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Deformation And Earthquake Potential On The North America - Caribbean - Cocos Triple Junction In Guatemala, Jeremy Maurer, Andreas Eckert, Qiaoqi Sun, Jonathan Obrist-Farner

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The triple junction between the Cocos (CO), North American (NA), and Caribbean (CA) tectonic plates in Guatemala is a region of high seismic risk and includes many large faults and historic earthquakes. Previous analyses of the tectonic system have been overly simplified, resulting in discrepancies between geologically derived and geodetic models of fault slip rate. This study leverages available geodetic, seismic, and geologic data to develop new strain rate maps and faulting models for the region. We find that locking on the regional faults matches historic reports of large earthquakes and that multiple minor fault segments are active and accommodate …

Findings Report: Virtual Workshop On ‘Resilient Supply Of Critical Minerals’, Marek Locmelis, Angela D. Lueking, Michael S. Moats, Kwame Awuah-Offei, Lana Z. Alagha, Mark W. Fitch, Alanna Krolikowski, Shelby Clark

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Executive Summary
On August 2-3, 2021, the Thomas J. O’Keefe Institute for Sustainable Supply of Strategic Minerals at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) hosted the NSF-funded virtual workshop ‘Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals’. The workshop was convened via Zoom and attracted 158 registrants, including 108 registrants from academia (61 students), 30 registrants from government agencies, and 20 registrants from the private sector. Four topical sessions were covered:

A. Mineral Exploration and Source Diversification.
B. Supply Chain and Policy Issues.
C. Improving Mineral Recycling and Reprocessing Technologies.
D. Technological Alternatives to Critical Minerals.

Each topical session was composed …

Evaluation Of Engineering Properties Of Soil In Al Butayn, Mudarraj Al Qassim And Turubah - Hail Saudi Arabia, Turki Essam A. Sehly

Masters Theses

"Fractures, sinkhole, building cracks, and ground subsidence have spread in many regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, some of which are related to seismic activity, others due to the presence of unstable soils (collapsing soils and Expansive soils) and others because of faults, while others result from drawing groundwater at great rates. The current study has several facts related to the formation of cracks and landslides, including:
1) A general study of geomorphology and geology of the study areas.
2) The causes affecting the formation of cracks and subsidence.
3) Detailed geomorphological and geological studies of the locations of …

Application Of Geophysics And Remote Sensing Techniques For Economic Mineral Exploitation In Libya, Awad Abdussalam Henish Lemnifi

Doctoral Dissertations

“This study investigates crustal thickness and properties within the north central Africa region. Results obtained from 15 seismic stations belonging to the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science are reported, in addition to 3 seismic stations publically available, using receiver functions, the first P-to-S receiver function investigation of the 410 km and 660 km depth discontinuities bounding the mantle transition zone (MTZ), and P wave tomography methods. The results from the first method show crustal thicknesses ranging from 24 km to 36 km (with uncertainties ranging between ±0.10 km and ±0.90 km). More specifically, crustal thickness ranges from …

Military Applications Of Geological Engineering, Stephen H. Tupper

Doctoral Dissertations

"This work examines the premise that military engineering and geological engineering are intellectually paired and overlapped in practice to a significant extent. Geological engineering is an established, albeit young, academic discipline that enjoys wide industry and civil demand and is supported by many professional organizations. In contrast, military engineering is an ancient, empirically derived training or "OJT" program with practice-based trade-associations that has narrow government-only utility. The premise is formed by decades-long observation of U. S. Army military engineer officers completing a Master of Science degree in geological engineering as a complement to their practice-based training in military engineering at …

Bounding The Moment Deficit Rate On Crustal Faults Using Geodetic Data: Application To Southern California, Jeremy Maurer, Kaj Johnson, Paul Segall

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The interseismic moment deficit rate (MDR) constrains the potential for future moment release in earthquakes. Published estimates of the geodetic MDR in Southern California vary by a factor of 3 depending on the type of forward model, method of estimation, and data quality. It is our aim to determine to what degree these discrepancies may be explained by quantifying the uncertainty for a given class of forward models, accounting for data errors and limited model resolution. We apply a new method, the Constrained Optimization Bounding Estimator, to bound the MDR in Southern California using geodetic data and an elastic plate-block …

Crustal Azimuthal Anisotropy Beneath The Southeastern Tibetan Plateau And Its Geodynamic Implications, Tuo Zheng, Zhifeng Ding, Jieyuan Ning, Lijun Chang, Xingchen Wang, Fansheng Kong, Kelly H. Liu, Stephen S. Gao

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The fast orientation and magnitude of crustal azimuthal anisotropy beneath the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas are measured by analyzing the sinusoidal moveout of the P to S converted phase from the Moho. Beneath the tectonically active plateau, the mean magnitude is 0.48 ±Â 0.13 s, which is about twice as large as that observed in the stable Sichuan Basin (0.23 ±Â 0.10 s). The two areas are separated by the Longmenshan fault zone, a zone of devastating earthquakes including the 12 May 2008 M_W 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. Fault orthogonal fast orientations observed in the southern Longmenshan fault …

Hydraulic Fracture Design Optimization For Nubian Sandstone Formation In Libya, Housameddin Mohamed Sherif

Masters Theses

There is growing interest in developing unconventional oil and gas reserves in Libya, such as the tight portions of the Nubian sandstone.

Well-X7 is a development well drilled to a TD of 13,005' penetrating the Upper Nubain Sandstone (UNSS) at 12,122'-12,207' and the Lower Nubain Sandstone (LNSS) at 12,524'-12,880' KB. Based on open hole logs, the UNSS has 71 ft of net pay and the LNSS was found to have 295 ft of net pay. Openhole logs also showed low permeabilities of 2.5 and 3 md for the UNSS and LNSS, respectively. The well was initially perforated in both zones …

Crustal Thickness Beneath Libya And The Origin Of Partial Melt Beneath As Sawda Volcanic Province From Receiver Function Constraints, Awad A. Lemnifi, Abdelsalam Elshaafi, John Browning, Nassib Aouad, Saad K. El Ebaidi, Kelly K. Liu, Agust Gudmundsson

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates crustal thickness and properties within the Libyan region. Results obtained from 15 seismic stations belonging to the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science are reported, in addition to 3 seismic stations publically available, using receiver functions. The results show crustal thicknesses ranging from 24 km to 36 km (with uncertainties ranging between ±0.10 km and ±0.90 km). More specifically, crustal thickness ranges from 32 km to 36 km in the southern portion of the Libyan territory then becomes thinner, between 24 km and 30 km, in the coastal areas of Libya and thinnest, between 24 …

Bounding The Moment Deficit Rate On Crustal Faults Using Geodetic Data: Methods, Jeremy Maurer, Paul Segall, Andrew M. Bradley

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The geodetically derived interseismic moment deficit rate (MDR) provides a first-order constraint on earthquake potential and can play an important role in seismic hazard assessment, but quantifying uncertainty in MDR is a challenging problem that has not been fully addressed. We establish criteria for reliable MDR estimators, evaluate existing methods for determining the probability density of MDR, and propose and evaluate new methods. Geodetic measurements moderately far from the fault provide tighter constraints on MDR than those nearby. Previously used methods can fail catastrophically under predictable circumstances. The bootstrap method works well with strong data constraints on MDR, but can …

Structural And U-Pb Detrital Zircon Geochronologic Constraints On The Origin Of The Condrey Mountain Schist, California - Oregon, Joseph Reid Coons

Masters Theses

"The Condrey Mountain Schist (CMS) of the Klamath Mountains (northern California and southern Oregon) represent low grade oceanic and terrigenous sediments thrust beneath higher grade ophiolitic rocks of the Rattlesnake Creek Terrane (RCT). This study presents new U-Pb detrital zircon dates from the CMS, and from the possibly correlative basin rocks of the Galice Formation and accretionary rocks of the South Fork Mountain Schist. The Galice Formation yields a maximum depositional age of ca. 152 Ma with prominent date distributions of ca. 150-200 Ma (39% of analyzed grains), 200-600 Ma (1%), 600 - 1000 Ma (2%), and 1000-3200 Ma (58%). …

Fluid Flow Through Deformation Band, Huining Zhang

Masters Theses

"Cataclastic deformation bands, which are common in porous sandstone, have the potential to restrict fluid flow. Geological studies have shown that permeability of deformation band shear zones can be one to five orders of magnitude less than for the sandstone host rock. However, recent studies based on simplified analytical estimates have shown that fluid flow in jointed deformation bands may not be retarded since joints play an important role in conducting fluids. In this study, 2 dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the total discharge flow rate through jointed deformations. Variations of single planar and conjugate jointed …

Thermal Perturbations Beneath The Incipient Okavango Rift Zone, Northwest Botswana, Khumo Leseane, Estella A. Atekwana, Kevin Lee Mickus, Mohamed G. Abdel Salam, Elisha M. Shemang, Eliot A. Atekwana

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We used aeromagnetic and gravity data to investigate the thermal structure beneath the incipient Okavango Rift Zone (ORZ) in northwestern Botswana in order to understand its role in strain localization during rift initiation. We used three-dimensional (3-D) inversion of aeromagnetic data to estimate the Curie Point Depth (CPD) and heat flow under the rift and surrounding basement. We also used two-dimensional (2-D) power-density spectrum analysis of gravity data to estimate the Moho depth. Our results reveal shallow CPD values (8-15 km) and high heat flow (60-90 mW m^-2) beneath a ∼60 km wide NE-trending zone coincident with major …

Imaging Beneath Standing Bodies Of Water In Karst Terrain, Abdulrahman Masfer Alotaibi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Side scan sonar and down scan sonar, sub bottom profiling, electrical resistivity tomography profiling (underwater cables), and continuous resistivity profiling (towed cable) surveys were conducted to characterize the lake sediments (rock and soil) beneath the man-made Little Prairie Lake, in central Missouri. Sub bottom profiling and electrical resistivity (with marine cables and towed cable) were used to determine variability in the lithology and thickness of sediments (soil and rock) beneath the lake, while side scan sonar was used to map the variations in the lithology/nature of exposed lakebed sediments and to locate the potential hazard of trees. Down scan sonar …

Updated Screening Criteria For Steam Flooding Based On Oil Field Projects Data, Mariwan Qadir Hama

Masters Theses

"Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) screening is considered the first step in evaluating potential EOR techniques for candidate reservoirs. Therefore, as new technologies are developed, it is important to update the screening criteria. Many of the screening criteria for steam flooding that have been described in the literature were based on data collected from EOR surveys biennially published in the Oil & Gas Journal. However, these datasets contain some problems, including outliers, missing data, inconsistent data and duplicate data, that could affect the accuracy of the results. Despite the importance of ensuring the quality of a dataset before running analyses, data …

The Description Of An Effective Sinkhole Investigation Approach: A Case Study Of Two Sites In Greene County, Missouri, Stanley Chinedu Nwokebuihe

Masters Theses

"Karst topographies pose danger to the environment. The associated gradual subsidence or sudden collapse of the ground can lead to loss of lives and damage to property. A sinkhole is the subsidence or collapse of the overburden into subsurface cavities. Sinkholes develop in different sizes, shapes and rates all over the world especially in areas where the bedrock can be dissolved by percolating slightly acidic surface water.

Different methods have been used to investigate sinkholes. Boring is the most common of these methods. But the boring technique is quite inefficient; it only provides information of the subsurface conditions at the …

Pn Anisotropy Tomography Of The Colorado Plateau And Adjacent Areas, Shengyao Cheng

Masters Theses

"The Pn tomography method utilizes seismic waves that refract along the Moho interface to perform inversion in order to investigate velocity anomalies and seismic anisotropy in the uppermost mantle. Results from Pn tomography can provide important information about the composition, temperature, and tectonic processes beneath the study area. Over the past decades, numerous seismic and geologic studies have been conducted in the Colorado Plateau and its adjacent areas to reveal crustal and mantle structures and processes responsible for the diverse surface geological features and tectonic events that have occurred in this area. To investigate lateral variations in the uppermost mantle …

Finding F.O.S For Flow Type Landslide With Static Liquefaction At Karshingsa – A Case Study, Gokul K. Bayan

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Karshingsa is a hilly terrain situated in lower Himalayan region under Arunachal Pradesh in India. It expresses occurrence of severe landslides of debris flow nature almost every year as and when consecutive 3-month rainfall precipitation during peak monsoon period exceeds about 2,300 mm, all along the lower Himalayan region of Eurasian plateau most particularly in Karshingsa area. Study carried out in the lower belt of Arunachal Himalaya for about more than one decade proclaims that 45%-55% landslides are flow type origin, the debris of which are flowing like liquid. Mechanism of such flow failure is static liquefaction developed in a …

Failures And Remediation Of Rock Slope Stability Problems And Remediation At Earthquakes At Part Of Werka Descent Road West Of Saudi Arabia, Bahaaeldin Sadagah

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Werka descent road lies at western region of Saudi Arabia. It is constructed two years ago harmed due to rainstorm and absence of remedial measures. Werka mountainous road subjected to failures of man-made rock slope faces, and debris flow along both sides of 8-m width road. Intensive geotechnical study includes the RMR and GSI rock masses classifications were applied indicates that the rocks are medium to poor quality. The integrated techniques such as graphical method, modeling, and simulation were utilized to assess rock slope failures and rockfalls by using DIPS, RocFall, RocPlane and Swedge programs, and recommend the remedial measures …

Effect Of The Soil Spatial Variability On The Static And Dynamic Stability Analysis Of A Lebanese Slope, Mansour Neaimeh, Rony Azar, Roni Hmaymes, Georges Nasr, Dalia Youssef Abdel Massih, Jacques Harb, Nancy Salloum, Cécile Cornou, Denis Jongmans

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The accidental topography and heterogeneous Lebanese geology in addition to the active seismicity have initiated the static and dynamic stability analysis of Lebanese slopes. In this paper, the stability of a sandy Lebanese slope situated at Mansourieh near Beirut is investigated using deterministic and probabilistic approaches. The characterization of the variability of the slope soil properties is done based on geological investigation, as well as geophysical (Resistivity and Ambient noise) and geotechnical tests performed on this slope. Three dimensional 3D static deterministic analyses is performed to determine the overall safety factor of the slope and to find the location of …

Over Eight Decades Old “Young” Landslide – A Case Study, Kishor Kumar, P. S. Prasad, Anil Kathait, Indervir Singh

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Shirobagad also named as Kaliasaur Landslide was developed in the year 1920 at kilometer-147 on National Highway – 58 (earlier named as State Highway - 45) at latitude 300 14’ 30” N and longitude780 53’ 57” in Garhwal region of western Himalaya. This landslide has been investigated by a number of organizations in India and a wealth of data has been generated mainly on geological aspects. Central Road Research Institute has also investigated this landslide during 2007-2011 covering geological as well as geotechnical aspects. The study area basically encompasses metavolcanis and variants of quartzite rock (e.g. pink and white quartzite) …

Stabilization And Reinforcement Of Slope With Geogrid: A Case Study, Khashayar Hemmati, Seyed Vahid Masoomi, Javad Nazari Afshar

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper presents a case study example of appropriate method selection of stabilization and reinforcement of slope by introducing engineering and economical aspects. Introduced slope is located in science and research campus of Islamic Azad University (IAU) in north of Tehran with height of 4-29 m and length of 370 m. A big building with 9 floors and total area of 70000 square meters is located upper and near edge of slope, so that existence of this building has increased sensitivity of projects design and construction method. Slope is located in vulnerable area with a high risk of seismicity based …

A Structural Analysis Of The El Kasr Structure In The Western Desert Of Egypt, Trevor Charles Ellis

Masters Theses

"The El Kasr structure was studied in order to investigate the origins and evolution of the enigmatic Desert Eyes structures of the Western Desert due to its accessibility and uniqueness among the structures. The El Kasr structure, an elongate structural basin with low limb dips, is unique among the "Desert Eyes" structures in that it: 1) occurs in isolation in otherwise horizontal sedimentary rock, 2) the long dimension of the basin is oriented NNW, 3) it is closely spatially associated with the less common NNW fault zones, and 4) is composite in nature. The structure was investigated using remote sensing …

Wolf Creek Dam: A Case Study Of Foundation Remediation For Dams Built On Karst Foundations, Kyla Justene Erich

Masters Theses

"Wolf Creek Dam was completed in 1952 as a 5,736-foot long and 258-foot high combination embankment-concrete gravity dam. Its storage capacity of 6 million acre feet makes it the ninth largest reservoir in the nation. The dam was built on a heavily karstified limestone foundation and began exhibiting signs of excess foundation seepage in late 1967. This led to extensive corrective work in the 1970s beneath the earthen core of the embankment to reduce underseepage. In 2006 an independent assessment by the Dam Safety Action Classification (DSAC) Peer Review Panel recommended that Wolf Creek Dam exhibited "Urgent and Compelling" foundation …

Analysis And Finite Element Approximation Of A Coupled, Continuum Pipe-Flow/Darcy Model For Flow In Porous Media With Embedded Conduits, Yanzhao Cao, Max Gunzburger, Fei Hua, Xiaoming Wang

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We consider the continuum Darcy/pipe flow model for flows in a porous matrix containing embedded conduits; such coupled flows are present in, e.g., karst aquifers. the mathematical well-posedness of the coupled problem as well as convergence rates of finite element approximation are established in the two-dimensional case. Computational results are also provided. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Apparent Weekly And Daily Earthquake Periodicities In The Western United States, And Evolution Of Wadi Kubbania In Egypt, Ali Hadi Atef

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation consists of two separate sections. The first section is on apparent daily and weekly periodicities in earthquake occurrence in the western United State [sic]. Analysis of Apparent Seismicity Rate (ASR) in the western United States confirmed the existence of prominent spectral peaks with a period of 1 and 7 days. The number of recorded earthquakes on Sundays for the duration of 1963-2008 is about 5% higher than that on weekdays, and, more significantly, there is a 9% increase of ASR in the early morning compared with that in the middle of the days. Significant similarities between the spatial …

General Report — Session 7, Jorge F. Meneses, Ioannis Anastasopoulos

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

No abstract provided.

Field And Laboratory Tests In Seman Deposits, Luljeta Bozo, Skender Allkja, Lorena Harizaj

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

The construction of the big energetic park near the spilling of the river needed a geotechnical study to be performed by thoroughly investigations of the sand’s deposits. We would like to present in these papers all the field investigations, laboratory tests and geotechnical study carried out by “ALTEA&GEOSTUDIO2000” laboratory in order to identify the behavior of soils under static and seismic loads. It is possible to create some geotechnical models based on this study and to determine their behavior under static and seismic conditions.

State Of The Art And Practice (Soap) Speakers, Multiple Authors

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of The Elastic Displacement Demand: Case Study - Sofia City, Ivanka Paskaleva, Mihaela Kouteva, Franco Vaccari, Giuliano F. Panza

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

The results of the study on the seismic site response of a part of the metropolitan Sofia are discussed. The neo-deterministic seismic hazard assessment procedure has been used to compute realistic synthetic waveforms considering four earthquake scenarios, with magnitudes M=3.7, M=6.3 and M = 7.0. Source and site specific ground motion time histories are computed along three selected cross sections, making use of the hybrid approach, combining the modal summation technique and the finite differences scheme. Displacement and acceleration response spectra are considered. These results are validated against the design elastic displacement response spectra and displacement demand, recommended in Eurocode …