Geomorphology Commons^™

Rip Current Formation And Beach Safety Implications For Several U.S. Atlantic Coast Beach Areas, Kathleen Michelle Fallon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation combines seemingly different studies, which work together to describe the physical characteristics of rip current development and associated social implications at several locations. These fast-moving, concentrated flows of water travel offshore and can be found on any beach with sufficient wave action. Any event of increased wave steepness will erode a large quantity of sediment from the beach. The material deposited offshore eventually makes its way back; during this process, ocean water becomes trapped behind a shore-attached bar resulting in a ridge-and-runnel. These formations are seen at East Hampton, where rip-like currents form as concentrated water drains from …

Gravitational Study Of The Hastings Salt Dome And Associated Faults In Brazoria And Galveston Counties,Texas, Francis C. Okocha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Salt domes are important geological structures because they are potential major hydrocarbon traps and have a profound effect on overlying strata in the subsurface. Over five hundred salt domes have been located on the United States Gulf Coast region, including the Hastings Salt Dome. Hastings Oil Field is located about 40.2 km (25 miles) southeast of Houston, Texas. The Hasting oil field was discovered in 1934 and it was considered the largest oil reserve on the Gulf Coast. Its peak production of 75,000 BOPD (barrels of oil per day) was recorded in 1977 and it had a cumulative production of …

Integration Of Multi-Criteria And Nearest Neighbour Analysis With Kernel Density Functions For Improving Sinkhole Susceptibility Models: The Case Study Of Enemonzo (Ne Italy), Chiara Calligaris, Stefano Devoto, Jorge P. Galve, Luca Zini, José V. Pérez-Peña

International Journal of Speleology

The significance of intra-mountain valleys to infrastructure and human settlements and the need to mitigate the geo-hazard affecting these assets are fundamental to the economy of Italian alpine regions. Therefore, there is a real need to recognize and assess possible geo-hazards affecting them. This study proposes the use of GIS-based analyses to construct a sinkhole susceptibility model based on conditioning factors such as land use, geomorphology, thickness of shallow deposits, distance to drainage network and distance to faults. Thirty-two models, applied to a test site (Enemonzo municipality, NE Italy), were produced using a method based on the Likelihood Ratio (λ) …

Characterizing Subsurface Void Spaces And Water Distribution And Flow Patterns In Cave Hill Karst Using Resistivity, Jacob A. Gochenour

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Describing the distribution of groundwater is essential in understanding the evolution of geomorphologic features in karst topography. Electrical resistivity allows us to find a model of subsurface distribution of resistivity that enables the visual recognition of groundwater and void spaces. The purpose of this research is to implement electrical resistivity to describe the spatial relationship of groundwater and karstic features at Grand Caverns National Natural Landmark, Grottoes, Virginia. Two locations of interest, a karstic swale and sinkhole area, were identified for the deployment of electrical resistivity. Both, dipole-dipole and Schlumberger arrays were collected for each deployment. A total of ten …

Evaluating Fault-Line Escarpment Exposure In The Guadalupe Mountains Of West Texas And New Mexico, Audrey Anne Happel

Theses and Dissertations

The Permian stratigraphy of the Guadalupe Mountains is well-known due to the impeccable exposure of Permian strata along distinct escarpments that define the boundaries of the range. Even though the Permian strata have been closely examined to understand the associated petroleum reservoirs in the adjacent Delaware basin, little work has been done on the escarpments that expose the well-known rocks at the surface by way of tectonic and erosional processes. The development of escarpments are directly affected by multiple processes that create the landscape, and can be used as a tool to temporally and spatially constrain tectonic and erosional activity …

A Spatial Relationship Between Stream Slope Stability And Water Quality Within An Urban Watershed In Rock Island, Il, Joseph Teresi

Celebration of Learning

The consistently observed phenomenon of highly altered streams and degraded water quality draining urban areas across the U.S is described as the urban stream syndrome. Rock Island, Illinois, contains a population of nearly 39,000 people, and houses industrial and logistical businesses amidst a city of aging infrastructure. Streams occupy ravines that have incised into the Quaternary loess plateau, flowing south towards the Rock River and north or west towards the Mississippi River. In an attempt to understand better the severity of Rock Island’s urban stream syndrome, this project analyzed stream slopes within the Rock Island watershed to categorize their level …

Geoscientists-In-The-Park Summer Internship Mapping Shoreline Change With The National Park Service, Michael P. Endicott

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This project paper details the activities carried out as a Geologist/GIS Specialist in the Gateway National Recreation Area as a part of the Geoscientists-In-The-Park internship program. The focus of this position was on supporting the geomorphological monitoring efforts of the National Park Service. This was accomplished through a combination of field data collection, GIS analysis, report writing, and project work. By the end of the internship, substantial progress was made to the formation of Gateway’s Annual 1D and 2D report for 2015-2016, field data were collected for the 2016 summer season, changes in geomorphology were explored and summarized for the …

Rock Art Management And Landscape Change: Mixed Field Assessment Techniques For Cultural Stone Decay, Kaelin M. Groom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As tourism continues to grow as one of the world’s most ubiquitous markets, the development and promotion of non-invasive techniques for cultural stone decay analysis and landscape change are vital to establishing conditional base-lines to best aid cultural heritage management (CRM) efficacy. Using rock art as a medium, this dissertation presents three independent case studies employing the Rock Art Stability Index (RASI) and repeat photography to explore the merits of mixed rapid field assessment techniques in relation to CRM and heritage tourism. While rock art is only one example of irreplaceable world heritage resources, examining how they decay and what …

Influence Of Environmental Conditions And Inundation History On Bacterial Diversity Of Salt Marsh Soils In Southern Louisiana, Brandon M. Bagley

Masters Theses

Diversity patterns and controls on bacterial community composition were investigated from coastal salt marsh soils in southern Louisiana (USA) from 2012 – 2014. These salt marshes are part of an extensive coastal landscape that is experiencing land loss due to subsidence, sea-level rise, and anthropogenic activities, including from the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Prior to the oil spill, microbiology research focused predominately on biogeochemical roles and not on taxonomic representation in the soils or on understanding the significance of taxonomic diversity at the microbial level to marsh food webs or ecosystem dynamics. The purpose of …

Geomorphic Characteristics And Sediment Transport In Natural And Channelized Reaches Of Big Barren Creek, Southeast Missouri, Matthew S. Thies

MSU Graduate Theses

Channelization, levee construction, and gravel mining are land management practices that are used for flood control. However, they often alter the balance between sediment supply and available sediment transporting power in streams, causing channel instability. Streams can respond to instability through channel incision and sediment aggradation which can degrade riparian habitat, increase flood risks, and cause property damage. These problems have been observed along segments of Big Barren Creek, which drains 190 km² of the Missouri Ozarks in Mark Twain National Forest. Field assessment and modeling methods were used to evaluate the spatial distribution of channel instability along the upper …

Geomorphic Effects Of Logging Railbeds On An Ozarks Headwater Stream, Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, Nickolas S. Bradley

MSU Graduate Theses

Geomorphic characteristics of headwater streams draining the Missouri Ozarks have not been studied as much as larger rivers in the region. Further, while the effects of historical logging on channel form and sediment supply have been identified, no studies have investigated the effects of logging tramways constructed along Ozark headwater rivers. This study examines the geomorphic characteristics and channel disturbances of Tram Hollow (1.67 km²) within the Mark Twain National Forest in the Ozark Highlands. The purpose of this study is to classify and quantify natural and disturbed channel morphology in Tram Hollow which has been affected by …

Assessing Landslide Susceptibility With Gis Using Qualitative & Quantitative Methods In Knox County, Nebraska, Christian J. Cruz

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis assesses landslide susceptibility using data from LiDAR DEMs, land cover, and soil surveys. Data were assessed quantitatively through Bayesian logistic regression within a geographic information system (GIS) and statistical software to produce a landslide susceptibility map. The study area exhibits moderate relief where bluffs along the Missouri River valley gradually recede into rolling loess-mantled hills further to the south and southeast in Knox County. The six factors used to determine susceptibility to landslides are: land cover, parent material, slope aspect, slope curvature slope degree, and soil series. My findings show an increase in slope is the most significant …

The Groundwater Atlas Of Richardson County, Nebraska, Dana P. Divine, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division

The purpose of this groundwater atlas is to synthesize a wealth of hydrogeologic data for Richardson County that has not been published in readily accessible formats previously. Many of the maps presented herein are based on data from registered well logs and test hole logs that are publicly available on-line, which become more valuable when compiled, analyzed, and discussed as a whole. The focus of the maps presented in this report is the accessibility of groundwater for pumping.

Comparison Of Flow Dynamics And Bifurcation Angles In Tributary And Distributary Channel Networks, Thomas Coffey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dynamics of channel mouth bifurcations on river deltas can be understood using theory developed in tributary channel networks. Bifurcations in groundwater-fed tributary networks have been shown to evolve dependent on diffusive ground water flow patterns

directly adjacent to the channel network, producing a critical angle of 72°. We test the hypothesis that bifurcation angles in distributary channel networks are likewise dictated by a diffusive external flow field, in this case the shallow surface water surrounding the subaqueous portion of distributary channels in a deltaic setting. We measured 25 unique distributary bifurcations in an experimental delta and 197 bifurcations in …

Timing Of Speleogenesis Of Las Karmidas Cave (Mexico): First Description Of Pseudokarst Developed In Ignimbrite, María Del Pilar Aliaga-Campuzano, Rafael López-Martínez, Pablo Dávila-Harris, Ramón Espinasa-Pereña, Adriana Espino Del Castillo, J.P. Bernal

International Journal of Speleology

Las Karmidas Cave (Puebla State, Mexico) is an unusual type of pseudokarstic cavity generated by piping and erosive processes within the contact of a diamicton and an overlying Quaternary ignimbrite. Morphological evidence suggests that the cave was developed in two stages: a phreatic stage and a vadose stage. The latter was characterized by the formation of carbonate speleothems. The absolute upper-age limit for the cave (168 +7.1/-7.5 ka) was established by U-Th dating of zircons grains extracted from the overlying ignimbrite, whilst a minimum age for the transition from a phreatic to vadose regime (95.6 ± 2.1 ka) was constrained …

The Relationship Between Static Water Levels, Bedrock Topography, And Glacial Drift Thickness For The Cedarville, Greene County, Ohio Area, Joel G. Twinem

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Cedarville, Ohio, is an area covered in glacial deposits from the Pleistocene age. During this time, the Silurian dolomitic bedrock was exposed and worn down. Glacial till composed of sand and gravel was deposited atop the dolomite in wake of the glaciers retreat. The combination of vuggy bedrock and permeability of the overlying sediments cause the area to be very conducive to aquifer storage and movement. This study attempts to determine the relationship between bedrock topography, till thickness, and static water level, as well as the implications for future drilling. 26 static water levels were measured in the field using …

Developing A Tree-Ring Chronology For Reconstructing Past Climate Conditions: Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Ut, Amy L. Cutter

McNair Scholars Research Journal

The Coral Pink Sand Dunes (CPSD) is one of the largest active dune fields in the Grand Staircase of the Colorado Plateau. A disjunct stand of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) seemingly thrives within the dune field. The presence of a multiple-aged stand suggests the site has experienced varied climatic conditions since becoming established. Other geomorphic systems in the region (e.g., arroyos) indicate sensitivity to small climate fluctuations; perhaps the dunes are similarly sensitive, leading to the question—could the trees be used to reconstruct past climate, and could that reconstruction be used to model dune activity with climate variability. The climate-growth …

A Numerical Model Investigation Of The Role Of The Glacier Bed In Regulating Grounding Line Retreat Of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, Michael Scott Waibel

Dissertations and Theses

I examine how two different realizations of bed morphology affect Thwaites Glacier response to ocean warming through the initiation of marine ice sheet instability and associated grounding line retreat. A state of the art numerical ice sheet model is used for this purpose. The bed configurations used are the 1-km resolution interpolated BEDMAP2 bed and a higher-resolution conditional simulation produced by John Goff at the University of Texas using the same underlying data. The model is forced using a slow ramp approach, where melt of ice on the floating side of the grounding line is increased over time, which gently …

Results Of Test-Hole Drilling For Observation Well Planning In The Upper Loup Natural Resources District, Fall 2016, Douglas Hallum, Sue Olafsen Lackey

Conservation and Survey Division

The High Plains Aquifer underlies much of Nebraska (Figure 1). It is the primary source of groundwater within the Upper Loup Natural Resources District (ULNRD) of central Nebraska (Figure 2). 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. A general lack of water level observations in the region (Figure 3), recently developed groundwater irrigated acres along the upper Calamus River (Figure 4), falling spring water levels measured in existing irrigation wells (Figure 5), and a stable to falling stream …

Evaporite Karst In Italy: A Review, Jo De Waele, Leonardo Piccini, Andrea Columbu, Giuliana Madonia, Marco Vattano, Chiara Calligaris, Ilenia D’Angeli, Mario Parise, Mauro Chiesi, Michele Sivelli, Bartolomeo Vigna, Luca Zini, Veronica Chiarini, Francesco Sauro, Russell Drysdale, Paolo Forti

International Journal of Speleology

Although outcropping rarely in Italy, evaporite (gypsum and anhydrite) karst has been described in detail since the early 20^th century. Gypsum caves are now known from almost all Italian regions, but are mainly localised along the northern border of the Apennine chain (Emilia Romagna and Marche), Calabria, and Sicily, where the major outcrops occur. Recently, important caves have also been discovered in the underground gypsum mines in Piedmont. During the late 80s and 90s several multidisciplinary studies were carried out in many gypsum areas, resulting in a comprehensive overview, promoting further research in these special karst regions. More recent …