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Application Of Sealevel Stratigraphy To Neogene Great Plains Stratigraphy, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., A. Lowrie

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Absolute-dated high frequency (Milankovitch cycles) marine climate/sealevel oscillatory stratigraphy can be correlated generally with continental stratigraphies. Improvements in absolute dating of Neogene formations across the North American Great Plains make this a candidate area in which to correlate marine and continental stratigraphies. Mid-latitude continental areas respond directly to climate variations. During glaciated/ cold climates, sealevel lowering results in steepened river gradients, increased erosion all along the river channel, and larger stress-bed loads. This, combined with glacial catastrophic flooding, produces greater cut-and-fill sequences along river systems than crevasse splays along the emergent coastal plain, deltas along the shelf, and submarine fans …

Fluid Inclusion Studies Of The Morefield Pegmatite Amelia County, Virginia, John Richard Smerekanicz

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Morefield Pegmatite is a planar, nearly vertical body situated in Grenville age gneisses and schists in the southeast Piedmont of Virginia. It consists of a mineralogically simple albite-quartz outer zone and a texturally and mineralogically complex inner zone of microcline-topaz-quartz, with trace amounts of rare-element minerals. Fluid inclusions in samples of quartz, topaz, beryl, spessartite and albite that span the length, width and depth of both zones can be classified by chemical composition into two main groups: H₂O-rich solutions and CO₂- H₂O -rich fluids. The H₂O -rich inclusions consist of H …

Ground Water Investigation Of The Petersburg Granite In Chesterfield County, Virginia, Michael W. Bennett

OES Theses and Dissertations

Yields of new water wells in areas underlain by the Petersburg Granite in Chesterfield County, Virginia should improve if procedures for site selection and well construction follow the new guidelines proposed. These guidelines integrate analyses of aerial photo linears and drainage patterns, survey of bedrock joints and shallow geophysical properties and techniques using several statistical methods.

Throughout the study area, fracture traces form in nearly the same orientation as bedrock fractures. The dominant N-S and E-W trending bedrock joints also corresponded to aerial photo linears of similar orientation.

Across one large fracture zone, both gamma-ray and electrical resistivity surveys reveal …

Stable Isotope Composition Of Calcareous Paleosols And Ground-Water Cements From The Ogallala Group (Neogene), Western Nebraska, Leonard Robert Gardner, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Douglas F. Williams

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

A preliminary survey has been made of the stable isotope composition of secondary carbonates in the Ogallala Group of western Nebraska. The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether the isotopic signatures of calcareous paleosols in the fine grained facies of the Ogallala and groundwater cements in gravel facies might provide a basis for stratigraphic correlation and/or paleoclimatic interpretation.

The groundwater cemented channel gravels are modestly depicted in IRO (δ¹⁸O = –10‰) as compared to calcareous paleo'sols (δ¹⁸O = –8.0 to –9.0‰). Gravels of different age, however, have essentially identical isotopic signatures. The isotopic variability …

Stratigraphic And Structural Framework Of The Carboniferous Rocks Of The Central Appalachian Basin In Kentucky, Donald R. Chesnut Jr.

Bulletin--KGS

A series of seven cross sections across the Central Appalachian Basin in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio was constructed in order to determine a stratigraphic and structural framework of the Carboniferous rocks for the basin. Oil and gas well logs, coal-company core descriptions, measured sections, and mapping of surface geology were used to construct these sections. New surface and subsurface faults, folds, and flexures were identified.

New, formal and informal lithostratigraphic nomenclature was introduced to clarify the stratigraphic framework. Formalized nomenclatural changes are (1) elevating Breathitt Formation to Breathitt Group, (2) dropping the Lee Formation, (3) elevating four …

The Stratigraphy And Sedimentology Of The Sentinel Butte Formation (Paleocene) In South-Central Williams County, North Dakota, Wesley D. Peck

Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 163 meters (535 feet) of the Paleocene Sentinel Butte Formation crop out in southcentral Williams county, North Dakota. To determine their mode of deposition and stratigraphic position within the formation, twelve stratigraphic sections were measured. These strata were deposited in alternating fluvial and lacustrine environments as determined by sedimentary structures, lithology, lithologic sequences, and fossil occurrences. A fining upward trend in grain size of the tabular sandstones, and the identification of epsilon cross-stratification in the tabular sandstones support a fluvial origin for some of the strata. The strongest evidence for the interpretation of lacustrine deposition is the presence of …

Distribution Of Foraminifera And Pollen In Coastal Depositional Environments Of The Southern Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia, U.S.A., Han Jun Woo

OES Theses and Dissertations

The coastal zone of the southern Delmarva Peninsula exhibits a wide variety of barrier island system subenvironments. This study investigates whether 20 a priori subenvironments can be distinguished from each other on the basis of abiotic environmental variables, pollen assemblages, living foraminiferal populations, and total (living plus dead) foraminiferal assemblages.

The physical data collected from the coastal zone were subjected to canonical variate analysis which discriminated 83% of the stations in 19 groups. These groups were clustered into two internally overlapping sets which represented the inside and outside of the inlet.

Twenty-two pollen types were found in low-energy marsh and …

Sr-Isotope Record Of Quaternary Marine Terraces On The California Coast And Off Hawaii, Kenneth R. Ludwig, Daniel R. Muhs, Kathleen R. Simmons, James G. Moore

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Strontium-isotopic ratios of dated corals have been obtained from submerged reefs formed during Quaternary glacial periods off the Hawaiian islands. These data, combined with data from deep-sea sediments, tightly constrain the secular variation of marine ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr for the past 800,000 yr. Although long-term trends are apparent, no significant (>0.02‰), rapid (<100,000 yr) excursions in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr were resolved nor did we observe any samples with ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr greater than that of modern seawater. Strontium in mollusks from elevated marine terraces formed during interglacial periods on the southern California coast show resolvable and consistent variations in …

The Sloan Sag: A Mid-Miocene Volcanotectonic Depression, North-Central Mccullough Mountains, Southern Nevada, Hayden L. Bridwell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the Hidden Valley area of the north-central McCullough Mountains, southern Nevada, mid-Miocene andesite and dacite domes, flows and pyroclastic units (the Sloan volcanics) partially fill a sag in the underlying Hidden Valley volcanics. The 13.5 km diameter sag formed during and/or after the eruption of the Sloan volcanics. Sagging was accommodated by a combination of movement on the McCullough Wash fault system, and subsidence into evacuated chambers.

Major, trace and rare-earth element geochemistry suggests that the rocks of the Sloan volcanics belong to four groups, each of which were produced by partial melting of chemically distinct sources. With the …

Ua66/8/3 Geogram, Wku Geography & Geology

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Geography & Geology highlighting activities of faculty, students and alumni.

Dissociation Quotients Of Oxalic Acid In Aqueous Sodium Chloride Media To 175c, Richard Kettler, Donald A. Palmer, David J. Wesolowski

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The first and second molal dissociation quotienls of oxalic acid were measured potenliometrically in a concentration cell filled with hydrogen electrodes. The emf of oxalic acid-bioxalate solutions was measured relative to an HCI standard solution from 25 to 125°C over 25° intervals at nine ionic strengths ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 molal (NaCl). The molal dissociation quotients and available literature data were treated in the all anionic form by a five-term equation that yielded the following thermodynamic quantities at infinite dilution and 25°C: logK_Ia = -1.277±0.010, ΔH_l̊a = -4.1± 1.1 kJ-mol^-1, ΔS_l̊a = 38±4 J-K …

Quaternary Geology Of The Northern Great Plains, William J. Wayne, James S. Aber, Sherry S. Agard, Robert N. Bergantino, John P. Bluemle, Donald A. Coates, Maurice E. Cooley, Richard F. Madole, James E. Martin, Brainerd Mears Jr, Roger B. Morrison, Wayne M. Sutherland

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Great Plains physiographic province lies east of the Rocky Mountains and extends from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan nearly to the United States-Mexico border. This chapter covers only the northern part of the unglaciated portion of this huge region, from Oklahoma almost to the United StatesCanada border, a portion that herein will be referred to simply as the Northern Great Plains (Fig. 1). This region is in the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Isoheyets are roughly longitudinal, and mean annual precipitation decreases from about 750 mm at the southeastern margin to less than 380 mm in the western and …

A Geophysical And Geological Study Of The Farmville Triassic Basin, Charles G. James Jr.

OES Theses and Dissertations

The Farmville basin is one of many Triassic basins which are found along the eastern coast of North America, and is the largest of the central string of basins in Virginia. Meta-volcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Chopawamsic Formation, as well as felsic intrusives are the primary lithologies surrounding the basin. A detailed gravity survey was conducted along six roads that trend approximately NW-SE, across the basin. Geologic, gravity, magnetic, and radiometric data were used to develop a kinematic model. Gravity anomalies were isolated using two-dimensional harmonic analysis methods to isolate the local, and regional anomalies. This analysis indicates that …

Some Tests Of Wet Tropospheric Calibration For The Casa Uno Global Positioning System Experiment, Timothy H. Dixon, S. Kornreich Wolf

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Wet tropospheric path delay can be a major error source for Global Positioning System (GPS) geodetic experiments. We investigate strategies for minimizing this error using data from CASA Uno, the first major GPS experiment in Central and South America, where wet path delays may be both high and variable. We compared wet path delay calibration using water vapor radiometers (WVRs) and residual delay estimation, with strategies where the entire wet path delay is estimated stochastically without prior calibration, using data from a 270 km test baseline in Costa Rica. Both approaches yield centimeter-level baseline repeatability and similar tropospheric estimates, suggesting …

A Geophysical Study Of The Easternmost Piedmont: Brunswick County, Virginia, Mark A. Corbin

OES Theses and Dissertations

Gravity and magnetic models indicate that a steeply dipping, mylonitic shear zone recognized by reconnaissance mapping in the easternmost Piedmont of Brunswick County, Virginia is a listric fault. A pronounced 3 to 5 mgal Bouguer anomaly high is associated with the fault zone. A band of N10° trending aeromagnetic anomalies delineate the areal extent of the fault zone. The fault zone flattens eastward over a short distance to a depth of 15 kms where it joins a near horizontal surface that cuts across the region. This surface is herein interpreted to be a decollement. The fault zone of this study …

State Of Stress And Modern Deformation Of The Northern Basin And Range Province, Mary Lou Zoback

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Constraints on the current stress regime of the actively extending northern Basin and Range province are provided by deformation data (focal mechanisms and fault slip studies), hydraulic fracturing in situ stress measurements, borehole elongation ("breakouts") analyses, and alignment of young volcanic vents. The integrated data indicate significant variations both in principal stress orientations and magnitudes. An approximately E-W least principal stress direction appears to characterize both the eastern and western margins of the Basin and Range province, whereas in the active interior parts of the province extension occurs in response to a least principal stress oriented NW to N60 °W. …

Slope Stability As Related To Geology At Rainier, Columbia County, Oregon, James Douglas Gless

Dissertations and Theses

Rainier, Oregon, has experienced problems in the development of residential and commercial sites, utilities, and transportation facilities as a result of slope instability. This study of slope stability at Rainier was conducted at the request of city officials.

Leg 101--An Overview, James A. Austin Jr., Wolfgang Schlager, Amanda A. Palmer, Paul A. Comet, André Droxler, Gregor Eberli, Eric Fourcade, Raymond Freeman-Lynde, Craig S. Fulthorpe, Gill Harwood, Gerhard Kuhn, Dawn Lavoie, Mark Leckie, Allan J. Melillo, Arthur Moore, Henry T. Mullins, Christian Ravenne, William W. Sager, Peter Swart, Joost W. Verbeek, David K. Watkins, Colin Williams

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

During Leg 101, the inaugural leg of the Ocean Drilling Program, the JOIDES Resolution drilled 19 holes at 11 sites in the Bahamas. Grids of high-resolution seismic profiles provided information crucial for both site selection and regional stratigraphic interpretations. The first major scientific objective was to understand the long-term evolution of the bank-and-basin pattern that currently characterizes the Bahamas archipelago. Drilling and seismic surveys have indicated considerable platform expansion and retreat rather than stationary upward growth. Upbuilding in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous was followed by drowning and retreat in the mid-Cretaceous and by renewed expansion in the Cenozoic. At Site …

The Stratigraphy Of Late Quaternary Deposits In The Payan Mining District, Narino, Colombia, South America, Richard Alan Barringer

OES Theses and Dissertations

Late Quaternary terrace deposits along the Rio Magui consist of cobble or pebble gravels with thick volcanic ash caps. These gravel terrace deposits unconformably overlie a cemented volcanic tuff (Ananias Formation), and are subdivided into two formations (Antigua and Panambi formations) based on the cobble lithology and size, depth of weathering, geomorphic relationships, and heavy mineral assemblages. Carbon-14 dates from wood suggest that the Antigua fan deposits are older (greater than 40,000 YBP) than the lower Panambi alluvium (less tahn 25,000 YBP) which is restricted to lower terraces within the modern river valleys.

Two separate ash units identified by differences …

Development And Application Of Some Quantitative Stratigraphic Techniques To The Coos Bay Coalfield, A Tertiary Fluvio-Deltaic Complex In Southwestern Oregon, Willard Sidney Titus Iii

Dissertations and Theses

A computer technique for interpreting geophysical logs of drill-holes in quantitative lithologic terms has been developed and tested on the deposits of the late Eocene Coaledo Formation, a well-studied fluvio-deltaic complex in southwestern Oregon. The technique involves the use of induced and natural gamma logs for separation of coal and claystone from coarse-grained detrital rocks and the use of the ratio of resistivity and natural gamma responses (defined here as the "grain size index") to divide the coarse elastic rocks into a series of textural classes corresponding to the Wentworth-Odden particle size scale.

Isostatic Compensation And Conduit Structures Of Western Pacific Seamounts: Results Of Three-Dimensional Gravity Modeling, James N. Kellogg, Bruce S. Wedgeworth, Jeffrey T. Freymueller

Faculty Publications

Detailed three-dimensional polygonal prism models of two large western Pacific seamounts show that the 135 mgal difference in the observed sea surface gravity over the two can be best explained by similar mean densities (2.6 gjcm3) and crustal thickening under one seamount (Airy isostatic compensation). Observed calculated residuals are further reduced by including dense (2.9 gjcm3) vertical feeder pipes or volcanic conduits in the models. Dense conduits or fracture zones 5 to 17 km in diameter are located under many, if not all, craters on volcanic islands and seamounts. Results from the detailed seamount studies can be generalized using exact …

A 3-D Gravity Tectonic Study Of Ita Mai Tai Guyot: An Uncompensated Seamount In The East Mariana Basin, Bruce S. Wedgeworth, James N. Kellogg

Faculty Publications

Ita Mai Tai is a large, locally uncompensated seamount on the eastern edge of the East Mariana Basin. A large positive gravity anomaly of 254 mgal characterizes the summit and a low of -69 mgal, the surrounding moat. Using polygonal prisms to approximate the bathymetry, the observed gravity was inverted to calculate an average density of 2.59 g/ems for the seamount. Observed-calculated gravity residuals are reduced by including the flanking sedimentary basins and a dense volcanic conduit. The drill sites from DSDP Legs 20 and 89 describe a volcanic edifice formed in the Aptian!Albian on Jmassic/Cretaceous crust. The volcanism is …

A Paleoenvironmental Study Of The Salem Limestone In The Vicinity Of St. Louis, Missouri, Douglas J. Van Brunt

Masters Theses

“The Salem Limestone (Meramecian) of Mississippian age in the vicinity of St. Louis, Missouri is composed of a variable sequence of limestones deposited in shallow waters adjacent to scattered positive elements. This unit varies in thickness from zero up to 160 feet.

A medium to coarse-grained calcarenite is the dominant rock-type of the thesis area and is most abundant in the central and southwest regions. Stratigraphic sections in the northern region are more dolomitic, increasingly brecciated, and contains numerous secondary features. The southeast region is thinly bedded and composed of greater amounts of micrite formed by algal activity or direct …

Sedimentology Of The Upper Triassic Chinle Formation Southeastern Utah: Paleoclimatic Implications, Russell F. Dubiel

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in southeastern Utah was deposited in a complex fluvial-deltaic-lacustrine system. The Chinle records the evolution of a continental system in response to variations in climate, tectonics, and sediment supply. Chinle strata represent deposits of fluvial channels and floodplains, lacustrine deltas, lacustrine basins, and lacustrine and playa mudflats. These rocks include a variety of vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant fossils, trace fossils, and paleosols that provide information on depositional environments, water tables, and paleoclimate.

Sedimentologic and paleontologic interpretations both support an interpretation of abundant lakes, streams, and marshes with high, but fluctuating water tables for all but …

A Gravity And Magnetic Study Of The Crooked Creek Cryptoexplosion Structure, Crawford County, Missouri, Charles Edward Woodbury

Masters Theses

"The pre-Pennsylvanian structure at Crooked Creek consists of a complex, vertically faulted ring of Cambrian and Ordovician sediments with a central uplifted core. The center of the structure is strongly deformed and contains shatter cones, brecciation, and other signs of extreme shock.

A magnetic low over the center of the structure suggests that igneous material was not involved in the formation of the structure, and this is corroborated by core analysis. Gravity data indicates several small gravity lows, possibly associated with areas of brecciation, circling the flanks of the structure. As in the magnetic data, there is no indication that …

A Structural Investigation Of A Basement-Involved Thrust System In Southern Sphinx Mountain Quadrangle (Madison Range) Southwestern Montana, Jeffrey Scott Brown

Masters Theses

The Madison Range is the eastern limb of the Laramide Rocky Mountain foreland Madison-Gravelly Arch. The main segment of the Madison thrust system in the map area is the basement-involved Scarface thrust which dips westward, trends north-northwest, and places Archean rocks onto an overturned footwall of Cambrian through Cretaceous rocks. Foliation of Archean rocks in the footwall is folded with overlying sedimentary rocks.

The Shedhorn Mountain thrust splays from the Scarface thrust. It is exposed north and south of the Shedhorn Mountain anticline, but is blind beneath it. The Taylor fault, an east-dipping back thrust, is inferred to be associated …

Mechanisms Of Crustal Deformation In The Western United States, United States, National Aeronautics And Space Administration

Geology

The basic purpose of the research carried out under this grant was to obtain a better understanding of deformation processes in the western United States. The research considered both deterministic models and random or statistical models. One important aspect of deformation is the rheology of the lithosphere. We have been one of the leading proponents of an intracrustal asthenosphere. This is a soft zone at mid-crustal depths that has an important effect on a variety of tectonic phenomena.

Diagenesis And Water Chemistry Of The Woodbine Group In The East Texas Basin, Helmuth Victor Wuerch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Petrographic and SEM study of flu vial-deltaic sections of the Woodbine Group in the East Texas Basin indicates that authigenic mineral suites are controlled, in part, by the presence of organic-rich matrix.

During early, precompaction diagenesis, organic matter supplied the metabolic fuel required by sulfate-reducing bacteria to reduce sulfate in depositional waters ultimately to pyrite. With burial the sulfate supply was ultimately exhausted, and bicarbonate activity thereafter controlled the precipitation of siderite and Fe-calcite.

Matrix material supplied the components and reaction sites for the most import ant porosity-occluding reaction: kaolinite --> Fe,M g chlorite. Matrix physically inhibited the growth of …

Lineament Analysis In The Richmond Triassic Basin Area Virginia: A Kinematic Model, Richard D. Lutz

OES Theses and Dissertations

A lineament study from various sources (color-infrared U-2 photos, rectified drainage maps, and aeromagnetic maps) was conducted to develop a conceptual kinematic model for the Richmond Triassic basin area in Virginia. The lineaments were digitized and subjected to a computerized correlation package that compared the statistically significant peaks within 8 km² grid cells. Spatially filtered significant 10° contoured trends exhibited a high correlation with mapped structures, outcrop patterns, diabase dikes, and aeromagnetic alignments, suggesting that they represent the surface expressions of the boundaries of subsurface structural domains. Structurally important lineament zones include NE-trending lineaments which segment the basin, NNW-trending …

Diatom Stratigraphy Of The Lower Pliocene Part Of The Sisquoc Formation, Harris Grade Section, California, John A. Barron, Jack G. Baldau

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Lower Pliocene diatoms were studied from the Sisquoc Formation and lowermost Foxen Mudstone, exposed along Hams Grade north of Lompoc, California, to refine the diatom biostratigraphy of post-Monterey Formation sediments in California. Sixty-seven diatom taxa were identified in the 25 samples examined from the 790-m thick (2950-ft) section. The diatoms are assignable to the uppermost Nitzschia reinholdii Zone and Thalassiosira oestrupii Zone of Damn (1981), and five tentative subzones for local correlation are proposed. Regional correlations and taxon occurrence are discussed, and the base of the Nitzschia reinholdii Zone is redefined as at the last occurrence of Thalassionema schraderi.