Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Experimental Investigation Of Highly Undercooled Magnesium Silicate Chondrule-Like Spherules, Harry Nicholas Planner

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

A series of experiments, involving molten magnesium silicate spherules that were subjected to high initial cooling rates and allowed to nucleate at high temperatures (985-1350°C), were performed so as to compare their thermal histories to the resulting internal features. Such comparisons could be used to decipher the thermal history of chondrules and the conditions surrounding their formation based on their mineralogy, crystal morphology, and overall texture. Various features of the spherules were correlated with the initial high cooling rate process, nucleation temperature, and the maximum temperature attained during the recalescance to demonstrate the restrictions resulting from or their sensitivities to …

Geochemistry And Petrology Of The Orbicular Rocks, Sandia Mountains, New Mexico, Robert David Enz

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Orbicular rock located on the west side of the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico, at W. long. 106° 29' 30", N. lat. 35° 13' 04", was first reported by Fitzsimmons (1966). Recently Thompson and Giles (1974) published a paper describing.three types of orbicular rock in the locality which they believed to have been formed by a metasomatic process. Without knowledge of the work of Thompson and Giles, this thesis was initiated as a detailed field, petrographic, geochemical and geochronologic study of these orbicular rocks.

Four types of orbicular rock, including another previously unreported occurrence of orbicular granite about 2 km north …

Geology Of Klump's Cave, Perry County, Missouri, Ernest L. Kern

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Geology Of The Northern Part Of The Sierra Cuchillo, Socorro And Sierra Counties, New Mexico, Florian Maldonado

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The northern Sierra Cuchillo, Socorro and Sierra Counties, New Mexico is approximately 32 miles northwest of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The Sierra Cuchillo is a narrow fault-block range in the Basin-Range province and is a structurally high element west of the Rio Grande trough. It is bordered on the west by the Winston graben and the Black Range and on the east by Monticello graben and the San Mateo Mountains.

Permian rocks consist of the Yeso and San Andres Formation, with an aggregate thickness of 2100 ft (640 m). Upper Cretaceous rocks, 40 ft (10 m) thick, consist of …

Debris Slides And Related Flood Effects In The 4-5 August 1938 Webb Mountain Cloudburst: Some Past And Present Environmental Geomorphic Implications, Carl A. Koch

Masters Theses

On the night of 4-5 August, 1938 a cloudburst occurred over Webb Mountain, Tennessee, that lasted three hours with a rainfall in excess of twelve inches. This sudden deluge caused considerable debris sliding and flooding which resulted in the loss of eight lives and extensive property damage in the narrow valleys below the slide area. Over 100 individual slide scars were identified in the study area, 40 of which occurred in the Matthew Creek watershed.

The debris slide movement is thought to have been initiated by sliding at the head of the scar, with the mass of moving rock, soil …

Debris Slides And Related Flood Effect In The 4-5 August 1938 Webb Mountain Cloudburst: Some Past And Present Environmental Geomorphic Implications, Carl A. Koch

Masters Theses

On the night of 4-5 August, 1938 a cloudburst occurred over Webb Mountain, Tennessee, that lasted three hours with a rainfall of twelve inches. This sudden deluge caused considerable debris sliding and flooding which resulted in the loss of eight lives and extensive property damage in the narrow valleys below the slide area. Over 100 individual slide scars were identified in the area, 40 of which occurred in the Matthew Creek watershed.

The debris slide movement is thought to have been initiated by sliding at the head of the scar, with the mass of moving rock, soil and forest debris …

Unusual Lavas From Molokai, Hawaii: Alkalic Olivine Basalts Transitional To Hawaiites And Strontium-Rich Mugearites, Paul Frank Hlava

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

ABSTRACT

Systematic data has recently been published on the compositions of major mineral phases in rocks of the tholeiitic, alkalic, and nephelinic suites from the island of Maui, Hawaii. The present study was initiated to provide similar data from the rocks of Molokai, Hawaii, from which the nature of interisland variations could be established. During the study, it became obvious that many of the rocks were unusual and so this study also provides information on the bulk rock, trace element, and mineral compositions of alkalic olivine basalts transitional to hawaiites and Sr-rich mugearites.

From a total of 14 basalts collected …

Geology Of The Sweetwater Canyon Area And Origin Of Interbasinal Canyons, Southwestern Montana, James Carl Peterson

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Sediments And Sedimentary Environments Of A Barrier Island, Cedar Island, Virginia, John Walter Heinsius

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Growth Line Analysis Of A Recent Scallop Population And It's [Sic] Potential For Paleoecology, John F. Dillon

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Periodic growth lines can be used to construct a record of variations in the growth rate of a fossil or recent shell. Because growth rate is largely dependent upon environmental conditions, such a record serves also as an indication of variations in the environment during the lifetime of the shell. Although the very presence of such variations is of some paleoecologic interest, the main potential of growth lines in paleoecology lies in an extension of this argument. This is the concept that the contemporaneity of fossil organisms could be tested by examining their growth rate records for similarities; these would …

A Petrologic And Quantitative Compositional Study Of Four Rocks From The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Jonathan A. Green

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The composition of major mineral phases in four rocks from the equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as determined by electron microprobe analysis and supplemented by additional mineralogic and petrographic study, have provided data for comparison with continental mafic assemblages. The compositional range of coexisting minerals in the samples: a nepheline-normative gabbro (teschenite), an olivine tholeiite, and two uralitized norites, is similar to the ranges of comparable continental suites. The teschenite contains pyroxene (Wo_48-46 En_37-23Fs_15-31) with high amounts of CaO (20.3-22.2 wt %), Al₂O₃ (2.9-6.8 wt. %), and Ti02 (1.2-2.9 wt. %) characteristic of continental …

Geology Of The White Oaks Mining District Lincoln County, New Mexico, James R. Grainger

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The White Oaks mining district is 12 km northeast of Carrizozo, in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Hydrothermal gold and tungsten mineralization occurs in north-trending veins and breccia zones in portions of the central district. Permian sandstones, limestones, and gypsum of the San Andres Formation are upwarped marginal to and by the Lone Mountain intrusive in the northwest portion of the map area. Triassic Santa Rosa and Chinle sandstones and shales are inclined to the south with Cretaceous Dakota, Mancos, and Mesaverde sediments. Approximately 640 m of sedimentary strata is exposed in the district.

Igneous rocks in the map area range …

Environmental Study Of A Portion Of The Middle Ordovician In Sequatchie Valley, Eastern Tennessee, Ernest Wilson Blythe Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

A detailed depositional environmental analysis of a portion of Middle Ordovician Carters Limestone and Hermitage Formation in Sequatchie Valley in East Tennessee was made using six stratigraphic sections as closely spaced as permitted by reasonably complete outcrops. The approximately 60 feet of rocks of this stratigraphic interval include 18 distinct lithologies as determined from a field study and examination of samples collected at one foot intervals and closer with changes in lithology. Two bentonite beds generally accepted as being isochronous units offer a time framework. In all 565 samples were collected and of these 447 were cut, polished, and an …

Environmental Analysis Of The Upper Cambrian Nounan Formation, Bear River Range And Wellsville Mountain, North-Central Utah, Larry L. Gardiner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Nounan Formation in north-central Utah thickens northward from 696 feet near Causey Dam to 1147 feet at High Creek in the Bear River Range, and northwestward to 1149 feet at Dry Canyon in Wellsville Mountain. The basal contact of the Nounan Formation is sharp, but dolomite extends irregularly downward into limestones of the Bloomington Formation as much as 6 feet.

The Nounan Formation is divided into three members based on lithologic characters: (1) a lower member composed of dark, medium-crystalline dolomite; (2) a middle member composed of white, coarse-crystalline dolomite with tongues of dark dolomite; and (3) an upper …

Phosphate Exploration And Property Evaluation In Southeastern Idaho, Illustrated By The Dry Valley Area, James Simon Spalding

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The western phosphate field produced about 15 percent, in 1970, of the nation's domestically consumed phosphate rock and contains an estimated 58 percent of the nation's indicated phosphate reserves. The central portion of the western phosphate field, which contains the Dry Valley area of southeastern Idaho, encompasses the greatest amount of mineable phosphate reserves in the smallest geographic area within the western field.

Exploration of properties in the area should follow an orderly sequence of literature search, area reconnaissance, detailed target appraisal, and detailed three-dimensional sampling to effectively evaluate each property. Present exploration techniques include topographic analysis, vegetative investigation, profile …

A Mineralogical And Geochemical Study Of The Ferruginous Bauxite Deposits In Columbia County, Oregon, And Wahkiakum County, Washington, Ronald Laverne Jackson

Dissertations and Theses

Wet chemical analysis and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) were performed on a suite of samples from three residual ferruginous bauxite profiles in the study area for abundances of Al₂O₃,

SiO₂, Fe₂O₃, Ti O₂, Na, Sc, Hf, Cr, Co, La, Sm, Yb, Lu, and Th. In addition a mineralogical study accompanied this research, using petrographic, differential thermal, and x-ray diffraction techniques. In each profile, the relative mobility of these elements were calculated by empirical methods for comparison with the parent rock and mineral properties in the saprolite.

This …

Lakeside Homes Around Tuttle Creek Reservoir: An Element In The Local Settlement Fabric, Gary Lee Henton

Student Work

'l'he construction of several large reservoirs in the Midwest has brought about the growth of innumerable ancillary developments. The increased number of new homes, located adjacent to the reservoirs represents a growing component of our settlement fabric. Geographers have done studies on recreational developments, (Wolfe, Roy L., "Summer Cottages in Ontario"1 Howes, Robert· M., "Recreational Opportunities Arising from Reservoir Construction,"2) but little published investigation has been done in the Kansas, or Nebraska area. How important are the lakeshore homes now, and what part will they play in future housing? Who are the people currently occupying these structures? Where do they …

Petrography, Metamorphism, And Geochemistry Of The Bermeja Complex And Related Rocks In Southwestern Puerto Rico And Their Significance In The Evolution Of The Eastern Greater Antillian Island Arc, Victor J.B. Lee

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Chapter I. Introduction and previous work 1
Chapter II. Geological setting and the petrography of the igneous and metamorphic rocks from southwestern Puerto Rico 6
Chapter III. Metamorphism in southwestern Puerto Rico and relations to the Eastern Greater Antilles 46
Chapter IV. Geochemistry of the Bermeja complex 84
Chapter V. Secular compositional changes of the volcanic rocks in Puerto Rico and other islands in eastern West Indies and the significances of the Bermeja complex 179
Appendix A-E: Petrographic data of the analyzed samples of the Bermeja complex 222
References cited 231

Sediment Transport Processes In A Salt Marsh Drainage System, John Daniel Boon Iii

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Mechanics Of Beach Cusp Formation, Asbury H. Sallenger

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Beach cusps are crescentic shoreline accumulations of unconsolidated sediment that are characterized by a quasi-equal longshore spacing. The processes controlling the development of the cuspate form and the spacing of cusps were investigated. Field measurements showed that the cuspate form was derived through erosion of beach ridges, The ridges oriented alongshore in the swash zone are characterized by quasi-equally spaced channels cut normal to the shoreline whose widths are much less than the channel spacing. The upwash flows up the front face of the ridge and ponds shoreward of the ridge crest. The ponded fluid returns seaward through the channels. …

Carbon Transport In Two York River, Virginia Tidal Marshes, Kenneth Alan Moore

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Annual net transports of particulate organic carbon (POC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and ATP-carbon were determined for two York River, Virginia, tidal marshes by monthly sampling for one year. Annual net losses of POC, DOC, and ATP-carbon from the marsh to the York River were observed for both areas, indicating that the long-term effect of these marshlands is to contribute both living and detrital organic material to the estuary. The mesohaline marsh area, Carter Creek, was observed to have the greater amount of organic carbon loss in the particulate fraction, while the oligohaline marsh area, Ware Creek, was observed to …

A Study Of The Subsurface Stratigraphy Of The Upper Cambrian In Western Missouri, Joseph L. Thacker Jr.

Masters Theses

"Megascopic examination of diamond-drill cores supplemented by insoluble residue data provides a usable means of studying the lithologic characteristic of Upper Cambrian strata in the subsurface of western Missouri.

The stratigraphic relationships within each Cambrian formation and the relationships of each Cambrian unit to formations above and below are discussed.

The relationship of Upper Cambrian strata to the Precambrian surface in western Missouri and easternmost Kansas is illustrated. The Lamotte Sandstone is overlapped by the Reagan Sandstone against Precambrian topographic highs and the Bonneterre and lower Davis are replaced by sandstones similar to the Reagan in southwest Missouri and southeast …

Mercury Distribution In A Massive Sulfide Ore Deposit At Balmat, New York, David Ray Jessey

Masters Theses

"Ore samples consisting of diamond drill core and mine samples, collected from several Balmat ore bodies, were analyzed for their mercury content. The average contents in these ore bodies were found, in ppb, to be: Upper Gleason, 829; Middle and Lower Gleason, 504; Loomis, 546; Fowler, 195; No. 1 Zone, 37; Sylvia Lake, 59; No. 2 Mine, 5. If all of the mercury in these pyrite-sphalerite-galena ores occurs in the sphalerite, then the average sphalerite mercury contents, in ppb, are the following: Upper Gleason, 2490; Middle and Lower Gleason, 2516; Loomis, 2701; Fowler, 1376; No.1 Zone, 384; Sylvia Lake, 408; …

Interpretation Of Imagery Lineations, Logan Creek Area, Southeast Missouri, Gregory Paul Smith

Masters Theses

"Depletion of ore in Missouri's old lead districts and the opening of the state's new lead district adds impetus to understanding and delineating geologic structure in and adjacent to the new lead district. Image and geomorphic analysis, hydrologic data, and subsurface structural contour mapping are used in interpretation of geologic structure in Dent, Shannon, Reynolds, and Carter counties, Missouri. Unlike the time consuming surface geologic mapping, the modes of investigation used in this study enabled the writer to make a larger, regional-scale study with results comparable to those attainable by surface mapping. The area is covered by thick residual soils …

Biostratigraphy Of The Type Yamhill Formation, Polk County, Oregon, Larry R. Gaston

Dissertations and Theses

One hundred and seventy-four species and varieties of fossil Foraminifera are recorded from thirty-eight localities in the Siletz River Volcanics, Yamhill and Nestucca Formations exposed along Mill and Gooseneck Creeks, in the Northern Coast Range of Oregon. Marginulina holmesi is described as new. The Foraminifera indicate that this sequence was deposited during late Ulatisian and Narizian time, in marine waters at bathyal or lower neritic depths, with cool surface temperatures. The Yamhill Formation can be correlated with Moody Shale member of the Toledo Formation and the Coaledo Formation of Oregon; the McIntosh and Aldwell Formations of Washington; and the upper …

A Mechanical Well Log Study Of The Popular Interval Of The Mississippian Madison Formation In North Dakota, C. W. Cook

Theses and Dissertations

The Poplar interval of interbedded evaporites and carbonates forms the uppermost part of the Mississippian Madison Forr.1ation in western North Dakota. A detailed mechanical well log study of the Poplar interval in North Dakota was conducted to interpret the Poplar's regional geology and to attempt to locate areas with potential for petroleum production. Limestone, dolomite, anhydrite and salt were differentiated using mechanical well logs.

The complex facies of the Madison are subdivided into para-time rock units (the Poplar interval is one) on the basis of extensive thin anhydrite beds which are considered time-parallel.

The base of the Poplar interval is …

The Foraminiferids Of The Cannonball Formation (Paleocene, Danian) And Their Paleoenvironmental Significance : Grant, Morton And Oliver Counties, North Dakota, William E. Fenner

Theses and Dissertations

Two hundred-forty samples (of which fifty-five contained micro fossils) were collected from six measured sections in the Cannonball Formation (Paleocene, Danian) in Grant, Morton and Oliver Counties, North Dakota. Twenty-six species of benthonic foraminiferids were identified from these samples: 6 textulariines, 2 miliolines and 18 rotaliines. No planktonic foraminiferids were found. The fauna is characterized by a predominance of individuals of textulariines, especially the lituolids. Although the Cannonball Formation is characterized by an alternating sequence of sandstones and mudstones> the foraminiferid fauna was restricted to the mudstone facies in the upper and upper-middle part of the formation. Two characteristic assemblages …

Paleontology Of Brackish-Water Faunas In Two Tongues Of The Cannonball Formation (Paleocene, Danian), Slope And Golden Valley Counties, Southwestern North Dakota, James B. Van Alstine

Theses and Dissertations

In June and July, 1972, four stratigraphic sections were mea sured and described in Slope and Golden Valley Counties, southwestern North Dakota. Within the sections, the Cannonball and Ludlow Formations are recognized. The Cannonball consists of two tongues in the upper part of the Ludlow (perhaps equivalent to the Lebo Member), separated stratigraphically by about 30 roof Ludlow. The U tongue (upper tongue in the study area) is up to 11. 7 m thick. The L tongue (lower tongue. in the study area) is up to 3.8 m thick. The Cannonball is composed mostly of mudstones and the Ludlow consists …

The Physical And Petrographic Characteristics Of Formcoke Produced Experimentally From Lignite And Subbituminous Coal, Bruce L. Ramsey

Theses and Dissertations

Formcoke was produced experimentally from a North Dakota lignite and a Wyoming subbituminous coal. The effect of initial charring tem perature (600°C or 900°C), of char grain size (less than 18 mesh, less than 35 mesh, or less than 60 mesh), of briquetting pressure (1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000 or 10,000 psi) of binder percentage (5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 per cent), and of final carbonization heating rate (18°C/:min, 12°C/min or 6°C/min) on formcoke briquet com pressive strength was studied.

A final carbonization heating rate of 6°C/min produced uniform shape briquets. Rates of 12°C/min and …