Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Structural Interpretation Of An Alkaline-Carbonatite Complex Using Gravity And Magnetic Methods At Magnet Cove, Arkansas, Chelsea Morgan Amaral

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Magnet Cove alkaline-carbonatite complex in the Ouachita Mountains of south-central Arkansas could be a valuable resource for rare earth elements, though it has not yet been thoroughly studied using geophysical methods, and existing geophysical models simplify its diverse nature. Prior to this study, the subsurface structure and extent of the Magnet Cove complex was poorly understood and, in general, the process of emplacement of alkaline carbonatite complexes worldwide is also not fully understood. The Magnet Cove complex hosts an extensive variety of rare rock types and mineral resources that contrast significantly to the sedimentary rocks into which they have …

Subsurface Analysis Of Mississippian Tripolitic Chert In Northwest Arkansas, Thomas Jason Liner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 70 years the Mississippian strata of Northwest Arkansas have been studied in great detail. The study area is located on the escarpment between the Boston Mountains Plateau and the Springfield Plateau where a surface occurrence of Mississippian age rock allows for access to outcrops in close proximity to gas wells that encounter subsurface Mississippian strata. Many outcrops found in Northwest Arkansas expose Lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian-Osagean) strata that represent a full third order transgressive/regressive sequence that is unconformity bounded. These Mississippian outcrops are commonly treated as surface analogs to the Mississippi Lime Play in North Central Oklahoma. This …

Keeping Pace With Relative Sea Level Rise: Marsh Platform Monitoring Shows Minimal Sediment Deficit Along The Louisiana Coast, Kelly Marie Sanks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent reports estimate that the marshes of the Mississippi Delta receive just 30% of the sediment necessary to sustain current land area1. An extensive monitoring campaign by the USGS and LCPRA provides direct measurements of sediment accumulation, subsidence rates, and deposit characteristics along the coast over the past 10 years2, allowing us to directly evaluate this sediment balance. By interpolating bulk density, organic fraction, and vertical accretion rates from 273 sites, a direct measurement of organic and inorganic sediment accumulation can be made. Results show that a total of 82 MT/year of sediment is delivered to the coast. Using a …

Margaret White Springs Recharge Study, Buffalo National River, North-Central Arkansas, Usa, Ashlon Elizabeth Leonard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Margaret White Springs (MWS) is one of the largest springs in the middle section of the Buffalo National River (BNR) and contributes several tens of cubic feet per second of flow to river discharge on average, yet the source of the water has not been fully studied or documented. The spring is located approximately 4 miles downstream from Robertson Hole, a losing reach of the river. At Robertson Hole the river loses a significant amount of flow to groundwater, which during the dry season (summer) can be as much as 100%. Flow in the main channel is re-established at MWS; …

The Occurrence Of The Greta Sandstone, Frio Formation (Late Oligocene), Texas Gulf Coastal Plain, Sean C. Kincade

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Greta sandstone is an informal lithostratigraphic unit of the upper Frio Formation (Oligocene) that occurs across the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. The Greta sandstone has been known to geologists since it was first drilled in the 1930’s, yet there has been very little research into this un-depleted and overlooked reservoir. This study provides insights into the lateral distribution and reservoir facies of the Greta sandstone. The unit represents an aggradational to transgressive barrier sandstone package grading up to mud-rich open marine inner shelf deposits. The interval is easily recognizable in well logs based on its strong SP and Gamma-ray …

Structural Cross Sections And Subsurface Maps Of The Atoka Formation In The Northern Arkoma Basin, Western And Northwestern Arkansas, David Nance

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma Basin is one of several peripheral foreland basins situated on the front of the Ouachita orogenic fold and thrust belt. The transition from the foredeep to the Ozark Plateaus is a short one in terms of latitude. The Atoka Formation in Arkansas comprises the bulk of the sediments in the Arkoma Basin. Three divisions of the Atoka Formation have been informally assigned as the Upper, Middle, and Lower based on differences in sedimentary response to tectonic processes that occurred during the formation and subsidence of the Arkoma Basin. In the Arkansas portion of the Arkoma Basin, the lower …

Lost Names In The Paleozoic Lithostratigraphy Of Arkansas, Noah Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The geology of Arkansas has been studied for nearly 160 years, and our understanding of it is continually evolving. Part of this ever-changing study is the nomenclature of the stratigraphy. From the early reports to today, several lithostratigraphic names have been proposed and abandoned to improve the accuracy and clarity of the understanding of Arkansas’ geology. Over these 160 years of study, 214 names have been proposed for the Paleozoic beds of Arkansas, with nearly 80 of them currently in use today. These names are a testimony and legacy of the history of Arkansas’ natural resource development and Arkansas’ geologists. …

Early And Middle Atokan Lithostratigraphy And Reservoir Development, Northern Arkoma Basin, Northwestern Arkansas, Matthew Alan Blaylock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma Basin is a peripheral foreland arc basin associated with the Ouachita orogenic belt. In Arkansas, the basin is bounded by the Ouachita belt to the south and the Ozark Dome to the north. Sedimentary rocks of early to middle Atokan age are present in the shallow subsurface at the northern margin of the Arkoma Basin in northwestern Arkansas. Sedimentary units of this time interval reflect basinal subsidence, and the transition of the Arkoma Basin from a passive margin shelf to a rapidly evolving foreland arc basin. Sediment sources from the north and east produced a thickened Lower and …

Interpretation Of Late Cretaceous Volcanic Mounds And Surrounding Gulfian Series Formations Using 3d Seismic Data In Zavala County, Texas, Laura Claire Bennett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Late Cretaceous Gulfian series is a prominent and important series across the State of Texas that has been extensively studied since the nineteenth century. It is composed of series of southeast-dipping shelf carbonates and clastics deposited on the northwest margin of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. In south Texas, the Gulfian series was deposited in the Rio Grande Embayment and Maverick Basin and is comprised of the Eagle Ford Group, Austin Group, Anacacho Limestone, San Miguel Formation, Olmos Formation, and Escondido Formation that crop out and continue basinward in the subsurface. Late Cretaceous volcanism formed volcanic mounds composed of …

Analysis Of Paleokarst Sinkholes In The Arkoma Basin Using 3-D Seismic, Michael Kumbalek

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Paleokarst features are important to understand, both with regards to research geologists and to the petroleum industry. In terms of geology, understanding paleokarst features can yield more information about the depositional and surface environments of past times, and how diagenetic alteration affected the environment during the formation of karst features. In the petroleum industry, paleokarst features can have positive or negative consequence resulting in a potential reservoir with enhanced porosity due to the paleokarst features, or as a geo-hazard to prepare for or avoid when drilling.

Inspired by issues faced when drilling in the Ft. Worth basin, this study utilizes …

Subsurface Sequence Stratigraphy And Reservoir Characterization Of The Mississippian Limestone (Kinderhookian To Meramecian), South Central Kansas And North Central Oklahoma, Thomas Cahill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both conventional and unconventional Mississippian reservoirs in the mid-continent are largely comprised of chert-rich carbonates of Osagean and Meramecan age. The conventional reservoir target is the Mississippian "chat," a high porosity, chert residuum interval found immediately beneath the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformity. The unconventional reservoir target occurs in the lower porosity, cherty, mud-rich intervals that occur in the lower portion of the Mississippian succession.

There has been considerable debate surrounding the sequence stratigraphic interpretations, depositional models, and formation names applied to the reservoir intervals within the subsurface. Another major issue with regard to the subsurface is the stratigraphic position and origin of …

Application Of Detrital Zircon Geochronology To Determine The Sedimentary Provenance Of The Middle Bloyd Sandstone, Arkoma Shelf, Northern Arkansas, Greg Michael Buratowski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The sedimentary provenance of the middle Bloyd sandstone and subsequent sediment transport and dispersal patterns of the Early Pennsylvanian were interpreted by utilizing U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology. Eight middle Bloyd sandstone samples were analyzed. A total of 855 concordant analyses resulted. Peaks occurred at 350-500 Ma, 950-1200 Ma, 1300-1500 Ma, 1800-2300 Ma, and >2500 Ma. These peaks were determined to represent crystalline source rocks on the Laurentian craton from Acadian-Taconic, Grenville, Midcontinent Granite-Rhyolite, Yavapai-Mazatzal, Paleoproterozoic, and Archean Superior Provinces respectively. Grenville age zircons were the most common zircons identified in the middle Bloyd sandstone samples. The Appalachian Mountain region is …

Bedrock Geological Map Of The Rockhouse Quadrangle, Carroll And Madison Counties, Arkansas, Douglas Eben Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A digital geologic map of the Rockhouse quadrangle, Carroll and Madison counties, Arkansas, was created on a 1:24,000 scale using ArcMap 10 and Photoshop CS4. The data obtained in the field are digitized onto the United States Geological Survey (USGS) digital raster graphic (DRG) of the Rockhouse quadrangle. The geology in the Rockhouse quadrangle consist entirely of sedimentary rocks that are Paleozoic ranging from Lower Ordovician to Mississippian in age. The Ordovician System is represented by the Cotter, Powell, Everton, and St. Peter Formations. The Cotter and Powell are the prominent bluff forming units throughout the quadrangle and along the …

Prediction And Management Of Sediments Load And Phosporus In The Beaver Reservoir Watershed Using A Geographic Information System, J. M. Mckimmey, H. D. Scott

Technical Reports

A study was conducted to compile a GIS database for the Beaver Reservoir Watershed and then use the database to run the Universal Soil Loss Equation and the Phosphorus Index Model on the War Eagle Creek Watershed, a portion of the Beaver Reservoir Watershed database. Characterization of the spat i a 1 properties of the primary attributes compiled for the watershed were reported. In addition, water quality samples taken from War Eagle Creek were analyzed for relationships across the watershed. Erosion in the watershed was lower than expected with well vegetated and fertilized pastures contributing to the reduction of annual …

Gis Characterization Of Beaver Watershed, H. D. Scott, J. M. Mckimmey

Technical Reports

Beaver Reservoir watershed is located in Northwest Arkansas including portions of Madison, Washington, Benton, Carroll, Franklin and Crawford counties. This watershed is important to the Northwest Arkansas region because it supplies most of the drinking water for the major towns and cities, and several rural water systems. The watershed consists of 308,971 ha with elevations ranging from approximately 341 m to 731 m above mean sea level. It includes the Springfield Plateau and the Boston Mountains provinces within the Ozark Plateau physiographic region. There are approximately 581 km of streams, 532 km of shore line, and 3712 km of roads …

Geology For The Layman, James O. Staggs

Annual of the Arkansas Natural Resources Law Institute

The first thing that an individual must thoroughly understand, is that geology is not an exact science. This may be strange for a geologist to say, but it is very similar to the profession of law in that any set of data may be and is usually interpreted differently by individual lawyers. We geologist start with some known facts (sometime geological), make assumptions, and then intrepret into the unknown. It is this interpretation that separates a successful geologist from a geologist. A successful oil finding geologist is a geologist that has developed this interpretation of geological facts into an art. …