Digital Commons Network^™

Not Your Father’S Border: An Examination Of The Border In Northern Ireland And Its Relevance To The Global Change In The Importance Of World Borders, Aaron Patterson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Humanity has long maintained barriers separating specific entities from others. Ranging from cultural, religious, financial, and racial differences among a few others, the reasoning behind borders has remained a purely human endeavor. But our current golden age of technology has somewhat shrunk, or at least reassessed the necessity for borders. The boundaries of today, while many remain in the same locations as in the past, are vastly different from the borders created by previous generations. Globalization, a relatively new term, has made communication simple and fast. The noticeable result has been, of course, better communication between locations, and thus easing …

Kentucky Terrain, Daniel I. Carey, Terry D. Hounshell

Map and Chart--KGS

The terrain of Kentucky has been shaped by geologic forces and the underlying rocks.Tectonic forces lifted, bent, and buckled the rocks–originally formed from sediments on shallow sea floors or swampy lowlands. Weathering and erosion shaved the hills and dissected the plains, exposing at the surface a cross section of rocks 250 to 500 million years old. The sands, gravels, silts, and clays of the Jackson Purchase Region are younger, remnants of a time when the sea lapped at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

The landforms in Kentucky are the result of the differential weathering of interbedded sandstones, …

Geologic Hazards In Kentucky, Daniel I. Carey, Terry D. Hounshell, John D. Kiefer

Map and Chart--KGS

Geologic data were derived from the Kentucky Geological Survey-U.S. Geological Survey areal geologic mapping project. Nearly 190 geologists mapped the geology of Kentucky from 1960 to 1978. KGS geologists converted the resulting 707 geologic quadrangle maps into digital format at part of the STATEMAP component of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program of the United States Geological Survey.

Geology Of Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, Matthew M. Crawford, Rickard A. Olson, Rickard S. Toomey Iii, Lillian J. Scoggins

Map and Chart--KGS

Mammoth Cave National Park in south-central Kentucky was authorized as a national park in 1926 and was fully established in 1941 to protect the cave system, scenic landscape, and diverse flora and fauna. The park contains 52,830 acres and most of the longest recorded cave system in the world, with more than 390 miles of mapped passages as of 2013. Even though Mammoth Cave is famous, people are often unaware of the park's intricate connection to the outside region. This poster shows the geology of Mammoth Cave and the interconnected issues that are important to the park and its visitors. …

Foundation Problems And Pyrite Oxidation In The Chattanooga Shale, Estill County, Kentucky, Warren H. Anderson

Report of Investigations--KGS

Pyrite oxidation in the Chattanooga Shale has caused serious foundation problems in numerous buildings and structures in Estill County, Ky. Pyrite oxidizes and various secondary sulfates form when excavated shale or shale fill are used in foundations. These secondary sulfates are water- and humidity-sensitive and can form when only minor amounts of water are present in foundation materials. These sulfates form by crystal growth and expand by volume change, which causes subsequent soil expansion and heaving of any foundation materials when the materials are confined. Several structures have undergone expensive remediation to repair damaged sidewalks, floors, walls, and foundations. Zones …

Groundwater Quality In Watersheds Of The Big Sandy River, Little Sandy River, And Tygarts Creek (Kentucky Basin Management Unit 5), R. Stephen Fisher, Bart Davidson, Peter T. Goodmann

Report of Investigations--KGS

The Kentucky Geological Survey and the Kentucky Division of Water are evaluating groundwater quality throughout the commonwealth to determine regional conditions, assess impacts of nonpoint-source contaminants, provide a baseline for tracking changes, and provide essential information for environmental-protection and resource-management decisions. These evaluations include summarizing existing regional groundwater-quality data and reporting the results of expanded, focused groundwater collection programs in specific areas. This report summarizes groundwater sampling and analysis in Kentucky basin management unit 5 (watersheds of the Big Sandy River, Little Sandy River, and Tygarts Creek in eastern Kentucky).

Thirty wells and springs were sampled quarterly between the fall …

Response Of Sahara Mustard (Brassica Tournefortii) To Water Addition And Soil Disturbance, Alexis Suazo, Jessica E. Spencer, Scott R. Abella

Vegetation Monitoring Presentations

Invasive exotic species can have a significant impact on the structure, function, and diversity of ecological communities. Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) is one of the top exotic invasive species spreading through the southwestern deserts of North America. In arid environments, it is well documented that species abundance is sensitive to rainfall (Beatly 1974, Ernest et al. 2000). In the Mojave Desert, winter precipitation can trigger massive germination events (Beatly 1974). As a winter annual, Sahara mustard may have a positive response to winter precipitation by germinating, growing, and reproducing before native annuals, monopolizing soil moisture and nutrients, and potentially changing …

A New Method Of Synthesizing Black Birnessite Nanoparticles: From Brown To Black Birnessite With Nanostructures, Shizhi Qian, Marcos A. Cheney, Pradip K. Bhowmik, Sang W. Joo, Wensheng Hou, Joseph M. Okoh

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

A new method for preparing black birnessite nanoparticles is introduced. The initial synthesis process resembles the classical McKenzie method of preparing brown birnessite except for slower cooling and closing the system from the ambient air. Subsequent process, including wet-aging at 7◦C for 48 hours, overnight freezing, and lyophilization, is shown to convert the brown birnessite into black birnessite with complex nanomorphology with folded sheets and spirals. Characterization of the product is performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and N2 adsorption (BET) techniques. Wet-aging and lyophilization times are shown to …

A Faculty Workshop On Student Assessment, Iris M. Totten, Kirsten Nicolaysen, Sheryl Hodge, Mary S. Hubbard

Geosciences Faculty Publications

A faculty workshop was conducted that showcased assessment activities that could be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate geology courses. Fourteen different types of student assessment were presented. Workshop participants were asked to respond to questions about their familiarity and use of each type before and immediately following the workshop. In addition, they were asked to indicate how likely they would be to incorporate each type of assessment in their student grading practices in the future. Results suggest relatively high familiarity and use of the more traditional types of assessments (e.g., instructor- and commercially-produced pencil and paper exams, group projects, and …

Strike-Slip Fault Terminations At Seismogenic Depths: The Structure And Kinematics Of The Glacier Lakes Fault, Sierra Nevada United States, J. D. Kirkpatrick, Z. K. Shipton, James P. Evans, S. Micklethwaite, S. J. Lim, Peter R. Mckillop

Geosciences Faculty Publications

[1] Structural complexity is common at the terminations of earthquake surface ruptures; similar deformation may therefore be expected at the end zones of earthquake ruptures at depth. The 8.2 km long Glacier Lakes fault (GLF) in the Sierra Nevada is a left-lateral strike-slip fault with a maximum observed displacement of 125 m. Within the fault, pseudotachylytes crosscut cataclasites, showing that displacement on the GLF was accommodated at least partly by seismic slip. The western termination of the GLF is defined by a gradual decrease in the displacement on the main fault, accompanied by a 1.4 km wide zone of secondary …

Volcanic Activity: Processing Of Observation And Remote Sensing Data (Vapor), Mark Wylie

Reports

The World Bank makes a very clear distinction between disasters and natural phenomena. Natural phenomena are events like volcanic eruptions. A disaster only occurs when the ability of the community to cope with natural phenomenon has been surpassed, causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses. By these definitions, volcanic eruptions do not have to lead to disasters. On November 13, 1985, the second most deadly eruption of the twentieth century occurred in Colombia. Within a few hours of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, 23,000 people were dead because no infrastructure existed to respond to such an …

The Effect Of Chloride Ion On Heavy Metal Partitioning And Transport In An Urban Watershed: Patroon Creek, Albany, Ny, Charles Begeal

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Road deicing salt use in the United States has increased extensively over the last 60 years with urbanization and a need to keep roads safe during winter months. This increase has caused an overall increase in the base concentration of Cl- in streams near roads that receive deicing salts. Many of these streams are in the Northeast United States where extensive industrialization has led to the pollution of soils, sediments, and surface waters by heavy metals. This study addresses the effect that chloride concentration has on fluvial transport and partitioning of heavy metals between the dissolved and suspended phases in …

Yo-Yo Tectonics Of The Niğde Massif During Wrenching In Central Anatolia, Donna L. Whitney, Paul J. Umhoefer, Christian Teyssier, Annia K. Fayon

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Yo-yo tectonics occurs in wrench zones in response to switches between transpression and transtension or to changes in the geometries of faults during these modes of deformation, and involves multiple cycles of burial and exhumation. The Niğde Massif, Turkey, is a spectacular example of a tectonic yo-yo: it experienced two complete cycles of burial and exhumation in a zone of oblique displacement. The two cycles, one regional and one more local in scale, together occurred over > 80 m.y., from Cretaceous burial to Miocene cooling and exhumation. Temperature-time paths calculated using apatite fission track age and length data, combined with published …

Magma Interaction Processes Inferred From Fe-Ti Oxide Compositions In The Dölek And Sarıçiçek Plutons, Eastern Turkey, Orhan Karsli, Faruk Aydin, İbrahi̇m Uysal, M. Burhan Sadiklar

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Magnetite-ulvöspinel and ilmenite-hematite solid solution intergrowths from the high-K calc-alkaline Dölek and Sarıçiçek plutons, Eastern Turkey, were investigated using microprobe analyses. Compositions of twenty-eight samples from the host rocks and their enclaves in the plutons were used to estimate the oxygen fugacity and temperature. The ilmenite and ulvöspinel component exsolves out along certain preferred crystallographic planes in the titanomagnetite of the host rocks, while they are always absent in those of the mafic microgranular enclaves. The titanomagnetite and ilmenite show variations as Mt_{98-70}Usp_{02-30} and Ilm_{99-65}Hm_{01-35} in composition, respectively. Estimations of oxygen fugacity and temperature using the titanomagnetite-ilmenite thermometry/oxygen barometry range …

Cretaceous Pelagic Red Beds And Black Shales (Aptian-Santonian), Nw Turkey: Global Oceanic Anoxic And Oxic Events, İsmai̇l Ömer Yilmaz

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The study areas located near the towns of Göynük, Mudurnu and Nallıhan in the central northwestern part of Turkey lie on the `Sakarya Continent´, which is one of the tectonic entities of the Cretaceous geology of Turkey. Measured stratigraphic sections comprise the Aptian pelagic carbonates and the overlying Albian-Coniacian turbiditic sequences, which are all capped by a Late Santonian red pelagic succession. Lower and Upper Aptian, Upper Albian and Cenomanian/Turonian marine black shales recognized in the sections are followed by Lower and Upper Aptian, Upper Albian and Turonian marine red beds. The black shales are generally silty, laminated, and include …

Historic Resource Study: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Gail Evans-Hatch

United States National Park Service: Publications

As steward of many of the United States' most important cultural and natural resources, the National Park Service (NPS) is required to create background documents along with specific plans aimed at managing and protecting these resources for the enjoyment of present and future generations. An important aspect of managing cultural landscapes requires knowing the past of those landscapes. A historic resource study (HRS) project involves researching and presenting the history of a park. A HRS also attempts to identify and evaluate the importance of all cultural resources within that park. Researching and presenting the broader historical context of a park …

Hydrographic Surveys For Six Water Bodies In Eastern Nebraska, 2005–07, Michaela R. Johnson, Michael J. Andersen, Sonja K. Sebree

United States Geological Survey: Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, completed hydrographic surveys for six water bodies in eastern Nebraska: Maskenthine Wetland, Olive Creek Lake, Standing Bear Lake, Wagon Train Lake and Wetland, Wildwood Lake, and Yankee Hill Lake and sediment basin. The bathymetric data were collected using a boat-mounted survey-grade fathometer that operated at 200 kHz, and a differentially corrected Global Positioning System with antenna mounted directly above the echo-sounder transducer. Shallow-water and terrestrial areas were surveyed using a Real-Time Kinematic Global Position¬ing System. The bathymetric, shallow-water, and terrestrial data were processed in a geographic information …

Summary And Analysis Of The U.S. Government Bat Banding Program, Laura Ellison

United States Geological Survey: Publications

This report is a summary of the Bat Banding Program (BBP) administered, coordinated, and maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey in the Department of Agriculture and its successor, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of the Interior from 1932 to 1972. Bands were issued and copies of the permanent records were maintained at the Bird and Mammal Laboratories, U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C., during the active parts of the program (1932–72). Following various agency transfers within the Department of the Interior, the files and documentation for this program are currently maintained in the same location, …

Estimated Flood Discharges And Map Of Flood-Inundated Areas For Omaha Creek, Near Homer, Nebraska, 2005, Benjamin J. Dietsch, Richard C. Wilson, Kellan R. Strauch

United States Geological Survey: Publications

Repeated flooding of Omaha Creek has caused damage in the Village of Homer. Long-term degradation and bridge scouring have changed substantially the channel characteristics of Omaha Creek. Flood-plain managers, planners, homeowners, and others rely on maps to identify areas at risk of being inundated.
To identify areas at risk for inundation by a flood having a 1-percent annual probability, maps were created using topographic data and water-surface elevations resulting from hydrologic and hydraulic analyses. The hydrologic analysis for the Omaha Creek study area was performed using historical peak flows obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey streamflow gage (station number 06601000). …

Hydrogeology, Chemical Characteristics, And Transport Processes In The Zone Of Contribution Of A Public-Supply Well In York, Nebraska, Matthew K. Landon, Brian R. Clark, Peter B. Mcmahon, Michael J. Turco, Virginia L. Mcguire

United States Geological Survey: Publications

In 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, as part of the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, initiated a topical study of Transport of Anthropogenic and Natural Contaminants (TANC) to PSW (public-supply wells). Local-scale and regional-scale TANC study areas were delineated within selected NAWQA study units for intensive study of processes effecting transport of contaminants to PSWs. This report describes results from a local-scale TANC study area at York, Nebraska, within the High Plains aquifer, including the hydrogeology and geochemistry of a 108-square-kilometer study area that contains the zone of contribution to a PSW selected for study (study PSW), and describes …

Soil Chemistry Northwest New Mexico, Larry V. Benson

United States Geological Survey: Datasets

These data result from soil chemistry samples extracted from several regions in northwest New Mexico and were used in the following publications:

Larry V. Benson, J. Stein, H. Taylor, R. Friedman, and T. C. Windes. 2006. The agricultural productivity of Chaco Canyon and the source(s) of pre-Hispanic maize found in the Pueblo Bonito Great House. In: J. E. Staller, R. H. Tykot, and B. F. Benz, eds. Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, 289–314. Elsevier/Academic Press.

Larry V. Benson. 2017. The Chuska Slope as an agricultural alternative to Chaco …

Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems, M. Sànchez-Marrè, K. Gibert, R. S. Sojda, J. P. Steyer, P. Struss, I. Rodríguez-Roda, J. Comas, V. Brilhante, E. A. Roehl

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Introduction
Complexity of environmental systems
New tools for a new paradigm
Intelligent Environmental Decision Support Systems (IEDSS)
IEDSS development
About Uncertainty Management
Temporal Reasoning
Featuring the problem
Approaches to temporal reasoning
Case-based reasoning for temporal reasoning
Geographic Information and Spatial Reasoning
Understanding spatial reasoning
Kriging and variants
Representing change/time steps/feedback loops
Middleware. blackboards and communication protocols
Multiagent systems
Evaluation of IEDSS and Benchmarking
Benchmarking
Conclusions and Future Trends

A Stratigraphic And Depositional Interpretation Of A Sand Quarry In Middle Georgia, Jessica Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Analysis of sediments from two sand quarries in Mauk, Georgia indicate braided stream environment. Sediment samples of both Pleistocene and Cretaceous age were collected, sedimentary features such as trough cross-bedding along with laminar bedding were recorded, and photos were taken to document the scale and stratigraphic sequences of the sediments. Petrified wood was collected throughout the two sand quarries indicating a terrestrial origin. Post-depositional modifications seen at some of sites include load and flame structures. Sediment samples were examined for grain-size distributions and other sediment textures.

Sediment Transport And Contaminant Behavior In The Buffalo River, New York: Implications For River Management, Jill Singer, Patrick Mclaren

Earth Sciences Faculty Publications

The lower 9 km of the Buffalo River that flows into the eastern end of Lake Erie has been designated by the International Joint Commission as a Great Lakes area of concern (AoC) because of poor water quality, degraded riparian and river habitat, and contaminated sediments—impairments related to a long history of contamination from the industrial legacy of the past century. As a designated AoC, attention is presently focused on sediment remediation, an endeavor requiring an assessment of the relationship between sediment transport processes and sediment contaminant concentrations. In 1990 a pilot sediment trend analysis (STA) revealed an upriver return …

Percolation-Based Techniques For Upscaling The Hydraulic Conductivity Of Semi-Realistic Geological Media, Bilal Idriss

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

I tested three schemes for "upscaling" the hydraulic conductivity (K) on aquifers with bimodal K distributions. This bimodality (e.g., sand and mud deposits) was intended to capture typical geological conditions. Results were tested with a numerical model. Upscaling techniques used were inspired by schemes interpolating between arithmetic and harmonic means, but are based on percolation theory: 1) Critical path analysis (CPA), 2) Percolation path analysis (PPA, or standard scaling), and a novel scaling approach. Models chosen were both spatially correlated and uncorrelated, with important differences in critical percolation probabilities, Pc. Volume fractions Ps and 1-Ps (with Ps = sand volume …

Early Pleistocene Initiation And Structural Complexities Of The San Jacinto And San Felipe Fault Zones, Western Salton Trough: Part Ii, Susanne U. Janecke, R. J. Dorsey, B. Belgarde

Geosciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Modern Strain Localization In The Central Walker Lane, Western United States: Implications For The Evolution Of Intraplate Deformation In Transtensional Settings, Benjamin E. Surpless

Earth and Environmental Geosciences Faculty Research

Approximately 25% of the differential motion between the Pacific and North American plates occurs in the Walker Lane, a zone of dextral motion within the western margin of the Basin and Range province. At the latitude of Lake Tahoe, the central Walker Lane has been considered a zone of transtension, with strain accommodated by dip-slip, strike-slip, and oblique-slip faults. Geologic data indicate that extension and strike-slip motion are partitioned across the central Walker Lane, with dip-slip motion resulting in E–W to ESE–WNW extension along the present-day western margin of the central Walker Lane since approximately 15 Ma, and dextral strike-slip …

Using Biosolids To Enhance Phytoremediation Of Oil-Contaminated Soil, Heather N. Markway, Duane C. Wolf, Kaaron J. Davis, Edward E. Gbur

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

While the plant rhizosphere and associated microbial processes have been shown to amplify the degradation rate of chemical residues in soils, phytoremediation can be a slow process. The objective of this greenhouse study was to determine if the addition of biosolids as an organic soil amendment would enhance growth of plants in oil-contaminated soil and thus potentially increase effectiveness of phytoremediation. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) or sudangrass (Sorghum sudanense (Piper) Stapf (Piper)) was grown in a Captina silt loam (finesilty, siliceous, mesic Typic Fragiudults) contaminated with 5% crude oil (v/w) and amended with 24 g biosolids/kg soil. …

The Earthquake Catalogues For Turkey, Onur Tan, M. Cengi̇z Tapirdamaz, Ahmet Yörük

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The earthquake data from instrumental records in the last 40 years indicate the general seismicity of the earth. However, examining historical records is necessary to understand long-term seismicity. Catalogue studies about historical earthquakes in Turkey are limited. All these catalogues are on printed paper and a digital database has not yet been prepared. On the other hand, there is no common database for the focal mechanism solutions of the recent destructive earthquakes (Mw>=5.5) in the region. The present study aims to prepare two new digital databases for earth scientists so that the earthquake parameters can be reached from a …

Post-Miocene Deformation In The South Of The Galatean Volcanic Province, Nw Of Central Anatolia (Turkey), Bora Rojay, A. Karaca

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Central Anatolia, located on the immense Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt, has a complicated neotectonic evolution, and NE-SW-trending Neogene horsts-graben systems that rejuvenate pre-existing palaeostructures are among the most important structures which help us understand the tectonic evolution of Central Anatolia. Post-Miocene deformational studies were carried out in Miocene-Quaternary sequences situated at the southeastern margin of the Galatean Volcanic Province (NW of Central Anatolia, Turkey) in order to understand the deformational history of Central Anatolia. The structural analyses were based on bedding attitude data and fault plane slip data. Fold analysis in Miocene units gave an asymmetrical fold axis trending 046ºN. Although …