Geophysics and Seismology Commons^™

Detrital Zircon Geochronology For Neoproterozoic To Cambrian Sediment Sources Of The Deep Creek Range And The Pilot Range In The Southwestern United States, Kaysea Perry

Earth and Soil Sciences

Detrital zircon studies of miogeoclinal sediments can help provide a deeper look into the mechanisms leading to continental breakup by studying the evolution of the continental margin of North America. Few detrital zircon studies have been conducted to support previous research and theories about the sedimentation of the Miogeocline from the Neoproterozoic to the Cambrian. Studies targeted at the Basin and Range province of the western United States show a trend of increasing local sediment sources. We analyzed detrital zircons from the Pilot and Deep Creek Ranges in Nevada and Utah via LA-MC-ICP-MS at the University of Arizona LaserChron Center …

High-Precision U-Pb Zircon Age Calibration Of The Global Carboniferous Time Scale And Milankovitch Band Cyclicity In The Donets Basin, Eastern Ukraine, Vladimir I. Davydov, James L. Crowley, Mark D. Schmitz, Vladislav I. Poletaev

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

High-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon ages for 12 interstratified tuffs and tonsteins are used to radiometrically calibrate the detailed lithostratigraphic, cyclostratigraphic, and biostratigraphic framework of the Carboniferous Donets Basin of eastern Europe. Chemical abrasion of zircons, use of the internationally calibrated EARTHTIME mixed U-Pb isotope dilution tracer, and improved mass spectrometry guided by detailed error analysis have resulted in an age resolution of

Melting Ice And Sea Level Change, Morton Sternheim

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Global warming can melt snow or ice on Greenland, Antarctica, and other land areas. It can also melt floating ice in the Arctic Ocean. How do the two cases compare in changing sea levels?

Thermohaline Circulation, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Surface currents, such as the Gulf Stream, are pushed by the wind. Deep ocean currents, called the “Thermohaline Circulation”, are the result of changes in the density of water. In this activity you can investigate how differences in the temperature and salinity of water can produce deep ocean currents

Globe Walk, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

A “Globe Walk” can be used as a demonstration or classroom activity to guide students toward a better understanding of the affects that Earth’s axial tilt, rotation on Earth’s axis, and orbital motion have on the angles of incidence of sunlight, the lengths of daytimes, and solar insolation.

Polar Literature, Holly Hargraves

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Play Doh Coring Sampler Teacher Guide, Beth Caissie

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Sediment cores are one of the most valuable types of samples for researchers who would like to learn about past climate or ecological changes. Cores can be retrieved from lakes, marshes, swamps, fields, and the ocean. The layers often reveal striking changes in color (see photos) reflecting changing sediment composition (i.e. more clay deposition or more microfossil s). This easy activity illustrates the basic geologic principle that horizontal layers of sediment become older the deeper you go below the Earth’s surface (Law of Superposition). Each layer contains sediment, fossils and organic matter etc. that can inform us about past changes …

Seasonal Changes In Sea Ice, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Brine Rejection Activity, Beth Caissie, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

As salt water freezes, the salt is pushed out of solution through channels in the ice. This process is called brine rejection or brine exclusion. These channels are often used as microhabitats by ice algae, zooplankton, and even tiny fish. You can easily demonstrate what these channels look like.

Build A Remote Sensing Satellite, Rob Snyder

IPY STEM Polar Connections

•Build a model of a remote sensing satellite. •Use your model of a satellite to transform reflected visible of different frequencies into electrical signals with different voltages. •Use different colors of paper to calibrate the model. •Create a model of a landscape using three different colors of paper. •Create a “false color” image of the model of a landscape (if time permits).

Albedo Effects In Polar Regions, Morton Sternheim

IPY STEM Polar Connections

•Why are Polar Regions more affected by global warming than other parts of the globe? •One reason (there are others) is that as sea ice melts and more open water appears, more energy is absorbed, and warming accelerates. •This is a form of positive feedback and it makes the polar climate change faster than the climate in temperate areas. •Increasing vegetation on land also has a similar positive feedback effect.

Global Warming And Arctic Climate, Ray Bradley

IPY STEM Polar Connections

No abstract provided.

Polar Remote Sensing, Beth Caissie

IPY STEM Polar Connections

•Satellite sensors specialize in collecting data about specific wavelengths The Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites (GOES) operated by NASA, NOAA, and the U.S. Department of Commerce provide continuous monitoring of weather conditions. Orbiting the Earth’s equatorial plane at a speed exactly matching the planet’s rotation, satellites in the GOES network seem to hover over fixed spots. They monitor atmospheric conditions that lead to hurricanes, flash floods, tornadoes, and hail storms.

Caribou, Whales, Andenvironmental Variability, Craig Nicolson

IPY STEM Polar Connections

How many caribou are there? Increasing or decreasing? Carrying capacity? How do we measure habitat quality?? Satellite imagery. Whale migration patterns. Activities on caribou and whales. Also, see http://www.nfb.ca/film/being_caribou/ a video entitled Being Caribou..

Carbon Travels Game, Marie Silver

IPY STEM Polar Connections

Carbon cycle game.

Proportions for this activity are based LOOSELY on data from the Exploring the Environment website http://davem2.cotf.edu/ete/modules/carbon/effig11_full.html

They have a brief overview of the carbon cycle at http://davem2.cotf.edu/ete/modules/carbon/efcarbon.html

Insights Into Rock-Ice Avalanche Dynamics By Combined Analysis Of Seismic Recordings And A Numerical Avalanche Mode, Demian Schneider, Perry Bartelt, Jacqueline Caplan-Auerbach, Marc Christen, Christian Huggel, Brian W. Mcardell

Geology Faculty Publications

Rock‐ice avalanches larger than 1 × 10⁶ m³ are high‐magnitude, low‐frequency events that may occur in all ice‐covered, high mountain areas around the world and can cause extensive damage if they reach populated regions. The temporal and spatial evolution of the seismic signature from two events was analyzed, and recordings at selected stations were compared to numerical model results of avalanche propagation. The first event is a rock‐ice avalanche from Iliamna volcano in Alaska which serves as a “natural laboratory” with simple geometric conditions. The second one originated on Aoraki/Mt. Cook, New Zealand Southern Alps, and is characterized …

Seismic Investigation Of The Southern Rio Grande Rift, Lennox Emmanuel Thompson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Competing models exist to explain what caused the Earth's crust to spread apart 29 million years ago to create a region known today as the Rio Grande Rift (RGR). The RGR extends from central Colorado through New Mexico to northern Mexico, near El Paso. The RGR has different geologic features that distinguish it from most other valleys (e.g., the RGR was not cut by a river nor does a river branch upstream). A growing body of evidence shows that geologic activity still occurs in the RGR, with a continuation of faulting, seismicity and widening at a small rate of about …

Studies Of Earthquakes Stress Drops, Seismic Scattering, And Dynamic Triggering In North America, Christian Rene Escudero Ayala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

I use the Relative Source Time Function (RSTF) method to determine the source properties of earthquakes within southeastern Alaska-northwestern Canada in a first part of the project, and earthquakes within the Denali fault in a second part. I deconvolve a small event P-arrival signal from a larger event by the following method: select arrivals with a tapered cosine window, fast fourier transform to obtain the spectrum, apply water level deconvolution technique, and bandpass filter before inverse transforming the result to obtain the RSTF. I compare the source processes of earthquakes within the area to determine stress drop differences to determine …

Detecting Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide With Btb, Stephan Schneider

IPY STEM Polar Connections

A study of the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in air samples requires an understanding of effective sampling techniques, the use of pH indicators, an understanding of chemical reactions that result on the formation of acidic compounds, and an understanding of the chemical processes that contribute to the composition and characteristics of Earth’s atmosphere.

Atmospheric Co2 And Temperature. What Is Normal?, Beth Caissie, Julie Brigham-Grette

IPY STEM Polar Connections

–How much of a change in CO2 concentration and other GHGs is natural? –What is the normal range of CO2 and temperature variability? How is normal defined in this context? –What is the relationship between CO2 and global temperatures?