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Optimizing Raman Spectral Collection For Quartz And Zircon Crystals For Elastic Geothermobarometry, Mayara F. Cizina

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Raman microspectroscopy is widely used to identify and characterize organic and inorganic compounds. In the geosciences, Raman microspectroscopy has been used to identify mineral and fluid inclusions in host crystals, as well as to calculate pressure-temperature (P-T) conditions using mineral inclusions in host crystals, such as quartz-in-garnet barometry (QuiG). For thermobarometric applications, the reproducibility of Raman peak position measurements is crucial to obtain accurate P-T estimates. In this study, we explored how to optimize Raman spectral collection of quartz and zircon inclusions and reference crystals by monitoring machine stability and by varying spectral parameters. We also monitored a reference Hg …

Initial Measurements On The Effect Of Stress On P- And S-Wave Velocities In Olivine, Taryn Traylor

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

It is well known that elasticity is a key physical property in the determination of the structure and composition of the Earth and provides critical information for the interpretation of seismic data. This study investigates the stress-induced variation in elastic wave velocities, known as the acoustoelastic effect, in San Carlos olivine. A recently developed experimental ultrasonic acoustic system, the Directly Integrated Acoustic System Combined with Pressure Experiments (DIASCoPE), was used with the D-DIA multi-anvil apparatus to transmit ultrasonic sound waves and collect the reflections. We use the DIASCoPE to obtain longitudinal (P) and shear (S) elastic wave velocities from the …

Human Health And Wellness In Space: A Review Of Common Effects, Current Research, And Methods Of Prevention, Sonnet Xu, Rajendra Persaud, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Jasmin Budhan

Publications and Research

Space poses a threat to space crew wellness, where microgravity, isolation, radiation, and other conditions exert strain on human health. This study explores the changes to the human body in space and how it contributes to major threats to health during spaceflights. The effects of the hostile environment of outer space are all examined here, along with resultant changes to behavior, physiology, and the difficulty of remote diagnosis for health treatment in space. This review also considers the implications to the human cartilage, brain, and eyes along with the various other hazards and physiological alterations.

Human health in space is …

Sedimentary Response To The Uplift Of The Liupan Shan Since The Late Pleistocene And Its Environmental Effects, Ma Zhaoying, Dong Xiaopeng, Zhang Qing, Cui Jiawei

Coal Geology & Exploration

Liupan Shan lies between the Tibetan plateau and Ordos block and has been under the remote effect of the northeastward extension of the Tibetan plateau. The former research about the uplift of Liupan Shan mainly focused on the petrology, structural deformation or tectonic evolution study from the Cretaceous to early period of Cenozoic. However, the Late Pleistocene geological study closely connected with the human activities was rarely mentioned. In this study, we carried out systematic sedimentary research in the Qingshuihe basin adjacent to the Liupan Shan tectonic belt, re-determine the sedimentary sequence at first, then reverse the uplift history of …

Geologic Study In Central North Dakota, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet explaining the process of drilling a test hole to collect data for the North Dakota CarbonSAFE project. North Dakota CarbonSAFE is an Energy & Environmental Research Center project, conducted in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Characterization Of An Acid Rock Drainage Microbiome And Transcriptome At The Ely Copper Mine Superfund Site, Lesley Ann Giddings, George Chlipala, Kevin Kunstman, Stefan Green, Katherine Morillo, Kieran Bhave, Holly Peterson, Heather Driscoll, Mark Maienschein-Cline

Chemistry: Faculty Publications

The microbial oxidation of metal sulfides plays a major role in the formation of acid rock drainage (ARD). We aimed to broadly characterize the ARD at Ely Brook, which drains the Ely Copper Mine Superfund site in Vermont, USA, using metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to assess the metabolic potential and seasonal ecological roles of microorganisms in water and sediment. Using Centrifuge against the NCBI “nt” database, ~25% of reads in sediment and water samples were classified as acid-tolerant Proteobacteria (61 ± 4%) belonging to the genera Pseudomonas (2.6-3.3%), Bradyrhizobium (1.7-4.1%), and Streptomyces (2.9-5.0%). Numerous genes (12%) were differentially expressed between seasons …

Integrating Detailed Petrography, Geochemistry, And Mineralogy To Elucidate Extensive Early Diagenesis In The Eocene Carbonates Of Qatar, Brooks H. Ryan

Dissertations

Eocene carbonates comprising the Umm er Radhuma (UER), Rus, and Dammam Formations, cover 80% of the surface and extend >300 m into the subsurface of Qatar. These rocks record marine sedimentation in shallow sub-tidal to restricted settings. Despite undergoing only shallow burial (<1000 m), extensive diagenetic alteration has occurred. Given that little work on this topic has been published previously, the objectives of this work are to document diagenesis in the Eocene, and to integrate petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry to delineate the timing and environments of diagenesis of these Eocene carbonates. Detailed petrographic data show that dolomitization occurred early in the UER, before the formation of diagenetic chert, palygorskite, pyrite, calcite, and gypsum cements. Bulk dolomite δ¹⁸O values, coupled with clumped isotope-derived (Δ47) temperatures and dolomitizing fluid δ¹⁸O values, suggest dolomitization took place in near-normal marine fluids, perhaps during shallow burial. These data challenge the current paradigm of large-scale, top-down hypersaline reflux dolomitization in the UER. Associated depth trends of increasing crystal size and with increasing stoichiometry and cation ordering …

Lower Jurassic Fluvio-Lacustrine Deposits Of The Glen Canyon Group, Sw Utah, Samuel A. Abdala

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Lower Jurassic fluvio-lacustrine deposits of the Kayenta Formation and Whitmore Point Member reveal past climatic and tectonic conditions in SW Utah. Fluvial overbank deposits and sparse channel belts characterize the Kayenta’s intermittent fluvial system. Reconstructed dune morphology matches that of modern rivers. Downstream bar accretion, as in braided channels, is indicated by numerical reconstruction. Vertical succession of cross-set thickness and grain size shows covariance drop up-section. This, along with a decreasing sand/mud ratio of sandstones suggests that suspended load increased up-section. The Kayenta vertically progresses from poorly-channelized sandsheets to wide channel-fills. Paleohydraulics-derived sandstone body widths are smaller than those measured …

Geoscience Education Research: Trends And Applications In Undergraduate Courses, Diane Lally

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Water resources are progressively under pressure from anthropogenic uses. Students need to learn about water systems as they are the future decision-makers and problem solvers who will be faced with unknown challenges in the future. The overarching goals of this dissertation were: 1) to identify ways in which geoscience instructors are incorporating systems thinking and science modeling in their teaching along with the accompanying methods for improving systems thinking and modeling implementation and 2) explore how the implementation of science modeling and systems thinking increase student evaluation of models and the understanding of hydrologic content. Data for these studies came …

Characterization Of Surface Karst Using Lidar And Field Traverses, Fort Hood Military Installation, Coryell County, Texas, Heather Jaclyn Dailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Fort Hood Military Installation is a karst landscape that has been significantly altered for training exercises that include heavy vehicle maneuvers and simulated combat. Traditional karst surveys are often time-consuming and require extensive field analyses to adequately characterize large areas. Bias is given to areas that are most easily accessible and false negatives are common. Previous studies conducted in the eastern and western portion of the base have understated the abundance and spatial distribution of karst, particularly in the western portion.

This study used field traverses and 0.5-meter Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data to characterize surface karst depressions, …

Detecting Geomorphic Change And Stream Channel Evolution On The Sandy River, Oregon, Using Lidar Following Dam Removal In 2007, Lowell Henry Anthony

Dissertations and Theses

Following the removal of Marmot Dam on the Sandy River, Oregon, several Lidar flights were flown over the area of the former reservoir. The resultant sequential DEMs permitted calculation of reach-scale volumetric erosion and aggradation following dam removal. This allows for change detection across the entire affected reach of the former impoundment rather than just at several cross sections. In the first year there was a net loss of blank sediment in the dewatered reach. Subsequent flights show continued degradation of 145,649 m³ as well as aggradation of 6,232 m³. Sediment transport reached quasi-equilibrium in 2012 with …

Investigation On Structural Evolution And Thermal Reaction Of Coal-Based Graphite From Xinhua County, Hunan Province, Li Kuo, Liu Qinfu, Song Botao, Zhang Shuai, Wu Yingke

Coal Geology & Exploration

To investigate the structural evolution and thermal reaction of coal-based graphite with different graphitization,the anthracite and coal-based graphite from Xinhua County, Hunan were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transformation electron microscope(HRTEM), and temperature programmed oxidation (TPO). The results show that carbon structure transformed from the amorphous anthracite to three dimensionally ordered graphite as graphitization degree increases. The coal-based graphite samples with different graphitization degree are composed of multi carbon phases, suggesting a heterogeneous nature of coal-based graphite, and ordered carbon phases were common in higher rank samples, however, defects can still be detected in most metamorphosed coal-based graphite. …

Geochronology Of The Middle Eocene Purple Bench Locality (Devil’S Graveyard Formation), Trans-Pecos Texas, Usa, Amy L. Atwater, Kelly D. Thomson, E. Christopher Kirk, Meaghan Emery-Wetherell, Logan Wetherell, Daniel F. Stockli

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Purple Bench is a middle Eocene fossil locality in the Devil’s Graveyard Formation of the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. In addition to yielding a range of taxa characteristic of the Uintan North American Land Mammal Age, the Purple Bench locality is noteworthy in documenting a number of endemic species that are known only from the site. Despite the Uintan character of the mammalian fauna, the absolute age of Purple Bench is a matter of debate. This uncertainty stems from the wide interval of time encompassed by current radiometric dates bracketing the Purple Bench locality and from conflicting magnetostratigraphic correlations …

Geochemical And Industrial Properties Of The Kejal Kaolin Deposit, Nw Iran, Tohid Nouri, Rahim Masoumi

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The Kejal kaolin deposit, situated in the northwest of Iran, is considered a small part of the Hashtjin hydrothermal zone. The kaolinization process in this deposit has occurred in ignimbritic and volcanic tuff parent rocks in different grades such that severely kaolinized samples can be found in the middle section of the kaolinization profile. Kaolinite is the most abundant clay mineral in the studied samples. Quartz and cristobalite are the main minerals while anatase is the minor mineral of the kaolin samples. Among the major oxides, SiO2, Al2O3, and TiO2 show the highest concentrations in kaolin samples. The mass change …

Mineralogical, Petrographic, And Geochemical Characterization Of Colored İscehisarmarbles (Afyonkarahisar, W-Turkey), Meti̇n Bağci

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The İscehisar marbles are located 25 km northeast of Afyonkarahisar on the Ankara highway in the vicinity of the town of İscehisar. These marbles have economic importance in the Afyon region. The purpose of this study was to reveal the mineralogical, petrographic, and geochemical characteristics of the İscehisar marbles, displaying different colors, structures, textures, and other different features. Based on polarized light microscopy investigations, the İscehisar marbles can be classified into 3 subgroups: from bottom to top 1) calcitic marbles composed of calcite minerals, 2) transition/interlayer marbles, and 3) dolomitic marbles. According to the field descriptions, each subgroup has various …

Determining The Lake Protected Zones Using Gis-Based Drastic Model To Groundwatervulnerability In Salda Lake Basin (Burdur/Turkey), Si̇mge Varol, Ayşen Davraz, Erhan Şener, Şehnaz Şener, Fatma Aksever, Bülent Kirkan, Ahmet Tokgözlü

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Groundwater quality is a crucial parameter for sustainable wetland management. The evaluation of the aquifer vulnerability is important for the protection of groundwater resources. The DRASTIC model is the most significant technique for the assessment of aquifer vulnerability. This study aimed to build a vulnerability map for groundwater of the Salda Lake wetland basin by DRASTIC method in a GIS environment. Seven environmental parameters (depth to water table, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact of the vadose zone media, and hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer) were used in the DRASTIC method and GIS was used to constitute a …

A Pelagic Upper Devonian Sequence In Sarıyer, İstanbul, Aral I. Okay, Ayşe Özdemi̇r, Ni̇lgün Okay

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The Palaeozoic sequence in the İstanbul region is made up of a continuous transgressive sedimentary series extending from Ordovician continental clastic rocks to Lower Carboniferous turbidites. The middle part of this sequence consists predominantly of carbonates ranging from shallow marine Upper Silurian limestones to latest Devonian to earliest Carboniferous deep marine limestones and shales. Here, we describe a new Upper Devonian deep marine limestone-siltstone section from the Sarıyer region in the European part of İstanbul. The 37-m thick section located in the campus of the İstanbul Technical University consists at the base of dark micritic limestones interbedded with carbonate-rich siltstones, …

The Igneous Rock Intrusion Beneath Ambon And Seram Islands, Eastern Indonesia, Basedon The Integration Of Gravity And Magnetic Inversion: Its Implications For Geothermalenergy Resources, Richard Lewerissa, Sismanto Sismanto, Ari Setiawan, Subagyo Pramumijoyo

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Ambon and Seram islands in eastern Indonesia are located in the convergence zone of three major plates, causing this area to have many geothermal manifestations on the surface. A subsurface geological study on Ambon and Seram has been conducted based on the integration of gravity and magnetic inversion modeling to determine the intrusion of igneous rock as a potential source of geothermal energy. The gravity and magnetic inversion utilized gravity and magnetic anomaly data from the World Gravity Map (WGM) and the Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (EMAG), as well as the CRUST 1.0 global earth crust model, as the constraints. …

Late Holocene Paleoflood Hydrology Of The Snake River In The Lower Hells Canyon, Idaho, Kent C. Allen

All Master's Theses

The Snake River watershed spans a large geographic region from the Rocky Mountains to the inland Pacific Northwest, and a comprehensive paleoflood chronology on the mainstem of the river is key to identifying the frequency and magnitude of large prehistoric floods within the region. We examined and compared four sites of slackwater deposits along a 20-km reach of the Lower Hells Canyon on the Snake River, Idaho. The sites contain evidence of up to 34 paleofloods within the last 1700 years. Stratigraphic breaks, soils, and in-situ plant or archaeological materials demarcate distinct layers that represent discrete paleoflood events. Radiocarbon dates …

Exploring Virtual Worlds With Cultural Algorithms: Ancient Alpena-Amberley Land Bridge, Thomas Joseph Palazzolo

Wayne State University Dissertations

In this thesis the Land Bridge system (DEEPDIVE) is described. The goal of the project is to use Artificial Intelligence technology to aid Archaeologists in the discovery of ancient prehistoric sites, now underwater. The example used here is the Alpena-Amberley Land Bridge that stretched across Lake Huron from Alpena in Michigan to Amberley in Ontario. During the Ice Age (around 10,000 years ago) it was above water for several thousand years. It was postulated that during that time it was used as a migration pathway for caribou, a major food source then. AI techniques were used to create a virtual …

Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Carmel Formation of the Middle Jurassic has many mysteries. One of these enigmas is its bivalves. The formation contains the famous oyster balls called ostreoliths. Despite bivalves making up 80 percent of the fossils found in the Carmel Formation, it is not understood how the bivalves lived in this community. The formation is located in southwestern and central Utah. It was deposited when an epicontinental seaway covered most of Utah. The paleoclimate of Utah was hot and dry, which meant that the environment was evaporite heavy. This also meant that the seawater at the southernmost extent of the seaway …

Interpretive Geologic Maps And Cross Sections For Phelps, Kearney, And Adams Counties In Nebraska, Dana Divine, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Data from thousands of test-hole and well logs were interpreted to improve understanding and management of the High Plains aquifer in a three-county study area adjacent to the Big Bend reach of the Platte River. Five principal conclusions resulted from these interpretations: (1) the extent of Neogene Ogallala deposits beneath the study area is different than previously mapped; (2) a large paleovalley incised into Cretaceous bedrock probably cuts across Kearney and Adams counties and may be the course of the ancestral Platte River prior to formation of the Big Bend; (3) a groundwater mound created by irrigation canals artificially raises …

Major Lower Paleozoic Horizons Of The Southern Illinois Basin, John B. Hickman

Report of Investigations--KGS

The geology exposed at the surface in the southern Illinois Basin has been mapped in great detail by countless workers over the past century. With the exception of limited and scattered exposures in incised river valleys, the oldest rocks exposed outside of the Jessamine, Nashville, and Ozark Domes surrounding the Illinois Basin are Mississippian in age. Extensive deposits of Cambrian–Devonian sediments occur in the subsurface above crystalline basement in this region, however. All available data for the region were analyzed to produce a single, comprehensive set of interpretations. The data used in this study include 1:24,000-scale geologic quadrangle maps, oil …

Landscape Evolution Of The Southern Colorado Plateau Using Low-Temperature Apatite Thermochronology And Detrital Zircon And Sanidine Provenance Studies, Carmen L. Winn

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Chapter 1: Westernmost Grand Canyon

Conflicting hypotheses about the timing of carving of the Grand Canyon involve either a 70 Ma (“old”) or < 6 Ma (“young”) Grand Canyon. This paper evaluates the controversial westernmost segment of the Grand Canyon where the following lines of published evidence firmly favor a “young” Canyon. 1) North-derived Paleocene Hindu Fanglomerate was deposited across the present track of the westernmost Grand Canyon, which therefore was not present at ~55 Ma. 2) The 19 Ma Separation Point basalt is stranded between high relief side canyons feeding the main stem of the Colorado River and was emplaced before these tributaries and the main canyon were incised. 3) Geomorphic constraints indicate that relief generation in tributaries and on plateaus adjacent to the westernmost Grand Canyon took place after 17 Ma. 4) The late Miocene-Pliocene Muddy Creek Formation constraint shows that no river carrying far-traveled materials exited at the mouth of the Grand Canyon until after 6 Ma.

Interpretations of previously-published low-temperature thermochronologic data conflict with these lines of evidence, but are reconciled in this paper via the integration of three methods of analyses on the same sample: apatite (U-Th)/He ages (AHe), ⁴He/³He thermochronometry (⁴He/³He), and apatite fission-track ages and lengths (AFT). “HeFTy” software was used to generate time-temperature (t-T) paths that predict all new and published ⁴He/³He, AH, and AFT data to within assumed …

Evolution Of The Book Cliffs Dryland Escarpment In Central Utah - Establishing Rates And Testing Models Of Escarpment Retreat, Nicholas R. Mccarroll

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Since the earliest explorations of the Colorado Plateau, geologists have suspected that cliffs are retreating back laterally. Clarence Dutton envisioned “the beds thus dissolving edge wise until after the lapse of millions of centuries their terminal cliffs stand a hundred miles or more back from their original position” when he wrote about the landscape in 1882. While many geologic studies have determined how fast rivers cut down through the Plateau, only a few studies have calculated how quickly cliffs retreat laterally, and geologists have been arguing since the 1940’s what exactly drives cliffs to retreat in the first place. We …

Evidence For Large Holocene Earthquakes Along The Denali Fault In Southwest Yukon, Canada, Andrée Blais-Stevens, John J. Clague, Janice Brahney, Panya Lipovsky, Peter J. Haeussler, Brian Menounos

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The Yukon–Alaska Highway corridor in southern Yukon is subject to geohazards ranging from landslides to floods and earthquakes on faults in the St. Elias Mountains and Shakwak Valley. Here we discuss the late Holocene seismic history of the Denali fault, located at the eastern front of the St. Elias Mountains and one of only a few known seismically active terrestrial faults in Canada. Holocene faulting is indicated by scarps and mounds on late Pleistocene drift and by tectonically deformed Pleistocene and Holocene sediments. Previous work on trenches excavated against the fault scarp near the Duke River reveals paleoseismic sediment disturbance …

Exploring The Law Of Detrital Zircon: La-Icp-Ms And Ca-Tims Geochronology Of Jurassic Forearc Strata, Cook Inlet, Alaska, Usa, Trystan M. Herriott, James L. Crowley, Mark D. Schmitz, Marwan A. Wartes, Robert J. Gillis

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Uranium-lead (U-Pb) geochronology studies commonly employ the law of detrital zircon: A sedimentary rock cannot be older than its youngest zircon. This premise permits maximum depositional ages (MDAs) to be applied in chronostratigraphy, but geochronologic dates are complicated by uncertainty. We conducted laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and chemical abrasion-thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-TIMS) of detrital zircon in forearc strata of southern Alaska (USA) to assess the accuracy of several MDA approaches. Six samples from Middle–Upper Jurassic units are generally replete with youthful zircon and underwent three rounds of analysis: (1) LA-ICP-MS of ∼115 grains, with one date per …

Earthquake-Rotated Headstones As A Means Of Re-Evaluating Epicentral Location Of The 1944 Massena-Cornwall Earthquake: New York, United States And Ontario, Canada, Sandra L. Walser, Alexander K. Stewart

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Massena-Cornwall earthquake (September 5th, 1944) is the largest earthquake in New York state history. Two epicenters have been previously proposed (Milne, 1949; Dewey and Gordon, 1984); however, they are separated by 15 km, an error that could associate each proposed epicenter with two different local faults. Due to the lack of standardized seismic-array data, there is value in approaching this event using an unconventional data set. The methodology of MacDonald and Wentworth (1952) was executed through ArcMap 10.5.1 to yield an area most likely to contain the epicenter. One-hundred fifty-four earthquake-rotated headstones from 15 cemeteries within ~35 km of …

Orientation Of Paleostress Of Raplee Ridge Anticline, Loren Randall Holyoak, John S. Maclean

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

During the Laramide Orogeny several major folds were formed in Southern Utah, one of those being the Raplee Ridge anticline. Raplee Ridge is approximately eight miles from Mexican Hat, Utah. The San Juan River cuts through the anticline, exposing the Honaker Trail Formation’s beds of shale and limestone with chert nodules. Accompanying the mountain-scale ductile deformation of the Raplee Ridge anticline are decimeter-scale brittle conjugate fractures in the limestone’s chert nodules. The objective of this study is to compare the orientation of paleostress that formed the Raplee Ridge anticline with the conjugate fractures within the chert nodules to see if …

Seismic Source Characterization Of Faults In The Portland And Tualatin Basins And A Paleoseismic Study Of The Gales Creek Fault, Or, Alison Elizabeth Horst

Dissertations and Theses

Portland, OR lies within the tectonically active forearc of the Cascadia subduction zone. Several, potentially hazardous, northwest striking faults in and around the Portland Basin are classified as Quaternary active by the USGS, but little is known about their Holocene activity. Geologic and geodetic studies in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) document ongoing clockwise rotation of the region since at least 16 Ma. Models for crustal deformation in the PNW suggest northwest trending faults accommodate dextral shear inferred from increasing clockwise rotation rates west of Portland. I compiled structural information to improve the seismic source characterization of these faults, and using …