Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Receiver Function Studies Of Crustal Structure, Composition, And Evolution Beneath The Afar Depression, Ethiopia, Sattam A. Almadani

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation utilizes a set of sophisticated computer programs developed at the Geophysics group at Missouri S&T to characterize crustal properties beneath the Afar Depression in Ethiopia where extensional tectonics dominates. In this study, measurements of crustal thickness (H), crustal mean Vp/Vs [which is related to Poisson's ratio (Σ)], and the sharpness of the Moho (R) were determined using teleseismic data from 18 broadband seismic sensors that we deployed along a profile of 250 km long with a station spacing of ~ 10 km. The stations had been recording continuously for an entire year from December 2009 until December 2010. …

A Geological And Geophysical Study Of The Tendaho Graben In The Afar Depression, Ethiopia: Insights Into Transitional Continental Rifting, David Lee Bridges

Doctoral Dissertations

"A detailed magnetic and gravity study across the Tendaho Graben (the Red Sea propagator within the Afar Depression, Ethiopia) revealed features that can best be interpreted as a continental rift undergoing oceanization. This NW-trending extensional structure is ~50 km wide and it is confined within well-developed NW-trending boarder faults that deform the 2 km thick and ~ 2 Ma basaltic flows of the Afar Stratoids. The age of the basaltic flows becomes progressively younger inward from the boarder faults until it reaches ~30,000 years close to the rift axis. The central part of the Tendaho Graben is characterized by a …

Seismic Interpretation And Reservoir Characterization Of The Middle Eocene Gialo Formation, Assamoud Field, Sirte Basin, Libya, Abdalla Abdelnabi

Masters Theses

"The Gialo Formation is a major gas producing reservoir in the Assamoud Field, Sirte Basin, Libya. It is called Gialo limestone because it consists of shallow marine limestone. Seismic and well data in conjunction with the results of a previous study were used to delineate the hydrocarbon reservoir of Middle Eocene Gialo Formation of Assamoud Field area located in Eastern part of concession 6, Sirte Basin, Libya. The data include three-dimensional seismic data acquired by Sirte Company in 2009. It covers approximately an area of 150 km² and with more than 10 wells penetrating the reservoir. Seismic data were used …

Applied Palynology: Multidisciplinary Case Studies From Egypt, Gulf Of Mexico And Usa, Mohamed K. Zobaa

Doctoral Dissertations

"Various applications of palynology have been used to study case studies from four different parts of the world, namely northern Egypt, offshore Gulf of Mexico, eastern Tennessee (USA), and New Orleans, Louisiana (USA). In these case studies, palynomorphs (spores, pollen, dinoflagellate cysts, and algae) have been utilized to define zones of hydrocarbon potential, reconstruct paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions, constrain the ages of the studied rock sequences, and express its potential as a replacement proxy for some expensive organic geochemical analyses. The ability to detect past hurricane activities and their associated damage to the geologic record is here presented as a …

Two New Spline-Based Methods And Real Data Applications: High-Resolution Receiver Function Calculations From Teleseismic Broadband Waveforms And High-Accuracy Practical Potential-Field Integral Transformations, Bingzhu Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"While receiver function (RF) calculation is fundamentally important and widely used, it is not well solved due to unstable deconvolution. A spline-based RF calculation method was proposed and it is demonstrated that both individual RFs and the stacked RF calculated with the spline method have sharper peaks than those with the water-level spectral division method and the iterative deconvolution method. At the common peaks on the stacked RFs, there are close similarities for all three RF calculation methods. The better calculated RFs with the spline method lead to improved H - K analysis and improved determination of the optimal Moho …

The Origin Of Quartz Glomerocrysts: Insights From The Rhyolite Dike At Medicine Park, Ok, Sedeg Ahmed E. Ahmed

Masters Theses

"The origin of quartz glomerocrysts a distinctive petrographic feature of the rhyolite dike in Medicine Park, Oklahoma, was investigated using transmitted light and cathodoluminescence microscopy to determine if quartz glomerocrysts formed during quartz crystallization or during quartz dissolution. Quartz glomerocrysts are typically comprised of two to six individual phenocrysts of quartz and commonly exhibit subhedral partially embayed crystal forms with very rare euhedral phenocrysts in both glomerocrysts and individual quartz phenocrysts. The size range of the individual quartz phenocrysts are 0.08mm to 1.7mm while the size range is 0.08mm to 3.25mm for quartz glomerocrysts . Cathodoluminescence revealed that individual quartz …

Morpho-Tectonic Analysis Of The Tekeze And The Blue Nile Drainage Systems Of Northwestern Ethiopian Plateau, Ethiopia, Elamin Hassan Dai Ismail

Masters Theses

"This study examines the morpho-tectonic evolution of the drainage system in the northwestern Ethiopian plateau by focusing on the Tekeze and the Blue Nile Rivers. The plateau is underlain by Precambrian crystalline rocks, overlain by Mesozoic sedimentary section that is topped with a 1-3 km thick pile of Oligocene-Quaternary volcanic rocks. It is bounded in the east and southeast by the Afar Depression (AD) and the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). Satellite derived Digital Elevation Models are analyzed using ArcGIS and RiverTools to extract morpho-tectonic parameters of tributaries of the Tekeze and Blue Nile Rivers including Normalized Steepness Index (K_{sn …}

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Data For Lithological Mapping In Arid Regions: A Quantitative Approach With Examples From The Makkah Neoproterozoic Region, Saudi Arabia, Nawwaf Awad Al Muntshry

Masters Theses

"This work quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of multi-spectral remote sensing data for geological mapping in arid regions. For this, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data covering part of the Neoproterozoic Arabian Shield around the Makkah region in Saudi Arabia are used. The Makkah region is dominated by a variety of layered and intrusive rocks covered by unconsolidated sediments. The Landsat TM data have six spectral bands in the visible and near infrared (VNIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) with thirty meters spatial resolution.

The Optimum Index Factor (OIF) has been computed to determine the best Red-Green-Blue (RGB) band combination emerging from the …

Geological And Geomorphological Evolution Of The Egyptian Nile Between Aswan And Kom Ombo: A Remote Sensing And Field Study Approach, Leslie Lansbery

Masters Theses

"This work uses field and remote sensing studies to examine structural controls of the Egyptian Nile between Aswan and Kom Ombo (referred here to as AKN). This segment of the Egyptian Nile incises through Cretaceous Nubian sandstone and Precambrian crystalline rocks separated by a shallowly-dipping to theN unconformity. It was only 0.8 Ma that the Egyptian Nile connected to the rest of the sub-Sahara Africa drainage system. Prior to this time, the Egyptian Nile evolved independently through 8 phases: Pre-Eonile (Ma), Eonile (6.0-5. 4 Ma), Gulf Phase (5.4-3.3 Ma), Paleonile Phase (3.3-1.8 Ma), Desert Phase (1.8-0.8 Ma), Prenile Phase (0.8-0.4 …

The Sorption Of Chemical And Nuclear Contaminants From Soil And Water Using Nanosize Particles Of Hydroxyapatite, Chyrene Joseph

Masters Theses

"High surface area (>200 m²/g) crystals composed of nanosize (30-50nm) hydroxyapatite; (Ca₅(PO₄)₃OH) particles are being investigated as an alternative in cleaing [sic] contaminated groundwater and soil by removing toxic wastes and radionuclides. Static batch tests were carried out at 2, 4, 8, 24 and 120 hour time periods by reacting hydroxyapatite with individual solutions prepared with specific elements to evaluate the applicability of hydroxyapatite in removing potential contaminants. Chemical analyses on leachant solutions, leachate solutions, and post-reaction digested solids were conducted by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy to determine the extent of ion removal. Removal of these ions is expected …

A Detailed Petrographic Analysis Of The Mt. Sheridan Roosevelt Gabbro And Associated Rock Types, Daniel Russell Lasco

Masters Theses

"The Mt. Sheridan Roosevelt Gabbro of the Wichita Mountains igneous province in Southwestern Oklahoma underwent dynamic crystallization, resulting in three distinct gabbro zones with a range of pegmatite morphologies spread throughout. The three zones are informally named the lower, central, and upper zones. The lower zone consists of a quartz and alkali feldspar poor, plagioclase and pyroxene rich, poorly altered, gabbro cumulate. The central zone is comprised of a heavily altered quartz and alkali feldspar rich gabbro with few cumulate textures. The upper zone is mineralogically and texturally identical to the lower zone, distinguished only by its higher elevation. The …

Apparent Weekly And Daily Earthquake Periodicities In The Western United States, And Evolution Of Wadi Kubbania In Egypt, Ali Hadi Atef

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation consists of two separate sections. The first section is on apparent daily and weekly periodicities in earthquake occurrence in the western United State [sic]. Analysis of Apparent Seismicity Rate (ASR) in the western United States confirmed the existence of prominent spectral peaks with a period of 1 and 7 days. The number of recorded earthquakes on Sundays for the duration of 1963-2008 is about 5% higher than that on weekdays, and, more significantly, there is a 9% increase of ASR in the early morning compared with that in the middle of the days. Significant similarities between the spatial …

Crustal Structure And Evolution Beneath The Colorado Plateau And The Southern Basin And Range Province, Lamuail Bashir

Doctoral Dissertations

"Stacking of about 15,500 P-to-S receiver functions recorded at 72 USArray and other broadband seismic stations placed on the Colorado Plateau and the SBRP in Arizona revealed systematic spatial variations in crustal Vp/Vs, crustal thickness and amplitude of P-to-S converted phases. Our results reveal that the BRP is characterized by a thin crust (28.2 ± 0.5 km), a mean Vp/Vs of 1.761 ± 0.014 and a mean amplitude (R) of P - to - S converted wave (relative to that of the direct P wave) of 0.181 ± 0.014 that are similar to a typical continental crust, consistent with the …