Earth Sciences Commons^™

Major Features And Forcing Of High-Atitude Northern Hemisphere Atmospheric Circulation Using A 110,000-Year-Long Glaciochemical Series, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Loren D. Meeker, Mark S. Twickler, Sallie Whitlow, Qinzhao Yang, W. Berry Lyons, Michael Prentice

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

The Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 glaciochemical series (sodium, potassium, ammonium, calcium, magnesium, sulfate, nitrate, and chloride) provides a unique view of the chemistry of the atmosphere and the history of atmospheric circulation over both the high latitudes and mid-low latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Interpretation of this record reveals a diverse array of environmental signatures that include the documentation of anthropogenically derived pollutants, volcanic and biomass burning events, storminess over marine surfaces, continental aridity and biogenic source strength plus information related to the controls on both high- and low-frequency climate events of the last 110,000 years. Climate forcings investigated …

Methanesulfonate In The Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 Ice Core, E. S. Saltzman, P-Y. Whung, Paul Andrew Mayewski

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

In this paper we present measurements of methanesulfonate in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice core. Methanesulfonate is an atmospheric oxidation product of dimethylsulfide. The GISP2 methanesulfonate record contains information about the atmospheric loading of biogenic sulfur over the past 110 kyr and its relationship to climate change. The GISP2 data set supports the inferences made from the Renland ice core from Greenland that the glacial atmosphere over Greenland had reduced concentrations of biogenic sulfur compared with the present day [Hansson and Saltzman, 1993]. We conclude that the flux of biogenic sulfur from the North Atlantic Ocean …

Stratospheric Loading Of Sulfur From Explosive Volcanic Eruptions, Gregg J. Bluth, William I. Rose, Ian E. Sprod, Arlin J. Krueger

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

This paper is an attempt to measure our understanding of volcano/atmosphere interactions by comparing a box model of potential volcanogenic aerosol production and removal in the stratosphere with the stratospheric aerosol optical depth over the period of 1979 to 1994. Model results and observed data are in good agreement both in magnitude and removal rates for the two largest eruptions, El Chicho´n and Pinatubo. However, the peak of stratospheric optical depth occurs about nine months after the eruptions, four times longer than the model prediction, which is driven by actual SO2 measurements. For smaller eruptions, the observed stratospheric perturbation is …

Geology Newsletter- 1997, Department Of Geology

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol. 1, No. 22

• Dear Alumni and Friends
• Faculty News
• Awards and Scholarships
• Alumni News
• Geology Development and Scholarship Donations
• Advisory Council News

Strawberry Valley Assessment, A Cooperative Project Between The Mitigation Commission & The U.S. Forest Service, Mitigation Commission, U.S. Forest Service

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

No abstract provided.

Salinity And Hydrology Of The Mills Lake Catchment, R Ferdowsian, A T. Ryder

Resource management technical reports

The Mills Lake Catchment is located north of the Ongerup-Jerramungup Road, 35 km west of Jerramungup and 10 km north-east of Ongerup. It covers about 23,800 ha of agricultural land that is more than 90% cleared and predominantly cropped. The average annual rainfall of the catchment is about 370 mm. Many low-lying parts of the study area have become salt-affected during recent years. The extent of soil salinity is growing rapidly and it is feared that, without any treatment, more land will become salt-affected.

Evaluation Of Constructed Wetlands On Phosphate Mined Lands In Florida, G. R. Best, M. T. Brown, Thomas Crisman, Keven L. Erwin, D. A. Graetz, K. R. Reddy, H. Kale, P. Pritchard, T. M. Missimer, C. W. Walker, A. Owosina, M. J. Deuver

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Summarizing research conducted from June 1993 to May 1995 on hydrology, soils, water quality, and aquatic fauna on phosphate mined lands in Florida.

Major Features Of Glaciochemistry Over The Last 110,000 Years In The Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 Ice Core, Qinzhao Yang, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Marks S. Twickler, Sallie Whitlow

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Major chemical species (Cl⁻, NO 3 - , SO 4 2 - , Na⁺, NH 4 + , K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) and δ¹⁸O covering the last 110,000 years from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice core were utilized in this study in order to reconstruct the soluble chemistry of the atmosphere over Greenland and interpret major climate events that have affected the region. During the Holocene the major chemical species and δ¹⁸O do not display any significant relationship. However, a strong inverse correlation was …

Werdingite From The Urungwe District, Zimbabwe, Edward S. Grew, Martin G. Yates, Charles K. Shearer, Michael Wiedenbeck

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Electron and ion microprobe data on two samples of welshite from the type locality of Langban, Sweden, gave analytical totals of 99.38-99.57 wt.% and BeO contents of 4.82-5.11 wt.%, corresponding to 1.692-1.773 Be/20 O. Mossbauer and optical spectra of on

The Use Of Spectrofluorimetry And Capillary Electrophoresis/Laser-Induced Fluorescence For The Detection Of Fluorescent Dyes In Groundwater Migration Studies, Patrick Ferguson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis involves work that was accomplished during a two-year internship at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA), Environmental Chemistry Branch. The research is an application of trace level determination of fluorescein dyes used as groundwater tracers. The work was performed to determine whether groundwater could migrate from a Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) site to an adjacent Superfund site. The research involved using Spectrofluorimetry and a new technique called capillary electrophoresis/laser induced fluorescence (CE/LIF) to determine tracer dyes that were injected at the RCRA site and monitored at the Superfund site. Results from Spectrofluorimetry were compared to those of CE/LIF. …

S K S Splitting Beneath Continental Rift Zones, Stephen S. Gao, Paul M. Davis, Kelly H. Liu, Philip D. Slack, Andrew W. Rigor, Yu A. Zorin, Valentina V. Mordvinova, Vladimir M. Kozhevnikov, Nikolai A. Logatchev

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present measurements of S K S splitting at 28 digital seismic stations and 35 analog stations in the Baikal rift zone, Siberia, and adjacent areas, and at 17 stations in the East African Rift in Kenya and compare them with previous measurements from the Rio Grande Rift of North America. Fast directions in the inner region of the Baikal rift zone are distributed in two orthogonal directions, NE and NW, approximately parallel and perpendicular to the NE strike of the rift. In the adjacent Siberian platform and northern Mongolian fold belt, only the rift-orthogonal fast direction is observed. In …

Earth News, Fall 1997, Department Of Earth Science, University Of Northern Iowa.

Earth News

Inside this issue:

--- News from the Earth Science Staff
--- Mary Lou Welch - Earth Science Secretary, 1975-1995
--- Earth Science Opens Way to the Stars
--- Earth Science Student Assistants
--- Sigma Gamma Epsilon - Gamma Sigma Chapter
--- Earth Science Majors
--- Comet Hale-Bopp
--- Student Research Presentations
--- 1997 Earth Science Graduates
--- Interesting Facts about the Earth Science Majors
--- Gifts to the Department of Earth Science
--- 1997 Scholarship and Award Recipients
--- Earth Science Seminar Series
--- Special Alumni Newsletter Profile - Craig B. Davis
--- Earth Science Alumni Notes
--- Our Faculty …

The Salinity And Hydrology Of Cranbrook, R Ferdowsian, A T. Ryder

Resource management technical reports

The study area covers the Cranbrook townsite and two catchments that affect it. The Cranbrook Town is located 85 km north-north-west of Albany and it has a population of 320 people (1190 in the Shire; ABS Census 1991).

Cranbrook is experiencing salinity problems. Saline groundwater levels are close to the soil surface and cause deterioration of buildings, roads, infrastructure, death of trees and scalding of land including the sporting ground.

The objective of this study was to define the present salinity status of the Cranbrook Town and develop management strategies to overcome or reduce the severity of salinity.

An Ice Shelf Mechanism For Heinrich Layer Production, Christina L. Hulbe

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The effect of an ice shelf in the Labrador Sea on ice-rafted sediment delivery to the glacial North Atlantic is investigated using a finite element numerical model of ice shelf flow. Discharge into the shelf from Hudson Strait creates a thick central core, extending downstream into the shelf, that is flanked by relatively thin ice. Melting at the base of the deep keel would produce cool, fresh water which would rise to refreeze along the keel's flanks. Debris deposited by melting deep central ice could create the Heinrich layers observed in the Labrador Sea while the debris-rich ice protected by …

An Evaluation Of Plant Community Structure, Fish And Benthic Meio- And Macrofauna As Success Criteria For Reclaimed Wetlands, Thomas Crisman, William J. Streever, John H. Kiefer, David L. Evans

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

As a result of legislative action in 1975 (Florida Administrative Code Section 16C-16, 16C-17), landscape reclamation is required on all lands mined for phosphate in the State of Florida. Between 1975 and 1991, for example, approximately 40,000 ha of land in Florida were strip mined for phosphate and thus subject to provisions of this legislation. In excess of 2,700 ha of mitigation wetlands have been constructed as part of the land reclamation effort, but the degree to which these systems mimic both the structural and functional properties of natural wetlands is poorly known.

There has been a great diversity in …

Linking Transport Infrastructure Investments And Economic Development In Sub-Saharan Africa, Ambe J. Njoh

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The study explores the link between investments in transportation infrastructure, operationalized in terms of road density, and economic development, defined in terms of gross domestic product per capita (GDP/Cap), in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings support the hypothesis of a positive association between the two variables. The association is stronger for paved, than for all, roads in general. Furthermore, a negative but statistically insignificant relationship is observed between unpaved roads and economic development. Thus, economic development is a function more of quality, than quantity of roads in SSA. Therefore, a more judicious use of the scarce resource of sub-Saharan African …

Evaluation Of Special Sensor Microwave/Imager Satellite Data For Regional Soil Moisture Estimation Over The Red River Basin, Venkataraman Lakshmi, Eric F. Wood, Bhaskar J. Choudhury

Faculty Publications

Regional-scale estimation of soil moisture using in situ field observations is not possible due to problemswith the representativeness of the sampling and costs. Remotely sensed satellite data are helpful in this regard.Here, the simulations of 19- and 37-GHz vertical and horizontal polarization brightness temperatures and estimationof soil moistures using data from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) for 798 0.258 3 0.258boxes in the southwestern plains region of the United States for the time period between 1 August 1987 and31 July 1988 are presented. A coupled land-canopy–atmosphere model is used for simulating the brightnesstemperatures. The land-surface hydrology is modeled using a …

Field Trip Guide (For The Nebraska Well Drillers Association) Northeastern Nebraska Geology, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Raymond R. Burchett, Duane A. Eversoll, Rodney J. Tremblay

Conservation and Survey Division

Field trip guide, for the Nebraska Well Drillers Association, covering northeastern Nebraska geology from September 1997.

Geology Of The Ponca Creek And Keya Paha River Drainage Basins In Nebraska, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

The geology of the study area has been investigated many times over more than a century. Interested readers are directed to the report by Diffendal and Voorhies (1994), which gives a more detailed overview of the results of the investigations and lists most of the more important reports about the area’s geology.

The names of the sedimentary rock strata and unlithified sediments exposed in and underlying all or parts of the study area are shown in Table V.I. These formations range in age from more than 85 million years to sediments being deposited today by winds, water, and downslope movements …

A Comparison Of Movements And Burrow Usage Between Indigenous And Relocated Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus Polyphemus) In A Fall Line Sandhills Community, Dorinda Morpeth

Theses and Dissertations

The movements and burrow use of twenty (ten relocated and ten indigenous to the relocation site) adult gopher tortoises {Gopherus polyphemus) were followed during the late spring, summer and early autumn in Talbot County, Georgia. The objectives of this study were to determine whether relocated gopher tortoises developed fidelity to a relocation site, and whether indigenous tortoises reacted adversely to relocated tortoises released in their proximity. Ten tortoises in the right-of-way of a highway construction project were captured, fitted with transmitters, and relocated to a 336 hectare tract of land, 3.2 km east of Geneva, Talbot, County, Georgia. Concurrently, ten …

Geologic Evidence Of Historic And Prehistoric Tsunami Inundation At Seaside, Oregon, Brooke K. Fiedorowicz

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past decade, research conducted along the Cascadia subduction zone coast established evidence for coseismic subsidence, liquefaction, and nearfield tsunami deposition. Seaside is a low lying northern Oregon coastal city potentially at risk for nearfield tsunami inundation from a Cascadia earthquake. The 1964 Alaskan farfield tsunami impacted Seaside, and deposits from that event serve as a model for interpreting prehistoric tsunami deposits in the Seaside area. A reconnaissance subsurface study of potential tsunami inundation sites was performed by trenching and gouge coring in the coastal wetlands along the Necanicum River, Neacoxie Creek, drainage to the east of Neacoxie Creek, …

Geology Of Niobrara State Park, Knox County, Nebraska, And Adjacent Areas, With A Brief History Of The Park, Gavins Point Dam, And Lewis And Clark Lake, Charles A. Flowerday, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., R. L. Skelly, F. G. Ethridge, D. A. Eversoll, David K. Watkins, B. E. Bailey

Conservation and Survey Division

Location

Niobrara State Park is located in northwestern Knox County, Nebraska, just west of the town of Niobrara and on the west side of the Niobrara River. The present park was opened in the summer of 1987. Mostly north of Nebraska Highway 12, the site is hilly with bluffs overlooking the Missouri and Niobrara rivers. Excellent facilities include paved roads, cabins, an outdoor swimming pooi, hiking trails, picnic and camping sites, horseback riding trails, playgrounds, restrooms, a group lodge, and an interpretive shelter. Many vantage points in the park have beautiful views of the lower Niobrara Valley and the middle …

Taking Eco-Efficiency To A New Level (Reviewing Ernst Von Weizsäcker, Amory B. Lovins, And L. Hunter Lovins, Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (1997)), John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Green And Ampt Infiltration With Redistribution, Fred L. Ogden

Fred L. Ogden

Distributed, physically based watershed and irrigation advance models require robust infiltration estimation capabilities. The empirical Green and Ampt (GA) equation of infiltration is a popular method for estimating infiltration. The GA parameters have physical basis and considerable prior research has focused on relating these parameters to soil textural classification. However, the original GA method is limited in that it is applicable only for a single ponding period. An explicit Green and Ampt redistribution (GAR) technique is developed herein to estimate interstorm redistribution of soil water and allow multiple ponding simulations using the GA methodology. Soil water redistribution during interponding periods …

Biology Of Shovelnose Sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus Platorynchus, In The Lower Platte River, Nebraska, Robin L. Hofpar

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Ar-40/Ar-39 Evidence For Middle Proterozoic (1300-1500 Ma) Slow Cooling Of The Southern Black Hills, South Dakota, Midcontinent, North America: Implications For Early Proterozoic P-T Evolution And Posttectonic Magmatism, Daniel K. Holm, Peter S. Dahl, Daniel R. Lux

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Ar-40/Ar-39 total gas and plateau dates from muscovite and biotite in the southern Black Hills, South Dakota, provide evidence for a period of Middle Proterozoic slow cooling. Early Proterozoic (1600-1650 Ma) mica dates were obtained from metasedimentary rocks located in a synformal structure between the Harney Peak and Bear Mountain domes and also south of Bear Mountain. Metamorphic rocks from the dome areas and undeformed samples of the similar to 1710 Ma Harney Peak Granite (HPG) yield Middle Proterozoic mica dates (similar to 1270-1500 Ma). Two samples collected between the synform and Bear Mountain dome yield intermediate total gas mica …

Glaciochemistry Of Polar Ice Cores: A Review, Michel Legrand, Paul Andrew Mayewski

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Human activities have already modified the chemical composition of the natural atmosphere even in very remote regions of the world. The study of chemical parameters stored in solid precipitation and accumulated on polar ice sheets over the last several hundred thousand years provides a unique tool for obtaining information on the composition of the preindustrial atmosphere and its natural variability over the past. This paper deals with the chemistry of polar ice focused on the soluble mineral (Na⁺, NH₄⁺, K⁺, Ca⁺⁺, Mg⁺⁺, H⁺, F⁻, Cl …

Reservoir Characterization Of Crystal Field And Analysis Of The Tow#1-3 Hd-1 Well, Montcalm County, Michigan, Heidi Wines

Masters Theses

The goal of this project was to characterize the Dundee reservoir of Crystal oil field using the newly drilled Tow #1-3 well data in conjunction with historical well records to evaluate heterogeneity of facies and their controls on oil production.

From the Tow# 1-3 HD-1 well, three major facies were identified in the reservoir. A non-fractured intertidal grainstone facies provides storage of fluids with its uniform permeability and excellent intercrystalline porosity. The supratidal fractured micrites and open marine fractured biomicrites are interbedded with the grainstone facies providing conduits for fluid migration between the facies. Facies are important controls on oil …

Systematics Of Stable Isotopes And Radionuclides In Precipitation At Kalamazoo, Michigan, Usa, Madhav V. Machavaram

Dissertations

Precipitation samples were collected at Kalamazoo from June 1992 to March 1995. The samples were analyzed for their 8D and 8lgO values. The 5D - 5I80 relationship is comparable to that of Meteoric Water Line (MWL). The monthly mean isotopic values in precipitation exhibited strong seasonality, being higher in summer and lower in winter months. This behavior is apparently a direct consequence of the temperature effect on isotope fractionation.

The summer precipitation at Kalamazoo is derived predominantly from the water vapor originated in the Gulf of Mexico. A box model calculation showed that a Rayleigh type distillation with Gulf moisture …

Geophysical Characterization Of A Jp-4 (Lnapl) Contaminated Site At The Wurtsmith, Air Force Base, Oscoda, Michigan, Kristina C. Sprietzer

Masters Theses

The detection of hydrocarbon contamination in the subsurface using geophysical techniques has been based on the known physical properties of high electrical resistivities (ρa) (low conductivities). However, geophysical field investigations at uncontrolled spill sites yield measurements of low resistivity (high conductivity). The purpose of this study is to test that in the natural environment some hydrocarbon spills (in the case of LNAPLs), can exhibit changes with time due to biodegradation, from electrically resistive to conductive. Since time is an important factor, this hypothesis was tested at a site where the time when a hydrocarbon release occurred is known and where …