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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Role Of Sorting On The Composition Of Siliciclastic Sediment: Implications For Interpreting Provenance After Limited Transport In An Arid Climate, Forrest Christopher Driscoll
Role Of Sorting On The Composition Of Siliciclastic Sediment: Implications For Interpreting Provenance After Limited Transport In An Arid Climate, Forrest Christopher Driscoll
Masters Theses
This study tested whether transport distances (< 500 m) have the capacity to shape the geochemistry of sediments across multiple grain-size populations due to sorting derived from a single source. In the Stepladder Mountains, Mojave Desert, CA, a < 1 km2 [square kilometers] watershed allows for a controlled study to understand how modern sediments acquire their composition from a single granodioritic source in an arid climate where there is no chemical weathering. Sediments are naturally sorted into distinct grain-size populations, with modes ranging from very fine sand to gravel within a single, alluvial channel. Sediment samples representative of each population were petrographically and geochemically analyzed in order to test the effectiveness of commonly used discrimination diagrams. Sediments became proportionally enriched in plagioclase and biotite and depleted in K-feldspar and quartz with decreasing grain …
Formation And Alteration Of Basaltic Soils On Mars, Ian Oliver Mcglynn
Formation And Alteration Of Basaltic Soils On Mars, Ian Oliver Mcglynn
Doctoral Dissertations
The current surface of Mars is an arid inhospitable environment, dominated by aeolian processes, composed of largely volcanic rocks that have little apparent indication of pervasive aqueous chemical weathering, and blanketed by dust. Rocks are composed of basalts and the “soil” sediments appear to be largely basaltic-derived, and are chemically similar on a global scale. If the climate was once warmer and wetter during the Noachian period, with environmental conditions favorable to the development of life, physically weathered remnants, such as large quantities of phyllosilicate minerals, should remain. Basaltic soils provide a crucial constraint on chemical and physical weathering processes, …