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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Surface Alteration In The Ölkelduháls, Nesjavellir, And Geysir Hydrothermal Systems, Iceland: Implications For Mars, Jordan Ludyan
Surface Alteration In The Ölkelduháls, Nesjavellir, And Geysir Hydrothermal Systems, Iceland: Implications For Mars, Jordan Ludyan
Theses and Dissertations
Silica- and sulfate-rich deposits observed by Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit near Home Plate, Gusev crater, Mars, indicate alteration of Mars basalt by a diverse array of hydrothermal fluids and processes. Constraining the precise fluid conditions present at the time of deposition for these deposits on Mars relies on investigations of terrestrial hydrothermal systems that produce similar mineral assemblages. Alteration products and fluids collected from the Ölkelduháls, Nesjavellir, and Geysir hydrothermal areas in southern Iceland cover a wide range of end-member and intermediate fluid and alteration environments, and provide a means to compare the secondary minerals produced from different hydrothermal …
Sediment Provenance Of Tsunami Deposits: Implications For Assessing The Relative Intensity Of Paleotsunamis From The Sendai Coastline Of Japan, Tiffany Otai
Master's Theses
The 2011 Tohoku tsunami impacted the northeastern coast of Japan and caused unexpected damages due to the underestimation of this type of hazard. Of particular importance is the fact that geologic evidence for a predecessor event, the Jogan tsunami (CE 869), could have forecasted the severity of the 2011 Tohoku event. While the timing of tsunamis is important for effective hazard mitigation, outside of the 2011 Tohoku event, the intensity of past tsunamis remains unclear. To understand paleotsunami intensity, it is important to document characteristics of modern analogues like the 2011 event. This study utilizes surface distributions of foraminifera from …
Visualizing Effects Of Changing Base Level On Tributary Resources In Lake Powell Reservoir, Madeline Friend
Visualizing Effects Of Changing Base Level On Tributary Resources In Lake Powell Reservoir, Madeline Friend
All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023
Lake Powell reservoir is the second-largest reservoir in the United States. As climate change reduces watershed runoff in the Colorado River Basin, questions arise about the management and even existence of Lake Powell. If lake levels continue to drop, what will the emerging canyon look like and what value will we assign it? Lake Powell traps all incoming fine sediment from the Colorado River, the San Juan River, and many smaller tributaries. What is the fate of this sediment under falling reservoir levels and how will it influence other resources? To support a robust public discourse, we provide an immersive …
A Study Of The Anthropogenic Impact In Farmington Bay Through Isotopic And Elemental Analysis, Nathan Vaun Gunnell
A Study Of The Anthropogenic Impact In Farmington Bay Through Isotopic And Elemental Analysis, Nathan Vaun Gunnell
Theses and Dissertations
The influence of human activity on surrounding environments is an important field of research. With respect to aquatic settings, lacustrine deposits provide excellent proxies of environmental change since the sediment accumulates at a relatively constant rate, recording environmental change. This study employs isotopic, mineral, and chemical records from Farmington Bay freeze cores, in particular δ13C, δ15N, and 210Pb isotopes as well as phosphorus level fluctuation and trace metal analysis. In particular, 210Pb isotopes permit estimation of the age of sediment with depth and δ15N, δ13C, and concentration of P provides a record of changing nutrient sources and level of eutrophication. …
Pumice Compositions And Mineral Chemistry From Lascar Volcano, Chile, Madelaine M. Stearn
Pumice Compositions And Mineral Chemistry From Lascar Volcano, Chile, Madelaine M. Stearn
MSU Graduate Theses
Lascar volcano is one the most active volcano in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andean Cordillera, with 36 Holocene eruptions including a VEI 4 eruption in April 1993. Activity has not been consistent throughout time, and therefore, the processes behind it are poorly understood. Lascar volcano has cyclic behavior and has had four stages of activity, each of which had a unique eruptive style and product composition. Stage I (<43 >ka) had primarily mafic andesite lavas erupted effusively from a stratocone. Stage II initiated with dome building events ESE of the original vent and culminated in the 26.45 ka …
Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt
Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt
Senior Independent Study Theses
The Carmel Formation of the Middle Jurassic has many mysteries. One of these enigmas is its bivalves. The formation contains the famous oyster balls called ostreoliths. Despite bivalves making up 80 percent of the fossils found in the Carmel Formation, it is not understood how the bivalves lived in this community. The formation is located in southwestern and central Utah. It was deposited when an epicontinental seaway covered most of Utah. The paleoclimate of Utah was hot and dry, which meant that the environment was evaporite heavy. This also meant that the seawater at the southernmost extent of the seaway …
Supra-Salt Syndepositional Folding Within The Jurassic Morrison Formation, Big Gypsum Valley, Colorado, Alondra Soltero
Supra-Salt Syndepositional Folding Within The Jurassic Morrison Formation, Big Gypsum Valley, Colorado, Alondra Soltero
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
The Paradox Basin, along the Utah and Colorado border, exposes salt diapirs that form elongate "salt walls". Most exposures of sediments that were deposited during salt movement are hundreds of meters from the contacts. However, in the southeastern part of the Gypsum Valley diapir, a set of tight folds within the Jurassic Morrison Formation are preserved along the diapir margins where they overlie salt. These are best exposed at the southeastern end of Big Gypsum Valley. Previous interpretations suggested that the Morrison Formation folding and faulting occurred during dissolution of the diapir. However, field mapping reported here reveals that the …
Paleoenvironments Containing Coryphodon In The Fort Union And Willwood Formations Spanning The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Petm), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Emily N. Randall
Paleoenvironments Containing Coryphodon In The Fort Union And Willwood Formations Spanning The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Petm), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Emily N. Randall
Senior Independent Study Theses
Preliminary data point toward a new hypothesis in which Coryphodon lived in wetter habitats before the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), but was able to adapt to drier habitats in order to survive post-PETM. Early Paleogene nonmarine strata are extensively exposed in the Bighorn Basin of northwestern Wyoming. The Fort Union and Willwood Formations represent alluvial deposition within a Laramide Basin formed from the Paleocene through early Eocene. Therefore, the basin is an ideal place to study the local effects of the PETM, a rapid global warming event that occurred about 55.5 million years ago at the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. During this …
Quantifying Contributions To The Variance Of Permeability And Porosity Within The Western Belt Sandstones Of The Cypress Formation, Illinois Basin, Nathaniel Frederick Dulaney
Quantifying Contributions To The Variance Of Permeability And Porosity Within The Western Belt Sandstones Of The Cypress Formation, Illinois Basin, Nathaniel Frederick Dulaney
Browse all Theses and Dissertations
One of the strategies for reducing the emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and mitigating its accumulation into the Earth’s atmosphere is geologic sequestration (GSCO2). This process might be paired with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) within depleted oil reservoirs to provide an economic incentive for GSCO2. Heterogeneity within reservoirs (e.g. spatial differences in entry pressure, permeability, and porosity) can exert significant influence on the dynamics of fluid flow during EOR and GSCO2, and thus on the ultimate success of GSCO2-EOR. The Western Belt sandstones of the Cypress Formation in the Illinois Basin are candidate reservoirs for GSCO2-EOR. Heterogeneity …
The Hydrostatics And Hydrodynamics Of Prominent Heteromorph Ammonoid Morphotypes And The Functional Morphology Of Ammonitic Septa, David Joseph Peterman
The Hydrostatics And Hydrodynamics Of Prominent Heteromorph Ammonoid Morphotypes And The Functional Morphology Of Ammonitic Septa, David Joseph Peterman
Browse all Theses and Dissertations
Ammonoid cephalopods have chambered shells that regulated buoyancy. The morphology of their shells strongly influenced the physical properties acting on these animals during life. Heteromorph ammonoids, which undergo changes in coiling throughout ontogeny, are the focus of this dissertation. The biomechanics of these cephalopods are investigated in a framework involving functional morphology, paleoecology, and possible modes of life. Constructional constraints were investigated for the marginally-corrugated septal walls within the chambered ammonoid shell. These constraints governed the positive relationship between septal complexity and terminal size. Furthermore, increased septal complexity facilitated liquid retention via surface tension. More complex septa would have increased …
Fluvial Sedimentology And Architecture Of Two Latest Devonian Lower Huntley Mountain Formation Outcrops, North-Central Pennsylvania, Usa, Evan W. Filion
Fluvial Sedimentology And Architecture Of Two Latest Devonian Lower Huntley Mountain Formation Outcrops, North-Central Pennsylvania, Usa, Evan W. Filion
Honors Theses
Thick successions of river deposits accumulated in the north-central Pennsylvania region of the Appalachian foreland basin during Late Devonian time (~380-360 Ma). The properties and morphologies of these paleorivers are not well characterized. Latest Devonian tectonic, climatic, and eustatic controls on river dynamics and basin infilling also remain unclear. This study assesses the sedimentology, facies architecture, paleochannel depths, and grain size of a 133 m thick section of fluvial strata exposed across two outcrops, Blossburg South (older) and Blossburg West (younger), mapped as lower Huntley Mountain Formation near Blossburg, Pennsylvania. Field-based lithofacies observations, high-resolution panoramic photography, terrestrial lidar scanning, and …
Development Of A Synthesis Method For O2-Releasing Compound For Microbiological Experiments, Danae Greco
Development Of A Synthesis Method For O2-Releasing Compound For Microbiological Experiments, Danae Greco
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
Many celestial bodies within our solar system may have habitable environments due to the presence of liquid water. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, may be habitable because of its liquid ocean and other potentially biologically favorable conditions. The ocean on Europa is hypothesized to contain large amounts of oxidants and low pH due to the radiolytically processed icy ocean shell. This suspected environment on Europa is similar to the composition of acid mine drainage on Earth, which can house microbial communities in environments of extreme acidity. Similar chemical reactions in Europa’s ocean may occur to produce the appropriate reduction-oxidation gradients …
Wave Runup And Morphologic Change On A Mixed-Sediment Beach In The Salish Sea, Wa, Avery Maverick
Wave Runup And Morphologic Change On A Mixed-Sediment Beach In The Salish Sea, Wa, Avery Maverick
WWU Graduate School Collection
A primary threat to coastal regions is extreme water levels from tides, storm surges, and waves which drive coastal evolution. Predicting wave runup, the vertical extent of wave uprush on a beach above still water level, and the morphologic responses to storms within the Salish Sea is complex because of the high variability of shoreline exposure to waves and wind, morphology, coastal landforms, and tide range across the region. As part of a USGS study, this project was designed to assess how wave energy offshore drives runup, validate existing runup models (van der Meer, 2002; Stockdon et al., 2006; Didier …