Tectonics and Structure Commons^™

Surface And Subsurface Structures Of The Western Valley And Ridge In Tennessee And Geometry And Kinematics That Permit Reconstruction Of The Tennessee Salient, Southern Appalachians, Jennifer Kathleen Whisner

Doctoral Dissertations

The southern and central Appalachian foreland fold-thrust belt comprises a series of orogen -scale curves that extend from Alabama to New York. One of these is the Tennessee salient, a foreland-convex curve that extends from Cartersville, Georgia, to Roanoke, Virginia. Development of a kinematic model for deformation in the salient has been hindered by a paucity of penetrative deformation in this generally low temperature, low volume-loss portion of the orogen.

Industry seismic reflection lines provide greater resolution of subsurface geometry of both the basement surface and the overlying fold-thrust belt, confirming some previous interpretations and changing others. A series of …

Structural And Metamorphic Evolution Of The West-Central Newton Window, Eastern Inner Piedmont, Burke, Catawba, And Lincoln Counties, North Carolina, William George Gilliam

Masters Theses

Rocks of the western and eastern Inner Piedmont, along with the eastern Blue Ridge, comprise the Neoacadian metamorphic core of the southern Appalachians. The composite Inner Piedmont consists of the eastern Tugaloo (western Inner Piedmont) and Cat Square (eastern Inner Piedmont) terranes, which are separated by the Brindle Creek fault. Geochronologic evidence established the Brindle Creek fault as a terrane boundary within the Inner Piedmont, separating terranes of Laurentian and mixed Laurentian/Avalonian (peri-Gondwanan) zircon suites. The Newton window exposes Tugaloo terrane rocks of the Tallulah Falls Formation in the footwall of the Brindle Creek thrust sheet.

Detailed geologic mapping in …

Slip Distribution Of The 1952 Kamchatka Great Earthquake Based On Near-Field Tsunami Deposits And Historical Records, Breanyn Macinnes, Robert Weiss, Joanne Bourgeois, Tatiana K. Pinegina

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We explore the magnitude and slip distribution of the 1952 Kamchatka earthquake (M_W 8.8–9.0) using constraints from the 1952 Kamchatka tsunami. Our new field data provide more comprehensive coverage of the near-field tsunami than had been available to date. We examine the effects of internal slip distribution within complex earthquake ruptures on near-field tsunami runup and evaluate some of the limitations of this approach. Our approach compares tsunami-deposit distribution with simulated runup from tsunamis generated by different configurations of seafloor deformation from hypothetical earthquakes resembling that of the 1952 Kamchatka earthquake. We identify areas of high slip because different …

Tectonic Evolution Of The West-Central Portion Of The Newton Window, North Carolina Inner Piedmont: Timing And Implications For The Emplacement Of The Paleozoic Vale Charnockite, Walker Top Granite, And Mafic Complexes, Heather Elizabeth Byars

Masters Theses

Detailed geologic mapping of portions of the Banoak, Reepsville, Lincolnton West, and Cherryville 7.5-minute quadrangles has confirmed the easternmost exposure of the Brindle Creek fault, which frames the Newton window. The Brindle Creek fault is a terrane boundary that separates the overlying Siluro-Devonian assemblage of metasedimentary rocks and Devonian-Mississippian anatectic plutons of the Cat Square terrane from the Neoproterozoic(?)-Ordovician metasedimentary and igneous rocks of the Tugaloo terrane. Structures related to six deformational events have been identified in this portion of the Inner Piedmont. The Brindle Creek fault has been folded multiple times, resulting in a sinuous outcrop pattern and the …

Yellowstone Super-Volcano: Evalutaion, Potential Threats, And Possible Effects On Nebraska Citizens Health And Prosperity, Jennie Korgie

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract Yellowstone National Park is located over a hot spot under the North American tectonic plate and holds a potentially explosive super-volcano that has the ability to cause deadly consequences on the North American continent. After an eruption the surrounding region would see the greatest devastation, covered by pyroclastic deposits and thick ash fall exterminating most all life and destroying all structures in its path. In landscapes of greater distance from the event the consequences will be less dramatic yet still substantial. Records of previous eruption data from the Yellowstone super-volcano show that the ash fall out from the eruption …

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 …

Coupled Deformation And Metamorphism, Fabric Development, Rheological Evolution And Strain Localization, Scott E. Johnson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

When Earth's tectonic plates interact with one another the rocks that comprise them are deformed, commonly forming great mountain chains. During this deformation, the minerals that make up the rocks can become spatially or crystallographically aligned to form a fabric. The development of rock fabric is a primary factor affecting the strength, or rheological evolution of deforming rocks. Fabric development commonly involves coupling of both physical and chemical processes. For example, crenulation cleavage is the most common type of fabric in multiply deformed rocks, and its formation leads to extreme mineral segregation and rheological anisotropy. It is also commonly associated …

Tectonic Environments Of Ancient Civilizations: Opportunities For Archaeoseismological And Anthropological Studies, Eric R. Force, Bruce G. Mcfadgen

Eric R Force

The close spatial relation between ancient civilizations and active tectonic boundaries is robust in the Eastern Hemisphere but counterintuitive given the seismic dis- advantages it implies. Explanations for the observation remain debatable, and no single explanation seems sufficient. Some possibly important factors are unrelated to seismicity, e.g., the influence of tectonism on local water resources and on resource diversity. When examined on finer spatial scales, the relation is still robust. A quan- tifiable influence of tectonism on civilization locations even along Mediterranean shores is suggested by their distribution. The stronger links of tectonism with derivative civilizations suggests a role of …

Tree Rings And Earthquakes, Matthew F. Bekker

Wasatch Dendroclimatology Research

The lithosphere, earth’s rigid outer shell comprising crust and upper mantle rock, is broken into about 14 tectonic plates (Christopherson 2009) that move a few centimeters per year over superheated, pliable rock underneath. Forces within earth’s interior push, pull and twist the plates in different directions, producing three types of plate boundaries: convergent (colliding with one another), divergent (moving away from one another) and transform (sliding past one another). Earthquakes occur when plates become locked together, building strain between and within them that is suddenly released, sending a burst of seismic waves that cause shaking and displacement of the surface. …

Provenance Of The Neoproterozoic Ocoee Supergroup, Eastern Great Smoky Mountains, Suvankar Chakraborty

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The Ocoee Supergroup is a sequence of Neoproterozoic, immature, continental rift facies clastic sediments. Potential source rocks were tested by analyzing modes of detrital framework minerals, detrital mineral chemistry, whole rock geochemistry and detrital zircon U/Pb geochronology by LA-ICP-MS for Ocoee siltstone-sandstone dominated formations. Ocoee units are arkosic to subarkosic siltstones/sandstones, and ternary tectonic discrimination diagrams confirm a continental basement uplift source. Alkali feldspar predominates over plagioclase feldspar. Detrital feldspar compositions of Ocoee sediments as a group are similar to feldspar in local basement granitic rocks except for high-Ca plagioclase grains present locally in basement granitic rocks. The high alkali …

A Study Of Fold Characteristics And Deformation Style Using The Evolution Of The Land Surface: Zagros Simply Folded Belt, Iran, Caroline M. Burberry, John W. Cosgrove, Jian-Guo Liu

Papers in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Deformation styles within a fold-thrust belt can be understood in terms of the spatial organization and geometry of the fold structures. In young fold-thrust belts such as the Zagros, this geometry is reflected topographically by concordant landform morphology. Thus, the distribution of deformation structures can be characterized using satellite image analysis, digital elevation models, the drainage network and geomorphological indicators. The two distinct fold types considered in this study (fault-bend folds and detachment folds) both trending NW-SE, interact with streams flowing NE-SW from the High Zagros Mountains into the Persian Gulf. Multiple abandoned stream channels cross fault-bend folds related to …

Complementary Nature Of Surface And Atmospheric Parameters Associated With Haiti Earthquake Of 12 January 2010, Ramesh P. Singh, Waseem Mehdi, Manish Sharma

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The present paper describes surface (surface air temperature) and atmospheric parameters (relative humidity, surface latent heat flux) over the epicenter (18A degrees 27A ' 25A ' A ' N 72A degrees 31A ' 59A ' A ' W) of Haiti earthquake of 12 January 2010. Our analysis shows pronounced changes in surface and atmospheric parameters few days prior to the main earthquake event. Changes in relative humidity are found from the surface up to an altitude of 500 hPa clearly show atmospheric perturbations associated with the earthquake event. The purpose of this paper is to show complementary nature of the …

Miocene - Quaternary Tectonic Evolution Of The Northern Eastern California Shear Zone, Kurt L. Frankel, Jeffrey Lee, Kim Bishop, Nancye Dawers, Plamen Ganev, Jeff Unruh, Lewis A. Owen

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

The northern eastern California shear zone is an important component of the Pacific– North America plate boundary. This region of active transtensional deformation east of the San Andreas fault extends from the Garlock fault northward along the east side of the Sierra Nevada and into western Nevada. The eastern California shear zone is thought to accommodate nearly a quarter of relative plate motion between the Pacific and North America plates. Recent studies in the region, utilizing innovative methods such as cosmogenic nuclide geochronology, airborne lidar, structural mapping, and (U-Th)/He geochronology, are helping elucidate deformation histories for many of the major …

Pleistocene To Present North Andean “Escape”, James N. Kellogg, Obi Egbue

James N Kellogg

This study compiles 20 published field geologic estimates of displacement rates for the northern Andes, such as displaced glacial moraines and offset pyroclastic flow, and compares them to published Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements. Dated displacements compiled in this study were obtained from the Gulf of Guayaquil, Pallatanga, Chingual-la Sofia, and Cayambe-Afiladores-Sibundoy fault systems in Ecuador and southern Colombia and the Boconó fault system in Venezuela. Right-lateral slip estimates on the individual fault segments range from 2 mm/a to 10 mm/a. The mean estimated geologic slip rate for the last 86,000 years is 7.6 mm/a. This estimate is very similar …

Fabric Development In Cm-Scale Shear Zones In Ultramafic Rocks, Red Hills, New Zealand, Caroline Webber, Julie Newman, Caleb Holyoke, Timothy Little, Basil Tikoff

Caleb Holyoke

No abstract provided.

Accurate Differential Stress Measurement Using The Molten Salt Cell And Solid Salt Assemblies In The Griggs Apparatus With Applications To Strength, Piezometers And Rheology, Caleb Holyoke, Andreas Kronenberg

Caleb Holyoke

No abstract provided.

Deformation Of Single Crystal Sample Using D-Dia Apparatus Coupled With Synchrotron X-Rays: In-Situ Stress And Strain Measurements At High Pressure And Temperature, Jennifer Girard, Jiuhua Chen, Paul Raterron, Caleb Holyoke

Caleb Holyoke

No abstract provided.

Forward Modeling Synsedimentary Deformation Associated With A Prograding Steep-Sloped Carbonate Margin, Phillip G. Resor

Phillip G Resor

Differential compaction associated with prograding and aggrading steep-rimmed carbonate margins leads to penecontemporaneous and post- depositional modifications of stratal geometries and tensile and shear stress concentrations that result in brittle deformation. In an effort to investigate controls on these deformation processes, we employ a step-wise gravity loaded elastic model that captures pre-failure displacement and stress field patterns for a depositional geometry based on the Permian Capitan depositional system, Guadalupe Mountains, West Texas and New Mexico, USA. We consider four model geometries with varying progradation to aggradation (P/A) ratio, from strongly prograding (P/A=10) to strongly aggrading (P/A=0.1). The strongly prograding case …