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An Evaluation Of Methods For Identifying And Interpreting Buried Soils In Late Quaternary Loess In Alaska, Daniel R. Muhs, Thomas A. Ager, Josh M. Been, Joseph G. Rosenbaum, Richard L. Reynolds

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The presence of buried soils in Alaskan loess is controversial, and therefore criteria for identifying buried soils in these deposits need to be evaluated. In this paper, morphologic and chemical criteria for identifying buried soils are evaluated by studying modern soils developed mostly in Holocene loess under tundra, boreal forest, and transitional coastal-boreal forest vegetation in different parts of Alaska. Data from modern Alaskan soils that developed under vegetation similar to that of the present indicate that soil morphology, organic-matter concentrations, and P concentrations can be useful diagnostic tools for identifying buried soils. Soil morphologic criteria, particularly horizon colors and …

Middle Holocene Aeolian Activity On The High Plains Of West-Central Kansas, C. G. Olsen, W. D. Nettleton, D. A. Porter, B. R. Brasher

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The uppermost surficial stratigraphic unit south of the Arkansas River in the Kansas High Plains is a previously unidentified middle Holocene or younger loess. The unit fits both a loess-thickness and a particlesize model for loess distribution with increasing distance from source. A soil immediately below this unit is radiocarbon dated 6000 to 6700 years BP. The radiocarbon ages indicate that the loess unit is younger than the commonly reported ranges for Bignell Loess in the Great Plains and demonstrate a need for re-examining Holocene loess stratigraphy of the Great Plains. In some locations closest to the Arkansas valley source, …

Three-Dimensional Upper Crustal Velocity Structure Beneath San Francisco Peninsula, California, Tom Parsons, Mary Lou Zoback

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

This paper presents new seismic data from, and crustal models of the San Francisco Peninsula. In much of central California the San Andreas fault juxtaposes the Cretaceous granitic Salinian terrane on its west and the Late Mesozoic/Early Tertiary Franciscan Complex on its east. On San Francisco Peninsula, however, the present-day San Andreas fault is completely within a Franciscan terrane, and the Pilarcitos fault, located southwest of the San Andreas, marks the Salinian-Franciscan boundary. This circumstance has evoked two different explanations: either the Pilarcitos is a thrust fault that has pushed Franciscan rocks over Salinian rocks or the Pilarcitos is a …

Geology Beneath The Primary Management Systems Evaluation Area (Msea) Site Southwest Of Shelton, Buffalo County, Nebraska, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Frank A. Smith

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

In 1990, as part of a national presidential initiative on water quality, researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) received a multiyear grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research Service, to study management of irrigated corn and soybeans to minimize groundwater contamination. D. G. Watts, R. F. Spalding, and J.S. Schepers, of the IANR led a study at one of the Management Systems Evaluation Areas (MSEA). This area was made up of two sites, a primary site on a terrace of the Platte River near Shelton and a secondary site …

Geology Beneath The Primary Management Systems Evaluation Area (Msea) Site Southwest Of Shelton, Buffalo County, Nebraska, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Frank A. Smith

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

In 1990, as part of a national presidential initiative on water quality, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) received a multi-year grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research Service, to study management of irrigated com and soybeans to minimize groundwater contamination. D.G. Watts, R.F. Spalding, and J.S. Schepers, of the IANR led a study at one of the Management Systems Evaluation Areas (MSEA). This area was made up of two sites, a primary site on a terrace of the Platte River near Shelton and a secondary site nearer …

Application Of Sealevel Stratigraphy To Neogene Great Plains Stratigraphy, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., A. Lowrie

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Absolute-dated high frequency (Milankovitch cycles) marine climate/sealevel oscillatory stratigraphy can be correlated generally with continental stratigraphies. Improvements in absolute dating of Neogene formations across the North American Great Plains make this a candidate area in which to correlate marine and continental stratigraphies. Mid-latitude continental areas respond directly to climate variations. During glaciated/ cold climates, sealevel lowering results in steepened river gradients, increased erosion all along the river channel, and larger stress-bed loads. This, combined with glacial catastrophic flooding, produces greater cut-and-fill sequences along river systems than crevasse splays along the emergent coastal plain, deltas along the shelf, and submarine fans …

Stable Isotope Composition Of Calcareous Paleosols And Ground-Water Cements From The Ogallala Group (Neogene), Western Nebraska, Leonard Robert Gardner, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Douglas F. Williams

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

A preliminary survey has been made of the stable isotope composition of secondary carbonates in the Ogallala Group of western Nebraska. The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether the isotopic signatures of calcareous paleosols in the fine grained facies of the Ogallala and groundwater cements in gravel facies might provide a basis for stratigraphic correlation and/or paleoclimatic interpretation.

The groundwater cemented channel gravels are modestly depicted in IRO (δ¹⁸O = –10‰) as compared to calcareous paleo'sols (δ¹⁸O = –8.0 to –9.0‰). Gravels of different age, however, have essentially identical isotopic signatures. The isotopic variability …

Sr-Isotope Record Of Quaternary Marine Terraces On The California Coast And Off Hawaii, Kenneth R. Ludwig, Daniel R. Muhs, Kathleen R. Simmons, James G. Moore

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Strontium-isotopic ratios of dated corals have been obtained from submerged reefs formed during Quaternary glacial periods off the Hawaiian islands. These data, combined with data from deep-sea sediments, tightly constrain the secular variation of marine ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr for the past 800,000 yr. Although long-term trends are apparent, no significant (>0.02‰), rapid (<100,000 yr) excursions in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr were resolved nor did we observe any samples with ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr greater than that of modern seawater. Strontium in mollusks from elevated marine terraces formed during interglacial periods on the southern California coast show resolvable and consistent variations in …

The Geologic Record Of Wind Erosion, Eolian Deposition, And Aridity On The Southern High Plains, Vance T. Holliday

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Evidence of wind erosion, accumulation of airborne sediments, and drought is preserved on the Southern High Plains. Eolian deposition in the Holocene concentrated between 6000 and 4500 years ago. The Blackwater Draw Formation indicates episodic wind erosion and deposition in the past 1.6 million years. The Ogallala Formation suggests a vast, sandy eolian plain accumulated episodically between 4 and 11 million years. Warmer and drier conditions predicted for the region in a globally-warmer climate will thus be superimposed upon prevailing characteristics of wind and relative aridity that have dominated recent geologic time.

Dissociation Quotients Of Oxalic Acid In Aqueous Sodium Chloride Media To 175c, Richard Kettler, Donald A. Palmer, David J. Wesolowski

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The first and second molal dissociation quotienls of oxalic acid were measured potenliometrically in a concentration cell filled with hydrogen electrodes. The emf of oxalic acid-bioxalate solutions was measured relative to an HCI standard solution from 25 to 125°C over 25° intervals at nine ionic strengths ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 molal (NaCl). The molal dissociation quotients and available literature data were treated in the all anionic form by a five-term equation that yielded the following thermodynamic quantities at infinite dilution and 25°C: logK_Ia = -1.277±0.010, ΔH_l̊a = -4.1± 1.1 kJ-mol^-1, ΔS_l̊a = 38±4 J-K …

Quaternary Geology Of The Northern Great Plains, William J. Wayne, James S. Aber, Sherry S. Agard, Robert N. Bergantino, John P. Bluemle, Donald A. Coates, Maurice E. Cooley, Richard F. Madole, James E. Martin, Brainerd Mears Jr, Roger B. Morrison, Wayne M. Sutherland

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Great Plains physiographic province lies east of the Rocky Mountains and extends from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan nearly to the United States-Mexico border. This chapter covers only the northern part of the unglaciated portion of this huge region, from Oklahoma almost to the United StatesCanada border, a portion that herein will be referred to simply as the Northern Great Plains (Fig. 1). This region is in the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Isoheyets are roughly longitudinal, and mean annual precipitation decreases from about 750 mm at the southeastern margin to less than 380 mm in the western and …

State Of Stress And Modern Deformation Of The Northern Basin And Range Province, Mary Lou Zoback

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Constraints on the current stress regime of the actively extending northern Basin and Range province are provided by deformation data (focal mechanisms and fault slip studies), hydraulic fracturing in situ stress measurements, borehole elongation ("breakouts") analyses, and alignment of young volcanic vents. The integrated data indicate significant variations both in principal stress orientations and magnitudes. An approximately E-W least principal stress direction appears to characterize both the eastern and western margins of the Basin and Range province, whereas in the active interior parts of the province extension occurs in response to a least principal stress oriented NW to N60 °W. …

Leg 101--An Overview, James A. Austin Jr., Wolfgang Schlager, Amanda A. Palmer, Paul A. Comet, André Droxler, Gregor Eberli, Eric Fourcade, Raymond Freeman-Lynde, Craig S. Fulthorpe, Gill Harwood, Gerhard Kuhn, Dawn Lavoie, Mark Leckie, Allan J. Melillo, Arthur Moore, Henry T. Mullins, Christian Ravenne, William W. Sager, Peter Swart, Joost W. Verbeek, David K. Watkins, Colin Williams

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

During Leg 101, the inaugural leg of the Ocean Drilling Program, the JOIDES Resolution drilled 19 holes at 11 sites in the Bahamas. Grids of high-resolution seismic profiles provided information crucial for both site selection and regional stratigraphic interpretations. The first major scientific objective was to understand the long-term evolution of the bank-and-basin pattern that currently characterizes the Bahamas archipelago. Drilling and seismic surveys have indicated considerable platform expansion and retreat rather than stationary upward growth. Upbuilding in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous was followed by drowning and retreat in the mid-Cretaceous and by renewed expansion in the Cenozoic. At Site …

Sedimentology Of The Upper Triassic Chinle Formation Southeastern Utah: Paleoclimatic Implications, Russell F. Dubiel

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in southeastern Utah was deposited in a complex fluvial-deltaic-lacustrine system. The Chinle records the evolution of a continental system in response to variations in climate, tectonics, and sediment supply. Chinle strata represent deposits of fluvial channels and floodplains, lacustrine deltas, lacustrine basins, and lacustrine and playa mudflats. These rocks include a variety of vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant fossils, trace fossils, and paleosols that provide information on depositional environments, water tables, and paleoclimate.

Sedimentologic and paleontologic interpretations both support an interpretation of abundant lakes, streams, and marshes with high, but fluctuating water tables for all but …

Diatom Stratigraphy Of The Lower Pliocene Part Of The Sisquoc Formation, Harris Grade Section, California, John A. Barron, Jack G. Baldau

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Lower Pliocene diatoms were studied from the Sisquoc Formation and lowermost Foxen Mudstone, exposed along Hams Grade north of Lompoc, California, to refine the diatom biostratigraphy of post-Monterey Formation sediments in California. Sixty-seven diatom taxa were identified in the 25 samples examined from the 790-m thick (2950-ft) section. The diatoms are assignable to the uppermost Nitzschia reinholdii Zone and Thalassiosira oestrupii Zone of Damn (1981), and five tentative subzones for local correlation are proposed. Regional correlations and taxon occurrence are discussed, and the base of the Nitzschia reinholdii Zone is redefined as at the last occurrence of Thalassionema schraderi.

Early History Of The Atlantic Ocean And Gas Hydrates On The Blake Outer Ridge: Results Of The Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 76, Robert E. Sheridan, Felix M. Gradstein, Leo A. Barnard, Deborah M. Bliefnick, Dan Habib, Peter D. Jenden, Hideo Kagami, Everly M. Keenan, John Kostecki, Keith A. Kvenvolden, Michel Moullade, James Ogg, Alastair H.F. Robertson, Peter H. Roth, Thomas H. Shipley, Larry Wells, Jay L. Bowdler, Pierre H. Cotillon, Robert B. Halley, Hajimu Kinoshita, James W. Patton, Kenneth A. Pisciotto, Isabella Premoli-Silva, Margaret M. Testarmata, Richard V. Tyson, David K. Watkins

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Leg 76 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project achieved two major scientific objectives. The first objective was met at Site 533, where on the Blake Outer Ridge, gas hydrates were identified by geophysical, geochemical, and geological studies. Gas-hydrate decomposition produced a volumetric expansion of 20:1 of gas volume to pore-fluid volume; this expansion exceeded by about a factor of four the volume of gas that could be released from solution in pore water under similar conditions. The gas hydrate includes methane, ethane, propane, and isobutane but apparently excluded normal butane and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons as predicted from gas hydrate …

Regional Implications Of The Geology Of The Ogallala Group (Upper Tertiary) Of Southwestern Morrill County, Nebraska, And Adjacent Areas, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

A part of a filled Ogallala Group (upper Tertiary) paleovalley system exhumed by recent stream erosion in southwestern Morrill County, Nebraska, and adjacent areas contains steep gradient gullies filled with locally derived sediments. Younger channels filled with granitic gravels derived by stream erosion of the Rocky Mountains to the west and southwest cut across and through these older filled gullies, indicating that there were at least two periods of downcutting followed by periods of filling during the development of this system.

Individual clasts from younger Ogallala gravels are often as large as or larger than clasts from Quaternary gravels transported …

The Distribution Of Natural Fractures And Joints At Depth In Crystalline Rock, Donald A. Seeburger, Mark D. Zoback

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

This paper presents the results of studies of the natural fracture distribution encountered in 10 test wells drilled in three areas of the United States. Seven of the wells were drilled to depths of 200-250m, while three were drilled to depths of about 1 km. Using an ultrasonic borehole televiewer, fracture depths, strikes, and dips were determined. Steeply dipping fractures were found throughout each of the wells, and in general, few horizontal fractures were observed. Statistically significant fracture pole concentrations were found for each well which were basically invariant with depth, although some variation of fracture orientation with depth was …

Farm, Ranch And Home Quarterly Institute Of Agriculture And Natural Resources, University Of Nebraska- Lincoln

Farm, Ranch and Home Quarterly

In this issue:

A Message from the Vice Chancellor................ 2

Needling Makes Beef More Tender .......................... 3

Detecting Herbicide Carryover in Soil ........................ 4

Roadside Marketing........................... 6

Many Uses Found for Geologic Maps ........................ 8

Nebraska Moves Ahead .................................... 10

Resistant Alfalfa Varieties Sought by Researchers ................................ 12

Kids Having Kids ................................... 14

Psuedorabies Virus Causes Producers Severe Losses ........................... 16

Corn or Grain Sorghum? ................................... 19

Don't Fool-Cooperate with Mother Nature ........................ 21

Sulfur Can Boost Corn Yields on Sandy Soils ........................... 23

The Antiquity Of Bison Latifrons (Harlan) In The Great Plains Of North America, C. Bertrand Schultz, John M. Hillerud

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

There is abundant evidence available which strongly supports the Middle Pleistocene (Sheridanian) stratigraphic position of the fossilized remains of Bison latifrons (Harlan) in the Great Plains of North America. This would place the geologic age of this giant beast as post-Kansas to Early Illinoian. Fourteen localities, where the bones of B. latifrons have been found in the central part of North America, have been examined for stratigraphic and geomorphologic evidence.

Stratigraphy Of Chugwater Group (Triassic) East Side Of Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming And Montana, Robert C. Mclellan

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Chugwater Group (Triassic), on the east side of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana, forms a narrow outcrop band of hogbacks. Four redbed formations are included in the Chugwater. From base to top they are: 1) Red Peak, 2) Crow Mountain, 3) Jelm, and 4) Popo Agie. The Chugwater is disconformably underlain by t];ie Goose Egg Formation (Permian) and unconformably overlain, from south to north, by the Sundance, Gypsum Spring, and Piper Formations of Jurassic Age.

The rocks of the Chugwater, in order of abundance, are: siltstone, sandstone, claystone, conglomerate, limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. Binocular microscope studies were …

Urban Geology—A Need And A Challenge, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Urban land uses are rapidly converting open land into intensively used land. Generally, in planning those uses, a comprehensive study has included everything except an evaluation of the land in three dimensions. Geologists are eminently well equipped to supply the missing data, but they must also be aware of the needs of the urban community and the kinds of information needed by planners if they are to write reports usable by planners. Urban and environmental geology is a newly expanding field in the use of geologic data to help solve some urban problems in the planning stage. It is likely …

The Brule-Gering (Oligocene-Miocene) Contact In The Wildcat Ridge Area Of Western Nebraska, C. Bertrand Schultz, Charles H. Falkenbach, Carl F. Vondra

Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum (1924–2023)

The contact between the Brule Formation (Oligocene) and the Gering Formation (Miocene) can be readily distinguished in the Wildcat Ridge area, as elsewhere in western Nebraska. At the critical fossiliferous exposures at Castle Rock in Scotts Bluff County, the contact on the south face between the two formations is defined as 129 feet above the base of the "Upper Ash" bed, which corresponds to the upper portion of Darton's (1899, PI. C, Fig. D, following p. 754) "sandy phase" in the upper part of the Brule. Certain key beds in the Gering Formation can be traced laterally from a channel …

Miocene Mammals And Central American Seaways, Frank C. Whitmore Jr., Robert H. Stewart

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The fossil mammal faunas of North and South America indicate that the two continents were separated from Paleocene or earlier time until the late Pliocene. Unfortunately our almost complete ignorance of the Tertiary land mammals of Central America, the geology of this large area, makes reconstruction of the Tertiary zoogeography of the region between the continents an exercise involving considerable speculation.

Pleistocene Formations In Indiana, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The system of stratigraphic classification used in North America for all sedimentary rock units except nonmarine deposits of the Pleistocene Series established groups, formations, and smaller units based on objectively determined characteristics of the rocks and not on geomorphology or subjective features, such as geologic time. Not all students of the nonmarine Pleistocene have kept these two kinds of units distinct from each other. The Pleistocene sediments of Indiana and the surrounding States are continental in origin rather than marine, and thus they show far less lithologic homogeneity than sediments and rocks of marine origin. Nevertheless, these Pleistocene sediments can …

The Archeology Of The Lime Creek Site In Southwestern Nebraska, E. Mott Davis

University of Nebraska State Museum: Staff and Affiliates, Publications

The Lime Creek site is a stratified Early Lithic (Paleo-Indian) camp site buried in the Terrace-2A alluvial fill of a valley in the dissected loess plains. Geological correlations indicate an early Valders (Wisconsin- IV) date. A radiocarbon date (No. C-471) of 9524 B.P. from just below Lime Creek I, the lowest occupation zone, must be taken only as a minimal possible age for the site. The animal bones in Lime Creek I are primarily of pronghorn and beaver, whereas those in Lime Creek III, the highest occupation zone, are exclusively of bison. The change in hunting patterns seems due to …

Geology Of The Upper Middle Creek Area Huerfano County, Colorado, J. H. Copeland

Open Access Master's Theses (through 2010)

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico are, geologically speaking, relatively unknown. The equivocal nature of our knowledge of the range was a primary reason for studying a portion of it in some detail. Most of the previous studies have been concerned with the northern part of the range in Colorado, in the general area between Salida and La Veta Pass. This work has indicated that the complicated structure which characterizes the northern part of the range becomes simpler to the south. Therefore, a second objective of the current study has been to test this hypothesis. Thirdly, …

Medial Pleistocene Fossil Vertebrate Localities In Nebraska, C. Bertrand Schultz, Lloyd G. Tanner

Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum (1924–2023)

The accurate geologic dating of Pleistocene vertebrate localities which occur outside the glaciated regions has always been difficult. Several new fossil localities in Nebraska now provide data for a better understanding of the paleoecology and faunal evidence of the medial Pleistocene of the Great Plains region.

A fossil quarry, containing the remains of both vertebrates and invertebrates, has been discovered in south-central Nebraska (11/2 miles south and west of Angus in Nuckolls County). The fossils are preserved in Sappa silts in a lime concentration zone (C horizon) of a Yarmouth paleosol. The calcium carbonate appears to have been responsible for …