Earth Sciences Commons^™

Enhancing Basic Geology Skills With Artificial Intelligence: An Exploration Of Automated Reasoning In Field Geology, Perry Ivan Quinto Houser

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the use of Artificial Intelligence, specifically semantics, ontologies, and reasoner techniques, to improve field geology mapping. The thesis focuses on two use cases: 1) identifying a geologic formation based on observed characteristics; and 2) predicting the geologic formation that might be expected next based upon known stratigraphic sequence. The results show that the ontology was able to correctly identify the geologic formation for the majority of rock descriptions, with higher search results for descriptions that provided more detail. Similarly, the units expected next were correctly given and if incorrect, would provide a flag to the field geologist …

Glacier Segmentation From Remote Sensing Imagery Using Deep Learning, Bibek Aryal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Large-scale study of glaciers improves our understanding of global glacier change and is imperative for monitoring the ecological environment, preventing disasters, and studying the effects of global climate change. In recent years, remote sensing imagery has been preferred over riskier and resource-intensive field visits for tracking landscape level changes like glaciers. However, periodic manual labeling of glaciers over a large area is not feasible due to the considerable amount of time it requires while automatic segmentation of glaciers has its own set of challenges. Our work aims to study the challenges associated with segmentation of glaciers from remote sensing imagery …

Decision Making Under Uncertainty With A Special Emphasis On Geosciences And Education, Laxman Bokati

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In many practical situations, we need to make a decision. In engineering, we need to decideon the best design of a system, and, for existing systems - on the best control strategy. In financial applications, we need to decide what is the best way to invest money. In geosciences, we need to decide whether we should explore a possible mineral deposit - or whether we should perform more experiments and measurements (and what exactly). In some cases, we can compute the exact consequences of each decision - e.g., if we are controlling a satellite. However, in many other cases, we …

Propagation Of Interval And Probabilistic Uncertainty In Cyberinfrastructure-Related Data Processing And Data Fusion, Christian Servin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Data uncertainty affects the results of data processing. So, it is necessary to find out how the data uncertainty propagates into the uncertainty of the results of data processing. This problem is especially important when cyberinfrastructure enables us to process large amounts of heterogeneous data. In the ideal world, we should have an accurate description of data uncertainty, and well-justified efficient algorithms to propagate this uncertainty. In practice, we are often not yet in this ideal situation: the description of uncertainty is often only approximate, and the algorithms for uncertainty propagation are often not well-justified and not very computationally efficient. …

Software Development For A 3d Gravity Inversion And Application To Study Of The Border Ranges Fault System, South-Central Alaska, Rolando Cardenas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Border Ranges Fault System (BRFS) bounds the Cook Inlet and Susitna Basins, and is an important petroleum province within south-central Alaska. A primary goal of our research is to test several plausible models of structure along the BRFS using a novel three-dimensional inversion technique utilizing gravity data, constrained with other geophysical, borehole and surface geological information. This research involves the development of 3D inversion modeling software using C++ Builder from Embarcadero's XE2 Suite. The novel inversion approach directly models known geology with a priori uncertainties assigned to the geologic model to allow researchers to compare alternative interpretations. This technique …

Propagation Of Interval And Probabilistic Uncertainty In Cyberinfrastructure-Related Data Processing And Data Fusion, Christian Servin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Data uncertainty affects the results of data processing. So, it is necessary to find out how the data uncertainty propagates into the uncertainty of the results of data processing.

This problem is especially important when cyberinfrastructure enables us to process large amounts of heterogeneous data.

In the ideal world, we should have an accurate description of data

uncertainty, and well-justified efficient algorithms to propagate this uncertainty. In practice, we are often not yet in this ideal situation:

the description of uncertainty is often only approximate, and the algorithms for uncertainty propagation are often not well-justified and not very computationally efficient. …

Software Development For A Three-Dimensional Gravity Inversion And Application To Study Of The Border Ranges Fault System, South-Central Alaska, Rolando Cardenas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Border Ranges Fault System (BRFS) bounds the Cook Inlet and Susitna Basins, an important petroleum province within south-central Alaska. A primary goal in the research is to test several plausible models of structure along the Border Ranges Fault System using a novel three-dimensional inversion utilizing gravity and magnetic data, constrained with other geophysical, borehole and surface geological information. This research involves the development of inversion modeling software using a Borland C++ compiler as part of the Rapid Application Development (RAD) Studio. The novel inversion approach directly models known geology, and "a priori" uncertainties on the geologic model to allow …

Gpu Based Parallel Smoothing Of Seismic Tomography Models, Ivan Gris

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Three-dimensional models of the velocity structure of the Earth's crust are an important and relevant factor for several types of analyses across disciplines. Crustal velocity models are also commonly used to analyze and search for different materials of interest or to determine and differentiate many aspects of life on Earth during different eras.

Seismic tomography techniques, both in two and three dimensions, perform image reconstruction of the crust of the Earth. Seismic tomography algorithms can calculate crustal velocity structure through inversion of traveltimes of seismic waves produced by natural events, such as earthquakes, or controlled source experiments, such as explosions. …