Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Sedimentary Processes And Instability On The Mississippi River Delta Front Near The Wreck Of The Ss Virginia, Nathan Figueredo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Multi-cores and piston cores were collected seaward of the Mississippi River Delta’s Southwest Pass at ~80 m water depth in 2017 to better understand sedimentary characteristics and processes on the Mississippi River Delta Front (MRDF) in the vicinity of the SS Virginia shipwreck, and to support marine archeological research. Core analyses were performed to inform our understanding of the dynamics of sediment motion in the study area through radionuclide activity (²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs), volume frequency of grain size, bulk density, and fabric (X-Radiography). Sediment accumulation rates (SAR), calculated from multi-core ²¹⁰Pb activity are 0.22 - 0.29 …

Geomorphology Of Tidal Wetlands: Impacts Of Extreme And Annual Flood Events To Salt Marsh And Mangrove Systems, Frances R. Griswold

Doctoral Dissertations

Tidal wetlands are vital for buffering coastal settings from the threats of accelerated sea level rise and storms. Understanding the factors that are most influential for the maintenance and recovery of tidal wetlands after extreme events compounded by future accelerated sea level rise is of the utmost importance, yet this knowledge is not well established. Two tidal wetland schemas investigated in this dissertation are mangrove systems in Vieques, Puerto Rico (including robust lagoonal-mangrove forest systems and fringing mangrove forests), and salt marshes in New England. While the climatic forcings, vegetation type, and locations are vastly different for these two tidal …

Using Camera-Monitored Sediment Traps To Evaluate Sediment Availability And The Role Of Waves In Resuspending Seafloor Sediment, Bellingham Bay, Wa, Liam Horner

WWU Graduate School Collection

Understanding nearshore sediment budgets and processes is important for evaluating coastal hazards, habitats, and contaminant fate to enable informed decisions in coastal planning and management. I aimed to evaluate the role of waves in resuspending and redistributing sediments and by proxy contaminants in the urban/estuarine Bellingham Bay, and better understand the transport and rate of fluvial sediment moving through the nearshore. I integrated analyses using camera-mounted sediment traps, seafloor grain-size data, short-lived radioisotopes, and other fluvial, physical oceanographic, and wind data. I paired cameras with sediment traps, to identify the timing and rate of sedimentation on the seafloor at hourly …

Reactive Iron Mineral Coatings In Redox Transition Zones Of A Site With Historical Contamination: Abiotic Attenuation, Xin Yin

Dissertations

Reactive iron mineral coatings are found throughout reduction-oxidation (redox) transition zones and play a significant role in contaminant transformation processes. In this study, an 18.3-meter core is collected, subsampled, and preserved under anoxic conditions to maintain its original redox state. Screening analyses are conducted at sampling increments of 5.08 cm in depth for the following: elemental concentrations with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), sediment pH, sediment oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), total volatile organic carbon (TVOC) in the sample headspace, and abundant bacteria (16S rRNA sequencing). Using the Fe and S gradients correlated with microbial data, five RTZs are delineated. To characterize iron mineral …

Late Quaternary Glacier Fluctuations At Picayune Lake, Northern California, Aidan Patrick Cowan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Klamath Mountains are a 233-km-long (north to south) mountain range located in northern California that shows extensive geomorphic evidence of Pleistocene glaciation. Within the Klamath’s there are many highland lakes, which record evidence of glacial deposition, one of which is Picayune Lake. Lake sediment data collected from Picayune Lake offers insights into the glaciation, and broader depositional history of the Picayune Lake Valley, as well as the climate history of the Klamath Mountains region. I measured magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition, and grain size in sediment cores and used radiocarbon dating to determine a chronology of glacier fluctuations in …

Chemical Characterization Of Clastic Cave Sediments And Insights Into Particle Transport And Storage In Karst Aquifers, Jill L. Riddell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Abstract

Chemical characterization of clastic cave sediments and insights into particle transport and storage in karst aquifers

Jill L. Riddell

Cave sediments can be divided into two groups: precipitates and clastics. Precipitates are speleothems, or lithologic or mineral features that are chemically precipitated in the cave environment. Clastic cave sediments are frequently described by depositional facies, sorting, and particle size (Bosch and White, 2004). Robust analytical chemical analyses of these sediments to quantify their physical and chemical components is rarely performed although some chemical characterization of mineralogy and paleomagnetism has become prevalent in recent years (Chess et al., 2010; Sasowsky …

Evidence For Middle Miocene Elevated Topography Isolating The Southern Klamath Mountains Province: A U-Pb & Lu-Hf Detrital Zircon Study Of The Weaverville Formation, Dana J. Christensen

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Klamath Mountains Province (KMP) records a robust history of active North American margin tectonics and crustal growth through the subduction-accretion of oceanic and island-arc terranes spanning Devonian through Cretaceous time. However, preservation of Cenozoic rocks is minimal, rendering the geologic record, topography, and tectonics during this timeframe difficult to reconstruct. The only Miocene terrestrial sedimentary unit that exists in the KMP is the fluvially deposited Tertiary Weaverville Formation (Tw) that is preserved in five fault-bounded basins in the southern part of the province. This study presents new uranium-lead (U-Pb) age data and epsilon hafnium (εHf) isotopic ratios from detrital …

The Legacy Of Contamination By Lead Smelters In Missouri, Robert S. Armstrong

MSU Graduate Theses

Missouri has a rich history of lead mining. In the smelting process lead particles are emitted, which may be toxic to plants and animals. This study focuses on two primary lead smelters, Herculaneum and Glover, in Missouri. Smelting operations have ceased at these two sites, and unlike Herculaneum, Glover has no reported lead concentrations. Findings from air and sediments of these two sites were compared to background conditions and to each other. Thirty-three samples were collected from Herculaneum and Glover (thirty samples and three replicates) and eleven samples (ten samples and one replicate) for background. For Herculaneum sediment, lead levels …

Sedimentary Dynamics And Water Quality In Floodplains Of The Lower Mississippi River Near Natchez, Mississippi, During The 2018 And 2019 Floods, Jansen Costello

Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) near Natchez, Mississippi, experienced intervals of major flooding during the 2018 and 2019 water years. While federal agencies sample sediment and water quality in the main LMR channel, little is known about sedimentary dynamics, water quality, and nutrient concentrations of the overbank water column within the embanked LMR floodplain. These data are needed to support ecological floodplain restoration efforts and provide context for downstream concerns including sediment delivery to coastal zones and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

This study monitored the overbank flood pulses and associated sediment deposition along the LMR embanked floodplain during …

Persistence Of Depositional Features In A Strongly Seasonal, Tide-Dominated Delta, Kallie Flaxington Brown

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta is one of the largest deltas in the world, covering more than 100,000 km². The GBM River system transports over one billion tons of sediment annually and delivers ~750 million tons to the Bay of Bengal, ~25% of which is advected by tides into the fluvially abandoned western delta plain. The Sundarbans National Forest (SNF) is located within the GBM Delta and, covering more than 10,000 km², is the world’s largest continuous mangrove stand. The present rate of sediment delivery allows the SNF platform elevation to keep pace with regional sea level …

Comparative Microbial Community Dynamics In A Karst Aquifer System And Proximal Surface Stream In Northwest Arkansas, Josue Rodriguez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Northwest Arkansas has well-developed karst systems, with numerous sinking streams and springs. Karst conduits make it easy for contaminants to enter groundwater systems, degrading the water quality and destroying fragile karst ecosystems. With the increase of urbanization, potential threats in the form of fecal contamination may prove to be more of a problem. The purpose of this research is to compare the difference between microbial communities within two different settings, a karst aquifer and a surface stream. The microbial communities within Blowing Spring Cave and Little Sugar Creek were detected and identified in water and sediment samples. Samples were also …

The Stability Of Sand Waves In A Tidally-Influenced Shipping Channel, Tampa Bay, Florida, John Willis Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tidally-influenced sandwaves are common coastal features present in various settings, including shipping channels. The main shipping channel in Tampa Bay under the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge (a.k.a. the Skyway Bridge) contains such sandwave bedforms. Between the years 2000 and 2017, these bedforms have been surveyed with multibeam echosounders (MBES) on 21 occasions with ranging coverage and quality of returns. Surveys between 2000 and 2009 used a 300 kHz Kongsberg EM3000; surveys between 2015 and 2017 used a 400 kHz Reson Seabat 7125. For comparable surveys, bathymetry, backscatter, slope, curvature, planform curvature, and profile curvature maps were created and analyzed. …

The Effects Of Forecasted Climate Change On Mass Wasting Susceptibility In The Nooksack River Basin, Kevin Knapp

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Nooksack River in Whatcom County, Washington­ is an essential fresh water resource for industry, agriculture, municipalities and serves as vital fish habitat. Like many mountainous watersheds in the western Cascades, the Nooksack Basin is susceptible to shallow mass wasting and debris flows because of its steep slopes, young glaciated terrain, and storms with high intensity precipitation. Understanding how projected reductions in snowpack and increased winter rainfall will affect mass-wasting susceptibility in the Nooksack basin is important, because sediment produced mass wasting will jeopardize valuable aquatic and fish habitat, increase flooding risk in the Nooksack River, and affect estuarine and …

The Effect Of Watershed Runoff And Sediment Resuspension On Turbidity And Sediment Deposition In St. John, Us Virgin Islands: Implications For Watershed And Marine Development And Restoration In Bays With Coral Reefs, Stephen E. Campbell

Theses

In the US Virgin Islands (USVI), land-based (terrigenous) sedimentation has been identified as a major cause of coral stress. Development, such as the building of unpaved roads in steep coastal watersheds, has increased sediment yields and marine terrigenous sedimentation by up to an order of magnitude above background levels. When activated during storm events, ephemeral streams transport sediment from the watershed to coastal waters. Once deposited on the seafloor, resuspension of benthic sediments can further increase turbidity and deposition. However, isolating the relative contributions of runoff and resuspension to turbidity and deposition using conventional sediment trap monitoring has been challenging. …

Role Of Sorting On The Composition Of Siliciclastic Sediment: Implications For Interpreting Provenance After Limited Transport In An Arid Climate, Forrest Christopher Driscoll

Masters Theses

This study tested whether transport distances (< 500 m) have the capacity to shape the geochemistry of sediments across multiple grain-size populations due to sorting derived from a single source. In the Stepladder Mountains, Mojave Desert, CA, a < 1 km² [square kilometers] watershed allows for a controlled study to understand how modern sediments acquire their composition from a single granodioritic source in an arid climate where there is no chemical weathering. Sediments are naturally sorted into distinct grain-size populations, with modes ranging from very fine sand to gravel within a single, alluvial channel. Sediment samples representative of each population were petrographically and geochemically analyzed in order to test the effectiveness of commonly used discrimination diagrams. Sediments became proportionally enriched in plagioclase and biotite and depleted in K-feldspar and quartz with decreasing grain …

Preservation And Sediment Cycling Beneath "Ghost Glaciers": How Cold-Based Ice Dictates Arctic Landscape Evolution, Lee Corbett

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Constraining past episodes of climate change and glacial response is critical for understanding future impacts of climate change, especially in the high latitudes where warming is expected to be rapid and most of Earth's glaciers exist. Many studies of past glacier size utilize rare isotopes called cosmogenic nuclides to perform surface exposure dating. Since most areas of Earth's surface that were previously glaciated were covered by erosive ice, which stripped away pre-existing cosmogenic nuclides, surface exposure dating yields the timing of the most recent deglaciation. However, in some high latitude areas where glacial ice is cold-based and non-erosive (so-called 'ghost …

Factors Affecting Terrigenous Sedimentation In Coastal Bays With Coral Reefs: Implications For Monitoring The Effectiveness Of Watershed Restoration, Whitney Sears

Theses

In the Caribbean, sedimentation has been identified as a serious threat to coral reef communities. Although land-based sediment delivery to coastal waters harboring coral reefs occurs under natural conditions, human activities in the watersheds above reefs increases the erosion and delivery of terrigenous sediment to the reefs. Delivery of terrigenous sediment into marine areas below developed watersheds affects sedimentation rates, alters the composition and texture of sediments that are suspended in the water column, and/or sediments that are deposited on the sea floor and on corals.

St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands is an ideal location to study the effects of …

Fluvial Responses To Growth Faulting In The West Pearl River, Louisiana, Stephen A. Prosser

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) in southeastern Louisiana is an actively deforming deltaic complex displaying surface and near-surface evidence of growth faulting. Active growth faults in these environments are rarely identified at the surface, in part because the downthrown blocks often experience increased rates of sediment deposition leading to an obscured and low-relief, or entirely absent, surface expression. Faulting can be expressed in fluvial systems as changes in channel gradient, which often result in coincident changes in channel sinuosity, migration rates, planform deflections, and/or ponding features within the deformed zone. The study area is focused on a meander bend of …

Quantifying Channel Responses To The Removal Of The Glines Canyon Dam In The Middle Reach Of The Elwha River, Washington, Bryon J. Free

All Master's Theses

Four different study sites throughout the middle reach of the Elwha River were monitored before, during, and after the dam removal process over a period of two years from 2012-2014. The complexity of the river geometry was a major factor in the ability of the river to trap and accumulate the new influx of woody debris and sediment from the dam removal, which influenced the response of the river channel. The change that occurred was quantified by using repeat Terrestrial LiDAR (TLS), sediment distribution surveys, and large woody debris mapping techniques. The morphologic changes that occurred during this time were …

Depositional Facies And Interpretation Of Salt-Sediment Interaction In The Lower Triassic Moenkopi Formation Adjacent To The Castle Valley Salt Wall, Paradox Basin, Utah, Ann Marie Foster

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stratigraphic, sedimentologic and compositional data collected from the Triassic Moenkopi Formation adjacent to the Castle Valley salt anticline, Paradox Basin, Utah indicate passive diapirism of the salt wall with well-developed topography and exposed salt during the Early Triassic. Moenkopi strata thin to 150m on to the Castle Valley salt anticline and thicken to an estimated 275m away from it, indicating control of sedimentation by salt-generated topography. The distribution of nine terrestrial facies assemblages within Moenkopi Formation strata on the margins of Castle Valley Salt Wall, in combination with identification of three halokinetic sequences interpreted from stratal architecture adjacent to the …

How Unusual Is Tropical Storm Irene? A Case Study Of Storm Deposition In Littleville Lake, Huntington, Ma, Catherine Dunn

Honors Papers

Tropical Storm Irene hit the northeastern United States in August 2011 with impressive rates of precipitation and river discharge. However, it was the combination of this heavy rain with high antecedent soil moisture that made Irene so unusual. The Connecticut River had a particularly high sediment yield after the storm, with a sediment concentration over 1,000 mg/L at the mouth of the river. Littleville Lake on the Westfield River was selected as a study site because of its flood control feature, which allows for the calculation of trapping efficiency in dammed rivers. Coring in the lake showed that there was …

Holocene Sedimentary Responses To Growth Faulting In A Back-Barrier Setting: East Matagorda Peninsula, Texas, Phillip Wolfe

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The structural framework of the northern Gulf of Mexico coastal zone is characterized by numerous growth fault systems. Neotectonic processes in coastal marshes in this region have been shown to be important drivers of relative sea-level rise as well as having significant influence on marsh accretion processes. One active growth fault has been identified at East Matagorda Peninsula, Texas. To characterize the Holocene behavior of this fault and the consequent sedimentary responses, a suite of fallout radionuclides (⁷Be, ¹³⁷Cs, ²¹⁰Pb) and radiocarbon, supplemented by sediment physical property data have been used to determine sediment mixing depths, …

The Effect Of Rainfall And Post-Revolutionary Land-Use Changes On Sediment Yield In Weixi Basin, Yunnan, China : New Insights From Multi-Temporal Land-Use Classification And Radionuclide Analyses, Yue Qiu

Honors Papers

This paper looks at the dynamic interphase connecting post-revolutionary politics, modern land use practices, precipitation patterns, basin slope, and sediment yield records in Weixi basin, a small mountainous watershed in Southwestern China with a total upstream area of 198 m2. The goal is to identify what processes, climatic or not, account for the changes in local sediment yield and erosion budget. Weixi basin has an average annual sediment yield of 175 ton/km2 with two anomalously large peaks in 1979 and 1984. Precipitation is moderately correlated with sediment yield at interannual scale. It also affects seasonal fluctuations in sediment yield as …

Sediment Impact On The Formation Of Hypoxic Waters In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico: A Synthesis Of Sediment Texture, Composition, Erodibility And Transport, Rangley Claude Mickey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Annual hypoxic events have been found to occur over the past several decades in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) and have prompted researchers to begin studying the mechanisms that control hypoxia formation so they may advise policy makers on the appropriate mitigating responses. This has led to the development of 3-dimensional modeling systems that incorporate marine physical, biological, geological, and chemical processes that may impact the formation and duration of hypoxic regimes in the nGOM. This study used field, laboratory, and modeling techniques to examine how sediment may be eroded from the seabed and where/how it is transported across …

Formation And Alteration Of Basaltic Soils On Mars, Ian Oliver Mcglynn

Doctoral Dissertations

The current surface of Mars is an arid inhospitable environment, dominated by aeolian processes, composed of largely volcanic rocks that have little apparent indication of pervasive aqueous chemical weathering, and blanketed by dust. Rocks are composed of basalts and the “soil” sediments appear to be largely basaltic-derived, and are chemically similar on a global scale. If the climate was once warmer and wetter during the Noachian period, with environmental conditions favorable to the development of life, physically weathered remnants, such as large quantities of phyllosilicate minerals, should remain. Basaltic soils provide a crucial constraint on chemical and physical weathering processes, …

The History Of Mining In Cerro De Pasco And Heavy Metal Deposition In Lake Junin Peru, Erin M. Delman

Honors Theses

Lake Junín covers 530-km2 and is located at 4,430-m in an intermontane basin between the eastern and western cordillera of the central Peruvian Andes. The lake sits between the large sulfide mining districts of La Oroya and Cerro de Pasco. Designated a National Reserve in 1974, Lake Junín drains northward to the Río San Juan, which joins the Río Mantaro within several kilometers of the lake. Dam construction by the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation on the Río Mantaro in 1932 caused the Río San Juan, the principal river draining Cerro de Pasco, to back up into the lake. Using …

Trap Efficiency Of A Silted Prairie Reservoir: Rapidan Reservoir, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, Katherine Brosch Rassmussen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Rapidan Dam and Reservoir are located along the Blue Earth River south of Mankato, Minnesota. The dam was constructed in 1911 as a source of hydroelectric power to supplement the surroundings communities. Currently, the reservoir is heavily silted and provides little hydroelectric benefit while proving costly to maintain. This study (1) defines the sedimentary, geomorphic, stream flow and suspended load characteristics of the reservoir for 2008-2009 and (2) compares these parameters with those available from 1985 (23 years prior). Stream gauging and sediment sampling took place in 2008 and 2009 at three monitoring locations (two upstream and one downstream of …

A Sedimentary Record Of Regional Land-Use And Climate Change In The Manatee River, Manatee County, Florida, Patrick Schwing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Manatee River Watershed (Manatee County, FL) has experienced heavy anthropogenic development over the last 100 years and was relatively pristine previous to this development. The population growth within the watershed has surpassed the national trends and has doubled in the last 30 years. The heavy anthropogenic development has led to depletion in natural resources, nutrient loading, coastal erosion, and increased pollution. This study constructs records of sedimentological processes to compare the pre-development records to the past 100 years of anthropogenic development. The first portion of this study identifies specific changes in sedimentation attributed to anthropogenic activity in the Manatee …

Spatial Similarities And Differences Of Attributes Of Three Subwatersheds Within The Middle Smoky Hill River Watershed And Their Relationship To Instream Total Suspended Solids, Dustin Fross

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to spatially analyze the attributes of three subwatersheds, Hydrological Unit Code 12 (HUC 12), of the Middle Smoky Hill River Watershed in west-central Kansas and relate the variances of the attributes to the concentrations of total suspended solids (TSS) entering the Smoky Hill River during storm events. This was accomplished by comparing land cover, including cropland, grassland, and urban factors; agricultural practices, such as tillage methods, condition of terraces, and the presence of grass waterways; geomorphology, including soil types, topography, and visible erosion; and lastly, precipitation variance. The three HUC 12s that were studied …

Sediment Flux Through The Rio Grande River: A Monsoonal Effect, Troy C. Hiatt

Theses and Dissertations

Climate has historically been recognized as an influence on sediment flux and deposition. The North American Monsoon is suggested as the forcing mechanism of deltaic progradational events of the Rio Grande River delta. Interpretations of reflection seismic profiles reveal that eustatic rise in sea-level from the Last Glacial Maximum to present is accompanied by several regressional events of the Rio Grande delta 5.5, 9.5, and 11.5 ka BP. Much of the migration of depositional facies within a delta system is forced by hinterland tectonics and base-level rise and fall. However, we suggest that the movement of facies within the Rio …