Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hydrogeology Of The Little River Animal Agriculture Environmental Research Unit And Impacts Of Dairy Operations On Groundwater, Robert Wesley Hunter

Masters Theses

This thesis describes the development of an integrated hydrogeologic/hydrologic site assessment and groundwater/surface water quality monitoring program at the University of Tennessee – Little River Dairy Farm, located near Townsend, TN. Hydrologic/hydrogeologic investigations of streams and groundwater at the site have been underway for more than 5 years, and these are expected to provide background data for assessing impacts of dairy wastes. The lower half of the ~180 ha site consists of low-relief fields used for row crops, which are underlain by 4 – 9 m of alluvial deposits on top of black shale or limestone that include sinkhole features. …

Detailed Geologic Studies Of Paleoseismic Features Exposed At Sites In The East Tennessee Seismic Zone: Evidence For Large, Prehistoric Earthquakes, Kathleen Frances Warrell

Masters Theses

The East Tennessee seismic zone (ETSZ) is the second most active in the eastern United States, but recorded earthquakes do not exceed M_w [moment magnitude] = 4.6. Earthquake epicenters are located 5-26 kilometers deep in autochthonous basement, and faults producing these earthquakes do not break the surface. Detailed paleoseismic investigations at sites within the ETSZ include: detailed geological mapping, trenching, aerial photograph reconnaissance, X-ray diffraction (XRD), grain-size analysis, and optically stimulated luminescence dating of alluvium.

Site DL-6 near Dandridge, Tennessee, reveals a complex array of features providing evidence that at least 4‒6 M_w > 6 earthquakes affected the area. …

Emplacement Mechanisms And Magma Driving Pressure Of The Proterozoic Curecanti Pluton; The Black Canyon Of The Gunnison, Colorado, Gordon Leonard Hicks

Masters Theses

There is significant obliquity between the margins of the Curecanti pluton, an internal foliation, a coeval swarm of ~400 pegmatite dikes just west of the pluton, and the host rock foliation. This pluton is a 5 km-long, 3 km-wide, and 0.4 km-thick sheet of monzogranite exposed in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, CO. The pluton is discordant along most of its length, but has a >100-m-thick root at its western margin subparallel to the foliation in the host rock gneisses. A cordierite + anthophyllite + staurolite + garnet schist from the Vernal Mesa pluton aureole was previously dated (1.4 …

Metamorphism, Kinematic Evolution, And Timing Constraints Of The Greenbrier Fault Around The Ela And Bryson City Domes, North Carolina, Remington M. Leger

Masters Theses

Field mapping, microstructural analysis, and electron microprobe analysis were performed on rocks from the Bryson City and Ela domes, North Carolina, to help constrain the tectonic history of the region. The domes are en echelon northeast-trending antiformal structures formed by two perpendicular sets of folds. They are bounded by the Greenbrier fault, which forms a ductile shear zone that juxtaposes the Great Smoky Group in the hanging wall with Grenville basement in the footwall. Isoclinal folds (F2) and axial planar foliation (S2) characterize the regional deformation (D2). Inter- to syn-kinematic porphyroblasts (relative to D2) of kyanite, staurolite, and garnet grew …

Quantifying The Relationship Among Ground Penetrating Radar Reflection Amplitudes, Horizontal Sub-Wavelength Bedrock Fracture Geometries, And Fluid Conductivities, Carolyn Morgan Tewksbury-Christle

Masters Theses

Accurate characterization of subsurface fractures is indispensible for contaminant transport and fresh water resource modeling because discharge is cubically related to the fracture aperture; thus, minor errors in aperture estimates may yield major errors in a modeled hydrologic response. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been successfully used to noninvasively estimate fracture aperture for sub-horizontal fractures at outcrop scale, but limits on vertical and horizontal resolution are a concern. Theoretical formulations and field tests have demonstrated increased GPR amplitude response with the addition of a saline tracer in a sub-millimeter fracture; however, robust verification of existing theoretical equations without an accurate …

Metamorphic Phase Equilibria In A Contact Aureole: Tres Hermanas Mountains, Luna County, New Mexico., Carissa Dawn Snyder

Masters Theses

To characterize the metamorphism in the Tres Hermanas Mountains contact–metamorphic aureole in Luna County, New Mexico, I mapped and collected samples of the Paleozoic strata near the quartz monzonite pluton along the northeast flank of North Peak. Stratigraphy in this area includes the Pennsylvanian undivided unit that is composed of thin-medium interbedded limestone, shale, and sandstone and the Hueco Formation that could be broken out into four members: a pebble–cobble conglomerate marks the base, a medium to massive bedded siliceous limestone is next, followed by a pure limestone member and topped by a breccia bed in places marking the fault …