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University of Kentucky

2011

Earth Sciences

Theses/Dissertations

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Conceptualizing And Improving Red Wine Grape Cultivars Grown In Kentucky, Matthew Simson Jan 2011

Conceptualizing And Improving Red Wine Grape Cultivars Grown In Kentucky, Matthew Simson

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Wine sensory attributes are associated with quality of wines. Cabernet Franc did not possess good coloration of its wine. Therefore, in the 2009 and 2010 growing seasons, studies including the sampling of four red wine grape cultivars from the end of flowering throughout the rest of the season and applying treatments to Cabernet Franc grapevines at veraison were commenced to address suitability and color enhancement, respectively. The study examining Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chambourcin, and Norton looked at sampling their grapes at two-week intervals from times post-flowering to understand the demands of each cultivar during key stages of berry development, …

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Depositional And Stratigraphic Significance Of Marine, Green-Clay, Mineral Facies In The Lower-Middle Mississippian Borden And Fort Payne Formations, Western Appalachian And Eastern Illinois Basins, Kentucky, Devi Bhagabati Prasad Udgata Jan 2011

Depositional And Stratigraphic Significance Of Marine, Green-Clay, Mineral Facies In The Lower-Middle Mississippian Borden And Fort Payne Formations, Western Appalachian And Eastern Illinois Basins, Kentucky, Devi Bhagabati Prasad Udgata

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Detailed study of strata associated with the glauconite-rich Floyds Knob Bed in the western Appalachian and eastern Illinois basins have corroborated previous interpretations that the unit is a widespread, largely synchronous marker horizon. However, in some areas there are multiple glauconite beds; in others a distinct bed is lacking, but the glauconite is dispersed throughout many beds, forming an interval rather than a distinct bed. In Kentucky and adjacent states, the Floyds Knob interval, in upper parts of the Lower-Middle Mississippian Borden-Grainger delta sequence and in lower parts of the Fort Payne carbonate sequence, was deposited at the end of …

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Fate Of Stable Isotope Label During Predation Of 15N-Tagged Wild-Type Escherichia Coli By Protozoa, Ashley M. Barton Jan 2011

Fate Of Stable Isotope Label During Predation Of 15N-Tagged Wild-Type Escherichia Coli By Protozoa, Ashley M. Barton

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Currently, bacterial movement in karst aquifers is not well understood. Use of stable isotopes to label non-pathogenic Escherichia coli as a particulate groundwater tracer in karst systems has been examined in previous studies. Loss of the stable isotope signal is anticipated in traces greater than 500 m in length. Potential loss of 15N due to predation by protozoa was examined. Filter-sterilized water from Royal Spring in Georgetown, Kentucky, was inoculated with a mixture of either Tetrahymena pyriformis or Colpoda steinii and 15N-enriched E. coli and stored in the dark at 14°C. Samples were analyzed for their nitrogen isotope …

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Chemical Evolution And Residence Time Of Groundwater In The Wilcox Aquifer Of The Northern Gulf Coastal Plain, Estifanos Haile Jan 2011

Chemical Evolution And Residence Time Of Groundwater In The Wilcox Aquifer Of The Northern Gulf Coastal Plain, Estifanos Haile

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

This study aims to integrate groundwater geochemistry and mathematical modeling to determine the dominant geochemical processes and groundwater residence time within the Wilcox aquifer in the northern Gulf Coastal Plain. Groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for major ion chemistry, stable isotopes (18O, 2H, and 13C), and radioisotope 36Cl content. Geochemical modeling enabled the identification of major sources and sinks of solutes in the aquifer. A two-dimensional, finite-difference, numerical model was used to determine the deep groundwater flow rate and transport of 36Cl in the aquifer. Major ion chemistry shows a chromatographic pattern along …

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Structural Evolution Of An Intracratonic Rift System; Mississippi Valley Graben, Rough Creek Graben, And Rome Trough Of Kentucky, Usa, John Bibb Hickman Jr. Jan 2011

Structural Evolution Of An Intracratonic Rift System; Mississippi Valley Graben, Rough Creek Graben, And Rome Trough Of Kentucky, Usa, John Bibb Hickman Jr.

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

As indicated by drilling and geophysical data, the Mississippi Valley Graben, the Rough Creek Graben, together with the Rome Trough of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, are fault-bounded graben structures filled with as much as 27,000 feet of Early to Middle Cambrian sediments. Detailed regional mapping of Cambrian and younger strata within and surrounding these structures indicates that they formed contemporaneously. The proximity of these structures suggests they developed within the same regional stress fields and tectonic environments. These three structures are mechanically and kinematically connected, and formed part of a single continent-scale rift system produced during the breakup of …

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Bedrock Geology And Tectonic Evolution Of The Western Central Maine Zone, South Central Massachusetts, Thomas Bradley Walker Jan 2011

Bedrock Geology And Tectonic Evolution Of The Western Central Maine Zone, South Central Massachusetts, Thomas Bradley Walker

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Bedrock geology of the East Brookfield quadrangle (EBQ), based on new 1:24000 scale mapping, consists of an interfolded sequence of Rangeley Fm. and Paxton Fm. metasediments, intruded by Early Mississippian tonalitic to granitic orthogneisses and underlain in the western half by folded orthogneisses of unknown age. Pervasive flattening strains have created planar, generally NNE-SSW striking and consistent moderately west dipping foliations. Generally strike-parallel stretching lineations and boudinage structures, with rarer dip parallel stretching lineations, reflect extrusion of CMZ metasediments and orthogneisses with a flattening component. Mapping in the EBQ demonstrates that a transition between deformational mechanisms of the southern Central …

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Arsenic Heterogeneity In Aquifer Sediments From West Bengal, India, Emily Eastridge Jan 2011

Arsenic Heterogeneity In Aquifer Sediments From West Bengal, India, Emily Eastridge

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Multiple studies in the Bengal basin have shown that elevated As in groundwater coincides with reduced, relatively dark sediments of Himalayan provenance. In West Bengal state (India), As concentrations > 10 μg/L tend to occur east of the River Bhagirathi-Hoogly, the main distributary of the Ganges. Associations among sediment chemistry and mineralogy for four cores from either side of the Bhagirathi-Hoogly (cores 1 and 2 to the east, 3 and 4 to the west) in Murshidabad district were investigated. Ten sediment samples were collected from each boring at various depths to a maximum of 38 to 43 m. Sediment chemistry was …

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Locating Hot Spots Of Fecal Pollution In An Urban Watershed Of Central Kentucky Using Bacteroides 16s Rrna Markers, Tricia L. Coakley Jan 2011

Locating Hot Spots Of Fecal Pollution In An Urban Watershed Of Central Kentucky Using Bacteroides 16s Rrna Markers, Tricia L. Coakley

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The field of molecular fecal source tracking in the water environment has developed rapidly since the first PCR assays for general and host-­‐specific Bacteroides 16s rRNA markers were published. Numerous host-­‐specific molecular markers and PCR assays have been developed, adding greater specificity, sensitivity and quantitative methods to the array of options. The public demand for readying methods for transfer to the commercial lab, so that they may be used to generate data for public utilities, citizen action groups and regulatory agencies, has fueled the development of an entire new research community. These methods, however plentiful, have not found community agreement …

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Petrologic, Geochemical, And Geochronologic Constraints On The Tectonic Evolution Of The Southern Appalachian Orogen, Blue Ridge Province Of Western North Carolina, Eric Douglas Anderson Jan 2011

Petrologic, Geochemical, And Geochronologic Constraints On The Tectonic Evolution Of The Southern Appalachian Orogen, Blue Ridge Province Of Western North Carolina, Eric Douglas Anderson

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The Blue Ridge Province of western North Carolina contains a wide variety of metamorphosed igneous and sedimentary rocks that record the tectonic effects of Precambrian and Paleozoic orogenic cycles. Tectonic interpretations of the events that led to the present configuration are varied and often conflicting. This investigation examines metamorphosed mafic rocks that are widely interpreted to have formed during the closure of ocean basins. Metabasites, and specifically eclogites, have a tendency to mark tectonic sutures and frequently preserve pressure (P), temperature (T), and age data (t) that can be gleaned from mineral equilibria and U-Pb isotopic compositions. As such, the …

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A Classification Of Lower Paleozoic Carbonate-Bearing Rocks For Geotechnical Applications, Bethany L. Overfield Jan 2011

A Classification Of Lower Paleozoic Carbonate-Bearing Rocks For Geotechnical Applications, Bethany L. Overfield

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

An empirically-based classification of lower Paleozoic carbonate-bearing rocks was created for field-based geotechnical applications. Geotechnical parameters were subsequently correlated to that classification. Seven hundred seventy-seven samples were used as the basis for the classification. Thirteen categories based on visual and tactile properties and a hydrochloric acid test were created. Samples were from central, north-central, and south-central Kentucky and represented the majority of Ordovician exposures in the state, and some Mississippian exposures. Few Silurian and Devonian units were included in the sample set. Geotechnical parameters, including density as well as elastic constants (shear and compression wave velocities, Poisson’s ratio, Young’s modulus, …

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