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Central Washington University

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Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Feasibility Of Seismic Monitoring To Identify Avalanche Activity: Snoqualmie Pass, Wa, Kathryn Johnston Jan 2013

Feasibility Of Seismic Monitoring To Identify Avalanche Activity: Snoqualmie Pass, Wa, Kathryn Johnston

All Master's Theses

Avalanches across the Interstate-90 corridor over Snoqualmie Pass, in Washington State, are a concern for winter travelers and backcountry recreation. The temporary closure of the interstate for avalanche mitigation work also affects commerce by delaying transportation of merchandise. The study of seismic signals associated with snow avalanches could allow for greater understanding of avalanche properties, while remote sensing of avalanche activity could help established avalanche control programs and regional avalanche centers with forecasting and mitigation efforts. Two seismic stations were installed near the Alpental ski area on Snoqualmie Pass and recorded seismic activity throughout the winters of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. …

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Holocene Arroyo Cut And Fills Cycles, South-Central Washington, Matthew Ian Durkee Jan 2012

Holocene Arroyo Cut And Fills Cycles, South-Central Washington, Matthew Ian Durkee

All Master's Theses

Ephemeral streams have cut deeply incised arroyos into alluvial and eolian sediments in many of the watersheds within the Yakima Training Center (YTC) military reservation, south-central Washington. The most recent channel incision episode along Selah Creek is primarily attributed to multiple failures of an irrigation reservoir dam during the winters of 1909 and 1910. The modern arroyo exposed evidence of at least one previous episode of arroyo incision to a depth of ~4 m that occurred just prior to 1530- 1340 cal yr BP. Filling of this paleo-arroyo with fine to coarse grained sand ceased between 650-103 cal yr BP. …

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Fluid Budget Of Metasedimentary Rocks From A Tertiary Accretionary Prism And Connections To Seismicity, Olympic Peninsula, Northwest Washington State, Holly Makena Macfadden Rotman Jan 2010

Fluid Budget Of Metasedimentary Rocks From A Tertiary Accretionary Prism And Connections To Seismicity, Olympic Peninsula, Northwest Washington State, Holly Makena Macfadden Rotman

All Master's Theses

Metamorphic dehydration reactions and fluid movement in accretionary prisms have been linked to the recently discovered episodic tremor and slip (ETS) earthquake events along subduction zones, but prior studies lack the detail to effectively test the hypothesis that fluid flow triggers ETS events. I conducted field work along a 52.5 km transect on the Olympic Peninsula metasedimentary accretionary prism of the Cascadia subduction zone, and collected approximately 40 representative samples of sandstone and mudrock that were buried to 6–15 km. This depth range intersects the 10–50 km depth range of ETS events. My objectives are to quantify the water flow …

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Future Cascadia Megathrust Rupture Delineated By Episodic Tremor And Slip, James S. Chapman, Timothy I. Melbourne Nov 2009

Future Cascadia Megathrust Rupture Delineated By Episodic Tremor And Slip, James S. Chapman, Timothy I. Melbourne

Faculty Scholarship for the Cascadia Hazards Institute

A suite of 15 episodic tremor and slip events imaged between 1997 and 2008 along the northern Cascadia subduction zone suggests future coseismic rupture will extend to 25 km depth, or approximately 60 km inland of the Pacific coast, rather than stopping offshore at 15 km depth. An ETS-derived coupling profile accurately predicts GPS measured interseismic deformation of the overlying North American plate, as measured by approximately 50 continuous GPS stations across western Washington State. When extrapolated over the 550-year average recurrence interval of Cascadia megathrust events, the coupling model also replicates the pattern and amplitude of coseismic coastal subsidence …

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Spatial And Temporal Patterns In The Microbial Diversity Of A Meromictic Soda Lake In Washington State, Pedro A. Dimitriu, Holly C. Pinkart, Brent M. Peyton, Melanie R. Mormile Jul 2008

Spatial And Temporal Patterns In The Microbial Diversity Of A Meromictic Soda Lake In Washington State, Pedro A. Dimitriu, Holly C. Pinkart, Brent M. Peyton, Melanie R. Mormile

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

The microbial community diversity and composition of meromictic Soap Lake were studied using culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches. The water column and sediments were sampled monthly for a year. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA genes showed an increase in diversity with depth for both groups. Late-summer samples harbored the highest prokaryotic diversity, and the bacteria exhibited less seasonal variability than the archaea. Most-probable-number assays targeting anaerobic microbial guilds were performed to compare summer and fall samples. In both seasons, the anoxic samples appeared to be dominated by lactate-oxidizing sulfate-reducing prokaryotes. High numbers of lactate- and acetate-oxidizing …

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Deciphering The Signature Of Magma Mixing: Examples From The Castle Creek Eruptive Period, Mount St. Helens, Washington, Seth Taylor Mattos Jan 2006

Deciphering The Signature Of Magma Mixing: Examples From The Castle Creek Eruptive Period, Mount St. Helens, Washington, Seth Taylor Mattos

All Master's Theses

Mount St. Helens (MSH) volcano in southwestern Washington has intermittently erupted dacitic products for the last 40,000 years. On limited occasions, the volcano has produced andesite lava flows, and during one short-lived period, basaltic lava flows. This time interval has been termed the Castle Creek eruptive period and occurred between approximately 2500 and 1700 years B.P. The Castle Creek period erupted dacite, andesite and basalt within this short span of time. Andesite and dacite eruptions dominate the first approximately 700 years of the period, and all basaltic units were erupted in approximately the last 100 years of the period. This …

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Transient Detection And Modeling Of Continuous Geodetic Data, Walter Michael Szeliga Jan 2005

Transient Detection And Modeling Of Continuous Geodetic Data, Walter Michael Szeliga

All Master's Theses

Transient surface deformation has been observed by continuously operating Global Positioning System stations in the Puget Sound area during the past decade. This surface deformation is associated with processes occurring on or near the subducting plate boundary between the Juan de Fuca and North American plates. This thesis is composed of two studies of transient deformation along the Cascadia plate margin and a discussion of the methodologies employed in these studies. We model one 7-week episode of transient deformation that occurred during 2003 beneath the Puget Sound area. Additionally, we utilize a combination of continuous Global Positioning System and seismic …

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The Role Of Geomorphic Features And Hydrologic Processes On Sediment Clusters In Gravel-Bed Rivers, Washington: A Field-Based Approach, Ross Richard Hendrick Jan 2005

The Role Of Geomorphic Features And Hydrologic Processes On Sediment Clusters In Gravel-Bed Rivers, Washington: A Field-Based Approach, Ross Richard Hendrick

All Master's Theses

This project investigated the movement and evolution of sediment clusters after four separate flood events at two geomorphically different sites along the Entiat River, Washington. Clusters are defined as an obstacle or anchor clast(s) that impede the progress of two or more sediment particles, and are believed to be an important characteristic of the variable bed topography of gravel-bed rivers. Detailed field descriptions and digital photographs of clusters were used to determine the characteristics of clusters at chosen locations on gravel bars regularly covered by high flow events. Data were collected during low-flow conditions, and clusters were re- examined and …

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Tracks In The Woods: Identifying And Evaluating Historic Logging Railroad Systems Within The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Carol Taylor Hearne Jan 2003

Tracks In The Woods: Identifying And Evaluating Historic Logging Railroad Systems Within The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Carol Taylor Hearne

All Master's Theses

The Sauk River Lumber Company (SRLC) operated in western Washington's Sauk River valley between 1922 and 1954. Impacts made on the landscape during that time can still be identified. Archival research, oral history interviews and archaeological fieldwork were undertaken to identify and evaluate the many landscape features associated with the SRLC's timber harvest activities. The systematic identification and documentation of this single company's logging operations and the features that resulted from those operations can be used to assist cultural resource managers facing the same task elsewhere. Maps, diagrams, and photographs are included to provide resource managers with basic tools and …

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1998 Debris Flows Near The Yakima River, Kittitas County, Washington—Some Geomorphic Implications, Martin R. Kaatz Dec 2001

1998 Debris Flows Near The Yakima River, Kittitas County, Washington—Some Geomorphic Implications, Martin R. Kaatz

Geography Faculty Scholarship

The geomorphic consequences of debris flows and their asso- ciated storms have been documented in many parts of the United States. Few, if any, have been studied and documented in central Washington. The importance of recurrent debris flows in sculpting Washington landscapes has not been generally recognized compared to other processes. Arid and semi-arid regions are particularly vulnerable to debris flows triggered by sudden intense thunderstorms. Most such areas are sparsely populated and eyewitnesses are uncommon. By contrast, semi-arid central Washington is relatively well popu- lated, and there are likely to be people who have observed the storms. Such witnesses …

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Gps-Determination Of Along-Strike Variation In Cascadia Margin Kinematics: Implications For Relative Plate Motion, Subduction Zone Coupling, And Permanent Deformation, M. Meghan Miller, Daniel J. Johnson, Charles M. Rubin, Herb Dragert, Kelin Wang, Anthony Qamar, Chris Goldfinger Apr 2001

Gps-Determination Of Along-Strike Variation In Cascadia Margin Kinematics: Implications For Relative Plate Motion, Subduction Zone Coupling, And Permanent Deformation, M. Meghan Miller, Daniel J. Johnson, Charles M. Rubin, Herb Dragert, Kelin Wang, Anthony Qamar, Chris Goldfinger

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

High‐precision GPS geodesy in the Pacific Northwest provides the first synoptic view of the along‐strike variation in Cascadia margin kinematics. These results constrain interfering deformation fields in a region where typical earthquake recurrence intervals are one or more orders of magnitude longer than the decades‐long history of seismic monitoring and where geologic studies are sparse. Interseismic strain accumulation contributes greatly to GPS station velocities along the coast. After correction for a simple elastic dislocation model, important residual motions remain, especially south of the international border. The magnitude of northward forearc motion increases southward from western Washington (3–7 mm/yr) to northern …

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The Historical Development Of The Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District And Its Present Effect On Life In The Area Encompassing The District, Werner E. Lemke Jan 1984

The Historical Development Of The Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District And Its Present Effect On Life In The Area Encompassing The District, Werner E. Lemke

All Graduate Projects

Irrigation played a very important role in the development of the Yakima Valley as we know it today. The Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District was chosen to show how an irrigation system functions and the part it plays on the lives of the plants, animals and people in its area. A brief historical study of the Tieton Division of the Yakima Project was made. The construction of the Tieton Unit was studied. A slide lecture with an accompanying tape was developed to acquaint junior high school students with the purpose, function and affects of the Yakima-Tieton Irrigation District.

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Shellfish Resources Of Washington, Robert Grant Levens Aug 1961

Shellfish Resources Of Washington, Robert Grant Levens

Graduate Student Research Papers

This paper will explore the salt water shellfish resources of Washington State. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the Pacific and Olympia Oysters, the Dungeness Crab, the research being done at Quilcene, and the lesser varieties of shellfish, including shrimp and the hardshell species of clams. The latter includes the littleneck, butter, Manila, and geoduc clams. A major emphasis will be the commercial importance of the shellfish, but the sportsman and the expanding role of Washington as a summer recreation area will not be overlooked.

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Range Sheep Industry In Kittitas County, Washington, Reginald M. Shaw Apr 1942

Range Sheep Industry In Kittitas County, Washington, Reginald M. Shaw

Geography Faculty Scholarship

This article summarizes the sheep industry in Kittitas County, Washington State as a microcosm of the entire Pacific Northwest sheep industry.

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