Architecture Of Extraction: Imagining New Modes Of Inhabitation And Reclamation In The Mining Lifecyle, Erica Dewitt

Masters Theses

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Mining is the primary method through which modern society obtains the minerals needed to fuel the global economy, provide for modern energy requirements, and support the built environment. Presently, mining accounts for nearly 1% of the global ice-free land surface, with a dramatic increase anticipated in the coming decades. Mining permanently changes and often destroys the pre-existing topography, hydrology, and ecology of the ground, and efforts to reclaim mining landscapes—with the aim of encouraging reforestation and soil replenishment—are often unsuccessful, rendering the land of abandoned mines both unusable and uninhabitable.

This thesis addresses the current state of mining in the …

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Size, Timing, And Landscape Impacts Of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods In The Channeled Scabland Of Eastern Washington, Usa, Karin E. Lehnigk

Doctoral Dissertations

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Extreme floods have dramatically altered landscapes on Earth and Mars through bedrock erosion, sediment deposition, and canyon formation. The Channeled Scabland of the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, USA, is perhaps the most striking example of such a landscape, where outburst floods from an ice-dammed glacial Lake Missoula eroded immense canyons and transported large volumes of sediment during the late Pleistocene. Despite advances in numerical modeling and geochemical exposure dating methods, it has remained a challenge to untangle the complex interactions between floodwater, bedrock, and glacial ice to link the size of a flood with its impact on the landscape. …

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Benjamin Smith Lyman: Geologist At The Intersection Of Hokkaido, Japan, And The United States, Benjamin Ashby

Masters Theses

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Benjamin Smith Lyman was a geologist from Northampton, Massachusetts, who was contracted by the Japanese government in 1872 to carry out coal surveys on the island of Hokkaidō 北海道. What started out as a standard geological survey, quickly evolved into a lifelong interest in Japan for Lyman. The large collection of letters, books, photographs, and other documents housed under the Benjamin Smith Lyman Collection at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, serve as a primary source on both early relations between the Japanese and the West and the beginnings of the large network of academic writings which today can be classified …

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Introduction To Oceanography – Honors (Geol 103h), Isla Casteneda

Sustainability Education Resources

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A general education course designed to acquaint you with the fascinating features of the nearly 71% of our home planet covered by water. These are broad themes that reflect the spirit and value of the general education curriculum that is a part of your UMass experience. As citizens of our small world, we would argue that everyone should take a course like this! With jet service to almost anywhere in the world, financial markets electronically and politically linked for “real time” transactions 24-7, and global populations striving to live as well as we do here in the U.S., it's important …

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Arctic And North Atlantic Paleo-Environmental Reconstructions From Lake Sediments, Gregory A. De Wet

Doctoral Dissertations

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ABSTRACT

ARCTIC AND NORTH ATLANTIC PALEO-ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS FROM LAKE SEDIMENTS MAY 2017 GREGORY A. DE WET, B.Sc., BATES COLLEGE M.Sc., UNIVERSITY OF MASSSCHUSETTS, AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST Directed by: Drs. Raymond S. Bradley and Isla S. Castañeda There are few fields in the discipline of Earth Science that hold more relevancy in 2017 than studies of earth’s climate. Called the “perfect problem” considering its complexity and magnitude, climate change will continue to be one of the greatest challenges humanity will face in the 21^st century. And while numerical models provide valuable information on conditions in the future, …

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

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

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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 21^st 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 …

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A Speleothem-Based High Resolution Reconstruction Of Climate In Southeastern Brazil Over The Past 4,100 Years, Brandon L. Taylor

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

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Isotopic investigations of speleothem CR1 from Cristal Cave in southeastern Brazil have established a high-resolution record of climate change extending 4,100 years prior to sample collection in 2007. A total of 14 subsamples were collected from CR1 for U/Th age determination. ICP-MS analysis yielded very precise ages with analytical errors (2σ) averaging ± 13 years. An initial growth rate of .062 mm y-1 for the first 2860 years is followed by a rate of .08 mm y-1 for the remaining growth period allowing for sampling of δ18O at sub-decadal resolution. Stable isotope analyses show a large range of δ18O values …

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Understanding The Depth And Nature Of Flow Systems In The Nashoba Terrane, Eastern Massachusetts, U.S.A., John P. Diggins

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

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Igneous and metamorphic rock units have long been considered marginal aquifers yet they are a significant source for potable drinking water in many areas worldwide. Additionally, use of these systems is on the rise due to many factors including, contamination and overuse of surficial systems, as well as expanding population and drought. The Nashoba Terrane is a fault-bounded block of high-grade, steeply dipping metavolcanic and metasedimentary rock located in eastern Massachusetts, U.S.A. The Nashoba is northeast trending, extending from Oxford, MA to the Gulf of Maine south of Newburyport, MA. Seventeen previously drilled wells throughout the Nashoba were selected for …

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Using The Oxidation State Of Iron Plagioclase To Evaluate Magma Oxygen Fugacity: A Micro-Xanes Study, Don Lac

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

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No abstract provided.

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Environmental Reconstructions From Laminated Lake Sediments, Lake C3, Ellesmere Island, Canadian High Arctic, Kathryn S. Zalzal

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

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Sediments in Lake C3, Ellesmere Island, Canada, contain annual laminations, providing a record of sediment accumulation for 1900+ years. Marine sediments are also present at base of cores, recording lake isolation following isostatic rebound of the Taconite Inlet region in the mid-Holocene. Beyond weak correlations with snowfall and summer temperature and precipitation, varve thickness comparisons with instrumental data were largely unsuccessful, likely due to turbidite-induced erosion. However, summer climate conditions are of key importance in varve thicknesses at many Arctic sites and we expect this to be true at Lake C3. Trends in the thickness record also correspond in approximate …

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Effects Of Anthropogenic Stage Fluctuations On Surface Water/Ground Water Interactions Along The Deerfield River, Massachusetts., Brandon J. Fleming

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

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Understanding the connection of surface waters to ground-water systems is important when evaluating potential water resources. In the past surface waters and ground-water have been viewed as two different sources of water but more commonly now they are viewed as one connected resource (Winter et al, 1998). The nature of connection between surface and ground-waters varies depending on climatic and geologic settings, as well as anthropogenic influences such as ground-water pumping and manipulation of river flows by dams. This thesis takes advantage of daily stage changes in the Deerfield River to investigate surface water interactions with ground-water in Charlemont, MA. …

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Arctic Gold, Alaska, Joel Halpern

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

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To armchair travelers, especially in the United States, few places have a stronger allure than far-off Alaska. Now that the "wild and woolly" west is really alive only so far as it serves to accentuate our historical heritage, this land of the far north has become our last frontier. To the geologist, mineralogist, and, I might add, even to the layman, one of the most interesting features of the territory is its large placer gold deposits. Every American boy has heard of the Nome gold rush, and the more literarily adventurous have undoubtedly delved into the sagas of Jack London. …

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Arctic Gold, Joel Halpern

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

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To armchair travelers, especially in the United States, few places have a stronger allure than far-off Alaska. Now that the "wild and woolly" west is really alive only so far as it serves to accentuate our historical heritage, this land of the far north has become our last frontier. To the geologist, mineralogist, and, I might add, even to the layman, one of the most interesting features of the territory is its large placer gold deposits. Every American boy has heard of the Nome gold rush, and the more literarily adventurous have undoubtedly delved into the sagas of Jack London. …

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Arctic Gold, Alaska, Joel Halpern

Joel M. Halpern

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To armchair travelers, especially in the United States, few places have a stronger allure than far-off Alaska. Now that the "wild and woolly" west is really alive only so far as it serves to accentuate our historical heritage, this land of the far north has become our last frontier. To the geologist, mineralogist, and, I might add, even to the layman, one of the most interesting features of the territory is its large placer gold deposits. Every American boy has heard of the Nome gold rush, and the more literarily adventurous have undoubtedly delved into the sagas of Jack London. …

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