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Microcomputer Image Analysis Of Rock Fabric, Norbert H. Maerz, C. P. Bennettt, B. A. Dony

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The behavior of many types of rock is largely dependent on the fabric of the rock mass. Current methods of manually measuring the discontinuity networks in rock masses are slow, tedious and error prone. The alternative is to make automated measurements of rock jointing parameters on digital images of rock faces in mines, tunnels, and surface excavations.

Photoanalysis techniques are being developed to measure various rock fabric parameters. Techniques presented here include the generation of a joint trace map from a photograph, and the measurement of simple statistics on the joint trace map. Methods are also presented for the determination …

Discrimination Of Subparallel Beach Ridges Using Detrital Ilmenite Composition And Fourier Shape Analysis, Allen E. Evans Jr.

OES Theses and Dissertations

Elemental composition (Fe, Ti, Mn, Mg, V, Cu, Ni, Zn, and Cr) and Fourier shape analysis of magnetically separated detrital ilmenite from seven Pleistocene and modern beach sand deposits of the Southeastern Virginia Coastal Plain were used to distinguish each deposit. Geomorphic expression, crosscutting relationships and proximity to the present shoreline differentiates the relative age of the seven sampled beach deposits. Analysis of ilmenite elemental composition, independent of geomorphic expression, distinguished beach sands of

different age and was successful in determining that each beach contained ilmenite similar in composition. Of the seven beach ridges tested, subtle yet significant differences in …

Geomorphic Character, Age And Distribution Of Rock Glaciers In The Olympic Mountains, Washington, Steven Paul Welter

Dissertations and Theses

Rock glaciers are tongue-shaped or lobate masses of rock debris which occur below cliffs and talus in many alpine regions. They are best developed in continental alpine climates where it is cold enough to preserve a core or matrix of ice within the rock mass but insufficiently snowy to produce true glaciers. Previous reports have identified and briefly described several rock glaciers in the Olympic Mountains, Washington, but no detailed integrative study has been made regarding the geomorphic character, age, and distribution of these features.

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, surface sediment fabric analysis and relative and …

Development Of Dynamic Non-Hortonian Watershed Models For Steeply Sloping Forested Watersheds: Application To Eastern Kentucky, Lindell E. Ormsbee, Abdul Q. Khan

KWRRI Research Reports

A comprehensive conceptual watershed model is developed to simulate the hydrologic response of steeply sloping forested watersheds. Two non-Hortonian and two Hortonian models were first tested with data from selected watersheds in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky in order to understand the different mechanisms of flow responsible for storm hydrograph generation in this type of watersheds. The two non-Hortonian models tested were the kinematic storage model (Sloan et al. 1983) and the saturation deficit model (Beven and Wood, 1983). Both models were unable to adequately reproduce the observed hydrographs in the four forested watersheds considered in this research. The two …

A Thermodynamic Study Of The Zeolite Stilbite, David Adams Howell

Masters Theses

Stilbite is a calcium-rich zeolite found in low-grade metamorphic and hydrothermally altered environments. In this study, measurements of the enthalpy of formation at 298.15 K, heat capacity from 5 to 350 K, and enthalpy increments horn 350 to 500 K were performed on a specimen of stilbite characterized by electron microprobe analysis. The actual formula of the stilbite is: Ca_1.019Na_0.136K_0.006Al_2.180Si_6.820O₁₆ . 7.33H₂O. Evaluation of the thermodynamic properties for stilbite at T = 298.15 K produced the following values: Δ_rH^Om(T)= -11034.6+6.6 kJ . mol …

Nitrate Pollution Of Ground Water In Glacial Sediments Underlying A Fertigated Site In Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Michael Wireman

Masters Theses

In the central part of Schoolcraft Township high yield corn crops are successfully grown on soils developed on permeable outwash deposits. The high yields are made possible with the utilization of modern irrigation techniques and regular application of nitrogen fertilizer.

Excess nitrogen which moves past the root zone is easily converted to nitrate and leached to the shallow ground water. Water quality data from 103 ground-water samples in the vicinity of a 160-acre corn field in Section 11 clearly indicate that nitrate concentrations in the ground water beneath the field and beneath the area immediately downgradient from the field are …

Possible Role Of Petroliferous Materials In Sulfide Precipitation At The Frank R. Millikan Mine, Southeast Missouri, Clark Alan Niewendorp

Masters Theses

The Millikan Mine's ore body contains ubiquitous amounts of petroliferous materials occurring as blebs, coal-like pods and veinlets, and seeps coating mine stope walls. Emplacement of hydrocarbons into the ore occurred before the final episode of mineralization ceased, based on growth of dendritic galena in some coal-like bitumen and other paragenetic relationships. Growth of dendritic galena in a hydrocarbon substance suggests that hydrocarbons provided sulfur for galena mineralization by either abiogenetic reduction of sulfate or thermochemical evolution of organic sulfur. Texturally, it also suggests that the presence of hydrocarbons may have been responsible for some zones of rapid precipitate mineralization. …

Groundwater Levels In Nebraska, 1986, Michael J. Ellis, Vincent H. Dreeszen

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Geology Of Selected Sites Near The Republican River In Franklin County, Nebraska, Roger K. Pabian

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Explosion Structures In Grande Ronde Basalt Of The Columbia River Basalt Group, Near Troy, Oregon, Leonard Lee Orzol

Dissertations and Theses

Explosion structures occur in flows of Grande Ronde Basalt in the study area near Troy, Oregon. Data from nineteen stratigraphic sites indicate that the maximum number of flows that contain explosion structures at any one site is six. In the informally named Troy flow, explosion structures are widespread.

Each flow that contains explosion structures can be divided into two cooling units. The first cooling units occupy troughs in the pre-eruption topography and are up to 10 meters thick. The second cooling units contain the explosion structures and are up to 100 meters thick. The thickness of flows that contain explosion …

Lacustrine Deltaic Deposits Of The Sandstone Tongue Of The Wasatch Formation, Fossil Basin, Wyoming, F. Steve Petersen

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Sedimentary structures and facies relations of the sandstone tongue of the Wasatch Formation in Fossil Basin, Wyoming are interpreted as indicative of a rapidly prograding bird's foot delta. Two upward coarsening siliciclastic sequences that contain bottomset, foreset, and topset beds were studied over an area of approximately 400 square kilometers. Vertical and lateral sedimentary changes within this sequence were documented by the measurement and study of over 35 stratigraphic sections. High and low angle cross-bedded sandstone units within the siliciclastic sequences thicken northward significantly before rapidly thinning and grading into the lacustrine Green River Formation. Field observations. lateral correlation of …

Paleoenvironments Of The Eocene Green River Formation (Laney Member) In The Anvil Wash Area, Southwestern Wyoming, M. Elaine Graham-Kennedy

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The study of abundant conchostracans in the Laney Member of the Green River Formation, Wyoming, has contributed to the resolution of the controversy over the depositional environment of finely laminated sediments. Conchostracans that typically live in ephemeral pools, pulmonate gastropods that require oxygenated water and freshwater ostracods indicate deposition of finely laminated sediments in a well oxygenated, shallow, freshwater lake. Mineralogical evidence indicating that Lake Gosiute was primarily fresh during deposition of the upper portion of the Laney Member includes predominance of calcite over dolomite and the clay composition of diagenetically altered tuffs. The minor amount of dolomite is detrital …

Aurealcaulis Crossii Gen. Et Sp. Nov., An Arborescent, Osmundaceous Trunk From The Fort Union Formation (Paleocene), Wyoming, William D. Tidwell, Lee R. Parker

Faculty Publications

Aurealcaulis crossii gen. et sp. nov., is based on permineralized trunks of an osmundaceous tree fern from the Paleocene Fort Union Formation from near Bitter Creek Station of southwestern Wyoming. This new species is characterized by centripetal (exarch) development of its xylem strands which form part of the leaf traces. Most of the leaf traces depart the stele as two segments that fuse into a single C-shaped petiole vascular strand outside of the outer cortex. Stipular expansions of the petiole bases of this species lack sclerenchyma, and roots arise from the lateral edges of leaf traces in the inner cortex. …

Crustal Deformation And Regional Metamorphism Across A Terrane Boundary, Coast Plutonic Complex, British Columbia, Maria Luisa Crawford, L. S. Hollister, G. J. Woodsworth

Geology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Surficial Geology Of The Smithfield Quadrangle, Cache County, Utah, Michael V. Lowe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Smithfield 7.5' quadrangle is located about 13.8 kilometers (8.6 miles) south of the Utah-Idaho State Line and occupies the central portion of the eastern side of Cache Valley, Utah. The mapped area contains more than 55 square miles. The Bear River Range on the eastern side of the quadrangle contains stratigraphic units ranging from Precambrian to Quaternary age. Cache Valley contains deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age. Quaternary units in the Smithfield quadrangle are subdivided into thirty-two map units based on age and genesis. Five ages of Quaternary units are identified, and these units are assigned to one of …

Petrology Of The Middle Cambrian Langston And Ute Formations In Southeastern Idaho, Daniel T. Rogers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Middle Cambrian Langston and Ute formations were studied in the northern portion of the Bear River Range and the south-central part of the Portneuf Range in southeastern Idaho.

The rocks of the Langston and Ute formations were divided into 17 different rock types. The 17 rock types were formed within four recognizable lithofacies: I) Shoal - or Coastal-Peritidal Carbonate Complex; 2) Agitated Shoal; 3) Inner Marine Shelf; and 4) Outer Marine Shelf. Clastic sediments belonging to the Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation (outer marine shelf) were deposited over the carbonate complex. A transgressive sequence marks the base …

Hydrogeology And Hydrochemistry Of Springs In Mantua Valley And Vicinity, North-Central Utah, Karen C. Rice

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Chemical and tritium analyses of groundwater, precipitation and discharge records, fracture orientations, lineaments, and structural, stratigraphic, and topographic relationships have been used to describe the groundwater systems of Mantua Valley, north-central Utah. Groundwater flows through fractured Paleozoic quartzites and carbonate rocks and discharges from eleven perennial springs in Mantua Valley. Permeability in quartzites is the result of intense faulting and jointing. Groundwater in carbonate aquifers flows through fractures and/or fractures modified by solution and discharges as relatively large springs (up to 227 liters per second). Neogene normal faulting, rather than extensive karst processes, has produced valleys which are closed or …

Spatial And Temporal Landslide Distribution And Hazard Evaluation Analyzed By Photogeologic Mapping And Relative-Dating Techniques, Salt River Range, Wyoming, John B. Rice Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The distribution of landslide type and age was analyzed to determine the causes and timing of landsliding, and to assess landslide hazards in the study area. 1173 landslides and zones of landsliding were mapped on 1:15,840 scale air photos and designated by their style of movement and age. Slides were assigned to one of four age classes based on their degree of morphologic modification visible on air photos. Relative dating (RD) methods previously applied to glacial deposits were used to refine and calibrate the age classification.

Eleven RD para meters were measured on 21 rockslide and 19 glacial deposits. Cluster …

Petrology Of Pliocene (?) Basalts Of Curlew Valley (Box Elder Co.), Utah, Steven Brent Kerr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Basalt outcrops in Curlew Valley consist of several flow remnants and eruptive centers situated along the valley margins. Basalt is also found in association with salic rocks that erupted in the central portion of the valley. The basalts are of probable Pliocene age and were erupted during a period of active extensional tectonics. Since their emplacement, the basalts have been extensively eroded and downfaulted. The present morphology reflects the erosional and depositional processes of prehistoric Lake Bonneville.

Twelve samples were analyzed chemically for major oxides, trace elements, and rare-earth elements. The basalts form a hypersthene normative series ranging from olivine …

Benthic Foraminiferal Assemblages From Mexican Continental Shelves, Maria De La Luz Mata

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The recent benthic foraminifera 1 fauna of the continental margins of Mexico (Gulf of Campeche and Gulf of Tehuantepec) was studied. Surficial sediment samples (lOcc) were collected using a Shipeck dredge and were stained with Sudan Black "B" in order to differentiate the living fauna from the death assemblage. In the 41 samples from the Gulf of Campeche, 279 species were found in the total assemblage in water depths ranging from 9 to 586 m. In the 22 samples in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, 132 species were identified from the total assemblage in water depths of 20 to 180 m. …

Rheologic Properties And Kinematics Of Emplacement Of The Chaos Jumbles Rockfall Avalanche, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, Dean B. Eppler, Jonathan H. Fink, Raymond Fletcher

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Chaos Jumbles is a rockfall avalanche deposit that was emplaced by three separate events ~ 300 years ago. Deposits from each event are distinguishable on the basis of morphology, size variation of large dacitic surface clasts, and by the color of both the matrix and entrained dacitic blocks. Steep lateral and distal deposit margins and surface features such as folds and apparent strike-slip faults indicate that each rockfall avalanche had a finite yield strength and was being actively deformed and sheared throughout the body of the moving deposit, rather than strictly along a basal surface. Kinematic analysis of the …

Structural Geology And Geothermal Investigation Of The White Sulphur Springs Area, Montana, William G. Gierke

Masters Theses

Sevier thrusting in the White Sulphur Springs area was associated with left-lateral movement along the Lewis and Clark line . During Middle Miocene time, the Lewis and Clark line exhibited right-lateral movement, forming extensional features that either truncated Sevier structures or followed preexisting Sevier zones of weakness.

The Smith River Valley is a pull-apart basin that is filled with Tertiary volcanic ash and clay-rich sediments that are thermally nonconductive relative to surrounding rocks.

Hydrothermal activity in the area is associated with a structurally controlled circulation system accompanied by a high thermal gradient. Thermal discharge is constrained along the north-trending White …

The Effect Of Well Efficiency On In-Situ Permeability Test Results, Scott T. Dennis

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect well efficiency has upon the results of in-situ permeability tests.

Several in-situ permeability tests were performed on wells during various stages of their development. The well efficiency was determined each time an in-situ test was performed. An accurate value of permeability was determined by performing local aquifer pumping tests. The accuracy of the results of the in-situ tests with respect to the aquifer pump test results were then compared to the efficiency of the well at the time of the test.

Test results showed that a linear relationship exists between …

Yellowstone National Park: The Oberlin Connection, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College Library

Exhibition Catalogs

Exhibition Dates: April 15 to June 15, 1987
An exhibition examining the connection between Oberlin and the early exploration of Yellowstone National Park, including Oberlinians General Henry D. Washburn and geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden.

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 …

Provenance Of Sands Within The Lower Chesapeake Bay Based On Ilmenite Composition, Edward Augustus Council Iii

OES Theses and Dissertations

Surficial sands deposited in the Chesapeake Bay are a mixture of sands derived from the bay's shorelines, from offshore, and from relict deposits. Direct fluvial input is probably minor except from the James River, which may serve as a local source of sands in the Thimble Shoals area. Sands in the western half of the bay are primarily derived from the erosion of the adjacent shoreline. In contrast, the eastern half of the bay has two major sources of sand. Shoreline erosion is the dominant source north of the town of Eastville, Virginia, while the offshore is the major source …

Duer Ranch, Morrill County, Nebraska: Contrast Between Cenozoic Fluvial And Eolian Deposition, James B. Swinehart, R. F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

The Duer Ranch locality contains some of the finest and most easily accessible examples of different styles of alluvial cuts and fills in the Cenozoic rocks of Nebraska. It offers a unique area in which to examine the geometries and alluvial fills of several Miocene and Pliocene age paleovalleys and paleo-gullies. Good exposures of eolian volcaniclastic siltstones and a regionally important volcanic ash of the Oligocene age Brule Formation are also present at the Duer Ranch locality. In addition, Quaternary ephemeral stream development and deposits can be studied.

Location and Accessibility

Significance of the Locality

Locality Information

Measured Sections [I-IV] …

Paleohydrology Of Some Ogallala (Neogene) Streams In The Southern Panhandle Of Nebraska, R. G. Goodwin, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Stratification and estimated paleoflow conditions for valley-fill deposits suggest that Ogallala Group streams in western Nebraska were similar to modern streams of south-central Alberta.

Ogallala stratification includes medium-scale (0.5 to 2.0 m thick) trough crossbedded sand and gravel, tabular indistinctly horizontally bedded and imbricated gravel, and horizontally bedded sand and pebbly sand. Valley fills are 15 to 55 m thick and 800 to 1800 m wide at the top. Some are in bedrock-floored channels resembling the “inner channels” of Shepherd and Schumm (1974).

Gradients for three well exposed paleovalley floors range from 0.0014 to 0.0020 (m/m) after tectonic correction. This …

Lithologic Controls On Karst Groundwater Flow, Lost River Groundwater Basin, Warren County, Kentucky, Christopher Groves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Lost River Groundwater Drainage Basin in Warren County, Kentucky, is a karst drainage system encompassing 55 square miles (143 square kilometers) developed within the Mississippian St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve Limestones. Near the contact between these two formations are two bedded chert units, the Lost River Chert Bed (Elrod, 1899) within the Ste. Genevieve and the Corydon Chert Member (Woodson, 1983) of the St. Louis, which appear to be perching layers to shallow karst groundwater flow. Groundwater may be seen flowing on top of these beds in various cave streams and at swallets and springs throughout the basin.

In …

Analysis Of Coal Samples From The Hazard District, Kentucky (Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, And Perry Counties And Other Parts Of Letcher And Harlan Counties), James C. Currens, Linda Jean Bragg, James C. Hower

Information Circular--KGS

Chemical and petrographic doto ore presented for 132 samples of cool collected in the Hazard District, eastern Kentucky. These data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megoscopic description of the cool, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major, minor, and trace elements, and petrographic analyses.