Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Rock Glacier Hydrological Significance In A Warming World: A Geoecological Transect In The North Cascades, Washington, Jessica Abadie Coffey

All Master's Theses

Mountain environments are some of the most climate-sensitive areas on the planet. Due to recent warming trends, the 0℃ isotherm is rising in elevation and subsequently melting glaciers, snowpack, and permafrost. However, rock glaciers are a type of permafrost that is climate-resilient; therefore, research on their distribution and water volume equivalence (WVEQ) will be increasingly valuable in a warming world.

The purpose of this research was to determine the hydrological significance of different altitude belts of alpine permafrost in Washington State’s North Cascades. Additionally, this study analyzed how much rock glacier permafrost will be exposed to melting temperatures with climate …

Geologic Mapping Along The Benton Spring Fault, Nevada: Dextrally-Offset Tuff-Filled Paleovalleys In The Central Walker Lane, Peter Dubyoski

All Master's Theses

Documenting the spatiotemporal evolution of fault systems along the western margin of North America is a prerequisite for characterizing the forces which drive faulting across the U.S. Cordillera. Within the Cordillera, the Walker Lane, characterized by active intracontinental faults, straddles the western edge of the Basin and Range Province and the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada. In the Gabbs Valley Range, central Nevada, eastern Central Walker Lane, I combine new mapping, geochronology, and structural studies to document the geometry and timing of dextral fault slip along the Benton Spring fault, an active intracontinental fault. The Benton Spring fault is …

Organic-Input Impacts On Soil Carbon Flux, Storage, And Budget In Conservation Agricultural Soils, Central Washington, Usa, Jessica Hartman

All Master's Theses

The increase in global atmospheric CO₂ over the last 200 years has generated an urgent need for strategies for sequestering carbon (C). Soil C, which has been depleted by land use change and agricultural practices, is a prime target for C storage. Land management practices, including no-till, cover cropping and crop rotation, and the application of C amendments such as compost and biochar, are suggested to increase C in the soil. Spoon Full Farm, near Thorp, WA, was a conventional hay farm until 2016, when management practices changed to implement some of these C sequestration strategies. A prior CWU …

Long-Term Geomorphic Effects Of The Glines Canyon Dam Removal On The Elwha River, Washington, Usa, Alyssa D. Demott

All Master's Theses

The Elwha River once provided vital habitat for a variety of salmonid species, but after two dams were emplaced on the river in the early 1900s, habitat diminished, and salmon populations declined. From 2011-2014, the dams were finally removed to restore the Elwha ecosystem. To understand the long-term geomorphic impacts of the Glines Canyon Dam removal on the Elwha River, I quantified changes in four parameters: in-channel large wood, main channel sinuosity, channel braiding, and sedimentation. High-resolution imagery from 2012-2020 was used to map large wood and digitize main and secondary river channels, and field surveys were completed at study …

A Regional Synthesis Of Post-Glacial Fire History In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Using Macroscopic Charcoal Analysis, Brynn Harrison

All Master's Theses

The recent rise in severe wildfires in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) has created a heightened sense of urgency and reignited public interest in wildfire risk. In order to put this rise into a broader spatial and temporal context, a more in-depth look at fire histories from frequently burned areas in the eastern Cascades is needed. The first major objective of this study was to determine if CharAnalysis, a statistical program developed to reconstruct fire history from macroscopic charcoal-based records, is appropriate for use with charcoal records from the eastern Cascades of Washington. The second major objective was to develop a …

Tsunami Deposits And Tsunami Modeling Of The 900 Ad Seattle Fault Event In Northern Puget Sound, Andrew A. Raulerson

All Master's Theses

Puget Sound has a history of earthquakes and tsunamis with an ever-expanding knowledge of these events. The focus of this study is the Seattle fault earthquake and resulting tsunami 1100 years ago. This study aimed at refining the extent of tsunami inundation north of the fault using a two-phased approach: a field study at Elger Bay and tsunami modeling. Tsunami deposits dating to this event have been observed in six sites total sites in Puget Sound, and four of them are in northern Puget Sound. At Elger Bay I found one tsunami deposit in cores from the southwest corner of …