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Textural And Mineralogical Characteristics Of Altered Grande Ronde Basalt, Northeastern Oregon : A Natural Analog For A Nuclear Waste Repository In Basalt, Paul M. Trone

Dissertations and Theses

Altered flows that are low-MgO chemical types of the Grande Ronde Basalt crop out in the steep walls of the Grande Ronde River canyon near Troy, Wallowa County, Oregon. The alteration effects in these flows are being investigated as a natural analog system to a high level nuclear waste repository in basalt. The flows within the study are referred to as the analog flow, in which the alteration effects are the strongest, and the superjacent flow. The analog flow crops out at Grande Ronde River level and a roadcut-outcrop is developed in the flow-top breccia of this flow. The two …

Glacial Deposits, Vol. 15, 1986-1987, Department Of Geography-Geology

Glacial Deposits

Newsletter of the Department of Geography-Geology

Resource Notes-Spring/Summer 1987

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

Evaluation Of The Interaction Between Seepage From A Municipal Waste Stabilization Lagoon, Mcville, North Dakota, And A Shallow Unconfined Aquifer, Paul R. Bulger

Theses and Dissertations

The McVille, North Dakota, Municipal Waste Stabilization Lagoon is situated above the McVille Aquifer, an unconfined glaciofluvial aquifer capable of significant water yields. The site contains a 3-D network of 29 monitoring wells. Standing waste-water is maintained in the clay-lined, primary-operating cell. Operating practices at the site entail periodic discharges of waste-water from the lined cell to an unlined cell, a procedure which results in rapid infiltration.

The shape and extent of the groundwater contaminant plume caused by the waste-stabilization process is best delineated by the distribution of chloride. Background wells contain less than 10 mg/L chloride. The area up …

Depositional Environments Of A Portion Of The Bullion Creek Formation (Paleocene), Western Billings County, North Dakota, Rodney K. Perkins

Theses and Dissertations

The Bullion Creek Formation (Paleocene) in North Dakota is part of an Upper Cretaceous to Eocene wedge of siliciclastic rocks formed during uplift associated with the Laramide Orogeny. The Bullion Creek Formation consists predominantly of mudrocks , with fine-grained sandstone, lignite, and rare limestone lenses . Previous workers have postulated combinations of fluvial and lacustrine depositional environments for the rocks.

The study area covers 15 square kilometres in the badlands of the Little Missouri River in western Billings County, North Dakota, where approximately the upper 75 metres of the Bullion Creek Formation ls exposed. Twenty nine stratigraphic sections were measured …

Geohydrologic Evaluation Of A Proposed Coal-Ash Disposal Site Near Mandan, North Dakota, David M. Ronnei

Theses and Dissertations

Montana-Dakota Utilities Company (MDU) operates Heskett Station, a 100 megawatt coal-fired power plant, located near Mandan, North Dakota. In the process of generating electricity, MDU's Heskett Station produces approximately 62,000 tons of coal-ash annually. The ash has been disposed of by above-ground stockpiling on the plant site for the past 35 years. Limited storage space and new solid waste regulatory restrictions have necessitated the search for a new ash disposal site.

This investigation focused on selecting a disposal site that would be suitable for long-term disposal of coal-ash generated at Heskett Station. Specifically, the objective was to locate a site …

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 Petrographic Investigation Of The Rhythmically Bedded Upper Fayetteville Formation (Mississippian) In Northern Arkansas, Edith Ann Starbuck

Masters Theses

"The upper Mississippian Fayetteville Formation in northern Arkansas is primarily a calcareous black shale, but in some localities the upper one third to one half of the formation is made up of alternating black shales and limestones. Comparable lithologies have been suggested by some (Hallam, Ricken, Kent, and Sujkowski) to have been created by the diagenetic segregation of carbonate from calcareous shale.

Petrographic thin section analysis reveals that the lowest limestone beds of the rhythmic upper Fayetteville are made up almost entirely of microspar and all fossil material is recrystallized, even to the point of obliteration in some cases. The …

Lithofacies Analysis Of The Lamotte Sandstone In South Central Missouri, Michael Gerard Kraenzle

Masters Theses

"Based on the analysis of thirty-one cores obtained from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in Rolla, the upper Cambrian Lamotte Sandstone in South Central Missouri has been divided into six sedimentary facies ranging from alluvial fan and braided stream to open marine.

The Lamotte Sandstone is the basal Cambrian sandstone found throughout most of the state of Missouri. It directly overlies late Precambrian (1.4 to 1.5 billion year old) granites and metasediments. The Lamotte and overlying Bonneterre Formations are generally considered to have been deposited by a transgression which occurred during the Late Cambrian Period (Croixian Epoch).

The Lamotte …

Depositional And Diagenetic History Of The Middle Ordovician Carbonates Of The Shenandoah Valley, Northern Virginia, Lynn Ellen Weyenberg

OES Theses and Dissertations

An examination of the Middle Ordovician carbonates in northwest Virginia has revealed a particularly sensitive record of deposition and subsidence. Two-hundred acetate peels from six measured stratigraphic sections in Shenandoah County, Virginia were examined to interpret the depositional and diagenetic history. Two major lithofacies have been recognized within the New Market Limestone and three have been recognized in the Lincolnshire Formation. These five lithofacies represent an overall transgressive sequence. This transgression was not uniform but paused several times to allow carbonate deposition to reach sea-level. These shoaling events suggest a slowly subsiding basin in this region. The carbonate rocks within …

The Hydrogeology Of Nags Head Woods, Dare County, North Carolina, Janet Salyer Emry

OES Theses and Dissertations

Nags Head Woods, a coastal maritime forest located on a barrier island in eastern North Carolina, stabilizes a back-barrier dune system bordering a tidal marsh. The purpose of this study is to provide basic information about the groundwater geology in Nags Head Woods and to predict the effects upon water levels due to municipal pumping of Fresh Pond, a large lake near the center of the island.

Clean, fine-to-medium sands dominate the top of the surficial (water table) aquifer, underlain by silty fine-to-coarse sands at -4 m elevation. A silty clay bed of very low permeability is present at -12 …

Trace Fossils In Carbonate Upper Beach Rocks And Eolianites: Recognition Of The Backshore To Dune Transition, H. Allen Curran, Brian White

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Reprinted from: H. Allen Curran (ed.), Proceedings of the Third Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, CCFL Bahamian Field Station

Coral Reef To Eolianite Transition In The Pleistocene Rocks Of Great Inagua, Bahamas, Brian White, H. Allen Curran

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Great Inagua Island, the southernmost of the chain of Bahamian islands, lies approximately 100 km northeast of the eastern tip of Cuba. This paper reports the results of reconnaissance geologic field work conducted on Great Inagua Island in January, 1985, and of more detailed observations made in January, 1986, near Matthew Town, between South West Point and Devil's Point.

Genesis Of Marine Terrace Soils, Barbados, West Indies: Evidence From Mineralogy And Geochemistry, Daniel R. Muhs, Russell C. Crittenden, John N. Rosholt, Charles A. Bush, Kathleen C. Stewart

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Well-developed, clay-rich soils dominated by interstratified kaolinite-smectite are found on the uplifted coral reef terraces on the island of Barbados. The reef limestone is unlikely to have been the soil parent material however, because it is 98 per cent CaCO, and geomorphic evidence argues against the 20 m of reef solution required to produce the soils by this process. The mineralogy of the sand, silt, and clay fractions of the soils, and trace element geochemistry, suggest that aeolian materials carried on the trade winds from Africa, volcanic ash from the island of St. Vincent, and quartz from Tertiary bedrock on …

Conservation And Survey Division. 1987. Significant Rises And Declines In Nebraska Groundwater Levels (From Pre-Development As Of Fall 1985)/Registered Irrigation Wells In Nebraska (As Of January 1, 1986), Conservation Survey Division, U.S. Geological Survey

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Mineral Operations Review, 1986, Raymond R. Burchett, Duane A. Eversoll

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Coarsening Of Fine-Scale Exsolution Lamellae, John B. Brady

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Diffusional exchange between the wedge-shaped terminations of fine-scale, coherent exsolution lamellae and the large flat sides of adjacent like lamellae is proposed as the principal mechanism for the coarsening of lamellar exsolution textures in silicate minerals. Following the methods of Gibbs (1906), a formula is derived for the chemical potential gradients due to interfacial energy effects that drive the proposed diffusion and coarsening....

A Groundwater Flow Model Of The Aquifer Intercommunication Area, Hanford Site, Washington, Elizabeth G. Simkover

Dissertations and Theses

Intercommunication has been identified between the unconfined and uppermost confined aquifer systems underlying a portion of the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Erosional thinning and fracturing of the basalt confining layer within the study area allows physical contact between the two aquifers, but the vertical hydraulic gradient (a required driving force) is small. To better conceptualize the distribution and volume of the leakage occurring between the aquifer systems, this study investigates the confined Rattlesnake Ridge Aquifer flow system, which appears to be more sensitive to the vertical leakage than the overlying unconfined aquifer.

The flow system of the Rattlesnake …

Mechanisms Responsible For Sinkhole Flooding On An Urbanized Karst Terrain: South Sunrise / Media Drive, Bowling Green, Kentucky, Thomas Feeney

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sinkhole flooding on the urban karst area of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was studied by investigating past flood events in the South Sunrise/Media Drive Sinkhole. The actual flood levels of four floods were compared to levels calculated by an empirical runoff determination method. Outflow capacity tests and dye tracing revealed the nature of drainage within the karst depression.

The Soil Conservation Service runoff determination method and the three-hour maximum rainfall event were used to estimate the level of flooding. Three of the four flood events studied provided deviations between the actual and calculated flood levels of less than 0.26 feet (0.08 …

Geology Newsletter- 1986, Department Of Geology

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol. 1, No. 11

• Dear Alumni and Friends
• Core Research Library
• Advisory Council
• Geology Development Fund
• Faculty Briefs
• Awards and Scholarships
• Alumni Lines

Structural, Remote Sensing And Multivariate Correlation Methods As Aids To Mineral Exploration, Central Ireland, D.W. Coller, M.F. Critchley, J.M. Dolan, Ciaran Mcdonnell, C.J. Murphy, W.E.A. Phillips, D.J. Sanderson

Books/Book chapters

This work discusses structural, remote sensing and multivariate correlation methods as aids to mineral exploration in West Central Ireland. The work was performed as part of the EU-funded CREST project.

A Hydrogeologic Investigation Of The Balkema Wetland, Daniel V. Fronczek

Masters Theses

The Balkema wetland, located In southwestern Kalamazoo County, Michigan, represents complex biological and hydrologic Interaction between surface water and a two-aquifer hydrologic system. Situated on the southeastern flank of the Kalamazoo moraine, the glacial geology of the area plays a key role in the understanding of the hydrogeologic function of the wetland. A two-aquifer system, an upper unconfined, and a lower confined, Interact In the vicin ity of the wetland where the c la y /till aqulclude dividing the two systems 1s absent. Various parameters, both hydrologic and geochemical, were measured In the study area, Including specific conductance values of …

Late Pleistocene Sciurids From Kokoweef Cave, H. Thomas Goodwin

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Three local (Tamias panamintinus, Ammospermophilus leucurus and Spermophilus variegatus) and five extralocal (Tamias minimus, Tamias palmeri, Marmota flaviventris, Spermophilus townsendii, and Spermophilus lateralis) sciurid species (Sciuridae) were identified from the late Pleistocene-early Holocene Kokoweef Cave paleofauna. This fauna was the first documentation of T. minimus, T. palmeri and S. townsendii from the Pleistocene of the Mohave Desert. The 30-ft sedimentary sequence apparently recorded the mid-to late-Wisconsian introduction of S. lateralis into the Kokweef fauna but otherwise documented general taxonomic stability. The ecological diversity of the fauna was consistent with--but did not require--the hypothesis of more equable late Pleistocene climates, and …

Fracture Detection In A Volcanic Oil Reservoir Using Discriminant Analysis Of Well Log Data, Joseph William Cross

OES Theses and Dissertations

A new method of detecting fractures using well logs is presented. The technique uses discriminant analysis to distinguish fractured from unfractured reservoir rock and was developed for the volcanic pay zone of Jatibarang oilfield, West Java, Indonesia.

The a priori information required to derive the discriminant function was provided by 22 wells known to penetrate intervals of either fractured or unfractured volcanics. The samples consisted of these 22 intervals digitized in one-meter increments (1256 meters total thickness). The discriminating variables were the petrophysical measurements made by 10 different types of well logs.

Discriminant analysis correctly classified 94.2% of the total …

Geology Of The Willamette Pass Area, Cascade Range, Oregon, Neil M. Woller

Dissertations and Theses

The Willamette Pass area is situated at the intersection of two hypothesized structural features, the Western Cascade-High Cascade boundary and the Eugene-Denio lineament. It is of interest due to its designation by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a Known Geothermal Resource Area.

Volcanic rocks of Oligocene to Pleistocene age are exposed in the study area. The oldest rocks are the Oligocene-Miocene lavas, undifferentiated, which are a diverse unit of ignimbrites and intermediate to silicic flows. The Oligocene-Miocene rhyodacites are a stratigraphically equivalent unit which is predominantly composed of aphyric rhyodacite flows. Middle Miocene volcanism produced the basaltic lavas …

Karstification Of The Pennyroyal Plain Behind The Retreating Chester Escarpment: Warren, Simpson & Logan Counties, Kentucky, Anthony Able

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Hydrogeologic investigations were conducted on the drainage systems of an area of the Pennyroyal sinkhole plain of south central Kentucky. The degree of karstification of five area streams was studied to develop an understanding of the evolution of drainage as the landscape changes from a sandstone caprock plateau to a limestone sinkhole plain. The Chester Upland, capped by the Big Clifty Sandstone, possesses predominantly surface drainage and the Pennyroyal Plain, formed on Mississippian limestones, possesses considerable subsurface drainage. As the Chester Upland Escarpment retreats and surface streams are onto the limestones, the streams evolve to become subsurface streams. The five …

Pinuxylon Woolardii Sp. Nov., A New Petrified Taxon Of Pinaceae From The Miocene Basalts Of Eastern Oregon, William D. Tidwell, Lee R. Parker, Vaughn K. Folkman

Faculty Publications

Specimens of the new species Pinuxylon wollardii have been collected from Miocene strata near Kurkee, OR. These petrified specimens are unique in that, due to weathering, individual tracheids and ray cells can be separated for detailed SEM studies. This species is characterized by its high number of ray cells; numerous rays; large resin ducts which are commonly paired; primarily uniseriate pitting, two to five (usually three) small, oval or cirular pinoid pits per crossfield; and smooth walls on its transverse (ray) tracheids. The latter character relates this species to taxa in the subgenus Haploxylon of Pinus. Pinuxylon woolardii is most …

Slack-Water Deposits And The Magnitude And Frequency Of Flash Floods, Eastern Kentucky, Russell G. Shepherd, Lisa K. Bienkowski

KWRRI Research Reports

The potential for predicting flood magnitude and frequency using sediments deposited in backwater areas during flash floods was investigated on the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky, a region n9torious for flash flooding. Slack-water deposits are abundant in the area at tributary mouths and bedrock channel expansions. They are identifiable on geologic quandrangle maps, and are locally good potential indicators of maximum flood-crest elevations. However, in this humid region, flash floods could not be distinguished from non-flash floods using slack-water sedimentology.

The results from the slack-water deposits studied indicate that they offer limited potential for predicting flash floods because 1) intense …

Cliff-Height And Slope-Angle Relationships In A Chronosequence Of Quaternary Marine Terraces, San Clemente Island, California, Russell Crittenden, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Zusammenfassung. Eine Abfolge quartarer Strandterrassen auf ~an Clemente Island, Kalifornien, liefert einen Rahmen fur die quantitative Analyse der Anderungen an vom Meer verlassenen Kustenkliffen als Funktion der Zeit. Es wurde eine Abschatzung der Anwendbarkeit von BUCKNAM & ANDERSON (1979) log-lin~arer Beziehung zwischen Wandhohe und Hangwinkel durchgefuhrt, indem Brandungskliffhohe und maximale Hangwinkel verwendet wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine regelhafte Zunahme des Hangwinkels mit dem Logarithmus der Kliffhohe, und Kliffe einer bestimmten Hohe zeigen m,it der Zeit eine Abnahmedes maximalen Hangwinkels. 1m ganzen waren die Relationen schwacher als fur FluBterrassen und Bruchstufen in unverfestigten Materialen, aber die Methode kann wahrscheinlich verwendet werden, …