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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Cretaceous Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

The Cretaceous Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

A global rise in sea level occurred during the Cretaceous; as a result, sea level stood as high during the Late Cretaceous than at any other time in the Phanerozoic history of Earth. Although Pangea had begun to breakup during the Early Mesozoic Era, the smaller continents remained tightly clustered at the beginning of Cretaceous time. The continued breakup of Pangea and the dispersion of the newly created continents were among the most important events that occurred during the global geography of the Cretaceous. Especially important was the breakup of Gondwana. Gondwana was still intact at the beginning of the …


The Permian Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

The Permian Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

The Permian Period was a time of great crisis in Earth's history. The Permian saw the final closure of the Iapetus Ocean that had formed following the breakup of the super­ continent of Rodinia in the late pre-Cambrian; the closure resulting in the formation of another super-continent, Pangea. It was during the Permian that two of Earth's major mountain chains, the Appalachians and the Urals, were created. The period was one of climatic extremes. By the end of the Permian, Earth had not only experienced its most widespread glaciation but also the formation of deserts the likes of which had …


The Silurian Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

The Silurian Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

The Silurian Period is the shortest of all the periods of the Paleozoic Era, lasting only 30 million years from 438 million years ago until 408 million years ago. As the Silurian Period opens, the eastern margin ofLaurentia was dominated by the Taconic Highlands that had been created during the Taconic Orogeny at the close of the Ordovician. The rest of the craton was essentially flat-lying and covered by a shallow sea. Except for the northeastern margin which was involved in a major orogeny following the Taconic Orogeny, Laurentia was tectonically quiet throughout the Silurian. About 10 million years before …


Geologic History Of West Virginia, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

Geologic History Of West Virginia, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

The exposed rocks and those that underlie the surface of West Virginia record approximately 300M years of Earth history. This may sound like a very long period of time, but in reality, it only represents about 7% of the total age of Eai1h. Before we undertake a discussion of the geologic history of West Virginia, there are some basic topics we should review in order to fully appreciate what will follow. To that end, the following topics will be discussed: 1) The Origin of Earth, 2) The Response of Rocks to Stress, 3) Some Basic Characteristics of Sedimentary Rocks, 4) …


Earth's Place In Space, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

Earth's Place In Space, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

I've always thought that a story should start at the beginning. Since this book is the story of Earth, we will start at the beginning. According to the astronomers, in the beginning, there was no need for geology because there were no minerals or rocks; there was no Earth; there was no Sun; there were no stars or planets. According to the astronomers, there was a time when even our present universe didn't exist. In the 1920s, the Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaitre hypothesized that everything presently contained within the entire Universe was once compressed into in a sphere he called …


Kinds Of Volcanoes, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

Kinds Of Volcanoes, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

By definition, a volcano is a conical structure that builds around a volcanic vent. A volcanic vent is an opening from which molten rock and gases erupt. According to the definition, there is no size requirement. There are volcanoes that you can span with your legs while on the other hand, there is Mt. Fiji.


The West Virginia's Valley And Ridge Physiographic Province: An Overly Simplistic Introduction, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

The West Virginia's Valley And Ridge Physiographic Province: An Overly Simplistic Introduction, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

Anyone who has driven across West Virginia has noticed major changes in the lay of the land. In the western portion of the State the landscape belongs to the Appalachian Plateaus Physiographic Province. But what constitutes a plateau? According to the Glossary of Geology, a plateau is a dissected (stream carved) upland underlain by horizontal strata. In the case of the Appalachian Plateau, it is a relatively flat to gently rolling surface with an average elevation of about 900 feet underlain by gently folded to flat-lying sedimentary rocks. But what is a physiographic province? Again, according to the Glossary of …


The Devonian Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine Jan 2016

The Devonian Period, John J. Renton, Thomas Repine

Readings and Notes

Until the 19th century, the rocks exposed throughout the provinces of Devonshire and Cornwall in southwestern England had long been considered to be Carboniferous in age because of their content of fossil plants. Closer investigation by Murchison and Sedgwick in 1836, however, showed that only the uppermost portion of these rocks contained fossil plants. Because the lower portion of the rock sequence was devoid of plant fossils, was highly deformed, and resembled the rocks of northwest Wales which they had recently studied, Murchison and Sedgwick assigned the rocks to the Cambrian System. However, local fossil collectors had submitted fossil corals …


Geochemistry And Origins Of Thermal Springs Waters Of The Olympic Peninsula And Cascade Range, Washington, Jon Kenneth K. Golla Jan 2016

Geochemistry And Origins Of Thermal Springs Waters Of The Olympic Peninsula And Cascade Range, Washington, Jon Kenneth K. Golla

Summer Research

The state of Washington contains 98 low temperature (surface temperatures between ~ 20 - 50 oC) geothermal springs, which are powered by the convective circulation of groundwater that is heated by the natural heat of the Earth. These systems operate in a cycle that begins when precipitation percolates downward into the subsurface and comes in contact with a heat source. Subsequently the heated water returns to the surface, in most cases, having interacted chemically with rocks in the reservoir and/or along its ascent path. Surveys done by the USGS between the 1970s – early 1990s show there is significant …


Muang Rae Geothermal System: Drilling And Borehole Geophysics, 1000-M Core Hole Into Granitic Rock, Amphoe Pai, Mae Hong Son Province, Northern Thailand, Spencer H. Wood, Kriangsak Pirarai, Aranya Fuangswasdi, Wiboon Kaentao, Albert Waibel, Fongsaward S. Singharajwarapan Jan 2016

Muang Rae Geothermal System: Drilling And Borehole Geophysics, 1000-M Core Hole Into Granitic Rock, Amphoe Pai, Mae Hong Son Province, Northern Thailand, Spencer H. Wood, Kriangsak Pirarai, Aranya Fuangswasdi, Wiboon Kaentao, Albert Waibel, Fongsaward S. Singharajwarapan

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 2015, a 1-km core hole was drilled into granitic rock at the Muang Rae geothermal area. Previous drilling in 1993 to 200 m was unsuccessful in obtaining flows, but one of the “dry” wells began flowing in August, 2013 at 9.75 L/s of 96.9°C water from a fracture zone 80 m deep. In the sandy bed of the Pai River, 150 m south of that well is a 600-m long line of hot seeps, oriented NE, with highest temperature measured at 94.5°C. Geology is foliated Triassic (?) granitic rock cut by a NE-SW-trending normal fault zone (dip 65° NW) …


North-Central Nebraska Geology: Niobrara River Valley In Brown, Cherry, And Keya Paha Counties, R. M. Joeckel, L. M. Howard, S. T. Tucker Oct 2015

North-Central Nebraska Geology: Niobrara River Valley In Brown, Cherry, And Keya Paha Counties, R. M. Joeckel, L. M. Howard, S. T. Tucker

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.


Slip Pulse And Resonance Of The Kathmandu Basin During The 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal, John Galetzka, Walter Szeliga Sep 2015

Slip Pulse And Resonance Of The Kathmandu Basin During The 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal, John Galetzka, Walter Szeliga

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Detailed geodetic imaging of earthquake ruptures enhances our understanding of earthquake physics and associated ground shaking. The 25 April 2015 moment magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Gorkha, Nepal was the first large continental megathrust rupture to have occurred beneath a high-rate (5-hertz) Global Positioning System (GPS) network. We used GPS and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data to model the earthquake rupture as a slip pulse ~20 kilometers in width, ~6 seconds in duration, and with a peak sliding velocity of 1.1 meters per second, which propagated toward the Kathmandu basin at ~3.3 kilometers per second over ~140 kilometers. The smooth slip …


Investigation Of The Lead Isotope Signatures Of Marine Sediments In Relation To The Lead Isotope Signatures Of Northern Andean Ores, Kimberly D. Beck Jul 2015

Investigation Of The Lead Isotope Signatures Of Marine Sediments In Relation To The Lead Isotope Signatures Of Northern Andean Ores, Kimberly D. Beck

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lead isotope ratios of ores and igneous rocks in the Central and Southern Andes show a large-scale geographic pattern related to magmatic source processes. This pattern changes in the Northern Andes for reasons that are not well understood; this study is an investigation of potential causes of this change. Deep ocean sediment samples from the Nazca Plate were analyzed for 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb, and the data were compared with published data on central Andean ores and ores and igneous rocks from Ecuador. Lead isotopic compositions of the Nazca Plate sediments …


Geothermobarometry And Petrographic Interpretations Of Christensen Ranch Meta- Banded Iron Formation From The Ruby Range, Montana, Jacob Hughes May 2015

Geothermobarometry And Petrographic Interpretations Of Christensen Ranch Meta- Banded Iron Formation From The Ruby Range, Montana, Jacob Hughes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Ruby Range in southwestern Montana was tectonically uplifted during the mountain-building event of the Big Sky orogeny. Contained within the Christensen Ranch Formation, made up of sedimentary units metamorphosed during the Big Sky orogeny, are a small number of metamorphosed banded iron formations (BIFs). It is the presence and composition of these BIFs which is the focus of this research, principally their depositional origin, relationship to surrounding sedimentary packages, elemental and mineral compositions, and lastly, peak metamorphic conditions. Samples were collected, cut into thin sections, and powdered for textural and compositional analyses employing polarized light microscopy, Raman microscopy, scanning …


Cockatoo Sands In The Victoria Highway And Carlton Hill Areas, East Kimberley: Land Capability Assessment For Developing Irrigated Agriculture, Henry Smolinski, Shahab Pathan, Paul Galloway, Kus Kuswardiyanto, Justin Laycock May 2015

Cockatoo Sands In The Victoria Highway And Carlton Hill Areas, East Kimberley: Land Capability Assessment For Developing Irrigated Agriculture, Henry Smolinski, Shahab Pathan, Paul Galloway, Kus Kuswardiyanto, Justin Laycock

Resource management technical reports

This report identifies areas of Cockatoo Sands adjacent to the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA), Kununurra, with high potential for developing irrigated agriculture. It builds on a reconnaissance soil survey conducted in 2009 which identified significant areas of sandy and loamy soils in the Kununurra area that could be suitable for agriculture.


Changes In The Geometry And Volume Of Rabots Glaciär, Sweden, 2003-2011: Recent Accelerated Volume Loss Linked To More Negative Summer Balances, Keith A. Brugger, Latysha Pankratz Jan 2015

Changes In The Geometry And Volume Of Rabots Glaciär, Sweden, 2003-2011: Recent Accelerated Volume Loss Linked To More Negative Summer Balances, Keith A. Brugger, Latysha Pankratz

Geology Publications

Terminus geometry, ice margins, and surface elevations on Rabots glaciär were measured using differential GPS during summer 2011 and compared with those similarly measured in 2003. Glacier length over the eight years decreased by ∼105 m corresponding to 13 m a−1, a rate consistent with ice recession over the last several decades. Measured changes in surface elevations show that between 2003 and 2011 the glacier’s volume decreased by ∼27.6 ± 2.6 × 106 m3, or 3.5± 0.3 × 106 m3 a−1. This compares favorably with an estimate of −28.1 ± 2.6 × 106 m3 based on a mass-balance approach. The …


Groundwater Trend Analysis And Salinity Risk Assessment For The South-West Agricultural Region Of Western Australia, 2007–12, G Paul Raper, Russell Speed, John Andrew Simons, A L. Killen, Andrew Blake, A T. Ryder, Rosemary H. Smith, Grant Stainer, L Bourke Dec 2014

Groundwater Trend Analysis And Salinity Risk Assessment For The South-West Agricultural Region Of Western Australia, 2007–12, G Paul Raper, Russell Speed, John Andrew Simons, A L. Killen, Andrew Blake, A T. Ryder, Rosemary H. Smith, Grant Stainer, L Bourke

Resource management technical reports

Dryland salinity is a hydrologically driven land degradation hazard in the south-west agricultural region of Western Australia (WA). Shallow-rooted annual crops and pastures transpire significantly less water than the native vegetation they replaced, leading to an increase in recharge, rising groundwater levels and the development of shallow watertables in areas where often none existed previously. Rising groundwater levels mobilise soluble salts, naturally stored at high concentrations in the regolith. These salts can be concentrated in the root zone of vegetation by evapotranspiration.


Field Trip Guidebook For The Nebraska Well Drillers Association, Duane A. Eversoll, Matt Joeckel, Lee Orton Sep 2014

Field Trip Guidebook For The Nebraska Well Drillers Association, Duane A. Eversoll, Matt Joeckel, Lee Orton

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.


Sedimentological And Stratigraphic Study Of A Falling-Stage Delta Complex In The Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Ferron Sandstone Member Of The Mancos Shale, South-Central Utah, Usa, Fares Alaboud Jun 2014

Sedimentological And Stratigraphic Study Of A Falling-Stage Delta Complex In The Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Ferron Sandstone Member Of The Mancos Shale, South-Central Utah, Usa, Fares Alaboud

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The character and distribution of lithofacies in falling-stage deltas are incompletely documented. This paper presents a sedimentological and stratigraphic evaluation of a superbly-exposed interval of Cretaceous deltaic strata that are believed to be of falling stage origin. The studied interval forms part of the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale in the southernmost Henry Mountains Basin of south-central Utah, USA. The interval of interest is exposed in three dimensions over a 20 km2 area in a series of canyon walls. Observed facies include fine-grained mudrocks (offshore basin), mudrocks with thinly interlaminated sandstone (prodelta), thinly interbedded …


Quakemap, Richard Braxton Apr 2014

Quakemap, Richard Braxton

Collection of Engaged Learning

QuakeMap is a web application created with Javascript that allows users to track and view earthquakes in real-time. By using a system of linear scales, the application allows for quantitative data to be viewed qualitatively, and for information to be gathered at a glance.


Geology Of The Kentucky Geological Survey Marvin Blan No. 1 Well, East-Central Hancock County, Kentucky, J. Richard Bowersox, David A. Williams Jan 2014

Geology Of The Kentucky Geological Survey Marvin Blan No. 1 Well, East-Central Hancock County, Kentucky, J. Richard Bowersox, David A. Williams

Report of Investigations--KGS

The Kentucky Geological Survey’s Marvin Blan No. 1 well was drilled in east-central Hancock County, Ky., about 4 mi southwest of the Ohio River, to demonstrate CO2 injection in the Western Kentucky Coal Field, following the mandate and partial funding from Kentucky’s House Bill 1, August 2007. Installation of a groundwater monitoring well was required as a condition of obtaining a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control Class V Permit prior to drilling the Blan well; however, no groundwater was encountered under the Blan well site. The groundwater monitoring well was immediately plugged and abandoned in accordance with …


Using Paleomagnetism To Unravel The Mysteries Of The Summit Creek Basalts, Glynis Bawden Jan 2014

Using Paleomagnetism To Unravel The Mysteries Of The Summit Creek Basalts, Glynis Bawden

Summer Research

The Summit Creek Basalts are a sequence of steeply dipping subaerial late Eocene basaltic flows located southeast of Washington’s Mount Rainier. Despite previous petrologic and paleomagnetic investigations, the origins of these basalts are poorly understood. It is uncertain whether they erupted in situ or were transported to their present location by tectonic processes. It is possible that these lavas were derived from the same magma source as a sequence of flows in the Crescent Formation on the Olympic Peninsula, as both erupted between 45 and 50 million years ago and have similar chemical compositions. A new paleomagnetic analysis of the …


Origin And Provenance Of Spherules And Magnetic Grains At The Younger Dryas Boundary, Yingzhe Wu, Mukul Sharma, Malcom A. Lecompte, Mark N. Demitroff, Joshua D. Landis Sep 2013

Origin And Provenance Of Spherules And Magnetic Grains At The Younger Dryas Boundary, Yingzhe Wu, Mukul Sharma, Malcom A. Lecompte, Mark N. Demitroff, Joshua D. Landis

Dartmouth Scholarship

One or more bolide impacts are hypothesized to have triggered the Younger Dryas cooling at ∼12.9 ka. In support of this hypothesis, varying peak abundances of magnetic grains with iridium and magnetic microspherules have been reported at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB). We show that bulk sediment and/or magnetic grains/microspherules collected from the YDB sites in Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Ohio have (187)Os/(188)Os ratios ≥1.0, similar to average upper continental crust (= 1.3), indicating a terrestrial origin of osmium (Os) in these samples. In contrast, bulk sediments from YDB sites in Belgium and Pennsylvania exhibit (187)Os/(188)Os ratios <<1.0 and at face value suggest mixing with extraterrestrial Os with (187)Os/(188)Os of ∼0.13. However, the Os concentration in bulk sample and magnetic grains from Belgium is 2.8 pg/g and 15 pg/g, respectively, much lower than that in average upper continental crust (=31 pg/g), indicating no meteoritic contribution. The YDB site in Pennsylvania is remarkable in yielding 2- to 5-mm diameter spherules containing minerals such as suessite (Fe-Ni silicide) that form at temperatures in excess of 2000 °C. Gross texture, mineralogy, and age of the spherules appear consistent with their formation as ejecta from an impact 12.9 ka ago. The (187)Os/(188)Os ratios of the spherules and their leachates are often low, but Os in these objects is likely terrestrially derived. The rare earth element patterns and Sr and Nd isotopes of the spherules indicate that their source lies in 1.5-Ga Quebecia terrain in the Grenville Province of northeastern North America.


Carbon And Oxygen Isotope Study Of Carbonates From Watling's Blue Hole And Blue Hole Five, San Salvador, Bahamas, Elaine D. Flynn Aug 2013

Carbon And Oxygen Isotope Study Of Carbonates From Watling's Blue Hole And Blue Hole Five, San Salvador, Bahamas, Elaine D. Flynn

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Carbonate platforms, such as the Bahamas, formed through deposition and sea level fluctuations. These platforms contain records of rapid interglacial climate change and are useful in studying the impacts of climate change on similar tropical carbonate environments. Blue holes are dissolution lakes that may be beneficial for understanding climate change and anthropogenic impact. A δ13C and δ18O study was conducted on lake sediment core samples from Watling’s Blue Hole and Blue Hole Five on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. These lakes are located in a failed housing development and Watling’s Blue Hole was once part of an …


Petrified Wood Survey Of Land Adjacent To Petrified Forest National Park, Az, Kathleen Masterson Apr 2013

Petrified Wood Survey Of Land Adjacent To Petrified Forest National Park, Az, Kathleen Masterson

Collection of Engaged Learning

An intensive survey was conducted on HNZ land, a subsidiary of Hunt Inc., which owns the mineral rights to land located adjacent to the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, United States. The purpose of the survey was to log the position and characteristics of petrified wood to better protect the fossils from thieves and to assess the value of Hunt lands. A monetary value was assigned to each log based on color, condition, size, and other mitigating characteristics. Two broad categories of fossil logs were found on the land, alabaster and rainbow. Mineral composition and oxygen isotopes were analyzed to …


Geoanalytical Analysis Of Speleogenetic Development In The Owl Mountain And Nolan Creek Provinces: Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas (Abstract], Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Kevin W. Stafford, Aaron W. Bryant Apr 2013

Geoanalytical Analysis Of Speleogenetic Development In The Owl Mountain And Nolan Creek Provinces: Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas (Abstract], Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Kevin W. Stafford, Aaron W. Bryant

Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.


Holocene Paleo-Environmental Variability Reconstructed From A Lake Sediment Record From Southeast Greenland, Gregory A. De Wet Jan 2013

Holocene Paleo-Environmental Variability Reconstructed From A Lake Sediment Record From Southeast Greenland, Gregory A. De Wet

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Arctic climate variability over the Holocene has been both extensive and, at times, abrupt. Current understanding of these changes is still quite limited with few high-resolution paleoclimate records available for this period. In order to place observed and predicted 21st century climate change in perspective, reliable and highly resolved paleo-reconstructions of Arctic climate are essential. Using an 8.5 m sediment core from Nanerersarpik Lake, this project will characterize climate changes during the Holocene, including the deglacial transition, the rapid changes that are known to have occurred around 8,200 years ago, the transition from Holocene thermal maximum (HTM) to the …


Bulletin No. 41: Trap Rock Ridges Of Connecticut: Natural History And Land Use, Penelope C. Sharp, Ralph S. Lewis, David L. Wagner, Cara Lee Jan 2013

Bulletin No. 41: Trap Rock Ridges Of Connecticut: Natural History And Land Use, Penelope C. Sharp, Ralph S. Lewis, David L. Wagner, Cara Lee

Bulletins

No abstract provided.


Tsunamis: Desprevenidos Por La Realidad De La Geología Un Estudio De La Posibilidad Y Precauciones Por Un Tsunami En Puerto López, Manabí, Ecuador, Abigail Eurich Oct 2012

Tsunamis: Desprevenidos Por La Realidad De La Geología Un Estudio De La Posibilidad Y Precauciones Por Un Tsunami En Puerto López, Manabí, Ecuador, Abigail Eurich

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean about once every 1.5 years (Berninghausen, 1962). Forty-nine Tsunamis are recorded to have hit the western coast of South America since 1562, though only 3 hit the coast of Ecuador specifically (Berninghausen, 1962). However, it is still important to recognize the possibility of having a tsunami in Ecuador and plan accordingly. On a very complex junction of the Nazca and South American plate, with the Nazca and Carnegie Ridges as well as the Galapagos hotspot, this part of the world is apt to many earthquakes, submarine landslides, and volcanic activity which all have the …


A Mineralogical Textural And Chemical Characterization Of A Hypothesized Kimberlite At White Mountain, Sunlight Basin, Wyoming, Stuart Kenderes May 2012

A Mineralogical Textural And Chemical Characterization Of A Hypothesized Kimberlite At White Mountain, Sunlight Basin, Wyoming, Stuart Kenderes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Geologists have examined the causes and mechanisms responsible for the Heart Mountain detachment for over a century with much debate and discussion. White Mountain is a part of the upper plate, which was emplaced during the detachment event. Within White Mountain, there exist several andesitic dikes and carbonate ultra-cataclasite injectites, which were integral in the emplacement of the Heart Mountain detachment. This research involves the characterization and identification of an enigmatic vertical outcropping of brecciated rock located on White Mountain, Sunlight Basin, Wyoming, which was originally interpreted as a kimberlite. Samples were collected for geochemical and textural comparison, and cut …