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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Sediment Flux & Fate For A Large-Scale Diversion: The 2011 Mississippi River Flood, The Bonnet Carré Spillway, And The Implications For Coastal Restoration In South Louisiana, Jeffrey Bryant Fabre Jan 2012

Sediment Flux & Fate For A Large-Scale Diversion: The 2011 Mississippi River Flood, The Bonnet Carré Spillway, And The Implications For Coastal Restoration In South Louisiana, Jeffrey Bryant Fabre

LSU Master's Theses

Dams and hardened levees built by European settlers in the last two centuries have degraded or stopped the cyclic sedimentation patterns that built the Mississippi River Delta Plain over the past 7,000-8,000 years. Man-made diversions of sediment-laden river water along the lower Mississippi, operated during high water periods, are being considered as a primary mechanism for combating the land loss induced by rising sea-level and these modern controls. To date, no study has documented the sediment-delivery potential of a large man-made river diversion during a single high water event. In the spring of 2011, historic flooding on the Mississippi River …


Spatial Variation Analysis Of Salinity To Determine Fluid Flow Pathways And Reservoir Compartmentalization In A Deepwater Gulf Of Mexico Field, William Jacob Daugherty Jan 2012

Spatial Variation Analysis Of Salinity To Determine Fluid Flow Pathways And Reservoir Compartmentalization In A Deepwater Gulf Of Mexico Field, William Jacob Daugherty

LSU Master's Theses

Variations in salinity have been documented in previous studies onshore Louisiana in the Wilcox group (Funayama and Hanor 1995) as well as offshore Louisiana on the continental shelf (Bruno and Hanor 2003 and Steen et al. 2011). These studies were conducted using various methods to estimate pore water salinity and make inferences about possible fluid flow pathways and compartmentalization of reservoirs in order to better understand the complex hydrogeology of the Gulf of Mexico. Similar variations in salinity were documented in this study located in a deepwater salt withdrawal minibasin located on the upper slope of the Gulf of Mexico. …


Thermal And Pore Pressure History Of The Haynesville Shale In North Louisiana: A Numerical Study Of Hydrocarbon Generation, Overpressure, And Natural Hydraulic Fractures, William C. Torsch Jan 2012

Thermal And Pore Pressure History Of The Haynesville Shale In North Louisiana: A Numerical Study Of Hydrocarbon Generation, Overpressure, And Natural Hydraulic Fractures, William C. Torsch

LSU Master's Theses

New drilling technology has led to a revival of drilling in mature petroleum basins such as the Haynesville Formation in east Texas and north Louisiana. In north Louisiana, the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) aged Haynesville shale has a basinward SW dip and is located at depths ranging from around 10,500 ft to the northeast and 14,000 ft to the southwest with local minimums at the Sabine and Monroe Uplifts. Formation thickness ranges from 100 to 400 feet. Prolific natural gas production is attributed to relatively high average porosity (8 to 14%) and a high geopressure gradient > 0.9 psi/ft. (Wang and Hammes, …


Evaluation Of Pleistocene To Holocene (Mis 5 To 1) Climatic Changes In Southwestern Black Sea: A Palynological Study Of Dsdp Site 380, Shannon Ferguson Jan 2012

Evaluation Of Pleistocene To Holocene (Mis 5 To 1) Climatic Changes In Southwestern Black Sea: A Palynological Study Of Dsdp Site 380, Shannon Ferguson

LSU Master's Theses

Site 380 of the Deep Sea Drilling Program [DSDP] is located in the southwestern region of the Black Sea (42°05.94’, 29°36.82’E). The location of this site is important due to its proximity to the narrow Bosphorus strait, the only present-day connection between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. Drops in eustatic sea level during extensive Pleistocene glacial episodes disconnected the Black Sea from the Aegean Sea at the Bosphorus strait, creating a change from brackish to freshwater within the Black Sea during these intervals. Organic-walled phytoplankton (dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, and fresh-water algae) are investigated to better constrain these glacio-eustatic …


U-Pb Geochronology Of Detrital Zircon In Quartzites Of The Sawtooth Metamorphic Complex, Sawtooth Range, Idaho, Usa, Philip Gerard Bergeron Jan 2012

U-Pb Geochronology Of Detrital Zircon In Quartzites Of The Sawtooth Metamorphic Complex, Sawtooth Range, Idaho, Usa, Philip Gerard Bergeron

LSU Master's Theses

In southwest Laurentia, the Paleoproterozoic Selway terrane has been proposed to extend as basement from the Wyoming Province to the Proterozoic rifted margin of Laurentia primarily based on limited exposures. The Sawtooth Metamorphic Complex (SMC), Idaho, a series of high-grade metasupracrustal rocks lies within the proposed region of the Selway terrane and may represent remnants of this terrane. Alternatively, it may represent another basement terrane of cratonic North America. To test the hypothesis that the SMC belongs to the Selway terrane, detrital zircon U/Pb ages of five quartzite samples were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS to establish age, possible provenance, and age …


Depositional Environments Of Upper Meiocene Through Pleistocene Siliciclastic Sediments, Baton Rouge Aquifer System, Southeastern Louisiana, Elizabeth Laurel Chamberlain Jan 2012

Depositional Environments Of Upper Meiocene Through Pleistocene Siliciclastic Sediments, Baton Rouge Aquifer System, Southeastern Louisiana, Elizabeth Laurel Chamberlain

LSU Master's Theses

Saltwater encroachment northward into freshwater sands of the Baton Rouge aquifer system, southeast Louisiana, poses a serious environmental threat to the metropolitan water source. The aquifer consists of a 0.6 mile-thick succession of interbedded, unconsolidated south-dipping siliciclastic sandy units and confining mudstones dating from the Upper Miocene through the Pleistocene. The study area is crosscut by the Baton Rouge fault, a west-east trending listric fault that serves as a leaky barrier to saltwater intrusion from the south. A better understanding of the connectivity, morphology and depositional setting of this aquifer system and hydraulic properties of the Baton Rouge fault is …


Longitudinal Assessment Of Shifting Microbial Community Composition In Sandy Beaches Following The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill And Remediation Efforts, Axita Ajaykumar Gupta Jan 2012

Longitudinal Assessment Of Shifting Microbial Community Composition In Sandy Beaches Following The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill And Remediation Efforts, Axita Ajaykumar Gupta

LSU Master's Theses

Sandy beaches are geological zones parallel to the shoreline where high energy, open ocean unconsolidated sediments are deposited and reworked. Sandy beaches represent critical ecosystems that support a wide variety of underappreciated biodiversity. Prior to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the diversity and function of microbial communities in supratidal beach sediments along the Gulf of Mexico coastlines were not well understood. It was unclear if possible community compositional changes would occur during and following exposure to oil, or what impact the remediation efforts, such as sand washing, would have to the microbial communities and …


Palynostratigraphy Of The Umir Formation, Middle Magdalena Valley Basin (Mmvb) Colombia, Carlos Enrique Santos Jan 2012

Palynostratigraphy Of The Umir Formation, Middle Magdalena Valley Basin (Mmvb) Colombia, Carlos Enrique Santos

LSU Master's Theses

The Late Cretaceous Umir Formation in Middle Magdalena Valley Basin (MMVB) was recently acknowledged as a new target. However, there is little known about the regional distribution of the Umir Formation since it is affected by structural complexity and a major regional unconformity. To improve biosteering of the Umir Formation and reduce exploratory risks, a detailed biostratigraphic analysis of the Umir Formation in the MMVB is presented. Eighty samples from four cores drilled in the Central Eastern MMVB were analyzed for palynological content. These cores represent 976.6 meters of the Middle to Upper Umir Formation. The sediment yielded a good …


A 2-D, Variable-Density Numerical Model Of Subsurface Fluid Flow Through The Edwards Aquifer, New Braunfels, Tx: Mechanisms Inhibiting Flow Across The Freshwater/Saline-Water Interface, Scott Ryan Tipple Jan 2012

A 2-D, Variable-Density Numerical Model Of Subsurface Fluid Flow Through The Edwards Aquifer, New Braunfels, Tx: Mechanisms Inhibiting Flow Across The Freshwater/Saline-Water Interface, Scott Ryan Tipple

LSU Master's Theses

The Edwards aquifer in south-central Texas, U.S., composed of faulted carbonate bedrock, contains freshwater and saline water. In aquifers that are used as a source of drinking water and that contain fresh and saline waters, saline-water intrusion can result in degradation of water quality. Yet, in the Edwards aquifer, limited saline-water intrusion has occurred. The questions addressed are “Why is the saline-water intrusion less than expected,” and “Is there a trigger that will result in saline-water intrusion into the freshwater reservoir?” Three hypotheses were tested. One: an extremely saline water density might prevent mixing across the interface. Two: faults could …


A High-Resolution Palynological Analysis Of The St. Stephens Quarry, Alabama: Locating The Eocene-Oligocene Boundary And Characterizing The Environmental Changes Across The Margin, Kevin Jensen Jan 2012

A High-Resolution Palynological Analysis Of The St. Stephens Quarry, Alabama: Locating The Eocene-Oligocene Boundary And Characterizing The Environmental Changes Across The Margin, Kevin Jensen

LSU Master's Theses

The Eocene-Oligocene (E-O) transition is a key interval in geological history because it marks a major change in Earth’s climate and because these strata are also popular oil targets in the Gulf Coast. E-O sequences in Alabama are stratigraphically complex. The St. Stephens Quarry (SSQ) in Alabama is one of the few accessible quarries along the Gulf Coast where the E-O boundary is visible in outcrop. Despite the abundance of research projects conducted in the SSQ, many controversies still surround the E-O boundary placement and correlation to the Global Stratotype in the Massignano section in Italy that is based on …


Evaluation Of The Depositional Environment Of The Eagle Ford Formation Using Well Log, Seismic, And Core Data In The Hawkville Trough, Lasalle And Mcmullen Counties, South Texas, Zachary Paul Hendershott Jan 2012

Evaluation Of The Depositional Environment Of The Eagle Ford Formation Using Well Log, Seismic, And Core Data In The Hawkville Trough, Lasalle And Mcmullen Counties, South Texas, Zachary Paul Hendershott

LSU Master's Theses

The Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Formation of South Texas records a mixed siliciclastic/carbonate depositional environment across the Late Cretaceous Platform of the Gulf of Mexico. During the Late Cretaceous, LaSalle and McMullen Counties was part of the Hawkville Trough, a wedged shaped region between the Edwards and Sligo carbonate reefs. Well logs from 21 wells and seismic data were used to construct structure and isopach maps of the Eagle Ford Formation throughout the Hawkville Trough. Only the unconformable bottom (Buda-Eagle Ford) and top (Eagle Ford-Austin Chalk) boundaries plus the conformable boundary between the upper and lower Eagle Ford can be …


Mapping Of The Oil Window In The Eagle Ford Shale Play Of Southwest Texas Using Thermal Modeling And Log Overlay Analysis, Austin Pourciau Cardneaux Jan 2012

Mapping Of The Oil Window In The Eagle Ford Shale Play Of Southwest Texas Using Thermal Modeling And Log Overlay Analysis, Austin Pourciau Cardneaux

LSU Master's Theses

The Eagle Ford formation in South Texas has been an established hydrocarbon play since 2008. The Eagle Ford is considered an unconventional resource because it is a source, reservoir, and seal. Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have enabled this play. As drilling and production continue the limits of this play are being defined. The area between dry gas and wet gas/condensate has been known for some time since the initial production started in dry gas and moved up-dip. After the oil window was discovered, the contact between wet gas/condensate started to become more defined. Now companies are beginning to delineate …


The Distribution And Diversity Of Functional Gene Pathways Controlling Sulfur Speciation In Lower Kane Cave, Wyoming, Audrey Tarlton Paterson Jan 2012

The Distribution And Diversity Of Functional Gene Pathways Controlling Sulfur Speciation In Lower Kane Cave, Wyoming, Audrey Tarlton Paterson

LSU Master's Theses

Defining the linkages between microbial metabolic activity and environmental geochemistry can be used to understand how carbonate dissolution in sulfidic karst systems proceeds. In Lower Kane Cave, Wyoming, sulfidic springs support taxonomically distinct microbial communities that are also associated with putative sulfur metabolisms (e.g., oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds, sulfate reduction, and sulfur disproportionation) that influence carbonate dissolution. The distribution of diverse microbial groups in other terrestrial subsurface environments is not well understood, making Lower Kane Cave ideal for study. Molecular genetics techniques were used to uncover diversity of 16S rRNA genes and bacterial soxB and aprA functional genes. Aqueous …


Magnetostratigraphy Susceptibility Correlations For The Guadalupian-Lopingian Boundary And The Placement Of The North American Ochoan Series: Texas (Usa) And South China, Matthew Allan Clark Jan 2012

Magnetostratigraphy Susceptibility Correlations For The Guadalupian-Lopingian Boundary And The Placement Of The North American Ochoan Series: Texas (Usa) And South China, Matthew Allan Clark

LSU Master's Theses

Stratigraphic studies have emphasized the use of multiple, geochemical and geochemical proxies to investigate critical geologic boundaries, events and their correlation throughout the entire Phanerozoic. In this study, an emerging geophysical proxy, mass-specific, low-field magnetic susceptibility (χ) is used to investigate the global correlation of the Guadalupian-Lopingian (G-L) boundary, to better resolve and supplement biostratigraphic correlations, including inferred G-L boundary sections defining the base of the North American Ochoan Series. The North American Ochoan Series of West Texas, defined lithostratigraphically by the contact between the Bell Canyon and Castile Formations, represents a unique and well-studied sequence in the Delaware Basin, …


Sources Of Salinization Of The Baton Rouge Aquifer System: Southeastern Louisiana, Callie Elizabeth Anderson Jan 2012

Sources Of Salinization Of The Baton Rouge Aquifer System: Southeastern Louisiana, Callie Elizabeth Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

A major environmental and economic problem confronting the Baton Rouge area, southeastern Louisiana, is the progressive salinization of the Baton Rouge aquifer system, an important source of fresh municipal and industrial groundwater. The Baton Rouge fault marks a boundary between fresh groundwaters to the north and predominately brackish waters to the south. Determining the permeability architecture of the fault is an essential component of modeling groundwater flow and saline contamination north of the fault. Understanding the sources and pathways of the saline waters that are migrating into the freshwater sands north of the fault is thus essential in helping to …


Variations In Pore Water Salinities Above And Below Allochthonous Salt Sheets In The Deepwater Gulf Of Mexico: Implications For Mechanisms Of Solute Transport, Miles Alexander Mccammon Jan 2012

Variations In Pore Water Salinities Above And Below Allochthonous Salt Sheets In The Deepwater Gulf Of Mexico: Implications For Mechanisms Of Solute Transport, Miles Alexander Mccammon

LSU Master's Theses

Spatial variations in salinity of pore waters in marine sediments provide useful information on processes and rates of subseafloor fluid flow and solute transport, particularly if there are evaporites in the section. Pore water salinities were determined for 18 drill holes which penetrated allochthonous salt bodies in 12 widely-scattered protraction blocks on the Louisiana offshore continental shelf and slope. Salinities were calculated from Log ASCII Standard-Logging While Drilling (LAS-LWD) logs using the Revil et al. (1998) dual-conductivity technique. The sites represent a wide range of field settings. Water depths range from 30 to 1990 m, depths to the top of …


A Seismic Attribute Study To Assess Well Productivity In The Ninilchik Field, Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska, Andrew Sampson Jan 2012

A Seismic Attribute Study To Assess Well Productivity In The Ninilchik Field, Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska, Andrew Sampson

LSU Master's Theses

Coal bed methane which has formed in the Tertiary Kenai Group strata has been produced from the Ninilchik field of Cook Inlet, Alaska since 2001. Ninilchik field is located on the eastern margin of the central Cook Inlet along the Kenai Peninsula. Cook Inlet is a forearc basin and is characterized by northeast trending anticlines with upwards of 10,000 feet of Late Oligocene and younger, non-marine sediments. Highly variable well production within the Oligocene to Miocene Tyonek formation of the Kenai Group has been a source of uncertainty. A series of seismic attributes visualized in Schlumberger's Petrel® software were studied …


Implications Of Geothermal History On Microbial Gas Generation And Coalbed Methane Production In The Ninilchik Field, Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska, Eric M. Hart Jan 2012

Implications Of Geothermal History On Microbial Gas Generation And Coalbed Methane Production In The Ninilchik Field, Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska, Eric M. Hart

LSU Master's Theses

Coalbed methane (CBM) production operations atop the Ninilchik anticline of Cook Inlet, Alaska pose intriguing questions regarding the nature of biogenic gas generation in a thermally complex forearc basin setting. This thermal complexity stems, in part, from its up to 30,000 ft thick Tertiary section, comprised of braided stream alluvium and expansive, interbedded coal deposits. Rapid accumulation of cold, glacial strata is documented as being capable of regionally suppressing the elevated heat flux values expected within a forearc basin. In addition, beds with high organic content, such as the coal layers, act as natural insulators from basinal heat flux and …