Geology Commons^™

Nebraska Groundwater Level (Decline & Rise) And Location Of Registered Wells, 1983

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Geology Newsletter- 1982, Department Of Geology

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol. 1 No. 7

• Dear Alumni and Friends
• Capital Fund Drive
• Geology/ Earth Science Club News
• Faculty News
• Alumni News

Important Geological Features And Localities Of Maine, Maine Geological Survey

Maine Collection

Important Geological Features and Localities of Maine

Executive Department, Maine Geological Survey : Maine State Planning Office

(December, 1982).

Contents: Introduction / Purpose of this Study / The Geology of Maine / Important Publications / Catalogue of the Critical Geologic Features of Maine / Recommendations for Further Research / Publications / Conclusions / Acknowledgements / References Cited / Critical Areas Program List of Geological Planning Reports

The Michigan Basin, L. L. Sloss

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

The Michigan basin is widely acknowledged to be the archetype among those basins of cratonic interiors whose subsidence is dominated by flexure rather than faulting. Broadly ovate in plan over an area of some hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, with a preserved Phanerozoic sediment thickness exceeding 4 km accumulated during distinct episodes of subsidence over a 500-million year span, the basin is endowed with significant fossil-fuel resources.

The basin area is crossed, from north-northwest, by a rift zone filled with mafic igneous rock and great thickness of sedimentary rock resting on Archean and Middle Proterozoic crystallines. Rifting is presumably …

Geology And Energy Resources Of The Arkoma Basin, Oklahoma And Arkansas, Boyd R. Haley

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

The Arkoma basin is a structurally defined basin that underlies an area of about 13,000 sq. mi. It extends from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Atoka, Oklahoma. The rocks in the basin grade upward from dolomite, some limestone, sandstone (Upper Cambrian to Upper Devonian) to shale and limestone (Upper Devonian to Lower Pennsylvanian) to shale, limestone, and sandstone (Lower Pennsylvanian) to shale and sandstone (Middle Pennsylvanian). The sediments that formed rocks in the lower part of the Atoka formation on the south side of the basin were deposited in a deep-water environment. All other sediments in the basin were deposited in …

Basement Rocks Of The Main Interior Basins Of The Midcontinent, Edward C. Lidiak

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

The basement underlying the deeper basins in the Midcontinent is not well known because of the considerable thickness of overlying sedimentary rocks. However, gravity and magnetic surveys and sparse wells to basement suggest that deeper intracratonic basins are characteristically underlain by denser and more magnetic rocks than in adjacent areas. This correlation has important bearing on understanding the tectonic development and geologic history of Midcontinent basins.

The Michigan basin is underlain by prominent, linear gravity and magnetic highs that extend across the southern peninsula. A recent deep well to basement encountered basalt overlain by red clastic sedimentary rock. The combined …

Umr Journal: Selected Structural Basins Of The Mid-Continent, U.S.A., University Of Missouri--Rolla

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

No abstract provided.

Geologic-Tectonic History Of The Area Surrounding The Northern End Of The Mississippi Embayment, H. R. Schwalb

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

Since Precambrian time, zones of weakness have been repeatedly but infrequently reactivated in the Mississippi Embayment area. All of the major folds and many of the minor anticlines caused by this activity are associated with faults in the basement rocks. The latest occurrence of major tectonic activity (perhaps Early Cretaceous), however, not only affected the old fault zones but also created a vast new feature, the Pascola arch, which has no Paleozoic antecedent. Severe erosion and subsequent Tertiary subsidence associated with the Pascola arch indicate that this structure alone is the locus of present-day major earthquake activity. Until the time …

Structure Of The Salina-Forest City Interbasin Boundary From Seismic Studies, Don W. Steeples

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

As petroleum exploration efforts in the Midcontinent become directed toward smaller fields and the search for minerals is extended into new areas, the edges of the Salina and Forest City basins will become of increased interest to industry. The principal boundary feature between the two basins is the Nemaha ridge, a linear feature that extends from near Omaha, Nebraska, to near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Recent seismic studies at the Kansas Geological Survey have revealed a complex array of faulted and folded structures in the vicinity of the Humboldt fault zone (the eastern flank of the Nemaha ridge). Faulting of both …

Geological Evolution And Energy Resources Of The Williston Basin, Lee C. Gerhard

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

The Williston basin of North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, and south-central Canada (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) is a major producer of oil and gas, lignite, and potash. Located on the western periphery of the Phanerozoic North American craton, the Williston basin has undergone only relatively mild tectonic distortion during Phanerozoic time. This distortion is largely related to movement of Precambrian basement blocks.

Sedimentary rocks of cratonic sequences Sauk through Tejas are present in the basin. Sauk, Tippecanoe, and Kaskaskia Sequence rocks are largely carbonate, as are the major oil and gas producing formations. Absaroka and Zuni rocks have more clastic content, …

Preface, Paul Dean Proctor, John W. Koenig

UMR Journal -- V. H. McNutt Colloquium Series

The UMR Journal has had an interesting but somewhat sporadic history. The topics of papers that appeared in UMR Journal 1 in 1968 under the general title of “A Coast to Coast Tectonic Study of the United States” covered the major tectonic features of the contiguous United States from the margin of the Atlantic continental shelf to the Pacific coast. Each paper was authored by a recognized expert for the specific province reviewed. UMR Journal 2, which was published in 1971, related to “Alaska—Its Mineral Potentials and Environmental Challenges”. This UMR Journal 3 emphasizes the geology, genesis, and energy resources …

The Geology And Origin Of The Sawyer Uranium Prospect, Live Oak County, Texas, Charles L. Brewster

Masters Theses

The Sawyer uranium prospect is a subsurface uranium occurrence hosted within the basal Oligocene Catahoula Formation of the Texas coastal plain. The host rocks consist of tuff-ball conglomerate, tuffaceous sandstone and tuffaceous claystone whose geometry and lithological characteristics indicate that they are the products of a crevasse-splay depositional environment. Compositionally, these lithologies are feldspar-depleted litharenites, with the feldspar depletion due to the corrosive, ore-forming processes. These sediments display pedogenic to early diagenetic features including diffuse to discrete micrite nodules, clay cutans, fresh to partially argillized glass shards, clay booklets, authigenic zeolites and sulfides, paleosoil horizons and calcite cement.

Uranium mineralization …

Seasat Orbital Radar Imagery Applied To Lineament Analysis And Relationships With Hydrocarbon Production In The Wartburg Basin Area, Tennessee, S. E. A. Brite

Masters Theses

Seasat, an orbital synthetic aperature radar launched in 1978, has produced high-resolution imagery enhancing over 1186 observed linear topographic indentations or lineaments in the Wartburg Basin area of east-central Tennessee. The main objectives of this thesis are to verify these lineaments in the field, to compare them with aerial photographic lineaments in the same area, to statistically analyze lineament trends, and to compare lineaments with oil and gas trends in the Wartburg Basin area.

Lineaments from Seasat imagery were located in the field with a high degree of accuracy. Three distinct lineament systems were derived from lineament orientations, their grouping …

The Origin Of Carbonate Cements In Bahama Escarpment Limestones, Katharine D. Fulker

Masters Theses

Limestones recovered from Bahama Escarpment dives (DSRV Alvin, 1978) were expected to contain shallow marine, freshwater, and deep marine cementation since the limestones had been fractured, bored, and cemented at depth. Magnesium and trace element concentrations, carbon-oxygen composition, cathodoluminescence, and petrographic study indicated the presence of all three cement types.

Lithification may have proceeded by allochem deposition, major shallow marine cementation, sparse freshwater cementation leaving porosity, fracturing, and final deep marine cementation leaving minor porosity. According to this interpretation, the pore space remained open for an unlikely 75-115 million years. In an alternative interpretation, pore space is occluded after freshwater …

Pennsylvanian Deltaic Sedimentation In Grand Ledge, Michigan, Jeffrey R. Martin

Masters Theses

Pennsylvanian outcrops along the Michigan Basin's southern/margin are composed of fluvial-deltaic and marine shelf sediments. Constructive deltaic facies include point-bar sandstones displaying erosional bases, channel lag, and upward decreasing grain size and sedimentary structures. Cross-stratification data indicate a unimodal, highly variant, northward-trending, paleocurrent pattern that deviates from regional paleoslope. Point-bar sandstones record delta plain deposition by meandering distributary channels. Channel margin facies include Lingula-bearing, interdistributary bay shales; overlain gradationally by laminated, flaser-bedded and rooted marsh shales and siltstones; and subbituminous swamp coal. Bay-fill facies are interrupted by lens-shaped, quartz-poor, fine-grained, crevasse-- splay sandstones.

Delta destructive facies--quartz -rich bioturbated sandstone-- suggest …

Research On Atmospheric Volcanic Emissions: An Overview, James P. Friend, Alan R. Bandy, Jarvis L. Moyers, William H. Zoller, Richard E. Stoiber, Arnold L. Torres, William I. Rose, M. Patrick Mccormick, David C. Woods

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

The project "Research on Atmospheric Volcanic Emissions" is a unique effort by NASA and university scientists to investigate the detailed chemical nature of plumes from volcanic eruptions. The major goals of the project are to: 1) understand the impact major eruptions will have on atmospheric chemistry processes, 2) understand the importance of volcanic emissions in the atmospheric geochemical cycles of selected species, 3) use knowledge of the plume chemical composition to diagnose and predict magmatic processes. Project RAVE'S first mission used the NASA Lockheed Orion P-3 outfitted with equipment to measure concentrations of the gases SO₂, OCS, H …

Gully, Scour Hole, And Pothole Development At The Base Of The Gering Formation (Miocene?), Southeastern Banner County, Nebraska, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Several sediment-filled paleovalleys belonging to the Arikaree Group of Miocene (?) age occur in southeastern Banner County, Nebraska. One gully and a main paleovalley exhibit, respectively, erosional features like those in modern gullies in the area and like those on the bedrock floors of modern straight streams carrying an appreciable sediment load. Scour holes and a pothole on the valley floor of the main paleovalley are similar to those produced experimentally on the bed of a straight stream.

Nitrate Levels In The Groundwater Of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, William Robert Norman

Masters Theses

Nitrate levels from 1,978 wells were compiled and analyzed to identify areas having levels above the Federal and State Drinking Water Standards of 10 ppm, identify possible sources of nitrate in each area and determine factors that produce high concentrations of nitrate in groundwater.

Eighteen areas in which nitrate concentrations exceeded 10 ppm were identified. County-wide, 465 (23 percent) of the wells for which data were available produced water with nitrate concentrations above drinking water standards.

Septic tank effluent is thought to be the most common source of nitrate in the problem areas. Agricultural practices are also likely nitrate contrbutors; …

Nebraska's Platte River: A Graphic Analysis Of Flows, Ray Bentall

Conservation and Survey Division

WSP-53

Impact Of Urban Stormwater Runoff On The Water Quality Of The Subsurface Lost River, Bowling Green, Kentucky, Donald Rice

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bowling Green, Kentucky is located in a distinctive karst region, characterized by subsurface drainage. The Lost River is a large subsurface stream which flows beneath the city. It receives much of the stormwater runoff from Bowling Green, since most of the city's runoff is directed underground. Significant pollutants in Bowling Green's stormwater runoff were identified from water quality test results of storm event grab samples, and a composite sample, of runoff entering the urban By-Pass Cave. Water quality test results were also obtained from storm event grab samples, and a composite sample, of the Lost River at the Blue Hole …

Stratigraphy And Depositional Environments Of A Late Pleistocene Barrier Island Complex, Southeastern Virginia, Alan K. Jasper

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Norfolk, Kempsville, and Sand Bridge Formations beneath the HIckory Scarp of southeastern Virginia are reinterpreted as representing one glacio-eustatic transgressive cycle. The timing of this transgressive event is set during the earliest Wisconsinan. The formations were previously interpreted as unconformable overlying one another. The Norfolk-Kempsville unconformity is actually a diagenetic boundary. Evidence is presented which indicates that the Kempsville Scarp area should be reduced to member status or dropped entirely.

Water-Soluble Material On Aerosols Collected Within Volcanic Eruption Clouds, David B. Smith, Robert A. Zielinski, William I. Rose, B. J. Huebert

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

In February and March of 1978, filter samplers mounted on an aircraft were used to collect the aerosol fraction of the eruption clouds from three active Guatemalan volcanoes (Fuego, Pacaya, and Santiaguito). The samples were collected on Teflon (Fluoropore) filters with a nominal pore diameter of 0.5μm. The mass of air sampled by the filters ranged from 0.15 to 6.6 kg. The particulate material collected consisted of fragments of angular silicate ash and droplets of what is interpreted as dilute H₂SO₄ and HCl. After collection of the samples, each filter was rinsed with 60 ml of distilled-deionized …

Small Particles In Plumes Of Mount St. Helens, William I. Rose, Raymond L. Chuan, D. C. Woods

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

Particles in the size range of 0.1–25 micrometers were sampled by aircraft carrying a quartz crystal microcascade in the Mount St. Helens plume on three dates in August and September 1980. Two of the sampling dates represented ‘typical’ emissions of the volcano between plinian eruptions. One sampling flight was made 1–4 hours before the small plinian eruption of August 7, 1980, when the plume had become discontinuous and visibly darker. Size distributions were determined, and individual particles were studied by using scanning electron microscopy. The plume sampled on August 7, before the eruption, contained mainly approximately 2 micrometer diameter silicic …

Groundwater Levels In Nebraska, 1981, Martin S. Johnson, Darryll T. Pederson

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Metal Inventory And Fate Of Suspended Sediment In Chesapeake Bay, Maynard M. Nichols, Galen Thompson, Bruce Nelson

Reports

This report aims to provide new information that meets selected objectives of the EPA-States Taxies Plan of Action: i.e. (1) to determine the state of the Bay with respect to the distribution and concentration of selected metals in suspended material and fluid mud; (2) to establish the temooral variations of sediment and metal loading: (3) to identify potential zones of metal accumulation and trace their transport routes, and (4) to provide recommendations for monitoring contaminated sediment.

Field observations provide longitudinal coverage of the Bay with transects into Baltimore Harbor and Hampton Roads. They include contrasting conditions of seasonal high-low river …

Nonpoint Agricultural Pollution In A Karst Aquifer: Lost River Groundwater Drainage Basin, Warren County, Kentucky, Nancy Tucker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Chemical analysis of samples collected from subsurface streams and wells were analyzed to identify nonpoint pollutants in karst aquifers resulting from agricultural land use. Major flow paths and travel times taken by nonpoint pollutants were identified. A land use limitation map showing areas where agricultural activities may results in nonpoint pollution of the karst aquifer was prepared. A groundwater susceptibility map was prepared to show areas of the karst aquifer most susceptible to groundwater contamination by nonpoint pollution resulting from agricultural land use.

Research findings revealed that pollutant concentrations may reach levels thousands of times greater during high discharge events …

Subduction Of The Caribbean Plate And Basement Uplifts In The Overriding South American Plate, James N. Kellogg, William E. Bonini

James N Kellogg

Abstract. The new tectonic interpretations presented in this paper are based on geologic field mapping and gravity data supplemented by well logs, seismic profiles, and radiometric and earthquake data. The present Caribbean-South American plate boundary is the South Caribbean marginal fault, where subduction is indicated by folding and thrusting in the deformed belt and a seismic zone that dips 30o to the southeast and terminates 200 km below the Maracaibo Basin. The Caribbean-South American convergence rate is estimated as 1.9 +_. 0.3 cm/yr on the basis of the 390-km length of the seismic zone and a thermal equilibration time of …

Thermometry And Barometry Of Precambrian Orthogneisses And Related Rocks From The Minnesota River Valley, Southwestern Minnesota, Paula J. Leier

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

Granulite facies metamorphism is reported to have occurred in the Granite Falls-Montivideo area of the Minnesota River Valley and a broader view of the valley is taken to determine the extent of granulite facies metamorphism. Pressures and temperatures of metamorphism were determined using two geothermometers and one geobarometer. Based upon two-feldspar and garnet-biotite thermometers, temperature of metamorphism is approximated at 600 °c. Metamorphic pressures based on the reaction cordierite= garnet+ quartz + sillimanite were probably between 4 and 6 Kbars. Based on barometry and thermometry, it is suggested the Algoman o rogeny (2600 m.y. ago) was at least upper amphibolite …

Structure And Petrography Of The Tertiary Volcanic Rocks Between Death Creek And Dairy Valley Creek (Box Elder Co.), Utah, E. Matthew Hare

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Several volcanic flows lie between Death Creek and Dairy Valley Creek, near Etna, Utah. The major, central portion of the volcanic flows is composed of dacite and dacite vitrophyre. An elongate ridge in the southeastern corner of the study area and several small outcrops in Death Creek Valley are composed of rhyolite and rhyolite vitrophyre. Additional rock types include conglomerate, volcanic ash, and tuffaceous sedimentary rock of the Tertiary Salt Lake Formation, Paleozoic limestone, and Tertiary basalt.

Dacite and dacite vitrophyre samples are porphyritic, containing phenocrysts of plagioclase, quartz, biotite, amphibole, orthopyroxene, and iron-titanium oxides. Rhyolite and rhyolite vitrophyre samples …

Evaluation Of Low-Temperature Geothermal Potential In Cache Valley, Utah, Janet L. De Vries

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to continue the assessment of the low-temperature geothermal resources of Cache Valley, Utah initiated by the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey. Field work consisted of locating 90 wells and springs throughout the study area, collecting water samples for later laboratory analyses, and field measurement of pH, temperature, bicarbonate alkalinity, and electrical conductivity. Na⁺, K⁺, Ca⁺² , Mg⁺² , SiO₂, Fe, SO₄^-2, Cl^-, F^-, and total dissolved solids were determined in the laboratory.

Temperature profiles were measured in 12 additional, …