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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Isotopic And Geochemical Tracers Of Groundwater Flow In The Shivwits Plateau, Grand Canyon National Park, Jonathan W. Wilson Jan 2020

Isotopic And Geochemical Tracers Of Groundwater Flow In The Shivwits Plateau, Grand Canyon National Park, Jonathan W. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

As the impacts of global climate change on water resources continue to become more apparent, proper understanding and management of groundwater resources will be needed as supplies become more strained. Traditional methods of characterizing groundwater systems are time-intensive, costly, and can be difficult to complete in remote areas. Using ambient geochemical tracers from discrete sampling could aid in characterizing spring systems through determining flow paths, recharge areas, and carbon cycling. However, using discrete seasonal samples to understand the hydrogeology of complex, mixed-lithology aquifers has not been extensively examined. Here we explore using δ13C of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), …


Variability In Groundwater Flow And Chemistry In The Houzhai Karst Basin, Guizhou Province, China, Joshua M. Barna Jan 2019

Variability In Groundwater Flow And Chemistry In The Houzhai Karst Basin, Guizhou Province, China, Joshua M. Barna

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Understanding how karst aquifers store and transmit water and contaminants is an ongoing problem in hydrogeology. Flowpath and recharge heterogeneity contribute to the complexity of these systems. This thesis explores karst-conduit connectivity and water chemistry variability in the Houzhai catchment in Guizhou province, China. Artificial tracer tests were conducted during both the monsoon and dry seasons to understand temporal variability in connectivity and water velocity between karst features. Multiple flowpaths through the catchment are activated during the monsoon season and partially abandoned during the dry season. Additionally, gradient reversals during monsoonal high-flow events and as a result of pumping can …


Provenance Of The Neoproterozoic Ocoee Supergroup, Eastern Great Smoky Mountains, Suvankar Chakraborty Jan 2010

Provenance Of The Neoproterozoic Ocoee Supergroup, Eastern Great Smoky Mountains, Suvankar Chakraborty

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The Ocoee Supergroup is a sequence of Neoproterozoic, immature, continental rift facies clastic sediments. Potential source rocks were tested by analyzing modes of detrital framework minerals, detrital mineral chemistry, whole rock geochemistry and detrital zircon U/Pb geochronology by LA-ICP-MS for Ocoee siltstone-sandstone dominated formations. Ocoee units are arkosic to subarkosic siltstones/sandstones, and ternary tectonic discrimination diagrams confirm a continental basement uplift source. Alkali feldspar predominates over plagioclase feldspar. Detrital feldspar compositions of Ocoee sediments as a group are similar to feldspar in local basement granitic rocks except for high-Ca plagioclase grains present locally in basement granitic rocks. The high alkali …


Origin Of Blue Ridge Basement Rocks, Dellwood Quad, Western Nc: New Evidence From U-Pb Zircon Geochronology And Whole Rock Geochemistry, Donald Franklin Loughry Jr. Jan 2010

Origin Of Blue Ridge Basement Rocks, Dellwood Quad, Western Nc: New Evidence From U-Pb Zircon Geochronology And Whole Rock Geochemistry, Donald Franklin Loughry Jr.

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Terrane discrimination in polycyclic continental basement rocks is challenging due to high-grade metamorphism and intense deformation. Based on early USGS mapping the Blue Ridge basement in the Dellwood quadrangle of the eastern Great Smoky Mountains was proposed to consist of augen orthogneisses of Laurentian (Grenvillian) affinity interfolded with migmatitic hornblende and biotite paragneisses (“Carolina Gneiss”) and amphibolites of uncertain affinity. However, detailed study reveals that the hornblende gneiss of Hadley and Goldsmith (1963) is a heterogeneous map unit consisting of (1)metaplutonic rocks; (2) variably foliated and folded felsic orthogneisses; (3) strongly migmatitic, folded Hbl+Bt-bearing gneisses; (4) foliated and lineated garnet …


Paleogene Mirelands Of The Upper Mississippi Embayment, Western Kentucky, Jennifer Marie Klein O'Keefe Jan 2008

Paleogene Mirelands Of The Upper Mississippi Embayment, Western Kentucky, Jennifer Marie Klein O'Keefe

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Detailed petrography, geochemistry, and palynology together describe the depositional environments and paleoecology of an abandoned meander-fill system in western Kentucky. Oriented block petrography reveals alternating clay-rich and attrinite-rich zones of variable thickness. Woody tissues, where present, do not show dessication features and deflation layers could not be identified. Overall, petrography is indicative of a topogenous mire. Mire palyno-assemblages are less diverse than assemblages reported from clays in the region. Castanea-Cupuliferoidaepollenites assemblages dominate the entire system and other tree pollen are common; fungal spores are relatively uncommon. Weighted statistical analyses reveal ecological groupings beyond this dominance and define botanical succession within …