Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Investigating Gulf Coast Aquifer System: Stratigraphy Reconstruction, Inverse Modeling, And Groundwater Stress Assessment, Shuo Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi Embayment aquifer system (MEAS) and the Coastal Lowlands aquifer system (CLAS) provide substantial groundwater resources for human activities in the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain. However, the overexploitation has led to groundwater depletion in the MEAS and the CLAS, threatening sustainable groundwater use. Such concern highlights the crucial need for an advanced understanding of stratigraphy and groundwater in these aquifer systems, which is essential for effective regional groundwater management. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation of MEAS and CLAS in the Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi region, encompassing three fundamental dimensions: stratigraphy reconstruction, groundwater modeling, and groundwater stress assessments. A …

Joint Map Of Hardin County, Kentucky, Steven L. Martin, Emily Morris

Map and Chart--KGS

New field mapping of joints with previously published joint and fault locations. This fracture map can be used as a critical data source for hydrological, karst or geotechnical applications. Joint orientations were measured in 2009, 2022 and 2023, and are combined with joint and fault locations for Hardin County, Kentucky from 1:24,000-scale USGS geologic quadrangle maps that were published from 1962 to 1977. The geologic quadrangle maps for the county were digitized from 2002 to 2007.

The geology of Hardin County consists of Upper Devonian New Albany Shale overlain by Lower to Upper Mississippian-age sequences of limestone, dolomite, sandstone and …

Kentucky Karst Dye Trace Database, Sarah M. Arpin, Benjamin W. Tobin, Maaz Fareedi, Adam Link, James C. Currens

Research Data--KGS

This dataset provides the geographical locations of karst groundwater basins, groundwater flowpaths, and dye injection/recovery points in Kentucky. Dye tracing is a common method used for understanding groundwater movement. Dye is poured (or injected) into a sinking stream, well, sinkhole, or body of water, where it is carried down-gradient by flowing water. The locations at which dye is recovered (typically at artesian springs) indicates a connection from injection to recovery site. This connection is refered to as a groundwater flowpath. Conducting multiple dye traces across an area allows for the interpretation of regional groundwater flow by assessing where flowpaths either …

Applications Of Observational Seismology: Insights Into Volcanic And Near Surface Processes, Justin T. Wilgus

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The field of observational seismology has made tremendous progress in the past two decades. This progress has been multi-faceted in form, but significant contributions emanated from 1) increases in both the quality and the quantity of seismic data 2) advances in computational power 3) advances in algorithmic capability, including machine learning. In this dissertation I report on three distinctly different seismic applications made possible by the aforementioned progress and discuss the insights these applications have provided in understanding volcanic and near surface processes of the Earth.

In the first chapter titled, “Shear Velocity Evidence of Upper Crustal Magma Storage Beneath …

A Predictive Flood Model For Urban Karst Groundwater Systems, Trayson Lawler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Urban karst environments are often plagued by groundwater flooding, which occurs when water rises from the subsurface to the surface through the underlying caves and other karst features. The heterogeneity and interconnectedness of karst systems often makes them very unpredictable, especially during intense storm events; urbanization exacerbates the problem with the addition of many impervious surfaces. Residents in such areas are frequently disturbed and financially burdened by the effects of karst groundwater flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers limited protection to citizens living near flood-prone areas as they primarily focus on the areas near surface bodies of water. …

Hydrology Data For Fern Cave, Alabama (2020-2022), Benjamin Tobin, Benjamin V. Miller, Matthew Niemiller, Andrea Erhardt

Research Data--KGS

Dataset includes water level from four sites within Fern Cave in Jackson County Alabama. Additionally, it includes chemistry of water, sediments and cave-adapted isopods.

Snow Distribution And Influence In Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Using Remote Sensing, Katherine Mcnulty, Peter Doran, Mark Salvatore, Suniti Karunatillake

LSU Master's Theses

The McMurdo Dry Valleys is the largest ice-free area in Antarctica, but seasonal snow covers the valley floors sporadically throughout the year. In this study, a model to estimate areal snow coverage from satellite imagery was created. An area-volume model was created to estimate the amount of snow water equivalent (SWE) from the snow area extracted from the imagery. Snow cover influences the total albedo, the hydrologic budget, and the soil moisture and soil temperature in Taylor Valley (TV). Quantifying snow precipitation in TV is challenging because snow redistributes with winds, sublimates, or melts within a short period. Previous estimates …

Delineating A Stream Network At Gale Crater, Mars, On Arcgis Pro: A Geographic Information Systems Approach, Elpidio Guzman De La Cruz

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The northwestern region of the Gale crater experienced flooding in the past. Delineation of stream networks for the northwestern region of Gale Crater, Mars employing geographic information systems (GIS) techniques is applied. The stream network produced by the algorithm in the study traverses the clay unit in Gediz Vallis, and visual HiRISE imagery analysis correlates with a topologic cross section of an inverted river channel of 750 meters wide and 90 meters deep. HiRISE imagery analysis further confirms a sulfate and clay stratigraphic unit in a stream 125 meters wide and 25 meters deep. Lastly, data smoothing procedures in the …

Modeling 21st Century Peak Flows In The Nooksack River Basin In Northwestern Washington State Using Dynamically-Downscaled Global Climate Model Projections, Evan A. Paul

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Nooksack River in northwestern Washington State provides freshwater for agriculture, municipal, and industrial use and serves as a vital habitat for endangered salmon, a resource that is of cultural and economic importance to the Nooksack Indian Tribe and the surrounding region. As more landscape becomes exposed to rain rather than snow and heavy winter precipitation events intensify (i.e., atmospheric rivers), peak flows and sediment delivery to streams will increase due to rapid runoff, resulting in salmon habitat degradation and increased flood risk. Thus, anticipating the effect of climate change on peak flows is crucial for salmon habitat restoration efforts …

Modeling The Effects Of Projected Climate Warming On Stream Temperatures In The Stillaguamish River Basin, Emily E. Smoot

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Stillaguamish River is a snow-and-rain mixed basin and the fifth largest river in the Puget Sound basin. Elevations in the 1700 km² Stillaguamish River basin reach roughly 2000 m and historically a snowpack is sustained above 1000 m. Snowmelt in the basin is important for sustaining spring and summer streamflow and buffering stream temperatures. Stream temperature increases are of significant concern because of the threatened Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) population.

I reexamined projected stream temperatures in the Stillaguamish River by forcing the coupled Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model and River Basin Model with dynamically downscaled meteorological …

Rain-Induced Hazards In Remote, Low-Resource Communities: A Case Study Of Flash Flooding In The Usulután Department, El Salvador, Natalea Cohen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Rain-induced natural hazards can lead to devastating and potentially life-threatening impacts. Understanding areas susceptible to flash flooding and characterizing the intensity of flash flood events is critical in improving the mitigation and emergency preparedness of vulnerable communities. Flash floods occur on small spatial scales and for short durations making it challenging to classify flash flood susceptibility and forecast events. Modeling flash flooding becomes even more difficult when focusing on data-poor regions. This study is based in California, El Salvador, an agricultural community located in the Central American Dry Corridor (CADC), a region experiencing the impacts of climate change and associated …

Water Sourcing Strategies Of Desert Vegetation In Varying Soil Textures With Vegetation Competition: A Stable Isotope Analysis, Martha Elizabeth Gardea

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent studies have suggested an ecohydrological separation of water exists in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, where vegetation types, rainfall regimes, and location in the terrain seem to determine the type of water (e.g. isotopically depleted or enriched in 18O and 2H) plants are able to source and use throughout their growing cycle. That work found evidence of creosote (Larrea tridentata) and mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) using tightly bound soil water at both a site on an ephemeral channel and a site in higher elevated flat area because the isotopic signature of plant water at the beginning of the study did not …

Geo 100: Environmental Geology Oer Curation, Chealsye Bowley

Curated OER Collections

This OER curation is an annotated bibliography of prospective OER for the GVSU course GEO 100: Environmental Geology.

Surface Water/Groundwater Interactions And Hydrogeochemical Characterization Of The Elkhorn Mine And Mill, Beaverhead County, Montana, Tyler Kamp

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The formation of acid mine drainage (AMD) and the contaminants associated with it have been described by some as the largest environmental problem facing the U.S. mining industry. Heavy metals associated with the drainage, such as copper, cadmium, and zinc affect the water quality of streams and can cause acute or chronic toxicity to invertebrates and fish (Martin, 1992& Padrillah et al., 2018). Elkhorn Creek in the Pioneer Mountains of southwest Montana is one of these impacted creeks. The historic Elkhorn Mine and Mill complex has historically attributed to the creek’s contamination and has undergone remediation. However, the problem has …

Modeling 21st Century Peak Streamflows In The Stillaguamish Watershed Using Dynamically Downscaled General Circulation Model Projections, James Marcell Robinson

WWU Graduate School Collection

Climate change is projected to increase river flooding in the Puget Sound region of Washington State by reducing snowpack and yielding more intense storm events. Pairing meteorological forcings from general circulation models (GCMs) with a physically based hydrologic model is a robust method of assessing watershed response to projected climate. Before GCM forcings can be applied to regional hydrologic models, some form of downscaling or regionalization is required. Dynamical downscaling is a means of incorporating mesoscale atmospheric processes within GCM-informed boundary conditions. Here I apply climate projections, dynamically downscaled using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), to the Stillaguamish …

Dye Tracing And The Effects Of Infrastructure In Hidden River Cave, Horse Cave, Ky, Alexa G. Franks

Master's Theses

Hidden River Cave is a stream cave system found in Horse Cave, KY with continuous water flow of its two branches, Wheet River and East River. The infrastructure of the city of Hose Cave, KY was originally designed to utilize natural sinkholes for drainage of all wastewaters. The city uses many of these, now modified, sinkholes for wastewater disposal and storm water drainage. Historically, Hidden River Cave has been severely impacted by unmonitored dumping of contamination. To better understand and identify specific flow paths from sinkholes and infrastructure into Hidden River Cave, this study documented various sinkholes and other infrastructure, …

Testing The Impact Of A Freshwater Wetland Restoration On Water Table Elevation And Soil Moisture Using A Parametric Groundwater Modeling Approach, Erika T. Ito

Masters Theses

Wetlands are now recognized for the many social, environmental, ecological, and economic benefits they provide. They improve water quality, support biodiversity, abate floods and storms, and provide local recreational areas. Historically, many wetlands have been drained or altered for residential, commercial, or agricultural use. Effective wetland restoration projects reestablish ecosystem services and mitigate legacy effects of land use change to create self-sustaining systems. However, a persisting lack of scientifically-vetted methodological and evaluation guidelines in the field of restoration ecology has caused many restoration efforts to fail to restore natural wetland hydrologic conditions. By definition, wetlands must be saturated, permanently or …

Groundwater Flow And Transport At The Forest-Marsh Boundary: A Modeling Study, Sophia Chason Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The forest-marsh boundary, where tidally influenced salt marshes meet a forested upland, is hydrologically complex due to its multiple water inputs. Groundwater flow and salinity transport at this boundary are not well understood. In order to make predictions about salinity at this boundary as it responds to climatic factors, a two-dimensional model was built to simulate groundwater flow and solute transport at a salt marsh on Sapelo Island, Georgia. After calibration based on observed data from wells at the study site, the model can be used to identify patterns in groundwater movement and solute transport that may influence the vegetation …

Fluvial Geomorphic And Hydrologic Evolution And Climate Change Resilience In Young Volcanic Landscapes: Rhyolite Plateau And Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Benjamin Newell Burnett

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Quaternary volcanism associated with the last caldera cycle in Yellowstone National Park included emplacement of ash-flow tuffs, massive rhyolite flows ranging from 79 to 484 ka, and valley-filling basalts. This study examines (1) the evolution of spring hydrology with flow age on the Rhyolite Plateau, (2) initial development and evolution of stream networks on the rhyolite flows, and (3) the impact of the 630 ka caldera formation and volcanic flow emplacement on Lamar Valley incision rates.

Integrated stream networks formed within 79 kyr on the Rhyolite Plateau. Incision is focused on steep flow margins and knickpoints and is dependent on …

Hydrogeophysical Characterization And Imaging In The Mangrove Lakes Region Of Everglades National Park And Big Pine Key, Florida, Usa, Michael Eyob Kiflai

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal groundwater aquifers are susceptible to saltwater intrusion from natural and anthropogenic sources. Everglades National Park (ENP) has been adversely impacted by past human activities that altered freshwater flow through the system. In Big Pine Key (BPK), the flat and low-lying topography less than 2m makes the freshwater lens vulnerable to tidal and storm surge events. This study investigated different inversion scenarios and used Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Electromagnetic (EM) survey to characterize the spatial and temporal change of the groundwater chemistry and image the aquifers. In Big Pine Key, Hurricane Irma made landfall as a category 4 storm …

Hydrogeochemical Characterization And Speleogenesis Of Sistema Huautla In Oaxaca, Mexico, Fernando Hernandez

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sierra Mazateca, Mexico is home to Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave in the Western hemisphere with 1,560 meters of depth and 90 kilometers of passage, including 26 entrances distributed in a high-relief, karstified terrain, within the Sistema Huautla Karst Groundwater Basin. Exploration of the cave has generated research questions about its evolution and geomorphology given the different vadose and phreatic zones impacted by tectonic and incision processes. Dye traces during this study of Cueva de La Peña Colorada confirmed it is a fossil resurgence of the cave system. An additional cave, Cueva Elysium, was connected hydrologically in 2019, expanding the …

Calibration Optimization Of A Stream Temperature Model Applied To The Nooksack River, Ian Edgar

Scholars Week

The River Basin Model (RBM) is used to assess how stream temperatures will change in the Nooksack River due to warming climates by tracking heat exchanges along stream segments. Before modeling forecasted climate scenarios, I first calibrated the model to observed historical stream temperatures. The calibration of the RBM to a stream network involves the adjustment of eleven different variables until the simulated temperatures match observed historical stream temperatures. Because the manual process of calibrating the model is extremely time consuming, I developed a Python script to converge on the optimal variables required for the RBM calibration. The script adjusts …

Protean Caves And Cyrenean Grottos: The Subterranean World Of Vergil's Fourth Georgic, Kirby Schoephoerster

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the studies and methodologies spearheaded by the burgeoning field of geomythology, this project aims to reevaluate one of the most famous works of ancient literature, the Georgics of Vergil, within the context of karst geology. In other words, I plan to critically investigate the famous myth of Aristaeus using a geomythological lens that focuses on how Vergil treats caves and cave systems as related to (his) myth. The didactic poem as a whole, and much less so the myth of Aristaeus, has been assessed relatively little by archaeologists, and by geomythologists not at all. Yet, book four contains an …

Modeling Drought, Drought Teleconnection, And Its Effect On Groundwater Level Dynamics In The Biscayne Aquifer, Anteneh Z. Abiy

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Developing a self-sufficient water supply system in Southeast Florida is one input to the success of the ongoing restoration effort in the Everglades. Maintaining a high groundwater level in the urban side of the Biscayne Aquifer (BA) is important to sustain the urban water supply. However, the long-term groundwater table condition in the Biscayne Aquifer (BA) is threatened by a combination of drought, groundwater pumping, and sea-level rise. Further, the long-term drought pattern, drought drivers, and the aquifer’s response to drought and other stress conditions are not well known. As a result, options that would help to maintain a high …

Geochemical Flux Analysis Of Glacial River Runoff For Sólheimajökull, Iceland, Jessica Garrison

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Geochemical fluxes in aqueous studies are an essential component of research to understand weathering and changes in a hydrologic system. These data can indicate any discrepancies, outliers, or gradual changes in a water environment to gain information on pollutants, carbon cycles, biological input, etc. Glacial melt is the majority of the surface water present throughout the country. The melting amount is increasing with the temperatures, which can be monitored by the changes in geochemical flux during increased discharge in glacial rivers. A high-resolution data set of Sόlheimajökull Glacier in Iceland was used to determine how changing climatic conditions for the …

Late Holocene Paleoflood Hydrology Of The Snake River In The Lower Hells Canyon, Idaho, Kent C. Allen

All Master's Theses

The Snake River watershed spans a large geographic region from the Rocky Mountains to the inland Pacific Northwest, and a comprehensive paleoflood chronology on the mainstem of the river is key to identifying the frequency and magnitude of large prehistoric floods within the region. We examined and compared four sites of slackwater deposits along a 20-km reach of the Lower Hells Canyon on the Snake River, Idaho. The sites contain evidence of up to 34 paleofloods within the last 1700 years. Stratigraphic breaks, soils, and in-situ plant or archaeological materials demarcate distinct layers that represent discrete paleoflood events. Radiocarbon dates …

Modeling The Effects Of Climate Change On Streamflow And Stream Temperature In The South Fork Of The Stillaguamish River, Katherine Mary Clarke

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Stillaguamish River in northwest Washington State is an important regional water resource for local agriculture, industry, and First Nations tribes and a critical habitat for several threatened and endangered salmonid species, including the Chinook salmon. The river is currently subject to a temperature total maximum daily load, so it is important to understand how projected climate change will affect future stream temperatures and thus salmon populations. Snowpack is the main contributor to spring and summer streamflow and helps to mitigate stream temperatures as air temperatures rise through the summer in the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River. I used …

Detecting Groundwater Discharge In The Clark Fork River Near Stone Container Using Spectral Alpha Decay Detection For Dissolved Radon In Surface Water Samples Abstract, Daniel William Forsland

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Radon-222 (²²²Rn) was measured along 8.7 kilometers of the Clark Fork River, between Harper’s Bridge and Frenchtown, MT. Twelve water samples were taken along the stretch. Samples 1 through 4 and 10 through 12 were collected on a 1 km interval, samples 5 through 9 were taken on a 500 meter interval. Samples were analyzed for dissolved ²²²Rn using a RAD7 spectral alpha decay detector. Instream ²²²Rn was modeled to quantify groundwater discharge to the river. Literature on the Missoula Valley aquifer was analyzed, revealing an alluvial aquifer system to the east consisting of interbedded gravel, …

An Exploration Into The Controls And Extent Of Capillary Rise In Fine-Grained Sand, Neal S. Turluck

Masters Theses

Capillary rise in fine-grained sands is especially important due to the wide distribution of fine-grained sediment throughout the unconsolidated sedimentary layers blanketing the earth. The height to which water rises above the water table in porous media is known as the capillary fringe. Tension pulling on the water molecules from the solid surfaces of pores will cause water to rise in the unconsolidated fine-grained sands until the water reaches equilibrium with the downward force of gravity.

Researching the controls behind capillary rise and being able to predict the extent to which water will rise in fine-grained sand helped provide insight …

Evaluating Sources Of Hydrochemical Variability And Mixing In The Upper Gila River, New Mexico, Pavel Vakhlamov

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

This study of the upper reaches of the Gila River basin in southwestern New Mexico reveals both spatial and seasonal patterns in physical and hydrochemical parameters. Monsoonal precipitation, temporal variability in water chemistry of streams in the upper Gila watershed is significantly impacted by surface runoff due to variability in landscape cover features, as well as surface area of the catchment. However, during base flow regimes spring inputs are the dominant drivers of solute concentrations and chemical variability.

Geothermal sources play a major role in salinization of the southwestern stream systems. Prolonged water/rock interaction combined with high temperature, pressure result …