Earth Sciences Commons^™

Strontium, Lead, And Oxygen Isotopic Signatures Of Mid-Miocene Silicic Volcanism In Eastern Oregon, Emily Nancy Hess

Dissertations and Theses

Widespread, mid-Miocene rhyolite volcanism of eastern Oregon that are coeval or slightly postdate flood basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Province allows for mapping crustal domains using radiogenic and stable isotopes. Rhyolites are thought to be derived in large part by partial melting of the crust and thus yield direct information on the composition of the crust. Silicic volcanism is expressed in the form of numerous domes and tuffs exposed over a wide area (~300 km in N-S dimension and ~200 km in E-W dimension) west of the presumed craton boundary, which runs parallel but mostly east of the Oregon-Idaho …

Neogene Stratigraphy And Paleogeographic Evolution Of The Karaburun Area, İzmi̇r, Western Turkey, Fikret Göktaş

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

The western margin of the Foça Depression (FD) is located in the NE of the Karaburun Peninsula. Terrestrial Neogene sediments in the study area which partly representing the western margin of the FD and the mafic volcanics have NW-SE directions towards ‹zmir bay and are separated from the basement rocks by synthetic normal faults. During the Miocene deposition the basin’s boundaries became structurally narrower and two main sedimentary successions have been defined namely the Karaburun group and the Eflendere group which have been separated with angular unconformity in regional scale. The Karaburun group is represented with dominantly lacustrine deposition in …

Allostratigraphy Of The Upper Ordovician Blue Mountain Formation, Southwestern Ontario, Canada, Sarah N. Sweeney

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Upper Ordovician units in Southwestern Ontario record the distal response to the development of the Taconic Appalachian foreland basin. The proximal representation in Ohio and Pennsylvania, contain the Utica/Point Pleasant Play (!). The relationship between the proximal and distal portions of the Taconic Appalachian foreland basin is not clearly defined due to limited chronostratigraphic data and only lithostratigraphic correlations in southwestern Ontario. The first step in evaluating the relationship between the Upper Ordovician succession in Ontario and that in the United States is to develop a high frequency allostratigraphic framework that can be integrated and compared to the frameworks …

Field Trip Guidebook For The Nebraska Well Drillers Association, Duane A. Eversoll, Matt Joeckel, Lee Orton

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Paleoceanography And Paleoenvironmental Changes Of The Cenomanian-Turonian Boundary Interval (94-93 Ma): The Record Of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 In The Central And Eastern Parts Of The Western Interior Sea, Khalifa Elderbak

Doctoral Dissertations

The Cenomanian/Turonian (C/T) boundary marine strata of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea (WIS) exhibit a positive carbon isotopic excursion in the bulk-carbonate and organic carbon. This marks Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE 2), which spans the uppermost part of the Hartland Shale and one-third of the overlying Bridge Creek Limestone members of the Greenhorn Formation and their equivalents. The interval is characterized by alternating beds of light-colored limestone and dark-colored marlstone and calcareous shale. These lithologic couplets have been related to Milankovitch orbital cyclicity. Foraminiferal assemblages from three selected sites, including the C/T boundary Global Boundary Stratotype Section and …

Peat As An Archive Of Remote Mercury Deposition In The Hudson Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada, William James Goacher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Peat from the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) in Northern Ontario, Canada was used to reconstruct historical accumulation of mercury (Hg) over more than 7000 years before present. Nine cores, many with previously published paleoclimate studies, were analyzed for Hg and accumulation rates were calculated. Anthropogenic Hg enrichment factors were calculated based on accumulation rates. A more exclusive calculation of the anthropogenic enrichment factor corroborates modelling efforts that have suggested re-cycling legacy Hg is a much greater contributor to present day deposition than previously thought, but not prior to ~500 cal yrs BP. An older pre-industrial record provides a better background …

Using Strat Columns To Interpret Sequence Stragraphy Of Glacial Driven Stream Deposits Of The Acient San Joaquin River, Kyle R. Scharton

STAR Program Research Presentations

The sedimentary deposits of the ancient San Joaquin River tell the story of river flow through three glacial periods. A strat column shows vertical changes in deposition throughout an outcrop. It can be used to extrapolate the energy level of the flow, and other features of the river at different depositional environments. By looking at trends through the column it is possible to determine how the river’s flow changed through time. Variances in the gravel size and whether it supports itself or is held together by the surrounding sand matrix give clues as to the rate of flow and how …

The Significance Of Dolomitized Hunton Strata In The Kinta And Bonanza Fields Of The Arkoma Basin, Christopher William Trotter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Hunton Group has been a prolific hydrocarbon-producing reservoir across much of Oklahoma and western Arkansas. The group is a Silurian-Devonian aged interval that is comprised of sequences of limestone, dolomite, and calcareous shale. The group is divided into several formations. The subdivisions include the Chimneyhill Subgroup, Henryhouse, Haragan and Bois d'Arc Formations. Reservoir quality in the Hunton Group is significantly dependent upon the diagenetic events and depositional environments of the sediments. Most hydrocarbon production, from within the Hunton Group, comes from members that have undergone dolomite replacement of the parent limestone.

The higher amounts of porosity and permeability are …

Tempestites In A Teapot? Condensation-Generated Shell Beds In The Upper Ordovician, Cincinnati Arch, Usa., Benjamin F. Dattilo, Carlton E. Brett, Thomas J. Schramm

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Skeletal concentrations in mudstones may represent local facies produced by storm winnowing in shallow water, or time-specific deposits related to intervals of diminished sediment supply. Upper Ordovician (Katian) of the Cincinnati region is a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession including meter-scale cycles containing a shelly limestone-dominated phase and a mudstone-dominated phase. The “tempestite proximality model” asserts that shell-rich intervals originated by winnowing of mud from undifferentiated fair-weather deposits. Thus shell beds are construed as tempestites, while interbedded mudstones represent either fair-weather or bypassed mud. Meter-scale cycles are attributed to sea-level fluctuation or varying storm intensity. Alternatively, the “episodic starvation model” argues, on …

Paleoenvironments And Geochemical Signals From The Late Barremian To The Middle Aptian In A Tethyan Marginal Basin, Northeast Spain: Implications For Carbon Sequestration In Restricted Basins, Yosmel Sanchez Hernandez Mr.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hallmark of oceanic anoxic event 1a (OAE1a) (early Aptian ~125 Ma) corresponds to worldwide deposition of black shales with total organic carbon (TOC) content > 2% and a d¹³C positive excursion up to ~5‰. OAE1a has been related to large igneous province volcanism and dissociation of methane hydrates during the Lower Cretaceous. However, the occurrence of atypical, coeval and diachronous organic-rich deposits associated with OAE1a, which are also characterized by positive spikes of the d¹³C in epicontinental to restricted marine environments of the Tethys Ocean, indicates localized responses decoupled from complex global forcing factors.

The present …

Sedimentological And Stratigraphic Study Of A Falling-Stage Delta Complex In The Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Ferron Sandstone Member Of The Mancos Shale, South-Central Utah, Usa, Fares Alaboud

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The character and distribution of lithofacies in falling-stage deltas are incompletely documented. This paper presents a sedimentological and stratigraphic evaluation of a superbly-exposed interval of Cretaceous deltaic strata that are believed to be of falling stage origin. The studied interval forms part of the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale in the southernmost Henry Mountains Basin of south-central Utah, USA. The interval of interest is exposed in three dimensions over a 20 km² area in a series of canyon walls. Observed facies include fine-grained mudrocks (offshore basin), mudrocks with thinly interlaminated sandstone (prodelta), thinly interbedded …

Origin And Distribution Of The Mississippian – Pennsylvanian Boundary Unconformity In Marine Carbonate Successions With A Case Study Of The Karst Development Atop The Madison Formation In The Bighorn Basin, Wyoming., Lucien Nana Yobo

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The causal mechanism of the widespread unconformity that encompasses the Mississippian – Pennsylvanian boundary remains poorly understood. This unconformity, first thought to be restricted to North America, is now known to be present in other regions of the globe. Possible causes for the unconformity include (1) sea level draw down from the onset of glaciation at start of the late Paleozoic ice age and (2) increased tectonic activity from the formation of the supercontinent of Pangea. Thus the origin of the unconformity is still poorly constrained.

This study examines possible causal mechanisms for the widespread unconformity that encompasses the Mississippian …

Neogene Stratigraphy Of The Northern Part Of Karaburun Peninsula, Fikret Göktaş

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

The terrigenous Neogene lithology in north of Karaburun peninsula is represented by Lower-
Middle Miocene rock units which are cut and bounded by NW-SE trending synthetic faults.
Dominant lacustrine sedimentation (Haseki and Hisarc›k formations) of Early-Middle Miocene
period which was separated by upper and lower regional unconformities, and the Early Miocene
mafic volcanism (Karaburun volcanites) were studied within the scope of Karaburun group.
Haseki formation which reflects Early Miocene sedimentation begins with fills of alluvial fan of
the Salman member and is basically formed by algal-biostromal Yeniliman limestone and
lacustrine deposits of Aktepe member. With synsedimentary emplacement of the 1st …

The University Of Nebraska State Museum, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

I first walked through the doors of Morrill Hall on the main or City Campus of the University of Nebraska on a day late in August of 1962 and thought that I had entered paleontology heaven. Morrill Hall then housed the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM). most of the Geology Department, and some other parts of university units. I was a new graduate student hoping to pursue research in invertebrate paleontology in the Department of Geology and was on my way to see the department chairman for the first time. When I entered the building I walked through a …

An Analysis Of The Green Knoll Salt Dome, Located In The Southeast Green Canyon, Deep Water Gulf Of Mexico, Randal J. Broussard

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The western portion of the Mississippi/Atwater fold belt in the Gulf of Mexico contains what is known as The Green Knoll Salt Dome. The creation and growth of this salt diapir is punctuated by salt deposition, salt migration, sediment loading, and is linked to the “Frampton” fold belt. An indicator of these growth periods is exhibited in an angular unconformity (halo-kinetic sequence boundary) that flanks the diapir. This unconformity developed during the Miocene-Pliocene chronostratigraphic boundary. The “Redwood” (Green Canyon 1001) prospect was drilled after the discovery of middle Miocene sands containing hydrocarbons in the Mad Dog field (GC 826). The …

Combining Quantitative Eye-Tracking And Gis Techniques With Qualitative Research Methods To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of 2d And Static, 3d Karst Visualizations: Seeing Through The Complexities Of Karst Environments, Elizabeth Katharyn Tyrie

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Karst environments are interconnected landscapes vulnerable to degradation. Many instances of anthropogenic karst disturbance are unintentional, and occur because of the public's lack of understanding or exposure to karst knowledge. When attempts are made to educate the general public about these landscapes, the concepts taught are often too abstract to be fully understood. Thus, karst educational pursuits must use only the most efficient and effective learning materials. A technique useful for assessing educational effectiveness of learning materials is eye-tracking, which allows scientists to quantitatively measure an individual's points of interest and eye movements when viewing a 2D or 3D visualization. …

Structural And Stratigraphic Transition From The Arkoma Shelf Into The Arkoma Basin During Basin Subsidence; Arkoma Basin, Northwest Arkansas, Elizabeth Whitney Studebaker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma basin is an arcuate Paleozoic structural feature in the Ouachita foreland that extends from central Arkansas and westward into southeastern Oklahoma. The Arkoma shelf lies immediately north of the basin and is comprised of Cambrian to Pennsylvanian age sedimentary rocks. In northwestern Arkansas, the stratigraphic and structural transition from the shelf into the northern portion of the Arkoma basin is poorly defined.

Wireline logs were used to construct a series of three north to south cross sections, as well as two along-strike west to east cross sections to examine Morrowan and lower Atokan age strata. In addition to …

Porosity Development Within Lobes To Downslope Ramp Deposits On A Prograding Carbonate Shelf Of The Kinderhookian To Osagean Series In Northwest Arkansas, Elizabeth Marchese

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Carbonate bodies with lobate geometries form a substantial part of the Osagean (early Mississippian) section in northwest Arkansas. The purpose of this study is to isolate and describe a single lobe from three-dimensional exposures in quarry walls to provide criteria by which lobe and lobe porosity can be recognized in the subsurface. Carbonate sediment generated on the Mississippian Burlington shelf moved southward by gravity flows from the shelf margin to positions on a prograding ramp in Arkansas where overlapping deposits with lobate geometries accumulated. These deposits are recognized in outcrops of the Boone Formation. Stratigraphic units within the Boone are …

Depositional History And Stratigraphic Framework Of Upper Cretaceous (Campanian To Maastrichtian) Strata In The Minerva-Rockdale Oil Field Of Milam County And Adjacent Counties, Texas., Adam Thomas Martin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

First discovered in 1921, the Minerva-Rockdale Oil Field (MROF) has experienced a recent resurgence of drilling. The targeted Navarro Group is Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in age and ranges in depth from approximately 100 to 3000+ ft. (subsea). Several thin elongated sandy zones within the Kemp clay of the Corsicana (Navarro) Formation, are the current targets for oil production. These sandy zones are informally divided into the Navarro `A' and `B' and their depositional morphology is described by the shelf plume model, as proposed by Patterson (1983).

Despite the mature nature of the MROF and surrounding area, only a small number …

Structure And Stratigraphy Of A Complex Anticlinal Feature, Backbone Anticline, Arkoma Basin, Arkansas, Shailyn Marie Abbott

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma Basin of Arkansas and Oklahoma formed in the Ouachita foreland during the late Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods (about 290-to 330 million years ago). The basin developed in response to convergent tectonic boundaries that closed obliquely from west to east associated with Ouachita orogenic event. The Backbone anticline in the northern Arkoma Basin is a prominent product of this convergence, and represents the first major component of this study. The structure is asymmetric with beds on the southern limb dipping steeply to the south. It is also expressed topographically as a prominent ridge that trends eastward from the Oklahoma-Arkansas …

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 …

Architecture, Heterogeneity, And Origin Of Late Miocene Fluvial Deposits Hosting The Most Important Aquifer In The Great Plains, Usa, R. Matthew Joeckel, Steve R. Wooden Jr., Jesse T. Korus, Jon Garbisch

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Ash Hollow Formation (AHF) of the Ogallala Group is an important sedimentary archive of the emergence of the Great Plains and it contains major groundwater resources. Stratal patterns of constituent alluvial lithofacies demonstrate that the AHF is much more heterogeneous than is commonly assumed. Very fine- to fine-grained sandstone dominate overall, chiefly lithofacies Sm (massive to locally stratified sandstone). Stacked, thin sheets of Sm with accretionary macroform surfaces are common, indicating that many sandstone architectural elements originated as compound-bar deposits in dominantly sand-bed streams. Channel forms are difficult to identify and steep cutbanks are absent. Multiple units of lithofacies …

Changes In Beach Gravel Lithology Caused By Anthropogenic Activities Along The Southern Coast Of Lake Michigan, Usa, Zoran Kilibarda, Nolan Graves, Melissa Dorton, Richard Dorton

Zoran Kilibarda

The southern coast of Lake Michigan is the most urbanized and most densely populated area in the Great Lakes region. Development of steel mills, harbors, and municipalities in NW Indiana and in NE Illinois in the last century and a half altered the nearshore environment so much that native beach gravel (>8 mm) now exist only in the exhumed paleo-beach remnants from the Nipissing Phase (~4,500 years ago) of Lake Michigan. Native gravel, collected from paleo-beach remnants at Mount Baldy Dune and Beach House Blowout, contain predominantly beach shingle, very platy siltstones (71–78 %), with secondary crystalline pebbles (18 …

Shallow-Water Origin Of A Devonian Black Shale, Cleveland Shale Member (Ohio Shale) Northeastern Ohio, James E. Evans

James E. Evans

No abstract provided.

Forum On The Flood/Post-Flood Boudary, Marcus R. Ross

Marcus R. Ross

The location of the Flood/post-Flood boundary is an important issue for Flood geology because it is the starting point for a host of research questions. Many papers have been published on this topic, but its placement is still controversial. Three main views are advocated: a low Flood boundary in the Paleozoic or below, a boundary at or near the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (now the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary), and a variable boundary towards the upper Cenozoic but with each geographical area to be evaluated on its merits.

In 2012, Marcus Ross, published a biostratigraphic analysis and argued that a Flood/post-Flood boundary at or …

Reconstruction Of The Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) Palaeotopography In The Upper Yangtze Region, Linna Zhang, Junxuan Fan, Qing Chen, Shuang-Ye Wu

Geology Faculty Publications

Reconstruction of the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) palaeotopography in South China is important for understanding the distribution pattern of the Hirnantian marine depositional environment. In this study, we reconstructed the Hirnantian palaeotopography in the Upper Yangtze region based on the rankings of the palaeo-water depths, which were inferred according to the lithofacies and biofacies characteristics of the sections. Data from 374 Hirnantian sections were collected and standardized through the online Geobiodiversity Database. The Ordinary Kriging interpolation method in the ArcGIS software was applied to create the continuous surface of the palaeo-water depths, i.e. the Hirnantian palaeotopography. Meanwhile, the line transect analysis …

The Groundwater Atlas Of Lancaster County, Dana Divine

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Some Reflections On Our Experiences At Sun Yat-Sen University Since 1985, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Anne P. Diffendal

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Professor Zhang Ke, Chairman of the Department of Earth Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University, has asked us to write about some of our memories from our several visits to Sun Yat-sen University, as part of the 2014 celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the university and the creation of the department. We are very pleased to do so and to include with our written comments copies of some photographs that we have taken during these visits. We have gone back through our notes, books, tourist maps, photo files, and other information that we have kept as souvenirs …

Ashfall Tephra In The Ogallala Group Of The Great Plains: Characteristics And Significance, Michael E. Perkins, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Michael R. Voorhies, Barbara P. Nash, Bruce E. Bailey

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

The Miocene Ogallala Group blankets the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains. This sheet of largely fluvial deposits, lying downwind of major silicic volcanic fields to the west, was ideally located to receive and preserve tephra from these fields. This investigation brings modern methods of tephrochronlogy to bear on the age and identity of Ogallala tephra. Results indicate that ~40 separate tephra layers, ranging in age from ~16.5–5.0 Ma, in the Ogallala. Most tephra came from Yellowstone hotspot sources. The relative frequency of hotspot tephra in the Ogallala matches that in more proximal regions to the west with peak …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2014, A. R. Young, M. E. Burbach, L. M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.