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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Facies Reconstruction And Stratigraphy Of A Late Pleistocene Bald Cypress Forest Discovered On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Continental Shelf, Suyapa Gonzalez-Rodriguez Nov 2016

Facies Reconstruction And Stratigraphy Of A Late Pleistocene Bald Cypress Forest Discovered On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Continental Shelf, Suyapa Gonzalez-Rodriguez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Facies Reconstruction And Stratigraphy Of A Late Pleistocene Bald Cypress Forest Discovered On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Continental Shelf, Suyapa Gonzalez Nov 2016

Facies Reconstruction And Stratigraphy Of A Late Pleistocene Bald Cypress Forest Discovered On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Continental Shelf, Suyapa Gonzalez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Stratigraphic Analysis Of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Using Magnetic Susceptibility, Geochemical Comparison, And Gamma Ray Spectroscopy, Jennifer Kenyon Apr 2016

Stratigraphic Analysis Of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Using Magnetic Susceptibility, Geochemical Comparison, And Gamma Ray Spectroscopy, Jennifer Kenyon

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


A Geochronological And Stratigraphic Reconstruction Of The Middle Barataria Bay Receiving Basin, Joseph Ethan Thomas Hughes Jan 2016

A Geochronological And Stratigraphic Reconstruction Of The Middle Barataria Bay Receiving Basin, Joseph Ethan Thomas Hughes

LSU Master's Theses

Barataria Bay, one of the largest receiving basins for the Mississippi deltaic complex, is the location of a proposed river-sediment diversion for delta restoration. In order to determine how the sediment in the receiving-basin may respond to diversion flows, twenty-five sediment vibracores were collected from a 115 km2 study area located near Myrtle Grove and Bayou Dupont, southeast of New Orleans, LA. These cores were subject to multiple tests, including gamma bulk density scans, grain size analysis, and loss-on-ignition, in order to identify the lithology and stratigraphy. In addition, 137Cs and 14C dating techniques were employed in order to construct …


Source Mechanism Analysis Of Single-Well Microseismic Data Using Full-Wavefield Moment Tensor Inversion, Trudy Watkins Jan 2016

Source Mechanism Analysis Of Single-Well Microseismic Data Using Full-Wavefield Moment Tensor Inversion, Trudy Watkins

LSU Master's Theses

Receiver angular coverage of microseismic sources occurring during hydraulic fracturing treatments is an important factor to consider when interpreting moment tensor inversion results. A horizontal receiver array can provide greater angular coverage of vertical failure planes than a vertical receiver array. The source orientation can be accurately determined if the array samples both sides of the failure plane. However, the compensated-linear-vector-dipole (CLVD) mechanism can be overestimated by up to ~40% for double-couple (DC) sources and the isotropic mechanism can be overestimated by ~70% for CLVD sources. Source mechanism constraints on the moment tensor inversion are used to mitigate the lack …


In Situ Geochemistry Of Middle Ordovician Dolomites Of The Upper Mississippi Valley: Evaluation Of The Dorag Model And New Implications For Dolomitizing Fluids, John Michael Callen Jan 2016

In Situ Geochemistry Of Middle Ordovician Dolomites Of The Upper Mississippi Valley: Evaluation Of The Dorag Model And New Implications For Dolomitizing Fluids, John Michael Callen

LSU Master's Theses

The dolomitization and diagenetic history of Ordovician carbonates of southern Wisconsin has been studied for over a century. Previous studies attributed dolomitization to various single or multiple diagenetic factors and environments. The goal of the study was to resolve arguments regarding dolomitization models, including Badiozamani’s often cited but recently questioned mixing zone model, using LA-ICP-MS focusing on REE to determine the nature of dolomitizing fluids. Analysis revealed that particulate material incorporated into the dolomite affected the geochemical results of many of the samples. Integrating geochemical data with petrographic evidence for diagenetic history, the studied Decorah Formation dolomites were assigned to …


An Empirical Estimate Of Post-Lgm Grounding-Event Duration In Eastern Ross Sea: Implications From A Comparison With Constraints From New Radiocarbon Dates, Benjamin Krogmeier Jan 2016

An Empirical Estimate Of Post-Lgm Grounding-Event Duration In Eastern Ross Sea: Implications From A Comparison With Constraints From New Radiocarbon Dates, Benjamin Krogmeier

LSU Master's Theses

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) advanced to the outer shelf during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) before beginning a rapid retreat to the inner shelf. In the Whales Deep paleo-ice-stream trough, subsurface and geomorphologic evidence shows that grounding-line retreat was interrupted by at least five pauses in the area between the shelf edge and the middle shelf. During the pauses, an overlapping cluster of backstepped grounding zone wedges (GZWs) was deposited. Each GZW represents a grounding event, i.e., a time interval during which the grounding-line position was relatively stable. Seismic correlation and isopach mapping show that the cluster has …


Theory And Utility Of The Three Isotope Fractionation Relationship, Justin Alan Hayles Jan 2016

Theory And Utility Of The Three Isotope Fractionation Relationship, Justin Alan Hayles

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The field of isotope geochemistry began with the study of oxygen isotope geothermometry, most famously for carbonates. Traditionally oxygen isotope studies are only concerned with the relationship between one rare isotope, oxygen-18, and the common isotope, oxygen-16. In these cases, the abundance of the third stable isotope, oxygen-17 is ignored because for almost all terrestrial processes the 17O-16O relationship roughly scales with the 18O-16O relationship through a fractionation processes and is thought to not provide any new information. However, the discovery of large “mass independent” isotope effects for ozone chemistry has driven a multitude of uses for triple isotope relationships. …


High-Resolution Correlation Using Geophysical And Geochemical Methods On Three Cambrian Drumian Marine Sedimentary Successions In The House Range Embayment, Western Laurentia, Emad I. Elfar Jan 2016

High-Resolution Correlation Using Geophysical And Geochemical Methods On Three Cambrian Drumian Marine Sedimentary Successions In The House Range Embayment, Western Laurentia, Emad I. Elfar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the base of the Cambrian Drumian Stage was defined at 62 m above the base of the Wheeler formation, at the First Appearance Datum (FAD) of Ptychagnostus atavus (P. atavus), and at 10 meter below the DrumIan Carbon isotope Excursion (DICE) on the Stratotype Ridge in the Drum Mountains western Utah, (Babcock at al., 2004; 2007). Tracing the base of the the Drumian stage to other Middle Cambrian sequences in the House Range Embayment (HRE), a fault-controlled deep-water intrusion into an extensive carbonate platform along the passive margin of western Laurentia, …


Intracontinental Neotectonics: Case Studies From The Tian Shan Orogen And Kuqa Fold-Thrust Belt, Cindy M. Colón Jan 2016

Intracontinental Neotectonics: Case Studies From The Tian Shan Orogen And Kuqa Fold-Thrust Belt, Cindy M. Colón

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the kinematic properties of intracontinental deformation during short geologic time scales. Using three case studies this work characterizes active deformation at varying spatial scales within the continental interior of Eurasia. The far-field effect of the Cenozoic Indo-Asia collision is the driving force controlling deformation within the Eurasian continental interior. Active deformation across the intracontinental Tian Shan range challenges the plate tectonic model that proposes crustal deformation is concentrated along plate boundaries. This work further constrains the active kinematics of intracontinental motion that is necessary to understand the dynamics of the Eurasian intracontinental system. The two standing …


Geologic Extremes Of The Nw Himalaya: Investigations Of The Himalayan Ultra-High Pressure And Low Temperature Deformation Histories, Dennis Girard Donaldson Jan 2016

Geologic Extremes Of The Nw Himalaya: Investigations Of The Himalayan Ultra-High Pressure And Low Temperature Deformation Histories, Dennis Girard Donaldson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on two extremes of orogenic development in the Himalaya: the timing of early ultra-high pressure related tectonics and the subsequent emplacement of the high grade Greater Himalayan Crystallines. The Himalayan orogeny is one of if not the best example of ongoing collisional systems, marked by the ongoing convergence of the Indian and Asian continents. The presence of coesite in the Tso Morari complex respresents subduction of the Indian continental crust to ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) conditions. However, the timing of UHP metamorphism is debated, creating an uncertainty in the calculation of subduction and exhumation rates. Petrologic and geochronologic analyses …


Particulate Inorganic Carbon Flux And Sediment Transport Dynamics In Karst: Significance To Landscape Evolution And The Carbon Cycle., Randall Lee Paylor Jan 2016

Particulate Inorganic Carbon Flux And Sediment Transport Dynamics In Karst: Significance To Landscape Evolution And The Carbon Cycle., Randall Lee Paylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research focused on three areas of karst hydrogeology and sediment transport that have been poorly studied in the past: the role of particulate inorganic carbon transport in calculating carbon sink rates in karst; rapid changes in surface vs. subsurface sediment mixing in karst conduits; and comparison of landscape denudation calculations using dissolved carbonate load vs. total dissolved/sediment load. Carbonate bedrock weathering is a significant component of the atmospheric carbon sink. Particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) in bed and suspended sediment load of karst waters is frequently dismissed as insignificant for calculating denudation and carbon transport/sink rates, but PIC flux has not …


Spatiotemporal Distribution Of The Himalayan Leucogranite: Implications For Mountain-Building As A Function Of Indian Slab Dynamics, Hongcheng Guo Jan 2016

Spatiotemporal Distribution Of The Himalayan Leucogranite: Implications For Mountain-Building As A Function Of Indian Slab Dynamics, Hongcheng Guo

LSU Master's Theses

The Himalayan orogen, as a natural laboratory for continental collision, has attracted intense research attention for decades. However, the question of how the orogen was built is still debated, and potential answers are few when considering how and why along-strike variations of the mountain-building processes occurred. Various tectonic models have been proposed to explain the kinematics of the mountain-building. These models include two dimensional models, such as wedge extrusion (Burchfiel and Royden, 1985; Grujic et al., 1996; Kohn, 2008), channel flow coupled to focused denudation (Beaumont et al., 2001; Hodges et al., 2001), tectonic wedging (Yin, 2006; Webb et al., …


Using Tourmaline As An Indicator Of Provenance: Development And Application Of A Statistical Approach Using Random Forests, Erin Lael Walden Jan 2016

Using Tourmaline As An Indicator Of Provenance: Development And Application Of A Statistical Approach Using Random Forests, Erin Lael Walden

LSU Master's Theses

Tourmaline is a petrologic indicator mineral that is the major repository of boron in the earth’s crust. It forms readily when boron is present, accommodating multiple cations and anions with multiple possible substitutions for each site in the crystal structure. It is stable over a wide variety of pressures and temperatures, from near-surface P/T conditions to greater than 950 C and 7 GPa. It records information about conditions of formation, as well as pressure and temperature. Due to its resistance to chemical or physical weathering, and the negligible diffusion of elements in the crystal lattice, information about provenance is preserved. …


Using Wavelet Transforms To Detect Small-Scale Features Within The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Louisiana & Mississippi, Samiha Naseem Jan 2016

Using Wavelet Transforms To Detect Small-Scale Features Within The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Louisiana & Mississippi, Samiha Naseem

LSU Master's Theses

The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) is an unconventional play of central Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi. Previous studies divide the TMS into an upper low resistivity section and a lower high resistivity section or an upper calcite poor section, middle calcite rich section and a basal siliceous section. On the basis of core, TMS has been found to consist of different facies on very small scales, which are indiscernible from the open-hole wireline logs. Cores are not acquired in each and every well and therefore there is a need of a technique that could detect features hidden in the wireline logs …


Metamorphic Conditions Of Aluminous Gneisses In The Sawtooth Metamorphic Complex, Idaho, Usa: Implications For The Middle-Lower Crust, Eleanor Wesley-Anne Smith Jan 2016

Metamorphic Conditions Of Aluminous Gneisses In The Sawtooth Metamorphic Complex, Idaho, Usa: Implications For The Middle-Lower Crust, Eleanor Wesley-Anne Smith

LSU Master's Theses

The Sawtooth Complex (SMC) of central Idaho contains metasedimentary units that elucidate the pressure-temperature conditions and potentially, the evolution of Precambrian crust in the northwestern United States. Petrographic analysis, whole rock geochemistry, and geothermobarometry combined with thermodynamic phase equilibrium modeling record a regional metamorphic pathway for SMC aluminous gneisses characterized by burial to middle-lower crustal levels with at least two deformational events, followed by a retrograde overprint. P-T conditions are generally consistent with the peak assemblage of SMC aluminous gneisses of bt + grt + sil + ilm + zrn + mnz ± pl ± qtz ± kfs ± ap …


Archean Geodynamic Conditions Using P-T Constraints Of The East Pilbara Craton Ttgs, Andrew Kody Webb Jan 2016

Archean Geodynamic Conditions Using P-T Constraints Of The East Pilbara Craton Ttgs, Andrew Kody Webb

LSU Master's Theses

We know very little about the tectonic setting present during the Hadean, but based on studies of surviving Hadean zircons, we know that a Hadean protocrust must have been established by at least 4.4 Ga (Kemp et al. 2010), and it must have also been able to accommodate minimum melt conditions (Harrison 2005). Tectonic models for Earth during the Hadean and Archean follow two trends: uniformitarianism and non-uniformitarianism. Uniformitarian models (following the famed geological concept that the present is the key to the past) argue that Hadean zircons and Archean rocks formed via processes akin to modern-style oceanic crust production …


Study Of Resistivity And Shear Wave Velocity As A Predictive Tool Of Sediment Type In Levee Foundation Soils, Louisiana Gulf Coast Levee System, Derek Stephen Goff Jan 2016

Study Of Resistivity And Shear Wave Velocity As A Predictive Tool Of Sediment Type In Levee Foundation Soils, Louisiana Gulf Coast Levee System, Derek Stephen Goff

LSU Master's Theses

Geotechnical sediment type of levee foundation soils may be estimated by using cross-plots of shear-wave velocity and electrical resistivity for Louisiana levees. Best-fit polynomial models for estimating soil type in Japanese levees have been created using cross-plots of shear-wave velocity and electrical resistivity. A similar study or model for flood protection structures in the Mississippi River delta plain or other major river delta does not exist. We make the soil-type estimation model more relevant to the foundation soils in the Louisiana Coastal Zone by identifying silt in addition to sand and clay, and eliminating gravel as a dominant soil type. …