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Enhancing Basic Geology Skills With Artificial Intelligence: An Exploration Of Automated Reasoning In Field Geology, Perry Ivan Quinto Houser

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the use of Artificial Intelligence, specifically semantics, ontologies, and reasoner techniques, to improve field geology mapping. The thesis focuses on two use cases: 1) identifying a geologic formation based on observed characteristics; and 2) predicting the geologic formation that might be expected next based upon known stratigraphic sequence. The results show that the ontology was able to correctly identify the geologic formation for the majority of rock descriptions, with higher search results for descriptions that provided more detail. Similarly, the units expected next were correctly given and if incorrect, would provide a flag to the field geologist …

Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Dynamics In The Pliocene From Sedimentological Interpretation Of Ocean Drilling Program Site 1097, Ridley Joseph

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Studying ice sheet behavior during the Pliocene Epoch is of great importance. The Early Pliocene was characterized by warm climatic conditions, similar carbon dioxide levels and high sea levels compared to the present. This time frame provides essential information on the foreseeable future of Earth’s cryosphere, particularly if climate change continues to persist. The sedimentary record of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) is the focus of this study. At Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1097, cores were drilled into Pliocene strata at a shallow depth on the Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf. Sedimentary facies were interpreted, and twenty samples were …

The Impacts Of Site Formation Processes On Excavation Methodology: The Study Of A World War Ii B-24 Crash Site In Munster, Germany, Alicia J. Lawson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Academic partnerships between universities and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) are a recent development to provide top research universities resources to assist in recovering and identifying MIA service members since World War II. A University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL)/DPAA Partner excavation revisited a WWII B-24H crash site in Münster, Germany in the summer of 2022. B-24H [redacted] crashed into three agricultural fields on 23 March 1945. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collected on the incident-related and archaeological osseous remains and artifacts recovered from the fields and the fields’ land use history, this thesis focuses on analyzing the site formation processes …

Ground Motion Prediction Modeling And Seismic Lg Wave Attenuation Tomography, Md Nayeem Al Noman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The EarthScope USArray provides an unprecedented improvement of ground motion recordings in terms of quality and spatial coverage across the central and eastern North America (CENA). This study investigates two attenuation problems in the CENA region i.e., developing ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for the Gulf Coast region and investigating seismic Lg wave attenuation in Oklahoma and its surrounding regions. Both problems utilize a common seismological advantage, i.e., the dense EarthScope USArray ground motion observations to improve our understanding of regional ground motion models and attenuation structure in CENA. I developed empirical GMPEs for the Gulf coast region based on …

Atomic Utopia: Nuclear Power At The Oconee Power Station In Seneca, South Carolina, Dalton Bridges

Senior Theses

In this thesis, I propose that South Carolina residents have developed a perception of their communities as “nuclear utopias.” I focus specifically on the Oconee Nuclear Power station in Seneca in the northwestern part of the state. I argue that the state’s extensive connections to the nuclear industry, coupled with the fact that many individuals have profited from the job opportunities and economic benefits that this sector provides, have led to a general acceptance of and even appreciation for nuclear power. Nuclear utopia suggests that individuals in South Carolina may view the nuclear industry as a source of hope and …

Intersectional Management: An Analysis Of Cooperation And Competition On American Public Lands, Robin M. Rotman, Abigail M. Hunt

Faculty Publications

The United States government holds public lands in trust for the whole of the American people. This article focuses on National Monuments under the Antiquities Act. It argues that the federal government should renew its approach to the management of these lands by incorporating principles of environmental justice and long- term environmental viability. The article begins by examining the historical and legal foundations of federal lands in the United States, with a focus on the Antiquities Act. It then reflects on recent litigation and political controversy surrounding Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, to illustrate how the …

Examining Uranium Mining In The Canyon Mine, Kasha Halbleib

Pace Environmental Law Review

In November 2020, Energy Fuels changed the name of one of its uranium mines from “Canyon Mine” to “Pinyon Plain Mine” in order to put distance between the mine and its historical controversies. However, changing the name does not change the potential harm the mine can cause. Canyon Mine sits fifteen miles from the rim of the Grand Canyon and is built on land sacred to the nearby Havasupai Tribe. The mine stands to not only destroy the health and well-being of the Havasupai people by contaminating their water supply with radioactive elements, but also to destroy the sacred ties …

White Mountain Mysteries: A Bushwhacker And His Brother Decode Remote Place Names, William Geller

Appalachia

Stories of mysterious places off trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, each trip lasting three days in the fall.

Primary Production Modeling Identifies Restoration Targets For Shifting Shallow, Eutrophic Lakes To Clear-Water Regimes, Leighton King, Janice Brahney, Scott Daly, Michael J. Paul, Kateri R. Salk, Soren Brothers

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Benthic primary production (BPP) plays an important functional role in lakes, improving water quality by stabilizing clear-water regimes. Shallow, eutrophic lakes lacking BPP communities can be difficult to restore because self-stabilizing feedbacks of phytoplankton dominance can impede the establishment of BPP. BPP in lakes is light limited, and ecosystem models can provide guidance for determining the water clarity necessary to re-establish BPP dominance. We developed a multi-tiered framework for the restoration of shallow, eutrophic lakes that incorporates multiple turbidity sources, lake morphometry, and water-level fluctuations to determine water-clarity thresholds above which BPP dominance may be established. We present a case …

Obituary Prof. Dr. Ercan Özcan, Aral Okay, Demi̇r Altiner, Gyorgy Less

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

No abstract provided.

Lithological Mapping Of Ophiolitic Rocks From Southern Part Of The Sivas Basin (Turkey) Using Aster Imagery, Taner Eki̇ci̇

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The east-west extended Sivas Basin in central-eastern Anatolia is a foreland basin that formed after the obduction of the Tethyan ophiolite during the late Cretaceous and is also a north-verging fold-and-thrust belt. The basement rocks of the basin represent mainly sedimentary (Mesozoic platform-type carbonates) and late Cretaceous Divriği ophiolitic complex. As the ophiolitic rocks are affected by intense tectonic processes, field-based mapping studies require long processes and costs. The study tests to reveal the lithological features of the ophiolitic complex outcropping around the Ulaş district of the Sivas Province using remote sensing methods and techniques. Due to arid climatic conditions …

Geological Structure Informs Rupture Propagation And Surface Rupture Complexity During The 2016 Kaik?Ura Earthquake, New Zealand: Insights For Future Large Earthquake Hazard, Kelvin Berryman, Mark Rattenbury, Stephen Bannister, Susan Ellis, Pilar Villamor, Donna Eberhart-Phillips, Phaedra Upton, Andrew Howell

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

We summarise the geological setting of complex surface rupture of the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaik?ura earthquake in the Marlborough Tectonic Domain of New Zealand. The event was complex both seismologically and geologically but not totally dissimilar to other large historical events globally. The earthquake occurred in the comprehensively imbricated, steeply-dipping Pahau Terrane crust that exhibits numerous tectonic overprints with diverse faulting styles. The current strike slip faults of the Marlborough Fault System are immature in their structural development and occupy, at least in part, inherited faults of earlier deformation phases. Several of the faults that ruptured in 2016 may connect …

New Age Constraints On The Break-Up Of Rodinia And Amalgamation Of Southwestern Gondwana From The Choquequirao Formation In Southwestern Peru, Eben Blake Hodgin, Victor Carlotto, Francis A. Macdonald, Mark D. Schmitz, James L. Crowley

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Choquequirao Formation is a >3 km-thick amphibolite-grade succession that outcrops in the Central Andes of southern Peru. To constrain its age and tectonostratigraphic setting, detrital zircon and metamorphic zircon, titanite, and rutile U–Pb isotopic analyses were conducted. Mantle-derived c. 640 Ma detrital zircons constrain the maximum age of the lower part of the succession and 550–490 Ma metamorphic zircon domains constrain its minimum age. The absence of early Paleozoic detrital zircons suggests that deposition predated early Paleozoic orogenesis in southwestern Gondwana. The close similarity of detrital zircon age spectra to those from sediments deposited on the Arequipa basement suggests …

Evidence For Surface Rupture Of The 1939 Erzincan Earthquake Based On Field Data And Paleoseismology On The Ezinepazarı Fault (North Anatolian Fault Zone, Central Anatolia), Fi̇kret Koçbulut

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The Ezinepazarı Fault (EPF) is an active segment that restricts the Niksar Basin in the central part of the North Anatolian Fault Zone and has been the source of the devastating Mw 8.0 earthquake in the last 100 years. Traces of the surface rupture of the EPF, which occurred in AD 1939, can still be observed in the field today as a right-lateral strike-slip character. While paleoseismological studies were mostly focused on the western part of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) in previous studies, the studies on the central and eastern parts of the NAFZ are rarely addressed. In …

Geology Of The Eastern Anatolian Plateau (Turkey): A Synthesis, Ali̇ Yilmaz, Gülteki̇n Topuz, Tuna Eken, Osman Candan, Hüseyi̇n Yilmaz

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The Eastern Anatolian Plateau (EAP), approximately 2000 m above sea level, is located between the Eastern Pontides to the north, the Arabian Platform to the south, and the Iranian Plateau to the east. It is characterized by approximately 6 km-thick Maastrichtian to Quaternary volcano-sedimentary cover which unconformably overlies continental and oceanic basement units. Overall, the outcrops of the pre-Maastrichtian basement are rare and include both continental and oceanic units. This led to drastically different interpretations of the nature of the pre-Maastrichtian basement as (i) the oceanic accretionary complex or (ii) continental crust and overlying ophiolitic mélange. This synthesis deals with …

Delineating A Stream Network At Gale Crater, Mars, On Arcgis Pro: A Geographic Information Systems Approach, Elpidio Guzman De La Cruz

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The northwestern region of the Gale crater experienced flooding in the past. Delineation of stream networks for the northwestern region of Gale Crater, Mars employing geographic information systems (GIS) techniques is applied. The stream network produced by the algorithm in the study traverses the clay unit in Gediz Vallis, and visual HiRISE imagery analysis correlates with a topologic cross section of an inverted river channel of 750 meters wide and 90 meters deep. HiRISE imagery analysis further confirms a sulfate and clay stratigraphic unit in a stream 125 meters wide and 25 meters deep. Lastly, data smoothing procedures in the …

Climate And Atlantic Sea-Level Recorded In Southwestern Spain From 6.3 To 5.2 Ma. Inferences On The Messinian Crisis In The Mediterranean, Jean Pierre Suc, Séverine Fauquette, Sophie Warny, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Damien Do Couto

Faculty Publications

The Mio-Pliocene succession of Andalusia on the Atlantic coast (Guadalquivir Basin) is known as one of the former stratotype candidate for the Andalusian Stage, proposed during the seventies as the last stage of the Miocene. Its type section is located in Carmona, east of Seville. Our investigation includes the drilling of three cored boreholes, which provide bio- and magnetic-stratigraphic data in complement to pre-existing industrial information, and a high-resolution palynological analysis (pollen grains, spores and dinoflagellate cysts). The pollen flora and its climatic quantification provide the mean to correlate the section to the oxygen isotope curve from the Montemayor-1 borehole, …

Relationship Of Petrographic And Mineralogical Characteristics With Mechanical Strength Properties Of Granitic Rocks: A Case Study From The Biga Peninsula, Nw Turkey, Güven Eroğlu, Ayten Çalik

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

This study was carried out on granitic rocks from the Biga Peninsula in order to investigate petrographic, and mineralogical properties in comparison with mechanical strength properties. This study was conducted in four different locations where granitic rocks outcrop from north to south in the Biga Peninsula: Lapseki (Şevketiye granite), Ezine (Kestanbol granite), Bayramiç (Yassıbağ granite), and Edremit (Eybek granite). Field observations and detailed petrographic studies of representative samples indicate that they are quartz monzodiorite (Şevketiye and Yassıbağ), quartz monzonite (Kestanbol), and granodiorite (Eybek) in composition. All the rocks have similar mineral composition, comprising mainly feldspar (plagioclase-alkali feldspar), quartz, mafic minerals …

The Appalachian System Of Basins And Platforms As A Tectonostratigraphic Analogue To The Barents Sea Shelf: Where Arctic Meets The Appalachians, Gustavo De Aguiar Martins

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Divided between Norway and Russia, the Barents Sea shelf (BSS) is an ~1.4 million km² Arctic province, containing significant hydrocarbon accumulations. However, much of the area is frontier, and geologic data are often restricted or unavailable. One strategy to mitigate lack of geologic data is the use of analogues from well-known, mature basins. Even though there have been attempts to use analogues to study the geology of the BSS, such use is limited. Moreover, no analogue, to my knowledge, has been capable of addressing the regional tectonostratigraphic development of the shelf as a whole.

In this research, the Appalachian …

Micropaleontological Findings And Absolute Ages Mark The Termination Of The Last Glacial Maximum In The Eastern Mediterranean Region: New Electron Spin Resonance Data From Gediz Delta (Western Turkey), Eki̇n Gökçe Benli̇, Hülya Aslin, İsmai̇l İşi̇ntek, Bi̇rol Engi̇n, Berna Şengöçmen Geçki̇n

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Sediments and fossil content of Gediz Delta (Eastern Aegean Sea-İzmir) were examined from the samples collected from three drilling cores from the west (seaward) to east (landward) of the delta. Each drilling core contains Quarternary marine deposits with a marine fauna of foraminifers, bivalves, gastropods, echinoids, and ostracods at the bottom and Quaternary continental delta deposits at the top. According to our Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) age model marine sediments of the Aegean Sea started to cover the western Gediz Delta area before 19.9 ka (thousand years). Following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), after the transgression due to deglaciation occurred …

The Impact Of Fracture Properties On Adsorbed Gas Production From A Marcellus Shale Horizontal Well, Valcia Mildreth Vasco Bulule

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

In addition to the gas present in the pores of the rock, shale also contains gas in the adsorbed state within the surface of the organic matter within the formation. As the free gas is produced, the pressure in the reservoir depletes, causing the adsorbed gas to be released, complementing the gas production. At the same time, the pressure reduction leads to increase in the effective stress causing shale compaction. The shale compaction negatively impacts the permeability and hydraulic fracture conductivity. This study aimed to investigate the impact of hydraulic fracture characteristics on the adsorbed gas recovery and, ultimately, …

Communicating Hazard Location Through Text And Map In Earthquake Early Warnings: A Mixed Methods Study, Jeannette Sutton, Michele M. Wood, Nicholas A. Waugh, Savanah Crouch

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of presenting hazard location in different formats on key warning message outcomes—understanding, personalizing, believing, deciding, and milling. We conducted two studies using experiment and focus group methods. In the experiment, we compared a standard ShakeAlert earthquake early warning message, which merely implied location, to three enhanced messages that communicated information about the earthquake epicenter via text, map, or a combined text-and-map format. Focus groups explored reactions to warning messages accompanied by different types of maps. Overall, the standard ShakeAlert message was associated with worse message outcomes compared to messages that …

3d Hydrostratigraphic And Hydraulic Conductivity Modeling Using Supervised Machine Learning, T. A. Tilahun, Jesse T. Korus Dr.

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Ancient Landscapes Of South Texas At The Nexus Of Natural And Social History: An Educational, Community Engagement And Research Initiative For The Twenty-First Century, Roseann Bacha Garza, Juan L. Gonzalez, Edward González-Tennant, Starr E. Hein, Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Prior to 2009 the geoarcheological landscape of the lower Rio Grande valley was virtually a tabula rasa within the scholarship of archeology and geology. To rectify this shortcoming the Community Historical Archeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program was created from an interdisciplinary team of scholars with research interests in the Rio Grande valley while working initially with undergraduate and graduate students conducting in-depth studies of family farms and working with collectors to identify archeological sites. Through time the CHAPS Program created forums for locally focused K-12 education while developing community engagement initiatives to encourage public heritage tourism. One, the Ancient …