Stratigraphy Commons^™

An Analysis Of Mixed-Layer Clay Minerals And Major Element Geochemical Trends In Middle-Upper Pennsylvanian-Aged Paleosols As A Proxy For Characterizing Basin-Wide Diagenetic Patterns And The Paleoenvironment Of The Illinois Basin, U.S.A., Julia A. Mcintosh

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Pennsylvanian-aged paleosols from four Illinois Basin (IB) cores were sampled to characterize clay mineralogy, paleosol morphology, and major element geochemistry. This data combined with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) data from two other stratigraphically equivalent cores were used to better understand basin-wide diagenetic patterns. Paleosols unimpacted by diagenesis are considered reliable proxies for continued geochemical analyses and paleoclimate interpretations of middle to late Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian-Missourian) low-latitude environments.

Reichweite Ordering, as determined from XRD analysis ofprofiles, indicates that diagenesis impacted the deep interior of the basin and the southern portion of the basin. Further investigation of illitization mechanisms derived …

Late Quaternary Evolution And Stratigraphic Framework Influence On Coastal Systems Along The North-Central Gulf Of Mexico, Usa, Robert Hollis

Master's Theses

Coastal systems in the Gulf of Mexico are threatened to reduced sediment supply, storm impacts and relative sea level rise (RSLR). The geologic record can provide insights of geomorphic threshold crossings (formation, progradation, transgression, destruction) to these forcing mechanisms to predict future barrier evolution to climate change. The stratigraphic framework and antecedent topography directly influence coastal evolution over geologic timescales. This study synthesizes ~2100km of geophysical data, 700+ sediment cores, and 63 radiocarbon dates to regionally map two sequence boundaries, multiple ravinement surfaces and fourteen depositional facies. One marine isotope stage (MIS) 6 valley’s fill provided up to 300 x10 …

Hydrogeologic Framework Studies Of Portions Of The Niobrara River, Douglas R. Hallum, Steven S. Sibray, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division

The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (NeDNR) and Upper Niobrara-White Natural Resources District (UNWNRD) expressed interest in improving understanding and their ability to effectively manage water resources in and around a particular reach of the Niobrara River. Aquifer-thickness contours mapped by the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) indicate that the principle aquifer has zero thickness in this area. Additionally, the statewide geologic bedrock map produced by CSD shows non-aquifer strata of the White River Group along the same reach, and this setting is consistent with the designation of an “aquifer absent area,” as in the present document. Water-management policy development …

Sedimentology And Stratigraphy Of Core Stl14: An Early Pleistocene-To-Present Paleoclimate Archive From Stoneman Lake, Arizona, Spencer Staley

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

An 80 m lacustrine sediment core (STL14) from Stoneman Lake, Coconino County, Arizona, contains a sedimentary sequence of at least 1.5 million years, chronicling the complete history of basin infill and recording an extensive and high-resolution archive of climatic and hydrologic fluctuations. Lake levels in this small, internally-drained catchment are sensitive to changes in regional hydrologic balance. Consistent groundwater inflow, even during regionally dry episodes in the lake’s history, has prevented complete desiccation of the lake and sustained continuous lacustrine deposition except for one soil horizon. Multiproxy analysis of sedimentological indicators including lithofacies, color, wet bulk density, magnetic susceptibility, preliminary …

New Insights Into Carboniferous Cyclothems. The Fourth Biennial Field Conference Of The American Association Of Petroleum Geologists (Aapg) Midcontinent Section Fourth Biennial Field Conference Abstracts And Guidebook, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Christopher R. Fielding

Conservation and Survey Division

The term “cyclothem” was coined by Wanless & Weller (1932) to describe repetitive stratigraphic successions of Carboniferous age in Illinois. Nonetheless, comparable rhythmicity had been identified in Carboniferous rocks both in the central and eastern USA, and in Europe during the preceding century. Cyclothems were found to comprise repetitive vertical successions of sandstones, heterolithic (thinly interbedded) sandstones and mudrocks, mudrocks, limestones, and coals, in many cases with pedogenic overprinting of these lithologies. As usage of the term “cyclothem” increased, so did the diversity of successions to which the term was applied, to the point where many geologists advocated abandonment of …

Mass-Transport Deposits In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico And Their Implications For Hydrocarbon Exploration, Michael Raymond Arthur

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigates Mio-Pliocene mass-transport deposits (MTDs) in an understudied, hydrocarbon-rich region of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The research utilizes a high-quality 3D seismic dataset with an area of 635 km2, along with wireline logs and biostratigraphic data. With the help of quantitative seismic geomorphology techniques, detailed mapping of MTDs suggests a complex erosional and depositional history. Deposition of a MTD unit resulted in a 180 m topographic high that substantially influenced the distribution and morphology of subsequent MTDs, specifically the bifurcation of later mass-transport flows. This bifurcation contributed to the generation of a non-shielded erosional remnant with an …

County-Wide Assessment Of Irrigation Expansion On Air Temperature, Humidity And Evapotranspiration Rates In Nebraska, 1979-2015, Jozsef Szilagyi

Conservation and Survey Division

Total irrigated land area has been expanding in Nebraska over the last 40 years, propelling the state into a leading position within the US in terms of irrigated acreages. Typically, those counties which display the largest degree of irrigation development had a significant portion of their land area already irrigated in 1978. Large-scale irrigation in Nebraska affects its atmospheric environment. During the typical irrigation season of May to August, counties with the largest rate of irrigation expansion have cooled by about 0.2 – 0.3 °F per decade in the summer months of June, July and August, while counties with the …

The Periglacial Landscape Of Mars: Insight Into The 'Decameter-Scale Rimmed Depressions' In Utopia Planitia, Arya Bina

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Currently, Mars appears to be in a ‘frozen’ and ‘dry’ state, with the clear majority of the planet’s surface maintaining year-round sub-zero temperatures. However, the discovery of features consistent with landforms found in periglacial environments on Earth, suggests a climate history for Mars that may have involved freeze and thaw cycles. Such landforms include hummocky, polygonised, scalloped, and pitted terrains, as well as ice-rich deposits and gullies, along the mid- to high-latitude bands, typically with no lower than 20o N/S. The detection of near-surface and surface ice via the Phoenix lander, excavation of ice via recent impact cratering activity as …

The Occurrence Of The Greta Sandstone, Frio Formation (Late Oligocene), Texas Gulf Coastal Plain, Sean C. Kincade

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Greta sandstone is an informal lithostratigraphic unit of the upper Frio Formation (Oligocene) that occurs across the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. The Greta sandstone has been known to geologists since it was first drilled in the 1930’s, yet there has been very little research into this un-depleted and overlooked reservoir. This study provides insights into the lateral distribution and reservoir facies of the Greta sandstone. The unit represents an aggradational to transgressive barrier sandstone package grading up to mud-rich open marine inner shelf deposits. The interval is easily recognizable in well logs based on its strong SP and Gamma-ray …

Early Miocene Antarctic Glacial History: New Insights From Heavy Mineral Analysis From Andrill And–2a Drill Core Sediments, Francesco Iacoviello, Giovanna Giorgetti, Isabella Turbanti Memmi, Sandra Passchier

Sandra Passchier

The present study deals with heavy mineral analysis of late Early Miocene marine sediments recovered in the McMurdo Sound region (Ross Sea, Antarctica) during the ANDRILL— SMS Project in 2007. The main objective is to investigate how heavy mineral assemblages reflect different source rocks and hence different provenance areas. These data contribute to a better understanding of East Antarctica ice dynamics in the Ross Sea sector during the Early Miocene (17.6–20.2 Ma), a time of long-term global warming and sea level rise. The AND-2A drill core recovered several stratigraphic intervals that span from Early Miocene to Pleistocene and it collected …

Sedimentology And Stratigraphy Of The Upper Cretaceous Puskwaskau Formation In North-Central Alberta, Western Canada Foreland Basin, Omar Al-Mufti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Santonian to early Campanian mudstone-dominated Puskwaskau Formation was correlated throughout a study area of 50,000 km² in north-central Alberta using 988 well logs. Fourteen informal allomembers, established by previous studies, are bounded by regionally-mappable marine flooding and/or transgressive surfaces that are traceable for hundreds of kilometres within the study area. These laterally continuous bounding surfaces are parallel to very gently converging, and mostly terminate by onlap onto underlying surfaces. Observations in thin section and in SEM revealed ten mudstone microfacies, grouped into five microfacies associations. The facies preserve evidence for repeated storm-generated reworking of the seafloor. The Puskwaskau …

Results Of Test-Hole Drilling For Observation Well Planning In The Lower Loup Natural Resources District, Spring 2017, Douglas R. Hallum P.G., Sue Olafsen Lackey, Steven S. Sibray

Conservation and Survey Division

The High Plains Aquifer underlies much of Nebraska. It is the primary source of groundwater within the Lower Loup Natural Resources District (LLNRD) of central Nebraska. Water derived from the aquifer is an important natural resource for the area and supplies water for recreation, wildlife and agriculture, as well as domestic, municipal, and industrial uses. Falling spring water levels measured in existing observation and irrigation wells have raised concerns about possible changes in water availability, groundwater-surface water relationships and water quality in the area, prompting the LLNRD to propose test holes and the collection of additional groundwater data in the …

Petrographic And Stratigraphic Analysis Along The Lower Cretaceous Strata, In Kimble County Texas, Austin C. Wilkerson

Student Publications

The upper Trinity Group is predominantly a carbonate system with minor clastic couplets that were deposited during the Middle Cretaceous in the south Llano Uplift region. The upper Trinity Group was deposited on a southward dipping platform in the Kimble County area. Stratigraphic units of the upper Trinity Group are the Hensel Formation, determined to be supratidal claystones, the Glen Rose Formation, which are mudstones that were deposited in a carbonate lagoon, and the Walnut and Fort Terrett formations, which are wackestones to packstones interpreted to have been deposited on a shallow carbonate shelf.

Nine stratigraphic sections were measured along …

Regional Stratigraphy And Distribution Of The Coastal Group, St. Elizabeth Parish, Southwestern Jamaica, Brett M. Kenning

MSU Graduate Theses

This contribution examines the characteristics and ages of sedimentary units in the Coastal Group located along the southwestern Jamaica coast between Great Pedro Bluff and Fort Charles Bay in southwestern St. Elizabeth Parish. The coastline is characterized by laterally discontinuous low cliff exposures, separated by modern beach deposits and tectonically raised shore platforms composed of the White Limestone Group (mid-Eocene to mid-Miocene) and coral rudstone to floatstone and calcareous sandstone of the Coastal Group (late Pleistocene). Electron-Spin Resonance spectroscopy conducted on corals collected from a coral rudstone to floatstone facies yielded an estimated age of 120 ka. The coral facies …

Stratigraphic Reconstruction Of A Late Pleistocene Bald Cypress Forest Discovered On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Continental Shelf, Suyapa Michell Gonzalez Rodriguez

LSU Master's Theses

A previously buried bald cypress forest (Taxodium distichum) was discovered on the continental shelf, offshore of Orange Beach, Alabama, USA, in ~20 m water depth. The forest was exhumed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and is now exposed as stumps in life position in a trough located in the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf seafloor. We are investigating the local stratigraphy, paleo-landscape, and mode of forest preservation of this unique site. In August 2015 and July 2016, submersible vibracores (18 in total) were collected. Core analysis included: bulk density and imaging via Geotek multi sensor core logger, …

High-Resolution Allostratigraphy And Sedimentology Of Santonian - Early Campanian Wapiabi Formation In Southern Alberta, Western Canada Foreland Basin, El Mahadia I. Mohammed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Within a 90,000 km2 study area in SW Alberta, Santonian – basal Campanian strata of the upper Wapiabi Formation are dominated by marine rocks that thin westward from ~300 ~180 m over ~300 km, reflecting apparently spatially uniform flexural subsidence driven by the static load of the orogen. A high-resolution allostratigraphic framework established ten allomembers grouped in four informal tectono-stratigraphic ‘units’, three of which were previously recognized in NW Alberta. In the north and east, the formation is dominated by mudstone organized in numerous metre-scale siltier- and sandier-upward parasequences. A lack of clinoforms and abundant wave-formed sedimentary structures suggest that …

Reconstructing Late Holocene Paleofloods Along The Middle Tennessee River And Exploring Links With Climate And Land Use, Lance Stewart

Scholars Week

Sediment stored in floodplains and low alluvial terraces along the middle Tennessee River reflects flood frequency and magnitude during the past ca. 2800 years. This study uses the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and geochronology of three alluvial terraces to infer past flooding and explore links with climate change and anthropogenic land-use practices. Four sites located on different geomorphic landforms adjacent to the Tennessee River preserve records of at least 11 major flood events from 2780 ± 185 BP to 100 ± 10 BP. Buried soils at three sites are older than ca. 1380 BP and suggest a relatively recent period of landscape …

Fossils On The Floor In The Nebraska State Capitol: A Coloring And Activities Book, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Conservation and Survey Division

The Nebraska State Capitol is a wonderful place. This building is home to great treasures of art owned by the people of Nebraska. The floor of the Capitol Rotunda has beautiful works of art. Maybe you have seen this art. Small pieces of two kinds of rocks make pictures of people, their tools, the natural resources they used, and pictures of fossil animals and plants. These kinds of pictures are called mosaics [moe ZAY icks]. The animals and plants follow one another in a curved ribbon around the floor. In that ribbon of pictures are many kinds of fossil animals …

Stratigraphy Of The Upper Silurian To Middle Devonian, Southwestern Ontario, Shuo Sun

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The upper Silurian–Middle Devonian succession was dominated by carbonate and evaporite deposits, with minor siliciclastic sedimentation, and a significant hiatus across the Siluro-Devonian (S-D) boundary in southwestern Ontario. The stratigraphic units include, in ascending order: Late Silurian Bass Islands/Bertie formations and Salina G Unit, the Devonian Oriskany Formation, Bois Blanc Formation (including Springvale Member), Detroit River Group (including the Lucas, Amherstburg and Sylvania formations), Onondaga Formation, and Dundee Formation.

Below the S-D unconformity, the upper Silurian Bass Islands/Bertie formations are predominantly dolostone of peritidal-sabkha origin and episodic subaerial exposure. Revised stratigraphic correlation shows that the Bertie Formation is older than …

Stratigraphy And Organic Geochemistry Reveal Patterns Of Late Quaternary Paleo-Productivity At Mono Lake, California, Bailee Nicole Hodelka

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Mono Lake (CA) is a hydrologically closed lacustrine basin well-known for its paleo-shorelines, which record fluctuations in water level for the last deglacial and late Holocene. Mono Lake is a sentinel of California’s water supply, situated in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range whose snowpack is a vital source of freshwater for urban and agricultural districts to the west and south. Recent droughts, floods, and wildfires show that California is threatened by climate change, but how these changes impact and get recorded by Mono Lake sediments remains poorly known. Here, we use a new radiocarbon-dated deepwater …

The Groundwater Atlas Of Red Willow County, Nebraska, Dana Divine, Duane Eversoll, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division

The purpose of this groundwater atlas is to synthesize a wealth of hydrogeologic data for Red Willow County that has not been published in readily accessible formats previously. Many of the maps presented here are based on geologic information from registered wells and test holes that is publically available on-line, which becomes more valuable when compiled, analyzed, and discussed as a whole.

In Red Willow County, the aquifers are alluvial sand and gravel in the river and stream valleys and the High Plains aquifer beneath the uplands. The High Plains aquifer in Red Willow County consists primarily of the Ogallala …

Assessing The Use Of Tsunami Simulations As A Tool To Predict Source Magnitudes And Locations Of Paleoearthquakes In Chile, Rebeca Isabel Becerra

All Master's Theses

A long-term goal of paleotsunami studies is the ability to predict paleoearthquake parameters based on tsunami deposits found on land. Chile provides an exemplary location for testing methods of making these predictions because the historical record includes 41 major earthquakes as far back as 1562 AD, and there are many known paleotsunami deposits throughout the region. Using these records as a comparison tool, I evaluated simulated tsunami wave heights and inundation extent with the tsunami model GeoClaw for nine hypothetical tsunamigenic large earthquakes (M_w 8.6, 8.8, and 9.0) in south-central Chile with epicenters at -35.1º, -38.8º, and -42.9º. As …

Combining Hydraulic Head Analysis With Airborne Electromagnetics To Detect And Map Impermeable Aquifer Boundaries, Jesse T. Korus

Conservation and Survey Division

Impermeable aquifer boundaries affect the flow of groundwater, transport of contaminants, and the drawdown of water levels in response to pumping. Hydraulic methods can detect the presence of such boundaries, but these methods are not suited for mapping complex, 3D geological bodies. Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) methods produce 3D geophysical images of the subsurface at depths relevant to most groundwater investigations. Interpreting a geophysical model requires supporting information, and hydraulic heads offer the most direct means of assessing the hydrostratigraphic function of interpreted geological units. This paper presents three examples of combined hydraulic and AEM analysis of impermeable boundaries in glacial …

Facies Architecture And Controls On Reservoir Behavior In The Turonian Wall Creek Member Of The Frontier Formation, Powder River Basin, Wyoming, Nathan M. La Fontaine

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Inter-well heterogeneities influencing fluid migration in deltaic reservoirs are controlled by lateral lithofacies changes and vertical complexities such as low permeability thin-beds. Subsurface tools often cannot predict the spatial and stratigraphic organization of these architectural elements, nor their influence on effective reservoir properties and connectivity. This study integrates sedimentological, stratigraphic, and fluid simulation data to 1) document the facies architecture and depositional evolution of the Turonian Wall Creek Member (WCM) of the Frontier Formation, and 2) quantify the role of multi-scale stratigraphic heterogeneity on reservoir behavior. Upscaled permeability properties derived from fluid simulation of nested, small-scale facies models condition the …