Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Reply To Simon And Reed: Independent And Converging Results Rule Out Historic Disturbance And Confirm Age Constraints For Barrier Canyon Rock Art, Joel L. Pederson, Harriet Cornachione, Steven R. Simms, Reza Sohbati, Tammy M. Rittenour, Andrew S. Murray, Gary Cox

Geosciences Faculty Publications

We welcome this further discussion of our results on the age of the Great Gallery rock art in the Canyonlands of Utah. The comment by Simon and Reed (1) focuses on just one of the three components of our study (2), which is presented in greater technical detail in ref. 3 and is surely our best-constrained and least-surprising result: the dating of a rock-fall that removed some of the art and thus provides a minimum age. Simon and Reed (1) point out that the Great Gallery panel is not pristine and relate the sordid human history of visitation and possible …

Registration Of ‘Newell’ Smooth Bromegrass, K P. Vogel, R B. Mitchell, B L. Waldron, M R. Haferkamp, J D. Berdahl, D D. Baltensperger, Galen Erickson, T J. Klopfenstein

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

No abstract provided.

Drilling The Solid Earth: Global Geodynamic Cycles And Earth Evolution, John W. Shervais, Nicholas Arndt, Kathryn M. Goodenough

Geosciences Faculty Publications

The physical and chemical evolution of the Earth is driven by geodynamic cycles that are global in scale, operating over 4.57 Ga of Earth’s history. Some processes are truly cyclic, e.g., the Wilson Cycle, while others are irreversible (e.g., core formation). Heat and mass transfer between the lowermost mantle (e.g., core-mantle boundary) and the surface drives these global geodynamic processes. Subduction of lithospheric plates transfers cool fractionated material into the lower mantle and leads indirectly to the formation of new oceanic lithosphere, while the rise of thermochemical plumes recycles the remnants of these plates back to the surface, driven by …

Warming, Competition, And Bromus Tectorum Population Growth Across An Elevation Gradient, Aldo Compagnoni, Peter B. Adler

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is one of the most problematic invasive plant species in North America and climate change threatens to exacerbate its impacts. We conducted a two‐year field experiment to test the effect of warming, competition, and seed source on cheatgrass performance across an elevation gradient in northern Utah. We hypothesized that warming would increase cheatgrass performance, but that warming effects would be limited by competing vegetation and by local adaptation of cheatgrass seed sources. The warming treatment relied on open top chambers, we removed vegetation to assess the effect of competition from neighboring vegetation, and we reciprocally …

Age Of Barrier Canyon-Style Rock Art Constrained By Cross-Cutting Relations And Luminescence Dating Techniques, Joel L. Pederson, Harriet Cornachione, Steven R. Simms, Reza Sohbati, Tammy M. Rittenour, Andrew S. Murray, Gary Cox

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Rock art compels interest from both researchers and a broader public, inspiring many hypotheses about its cultural origin and meaning, but it is notoriously difficult to date numerically. Barrier Canyon-style (BCS) pictographs of the Colorado Plateau are among the most debated examples; hypotheses about its age span the entire Holocene epoch and previous attempts at direct radiocarbon dating have failed. We provide multiple age constraints through the use of cross-cutting relations and new and broadly applicable approaches in optically stimulated luminescence dating at the Great Gallery panel, the type section of BCS art in Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. Alluvial …

Composition, Alteration, And Texture Of Fault-Related Rocks From Safod Core And Surface Outcrop Analogs: Evidence For Deformation Processes And Fluid-Rock Interactions, Kelly Keighley Bradbury, Colter R. Davis, John W. Shervais, Susanne U. Janecke, James P. Evans

Geosciences Faculty Publications

We examine the fine-scale variations in mineralogical composition, geochemical alteration, and texture of the fault-related rocks from the Phase 3 whole-rock core sampled between 3,187.4 and 3,301.4 m measured depth within the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) borehole near Parkfield, California. This work provides insight into the physical and chemical properties, structural architecture, and fluid-rock interactions associated with the actively deforming traces of the San Andreas Fault zone at depth. Exhumed outcrops within the SAF system comprised of serpentinite-bearing protolith are examined for comparison at San Simeon, Goat Rock State Park, and Nelson Creek, California. In the Phase …

Late Quaternary Faulting History Of The Carrizal And Related Faults, La Paz Region, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Paul J. Umhoefer, Sara J. Maloney, Beverly Buchanan, J. Ramón Arrowsmith, Genaro Martinez-Gutiérrez, Graham Kent, Neal Driscoll, Alistair Harding, Darrell Kaufman, Tammy M. Rittenour

Geosciences Faculty Publications

The southwest margin of the Gulf of California has an array of active normal faults despite this being an oblique-divergent plate boundary with spreading centers that localized deformation along the plate boundary 2–3 million years ago. The Carrizal and Centenario faults form the western border fault of the Gulf of California marginal fault system within and south of La Paz Bay, and ∼20–30 km west of the capital city of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Geologic and geomorphic mapping, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) geochronology, and paleoseismic investigations onshore, compressed high-intensity radar pulse (CHIRP) profiling offshore, and analysis of uplifted …

Dust Mediated Transfer Of Phosphorus To Alpine Lake Ecosystems Of The Wind River Range, Wyoming, Usa, Janice Brahney, Ashley P. Ballantyne, P. Kociolek, Sarah A. Spaulding, Megan Otu, T. Porwoll, Jason C. Neff

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Alpine lakes receive a large fraction of their nutrients from atmospheric sources and are consequently sensitive to variations in both the amount and chemistry of atmospheric deposition. In this study we explored the spatial changes in lake water chemistry and biology along a gradient of dust deposition in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Regional differences were explored using the variation in bulk deposition, lake water, sediment, and bedrock geochemistry and catchment characteristics. Dust deposition rates in the Southwestern region averaged 3.34 g m−2 year−1, approximately three times higher than deposition rates in the Northwestern region (average 1.06 g m−2 year−1). …

The Kimama Core: A 6.4 Ma Record Of Volcanism, Sedimentation, And Magma Petrogenesis On The Axial Volcanic High, Snake River Plain, Id, Katherine Elizabeth Potter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Snake River Plain (SRP) is one of the best-preserved examples of continental hotspot volcanis, with a continuous record of volcanism that extends over 16 Ma to the present. Yellowstone-Snake River Plain records the migration of plume-tail volcanism from inception at the Bruneau-Jarbridge caldera complex at 12.6 Ma to its present locus, under the Yellowstone Plateau.

Records kept by the Snake River Plain volcanic actions include rhyolite lavas and ignimbritesm minor coeval basalts, and an overlying veneer of younger basalts. The central SRP has received comparatively little attention in the past. The Kimama core hole was drilled as part of …

Landscape Evolution Of The Needles Fault Zone, Utah, Investigated Through Chronostratigraphic And Terrain Analyses, Faye L. Geiger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arcing eastward from the deep gorge of Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River is a series of aligned valleys (graben) and ridges (horst). This unusual landscape has formed as subsurface salt deforms toward the river and dissolves away, causing the overlying rocks to fault, slide, and subside. Geologists have long been interested in this actively evolving area they call the Needles fault zone, because understanding its mechanics and origin may shed light on how faults work in general and similar, yet inaccessible places like offshore rift zones or even the surface of the Moon. Despite this interest, the timing and …

In Situ Stress And Geology From The Mh-2 Borehole, Mountain Home, Idaho: Implications For Geothermal Exploration From Fractures, Rock Properties, And Geomechanics, James Andrew Kessler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Geothermal energy is being explored as a supplement to traditional fossil fuel resources to meet growing energy demand and reduce carbon emissions. Geothermal energy plants harvest heat stored in the Earth’s subsurface by bringing high temperature fluids to the surface and generating steam to produce electricity. Development of geothermal resources is often inhibited by large upfront risk and expense. Successful mitigation of those costs and risks begins with efficient characterization of the resource before development. A typically successful geothermal reservoir consists of a fractured reservoir that conducts hydrothermal fluids and a cap rock seal to limit convective heat loss through …

A Petrographic Analysis Of The Relationship Between Porosity And Organic Matter In The Permian Phosphoria Formation Of Northeastern Utah, Larry Tackett

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Permian Phosphoria Formation is a reservoir for oil and gas in the western United States, as well as a major source of phosphate. This study examined the relationship between phosphate richness and porosity exhibited in the formation. Petrographic analysis was carried out on rock samples collected from the Phosphoria (Park City) Formation located north of Vernal, Utah, on the southern flank of the Uinta Mountains.

The analysis demonstrated an inverse relationship between organic richness and porosity in the Phosphoria Formation. Porosity is controlled by lithology, amount of cementation, weathering, and amount of fecal pellets, which are the source of …

Rock Strength Of Caprock Seal Lithologies: Evidence For Past Seal Failure, Migration Of Fluids And The Analysis Of The Reservoir Seal Interface In Outcrop And The Subsurface, Elizabeth Sandra Petrie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Scientists have proposed that in order to avoid damaging climate change further accumulations of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) must be limited. One of several proposed techniques for reducing the amount CO₂ reaching the atmosphere is carbon capture and storage (CCS). This emerging technology stores CO₂ Emissions captured from large point sources (i.e. power plants or industrial facilities), in deep geologic formations, including depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs and saline aquifers. For successful CCS design, implementation and appropriate site selection and subsurface trapping mechanisms must be ensured over the 100's to 1000's of year timescale.

A key component …

Fault And Fluid Interactions In The Elsinore Fault-West Salton Detachment Fault Damage Zones, Agua Caliente County Park, California, Rebekah Erin Wood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study area provides a unique opportunity to study the intersection of the Elsinore and West Salton detachment faults in southern California, effusing warm springs, and alteration products in the midst of the fault intersection. Structural mapping and compiling previous maps supply an interpretation of the fault zone geometries within the Tierra Blanca Mountains. Geochemical analysis of the crystalline basement and altered protolith help determine the effects of faulting and fluid flow in the study area. In the Tierra Blanca Mountains, the Elsinore strike-slip fault system transitions from the double-stranded Julian segment and Earthquake Valley fault in the northwest, to …

Molecular Systematics, Historical Biogeography, And Evolution Of Spider Wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), Juanita Rodriguez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The study of the diversity and classification of any group of organisms provides a foundation for further scientific studies in ecology, evolution, and conservation. Insects are among the most diverse organisms that inhabit the planet, but knowledge of their diversity and classification is still limited. One understudied group of insects is spider wasps. These are solitary parasitoids that use one spider to lay a single egg. There are approximately 5,000 described species, and many more to be described. Unfortunately, fewer than 10 scientists worldwide study these insects. One reason the group has not been very well studied is the difficulty …

Mesoscale Deformational Features Near Outcrop Analogs Of A Reservoir-Seal Interface: Implications For Seal Failure, Santiago L. Flores

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The boundary that separates reservoir rocks from caprock seals is generally considered a flow barrier for reservoir fluids. Buoyant fluids do no flow through the caprocks because they have low permeability and molecular forces at the base of the caprock resist upward flow. Deformation at the reservoir/caprock boundary may include fractures that increase permeability and lessen the effect of the molecular forces.

The injection and storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in porous sandstone with effective top seals below earth’s surface is a possible solution for reducing the amount of human-created CO₂ in the atmosphere. Uplift and erosion …

Soil Water Flux Estimates From Streaming Potential And Penta-Needle Heat Pulse Probe Measurements, Pawel J. Szafruga

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Growing populations, coupled with climate change and resource depletion, have heightened concern about water management. The growing need to better manage agricultural systems, including irrigation and fertilizer application, as well the lasting consequences of excess application of nitrogen and other nutrients, could be remedied with an improved method to monitor soil water movement. Despite huge technological advances, a tool to measure soil water flow at the low rates found in the field has not been developed. Current methods lack the precision to provide the needed accuracy to fully understand soil-water dynamics, as well as the ability to provide instantaneous information. …

Linking Montane Soil Moisture Measurements To Evapotranspiration Using Inverse Numerical Modeling, Ling Lv

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evapotranspiration (ET) and soil moisture play important roles in annual water delivered from snowpack to reservoirs, lakes and streams. Indeed, ET and soil moisture are key factors dictating the performance of the regional climate models in the intermountain west (IMW) of the USA. Water resources management and climate modeling require accurate prediction of ET and areal soil moisture for reliable estimates of ongoing and future water needs. This research has examined ways to estimate ET from four common vegetation types in the IMW (aspen, conifer, grass and sage) using local soil moisture measurements from an advanced instrumentation network located in …

A 576-Year Weber River Streamflow Reconstruction From Tree Rings For Water Resource Risk Assessment In The Wasatch Front, Utah, Matthew F. Bekker, R. Justin Derose, Brendan Buckley, Roger Kjelgren, Nathan S. Gill

Wasatch Dendroclimatology Research

We present a 576-year tree-ring-based reconstruction of streamflow for northern Utah's Weber River that exhibits considerable interannual and decadal-scale variability. While the 20th Century instrumental period includes several extreme individual dry years, it was the century with the fewest such years of the entire reconstruction. Extended droughts were more severe in duration, magnitude, and intensity prior to the instrumental record, including the most protracted drought of the record, which spanned 16 years from 1703 to 1718. Extreme wet years and periods are also a regular feature of the reconstruction. A strong early 17th Century pluvial exceeds the early 20th Century …

Tree-Ring Reconstruction Of The Level Of Great Salt Lake, Usa, R. Justin Derose, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Brendan M. Buckley, Matthew F. Bekker

Wasatch Dendroclimatology Research

Utah’s Great Salt Lake (GSL) is a closed-basin remnant of the larger Pleistocene-age Lake Bonneville. The modern instrumental record of the GSL-level (i.e. elevation) change is strongly modulated by Pacific Ocean coupled ocean/atmospheric oscillations at low frequency, and therefore reflects the decadalscale wet/dry cycles that characterize the region. A within-basin network of seven tree-ring chronologies was developed to reconstruct the GSL water year (September–August) level, based upon the instrumental record of GSL level from 1876 to 2005. The result was a 576-year reconstruction of the GSL level that extends from 1429 to 2005; all calibration-verification tests commonly used in dendroclimatology …

Warming, Soil Moisture, And Loss Of Snow Increase Bromus Tectorum’S Population Growth Rate, Aldo Compagnoni, Peter B. Adler

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

Climate change threatens to exacerbate the impacts of invasive species. In temperate ecosystems, direct effects of warming may be compounded by dramatic reductions in winter snow cover. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is arguably the most destructive biological invader in basins of the North American Intermountain West, and warming could increase its performance through direct effects on demographic rates or through indirect effects mediated by loss of snow. We conducted a two-year experimental manipulation of temperature and snow pack to test whether 1) warming increases cheatgrass population growth rate and 2) reduced snow cover contributes to cheatgrass’ positive response to …

Paleolimnological Analysis Of The History Of Metals Contamination In The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Katrina Moser, Peter R. Leavitt

Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Three sediment cores from the Great Salt Lake were analyzed to determine the magnitude and timing for the deposition of 21 metal contaminants. In the main lake (Gilbert Bay) concentrations of copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, silver, molybdenum, tin, mercury and others began increasing in the sediments in the late 1800s or early 1900s and peaked in the 1950s. These increases were coincident with increases in mining and smelting activities for these metals in Utah. Contamination indices in the 1950s were 20-60 fold above background concentrations for silver, copper, lead and molybdenum, and <15-fold for most other metals. Since the 1950s, concentrations of most metals in the sediments have decreased 2-5 fold coincident with decreases in mining and improved smelting technologies. Nevertheless concentrations for many metals in surficial sediments are still above acceptable criteria established for freshwater ecosystems. In contrast to most metals, concentrations of selenium and arsenic were stable or increasing slightly in the Gilbert Bay sediments. In a coring site located in Farmington Bay near an EPA Superfund Site discharge canal, concentrations of metals were high and showed no indication of decreasing in more recent sediments. Surficial sediments from additional sites in the Great Salt Lake indicated that metals were more concentrated towards the southern end of the lake where the primary sources of contamination were located.

Could The 2012 Drought In Central U. S. Have Been Anticipated?, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Danny Barandiaran, Kyle Hilburn, Paul Houser

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

This paper summarizes research related to the 2012 record drought in the central United States conducted by members of the NEWS (NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Energy and Water cycle Study) Working Group. Past drought patterns were analyzed for signal coherency with latest drought and the contribution of long-term trends in the Great Plains low-level jet, an important regional circulation feature of the spring rainy season in the Great Plains. Long-term changes in the seasonal transition from rainy spring into dry summer were also examined. Potential external forcing from radiative processes, soil-air interactions, and ocean teleconnections were assessed as …