Earth Sciences Commons^™

A Hydrogeologic Investigation Of The Balkema Wetland, Daniel V. Fronczek

Masters Theses

The Balkema wetland, located In southwestern Kalamazoo County, Michigan, represents complex biological and hydrologic Interaction between surface water and a two-aquifer hydrologic system. Situated on the southeastern flank of the Kalamazoo moraine, the glacial geology of the area plays a key role in the understanding of the hydrogeologic function of the wetland. A two-aquifer system, an upper unconfined, and a lower confined, Interact In the vicin ity of the wetland where the c la y /till aqulclude dividing the two systems 1s absent. Various parameters, both hydrologic and geochemical, were measured In the study area, Including specific conductance values of …

The Stratigraphy, Petrology, And Depositional Environments Of The Maryville Limestone (Middle Cambrian) In The Vicinity Of Powell And Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Michael Glenn Kozar

Masters Theses

The Maryville Limestone (Middle Cambrian) is part of the nearly 600 meter thick Conasauga Group, which crops out along a series of northeasterly trending strike belts in the Valley and Ridge Province of the southern Appalachians. The interlayered limestone, shale, and dolostone comprising the Conasauga result from the interfingering of the Conasauga Shale to the west and northwest and the Honaker Dolomite to the east and southeast. Apart from detailed lithologic and paleoenvironmental work concerning Conasauga strata in southwestern Virginia and northeasternmost Tennessee, few studies have examined the Maryville in detail in east Tennessee.

In the study area, a total …

Hydrodynamic Character Of The Dundee Limestone In The Central Michigan Basin, Ann Carol Little

Masters Theses

The Middle Devonian Dundee Limestone underlies most of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. A potentiometric surface constructed of the formation, utilizing pressure data was compared to local and regional structure, permeability trends, specific gravity of the brines, oil accumulations, and surficial topography.

The data were distributed mainly in the central basin area, with information becoming more sparse around the basin margins. This created difficulties in the determination of the extent of control imparted by each of the factors, in flow direction. Surficial topography, on a regional scale, is likely the most influential of the controls, with the Dundee Limestone brines …

A Structural Investigation Of A Basement-Involved Thrust System In Southern Sphinx Mountain Quadrangle (Madison Range) Southwestern Montana, Jeffrey Scott Brown

Masters Theses

The Madison Range is the eastern limb of the Laramide Rocky Mountain foreland Madison-Gravelly Arch. The main segment of the Madison thrust system in the map area is the basement-involved Scarface thrust which dips westward, trends north-northwest, and places Archean rocks onto an overturned footwall of Cambrian through Cretaceous rocks. Foliation of Archean rocks in the footwall is folded with overlying sedimentary rocks.

The Shedhorn Mountain thrust splays from the Scarface thrust. It is exposed north and south of the Shedhorn Mountain anticline, but is blind beneath it. The Taylor fault, an east-dipping back thrust, is inferred to be associated …

Stratigraphic And Sedimentologic Analysis Of The Middle Devonian Filer Sandstone, John Charles Rodwan

Masters Theses

The Filer Sandstone, a multistory assemblage o£ lenticular sand bodies, is a member of the Middle Devonian Amherstburg Formation of the Detroit River Group in the subsurface of the western and central portion of the Michigan Basin. It is distinguished from the reworked eolian and nearshore marine sand facies of the underlying Sylvania Sandstone by recognition of its barrier island facies relationships and stratigraphic position within enclosing carbonates unique to the Amherstburg Formation. Lithologically, the Filer ranges from a fine-grained, carbonate-cemented, supermature quartzarenite at its upper shoreface facies, to a texturally-inverted sandy carbonate at its lagoonal facies. Facies distribution was …

Characteristics Of Thrust Fault Imbrication Along The Western Margin Of The Blue Ridge Structural Province Buffalo Mountain, Tennessee, Mark Morgan Duddy

Masters Theses

The Buffalo Mountain thrust sheet, located along the western margin of the Blue Ridge structural province in northeastern Tennessee, provides an excellent opportunity to examine transitional structural styles and deformational mechanisms between the Valley and Ridge and Blue Ridge.

The Buffalo Mountain sheet is composed of a sequence of Lower Cambrian Chilhowee Group elastics that have been thrust over Upper Cambrian Conasauga Group shales and Cambre- Ordovician Knox Group carbonates. The entire stack has been imbricated into four interleaved thrust slices and is folded into a northeast trending doubly plunging syncline.

Field mapping and indirect examination of thrust plane orientations …

Late-Quaternary Vegetational And Geomorphic History Of The Allegheny Plateau At Big Run Bog, Tucker County, West Virginia, Peter A. Larabee

Masters Theses

Paleoecological analysis of a 2.3 m sediment core from Big Run Bog, Tucker County, West Virginia (39° 07'N, 79° 35'W), provides an integrated and continuous record of vegetation change for the Allegheny Plateau of the central Appalachians for the past 17,000 yr from the full-glacial conditions of the Wisconsin through Holocene. Big Run Bog (980 m elevation) is high-elevation wetland within the Allegheny Mountain section of the Appalachian Plateaus physiographic province.

From 17,040 yr B.P. to 13,860 yr B.P. the plant communities surrounding the site were a mosaic of alpine tundra dominated by sedges (Cyperaceae) and grasses (Gramineae) with total …

Facies Development And Porosity Relationships In The Dundee Limestone Of Gladwin County, Michigan, Eric Lee Montgomery

Masters Theses

The Devonian of the Michigan Basin was a time of transgressive seas and extensive carbonate deposition including coral and stromatoporoid buildups. Deposited during the Middle Devonian, the Dundee Limestone represents deposition in subtidal, intertidal, and restricted environments. The Buckeye Oil Field, located in south-central Gladwin County, is a combined stratigraphic and structural carbonate trap which produces from a series of intertonguing patch reefs, fringing sand bodies, and "intertidal island" fenestral zones. The major reef building organisms include stromatoporoids, corals, calcareous algae, brachiopods, and crinoids, with the stromatoporoids providing the major framework. The patch reef facies is composed of massive stromatoporoid …

The Provenance Of The Jacobsville Formation Of The Upper Peninsula Of Michigan Through A Petrographic Study, David Walter Lindsay

Masters Theses

The Upper Keweenawan Jacobsville Formation source areas were mixed source terranes with dominant terrane types changing regionally in relative abundances of sediment contribution. Dominant source terranes were older sediments, including a weathered soil zone, Upper Keweenawan Freda Sandstone and other recycled sandstones; plutonic Precambrian basement rocks;. Middle Keweenawan Portage Lake Volcanics; and the chlorite to staurolite grade metamorphic rocks and iron ranges of Michigan’s upper peninsula.

Depositional environments of the formation's four facies types range from fluvial to deltaic/lacustrine. Sediments were in transport for a short distance, resulting in grain freshness and angularity, moderate sorting and preservation of unstable sediments. …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Bentonite As A Soil Additive For The Cover Material On The Kl Avenue Sanitary Landfill, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Neal J. Carey

Masters Theses

A principle objective of using bentonite as a soil additive is to reduce the permeability of a cover material, thus, inhibiting the infiltration of surface waters at landfill sites.

Twenty-two cores of the KL landfill were taken to obtain in-situ soil columns for testing. Coefficients of permeability were calculated for each soil column using the falling-head permeameter. Mechanical and hydrometer analyses were used for the grain size analysis. The methylene-blue test was employed to determine the actual percentages of bentonite present in each soil column. X-ray diffraction work was done on the clay fraction of each soil column to verify …

Petrography, Diagenetic History, And Development Of Porosity In The Richfield Member Of The Lower Middle Devonian Lucas Formation, Northeast Isabella County, Central Michigan Basin, Kevin James Sullivan

Masters Theses

The Richfield Member of the lower Middle Devonian Lucas Formation is represented in the subsurface of northeast Isabella County, Michigan as a 180-foot-thick sequence of Interbedded limestone, dolomite and anhydrite. Richfield lithofacies within the study area reflect deposition in a complex patchwork mosaic of evaporative supratidal, in tertid al, shoal, and subtidal environments.

The present variations in Richfield porosities were caused almost entirely by post-depositlonal diagenetic changes. The carbonate units have undergone pervasive dolomltlzation of mud matrix, leaching of allochems, and extensive anhydrite void -fillin g . The best porosity developments are associated with partial to complete dolomitizatlon of the …

Geology Of The Escalante District, Iron County, Utah, James William Biehl

Masters Theses

"The Escalante Silver District, Iron County, Utah, occupies a group of low hills extending to the Escalante Desert from the Black Hills to the south. Tertiary volcanics serve as host rocks for silver bearing quartz veins. Five map units, with a total of 12 members are recognized. X-ray fluorescence and field mapping enabled differentiation of the units, while thin section analysis enabled characterization of the members. The map units formed in three episodes. The oldest is extrusive doming of distinctive older lava and breccia flows. The middle group is made up of tectontic breccias, sillar-like lava flows, and volcaniclastic sediments …