Earth Sciences Commons^™

The Forestry Reclamation Approach: Measuring Sediment Mass Accumulation Rates In Reclaimed Mine Lands And Naturally Regenerated Logged Forests Of Eastern Kentucky, William E. Bond

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The spread of surface coal mining has resulted in loss of forests in the Appalachian region. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) was developed to provide guidance for restoring forests on reclaimed mined land. This study hypothesizes that the FRA will result in larger magnitude of sediment accumulation rates in reclaimed mine sites compared to those reclaimed using grassland reclamation. Three sediment cores and six trenches were sampled within four reclaimed mined and three previously logged sites in eastern Kentucky. Samples were processed for radionuclides, grain-size, stable isotopes (δ¹³C), and POC. LIDAR data were used to identify valley …

The Links Between Gulf Of Mexico Seafloor Characteristics And Petroleum Hydrocarbons Following The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Kimberly J. Schindler

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Gulf of Mexico (GoMx) is among the most productive regions for offshore oil and natural gas recovery. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) drilling rig exploded, burned for three days, sank, and released over 4 million barrels of oil in the subsequent 84 days before it was capped. Some oil was buoyant enough to float to the ocean surface, where some was removed via a myriad techniques. Importantly, a plume of oil remained suspended in the water column at approximately 1,100 m water depth, where it drove a marine snow event, and deposited large quantities of oil on the …

A Joint Xrf-Δ13CCarb Chemostratigraphic Approach For Characterizing Paleo-Environmental Processes In The Mudstone-Dominated Wolfcamp Formation Of West Texas, Frank Tamakloe

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Late Paleozoic Ice Age represents a dynamic period in Earth system history recording a shift from icehouse to greenhouse conditions. Concomitant with this change was a series high-frequency, high-amplitude sea level fluctuations leading to the deposition of “Kansas type” cyclothems in the Mid-Continent, and a similar rhythmic expression of interbedded shales and carbonates in the Midland Basin. Stable isotope geochemistry is a particularly powerful tool when examining these mud-rich successions because changes in organic matter partitioning may be recorded first in δ¹³C_DIC of sea-water and consequently in δ¹³C_carb of marine rocks. The δ …

Testing For Sedimentary Recycling Using Detrital Monazite Geochronology, Zircon “Double Dating”, And Textures In Pennsylvanian Arenites Of The Central Appalachian Basin, Eastern Kentucky: Implications For Single Mineral Sedimentary Provenance Analysis, Steve C. Zotto

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Detrital monazite Th-Pb and detrital zircon U-Pb and U-Th/He double-dating coupled with sandstone petrography and exhumation rates can be used to test for sediment recycling in Pennsylvanian sandstones within the Alleghenian clastic wedge. The Alleghenian clastic wedge is a logical system in which to test for sediment recycling as four major collisional events (Grenville, Taconic, Acadian and Alleghenian orogenies) likely reworked the continental margin and recycled siliciclastic sediment. The combination of these geochronologic and thermochronologic methods provide a more accurate assessment of the proportion of recycled sediment in the Grundy Formation (sublitharenite) and the Corbin Sandstone (quartz arenite), which past …

Effects Of Depositional Processes On Strength And Compressibility Of Sediments Using Elastic Shear Wave Velocity, Wisam Razzaq Muttashar

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Depositional processes are the most critical, complicated conditions that govern sediment properties and their variations, which in turn significantly affect the geotechnical behavior of the sediment. The complexity of depositional and post-depositional processes, which results in a variety of depositional environments, makes constructing a plausible model for the consolidation process of sediments difficult. The mutual influence between the temporal and spatial variation of depositional environments with their resultant physical and mechanical properties cause several compression issues, such as consolidation settlement and land subsidence, which mostly occur in estuarine-riverine regions throughout the world.

The first aim of this study is proposing …