Conway, Douglas S. Hamilton, Rachel U. Shelley, Ana M. Aguilar-Islas, William M. Landing, Natalie M. Mahowald, Seth G. John

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Atmospheric dust is an important source of the micronutrient Fe to the oceans. Although relatively insoluble mineral Fe is assumed to be the most important component of dust, a relatively small yet highly soluble anthropogenic component may also be significant. However, quantifying the importance of anthropogenic Fe to the global oceans requires a tracer which can be used to identify and constrain anthropogenic aerosols in situ. Here, we present Fe isotope (δ56Fe) data from North Atlantic aerosol samples from the GEOTRACES GA03 section. While soluble aerosol samples collected near the Sahara have near-crustal δ56Fe, soluble aerosols from near North America …

Research On Land Use Changes And Ecological Risk Assessment In Yongjiang River Basin In Zhejiang Province, China, Peng Tian, Jianlin Li, Hongbo Gong, Ruiliang Pu, Luodan Cao, Shuyao Shao, Zuoqi Shi, Xuili Feng, Lijia Wang, Riuqing Liu

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Studying land use changes and ecological risk assessment in Yongjiang River Basin in Zhejiang Province, China, provides theoretical references for optimal configuration of land resources and maintaining stability of ecosystems. Given impacts of land use changes on landscape patterns in the Yongjiang River Basin, ecological risk assessment indexes were constructed and used to analyze temporal and spatial variation characteristics of ecological risk within different periods. Results show that (1) the construction land area was increased quickly, while the cultivated area decreased sharply. A prominent characteristic of land use changes was manifested by transforming cultivated area and forestland into construction land. …

Mobile Terrestrial Photogrammetry For Street Tree Mapping And Measurements, John Roberts, Andrew Koeser, Amr Abd-Elrahman, Benjamin Wilkinson, Gail Hansen, Shawn M. Landry, Ali Perez

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Urban forests are often heavily populated by street trees along right-of-ways (ROW), and monitoring efforts can enhance municipal tree management. Terrestrial photogrammetric techniques have been used to measure tree biometry, but have typically used images from various angles around individual trees or forest plots to capture the entire stem while also utilizing local coordinate systems (i.e., non-georeferenced data). We proposed the mobile collection of georeferenced imagery along 100 m sections of urban roadway to create photogrammetric point cloud datasets suitable for measuring stem diameters and attaining positional x and y coordinates of street trees. In a comparison between stationary and …

Htgcd Well Evaluation: Dripping Springs Water Supply Co. Test Well 1 & Stratigraphic Evaluation Of The Trinity Aquifer Units In Wester Hays County And Implications For Hydrological Variations, Nicholas J. Soto-Kerans, A. Broun, J. Watson

School of Geosciences Student Publications

The Trinity Aquifer is a very important groundwater resource for the Dripping Springs area and Central Texas as a whole. Evidence in recent studies show increased levels of aquifer stress and pumping due to higher influx of population and demand for potable water in the area.

In addition to high levels of pumping, groundwater appears to be influenced by facies change. There is little information on how certain geological units affect the presence of groundwater in the Trinity Aquifer – this study is purposed to bring a better understanding of how groundwater resources are stored and moved through the subsurface …

Is Ghana Ready To Attain Sustainable Development Goal (Sdg) Number 7?—A Comprehensive Assessment Of Its Renewable Energy Potential And Pitfalls, Michael Acheampong, Qiuyan Yu, Funda C. Ertem, Lucy E.D. Enomah, Shakhawat H. Tanim, Michael Eduful, Mehrdad Vaziri, Erick Ananga

School of Geosciences Student Publications

Ghana has declared support for the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number seven which most importantly target ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. This target presents a formidable challenge to Ghana because the country still relies mainly on traditional biomass as its primary source of energy coupled with a chronically fragile hydropower sector. In this study, we assess Ghana’s potential in achieving sustainable goal number seven. Specifically, we comprehensively review the breakthroughs and impediments Ghana has experienced in its efforts towards improving its renewable energy potential. We note that while Ghana has made significant stride toward …

Rapid Iceberg Calving Following Removal Of Tightly Packed Pro-Glacial Mélange, Surui Xie, Timothy Dixon, David M. Holland, Denis Voytenko, Irena Vaňková

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Iceberg calving is a major contributor to Greenland’s ice mass loss. Pro-glacial mélange (a mixture of sea ice, icebergs, and snow) may be tightly packed in the long, narrow fjords that front many marine-terminating glaciers and can reduce calving by buttressing. However, data limitations have hampered a quantitative understanding. We develop a new radar-based approach to estimate time-varying elevations near the mélange-glacier interface, generating a factor of three or more improvement in elevation precision. We apply the technique to Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland’s major outlet glacier. Over a one-month period in early summer 2016, the glacier experienced essentially no calving, and …

Developing High Resolution Baseline Coast Resource Maps Using World View 2 Imagery For A Coastal Village In Fiji, Ashneel Ajay Singh, Anish Maharaj, Michelle Kumar, Priyatma Singh, Sanjay Singh, Frank Muller-Karger, Matthew James Mccarthy, Lionel Joseph, Herve Damlamian, Zulfikar Begg

Marine Science Faculty Publications

In Fiji, like most Pacific Island countries, there have been numerous reports of degradation of coastal resources, including adverse changes in abundance and stock distribution of numerous aquatic species associated with the coastal habitat. To develop effective management plans, assessment of existing coastal resources is pertinent. High spatial resolution satellite imagery, combined with geographic information systems allow for efficient and synoptic mapping of coastal resources to provide a baseline for developing effective and improved management plans. The purpose of this study was to develop a baseline habitat map of the intertidal benthic cover in Komave Village, Coral Coast, Sigatoka, Fiji. …