Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cenozoic Extension Of The Lake Tanganyika Rift, East Africa: Structures, Tectonostratigraphy And Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction, Shaidu Shaban

Dissertations - ALL

Active continental rifts are ideal sites for understanding the break-up of continents, and long-lived rift lake environments are known as important reservoirs for endemic communities and biodiversity. The sedimentary fill of extensional continental rifts within the East Africa Rift System (EARS) records a long history of continental extension and variable tropical climate that is unparalleled in its duration and fidelity. Continental extensional basins are sensitive to variations caused by the interplay between tectonics, sedimentary processes, and climate change. However, to discern the sedimentary fill history and its related tectonostratigraphy, as well as for reconstructing past climate changes, high-fidelity data such …

Testing Detrital Zircon Age Bias In Tectonic Provenance: Examples From Modern Alluvium In The South Island, New Zealand, Will Sparhawk Fisher

Theses - ALL

Detrital zircon (DZ) grains from 13 drainages across the South Island, New Zealand, were U-Pb dated to ascertain how accurately their ages reflect the geologic record of exposed bedrock. With the proliferation of inexpensive and easily accessible ion microprobes and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers, DZ dating has become the dominant chronometer for elucidating tectonic systematics. Zircon’s physical and chemical resilience makes it an ideal candidate for U-Pb geochronometry, but is also a potential source of bias. Zircon’s resilience in sedimentary systems means it rarely occurs as first order detritus. N = 966 zircon grains from Modern alluvium …

Heterogeneous Strain Distribution & The Effects Of High Frequency Climate Change On The Evolution Of Early-Stage Rift Systems: Case Studies From Lakes Tanganyika And Malawi (Nyasa), East Africa, Lachlan Wright

Dissertations - ALL

The break-up of the earth’s crust through the formation of continental rift basins is a fundamental aspect of plate-tectonics and the first step that ultimately leads to plate-spreading, new continent formation, and the creation of ocean basins. Within continental rifts, processes associated with extensional faulting drive uplift and subsidence of the landscapes forming rift valleys, and climatically influenced processes act upon these transient landscapes, erode them, modify relief, and produce sediments that infill the rift valleys creating the stratigraphic record. Continental rifts are highly sensitive to the interplay between extensional faulting, sedimentary processes, and climate change, and variations in the …

How Green Lakes State Park Got Its Name: The Optics And Appearance Of Fayetteville Green Lakes, Eric A. Schiff

Physics - All Scholarship

The extraordinary and variable appearance of the Fayetteville Green Lakes in the spring, summer, and fall has been the subject of journalistic and scientific attention for more than 150 years. This article addresses the subject in two sections for differing readerships. The first section is a description of the essential science for a general readership. The second section is an abstract of the science for technically knowledgeable readers. The layout of the article is designed for a folded paper flier suitable for distribution to visitors to the lakes.

The article describes the three key properties of the lakes’ waters that …

Patterns Of Dissolved Methane In Groundwater And Its Contribution To Emissions Inventories, Amanda E. Campbell

Dissertations - ALL

The Marcellus Shale is the largest shale gas play in the U.S. production of natural gas using high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) and production is prevalent throughout the play except in New York (NY), where it is currently banned. High concentrations of methane, the main component of natural gas, in groundwater, as well as its presence in the atmosphere, can have negative consequences. In this dissertation, three aspects of this issue are explored: 1) how and why naturally-occurring methane concentrations vary through time; 2) how elevated naturally-occurring methane concentrations in domestic water wells can be predicted from commonly observed well characteristics; …

Studying Redox Conditions Of Devonian And Neoproterozoic Oceans Using I/Ca Proxy From Bulk Carbonate Rocks, Ruliang He

Dissertations - ALL

Iodine is an important trace element in biogeochemical and redox reactions. It has a nearly consistent concentration of ~0.46 μmol/L in the seawater and the inorganic speciation (IO3− and I−) of iodine is primarily controlled by redox conditions in water columns. Iodate (IO3−), not iodide (I−), is the only species that can be incorporated into carbonate minerals. Therefore, I/Ca ratio from carbonate rocks can be used to constrain the redox condition in the water column over a range of time scale. This dissertation contains three chapters that utilizes I/Ca ratio from bulk carbonate rocks to reconstruct ocean redox changes during …

Assessing Impact Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Development On Groundwater Quality In The Northern Appalachian Region With Mixed Land Uses, Favour C. Epuna

Theses - ALL

Over the past decade, the rapid growth of unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) has raised public concerns about its potential impact on groundwater quality. High methane and salt levels in groundwater have been the most widely cited UOGD-related impairments. The attribution of these contaminants to UOGD is usually complex, especially in regions with mixed land uses. Here, we compiled a large hydrogeochemistry dataset containing 13 geochemical analytes for 17,794 groundwater samples from the rural northern Appalachia, i.e., 19 counties located on the boundary between Pennsylvania (PA; UOGD is permitted) and New York (NY; UOGD is banned). With this dataset, …

Subsurface Geophysical Investigations Of Oneida Lake Ny: Insights Into Ice Sheet Processes And Deglaciation At Termination I, Nicholas John Zaremba

Dissertations - ALL

Reconstructing the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) provides insight into understanding end-Pleistocene climate, a critical set of boundary conditions prior to the onset of Holocene climates that were optimal for human dispersal and societal growth. Constraining ice sheet dynamics, glacier retreat rates, and the timing of still-stands and readvances requires identifying glacial landforms such as moraines, drumlins, and mega-scale glacial lineations (MSGLs). Drumlins and MSGLs indicate ice sheet flow directions and provide the location of paleo-ice streams, which were accelerated and localized pathways for ice discharge. Ice streams control ice sheet mass balance; therefore, identifying the location of …

Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopes Of Shell Bound Organic Matter, Implications For Modern And Ancient Food Web Dynamics, Shibajyoti Das

Dissertations - ALL

Stable isotopes are an important tool for solving biogeochemical problems and have been increasingly applied in ecosystem studies because of their utility as source-to-sink tracers and for ecological information. Elements like C and N have more than one stable isotope, and their isotopic compositions (δ15N and δ13C) vary in a foreseeable way and are specifically useful in studying global elemental cycles and energy flow through ecosystems. δ15N and δ13C of organic matter (OM) are diagnostic of an organism's diet and have been used as a proxy for trophic level reconstructions. However, because of several analytical constraints, the use of stable …

Investigations Of Trace Element Titanium In Silica Minerals, Zachary Robert Osborne

Dissertations - ALL

Quartz is a common mineral in many igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks because it is stable over a wide range of pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions; therefore, quartz is an excellent mineral to target for thermobarometric uses. Thermobarometry is the quantitative determination of the pressure (baro-) and temperature (thermo-) conditions at which a natural rock sample reached chemical equilibrium. This dissertation contains three chapters describing mineral synthesis experiments that quantify and define the trace-element solubility behavior of titanium (Ti) in the silica minerals quartz and coesite, to advance the understanding and application of trace-element thermobarometry.Chapter 1 details the experiments …

Evaluating The Controls Of Neogene Exhumation In The Tropical Northern Andes (Colombia), Nicolas Perez Consuegra

Dissertations - ALL

Understanding how tectonic and climatic forces influence erosion and shape mountains is important to understand the evolution of the landscapes through earth's history. This dissertation aims to determine how do tectonic processes and climate variability interact to shape Earth's tropical mountains. In chapter 1, I studied the Eastern Cordillera of the Northern Andes, a mountain range located in Colombia in the tropics of South America. To obtain exhumation rates, I used thermochronology, which is a method that records—over timescales of millions of years—the rate at which rocks located at great depths within the Earth cool as they are transported to …

Effects Of Acid Deposition And Changing Climate On The Hydrochemistry And Critical Loads Of Watersheds In The Adirondack Region Of New York, Shuai Shao

Dissertations - ALL

Despite decreases in acidic deposition since the 1970s, the recovery of surface waters from acidification has been limited primarily due to the depletion of exchangeable base cations, net mineralization of organic sulfur and nitrogen and release of previously retained SO42- and NO3-, and increases in concentrations of naturally occurring organic acids from soil. The future recovery of stream chemistry from acidic deposition may be altered by projected increases in temperature and precipitation associated with a changing climate. The goals of this study were to conduct a modeling analysis of the response of soils and streams in the Adirondack Park, New …

The Impacts Of Climate And Landscape Change On Catchment Scale Material Transport In High Mountain And Seasonally Cold Regions, John R. Slosson

Dissertations - ALL

Streamflow in high mountain and seasonally cold regions follows annual patterns that can make water quality and availability in these areas uniquely susceptible to changes in climate and land use. Precipitation in the form of snow accumulates during the winter months and gradually melts in the spring, leading to elevated streamflow that serves important ecological and human needs. This simple winter storage and spring release dynamic is especially sensitive to warming temperatures, which can result in a greater fraction of winter precipitation falling as rain and an earlier arrival of the hydrograph center of timing, with cascading effects on surrounding …

Net Geochemical Release Of Base Cations From 25 Forested Watersheds In The Catskill Region Of New York, Sara C. Nieman, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Chemical weathering of minerals is the principal mechanism by which base cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, and Na⁺) are released and acidity is neutralized in soils, bedrock and drainage waters. Quantifying the release of base cations from watershed soils is therefore crucial for the calculation of “critical loads” of atmospheric acidity to forest ecosystems. We used a mass-balance approach to estimate the rate of release of base cations in 25 headwater catchments in the Catskill region of New York, an area historically subject to high inputs of acid deposition. In 2010-2013, total net …

Mesoproterozoic Basement From The Central And Southern Appalachians Reveal High-Temperature Magmatic Conditions And Non-Laurentian Origin Of Earth's Most Zircon Fertile Magmas, Kyle Makovsky

Dissertations - ALL

The Mesoproterozoic (1.4-0.9 Ga) Grenville Orogeny led to the formation of the supercontinent Rodinia. One unique characteristic of the Grenville Orogeny is that it produced a volumetrically significant amount of zirconium- (Zr) enriched granitoids, evidently more than any period both prior to and after the Grenville. To investigate this further, Mesoproterozoic basement rocks were sampled along the axis of the current Appalachian Mountains from western North Carolina north to southern New York, as well as from the northern Andes in southern Colombia. Zircon was extracted from these rocks to exploit its propensity to incorporate several isotopic tracers useful in determining …

Carbonate Paleothermometry In Fayetteville Green Lake, New York, Micah Wiesner

Theses - ALL

Lacustrine carbonates are important paleoclimate archives, but unknowns in the seasonal timing and depth of precipitation obscure the interpretation of temperatures associated with them. The clumped isotope paleothermometer records the formation temperature T(D47) of carbonates. This study examines a set of lacustrine carbonates formed in the water column, in addition to carbonate from a sediment core, to better understand the depth and seasonality of carbonate formation in a lacustrine setting. We test that, regardless of season and formation temperature, lacustrine carbonates form in isotopic equilibrium with respect to D47 and d18O fractionation. Further, we account for the effect of our …

Mesoproterozoic Basement From The Central And Southern Appalachians Reveal High-Temperature Magmatic Conditions And Non-Laurentian Origin Of Earth’S Most Zircon Fertile Magmas, Kyle Makovsky

Dissertations - ALL

The Mesoproterozoic (1.4-0.9 Ga) Grenville Orogeny led to the formation of the supercontinent Rodinia. One unique characteristic of the Grenville Orogeny is that it produced a volumetrically significant amount of zirconium- (Zr) enriched granitoids, evidently more than any period both prior to and after the Grenville. To investigate this further, Mesoproterozoic basement rocks were sampled along the axis of the current Appalachian Mountains from western North Carolina north to southern New York, as well as from the northern Andes in southern Colombia. Zircon was extracted from these rocks to exploit its propensity to incorporate several isotopic tracers useful in determining …

Carbonate Paleothermometry In Fayetteville Green Lake, New York, Micah Wiesner

Theses - ALL

Lacustrine carbonates are important paleoclimate archives, but unknowns in the seasonal timing and depth of precipitation obscure the interpretation of temperatures associated with them. The clumped isotope paleothermometer records the formation temperature T(D47) of carbonates. This study examines a set of lacustrine carbonates formed in the water column, in addition to carbonate from a sediment core, to better understand the depth and seasonality of carbonate formation in a lacustrine setting. We test that, regardless of season and formation temperature, lacustrine carbonates form in isotopic equilibrium with respect to D47 and d18O fractionation. Further, we account for the effect of our …

Trend Of Thornthwaite's Aridity Index (Ai) At Atakpame (Togo), Komlan Koudahe

English Language Institute

Drought can severely affect agricultural production potential, destroying the local economy and creating famine. Data were collected (1990 to 2014) from the Meteorological Department of Togo. Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) varied with two peaks obtained on March 28 (5.84mm) and on November 17 (4.87mm). There was water deficit in all years except 2005 and 2007. Also, there was non-significant increasing trend of aridity index (AI). Specific actions should target efficient water management in Atakpame.

Digital Mapping Of Togo’S Soil Fertility: Savannah Region, Aminou Saibou

English Language Institute

A soil assessment was carried out in the savannah region of Togo in 2018, aiming at drawing the digital map of Togo’s soil fertility and making fertilizer recommendations. Soil samples were taken from geo-referenced GPS points and were analyzed for parameters such as water pH, Organic matter, available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium. Thematic maps have been drawn using an ArcGIS package. The results showed that the soils of the Savannah region in Togo are mainly (84%) not very acidic (pH = 5.5 to 6.5), overall poor to very poor (84%) in organic matter (<2% OM), essentially poor to very poor (86%) in available phosphorus (<15 mg/kg of soil) and mostly very poor (87%) in exchangeable potassium (<90 mg / kg of soil). These results allowed the agricultural research institute of Togo to make fertilizer use recommendations and to develop, in partnership with Morocco, a digital platform (fertitogo.tg ) for decision making in crop fertilization.

Characterizing Hydrological Connectivity Of Artificial Ditches In Zoige Peatlands Of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Peng Gao, Zhiwei Li, Yuchi You

Geography and the Environment - Faculty Scholarship

Peats have the unique ability of effectively storing water and carbon. Unfortunately, this ability has been undermined by worldwide peatland degradation. In the Zoige Basin, located in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, peatland degradation is particularly severe. Although climate change and (natural and artificial) drainage systems have been well-recognized as the main factors catalyzing this problem, little is known about the impact of the latter on peatland hydrology at larger spatial scales. To fill this gap, we examined the hydrological connectivity of artificial ditch networks using Google Earth imagery and recorded hydrological data in the Zoige Basin. After delineating from …

Silica Uptake And Release In Live And Decaying Biomass In A Northern Hardwood Forest, Wim Clymans, Daniel J. Conley, John J. Battles, Patrick J. Frings, Mary Margaret Koppers, Gene E. Likens, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

In terrestrial ecosystems, a large portion (20–80%) of the dissolved Si (DSi) in soil solution has passed through vegetation. While the importance of this “terrestrial Si filter” is generally accepted, few data exist on the pools and fluxes of Si in forest vegetation and the rate of release of Si from decomposing plant tissues. We quantified the pools and fluxes of Si through vegetation and coarse woody debris (CWD) in a northern hardwood forest ecosystem (Watershed 6, W6) at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire, USA. Previous work suggested that the decomposition of CWD may have significantly …

Soil Chemistry On Watershed 1: 1998 - 2014, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

No abstract provided.

Application Of Phengite Barometry To Examine Pressure-Temperature-Time Paths In The World's Youngest Known Ultrahigh-Pressure Terrane, Robin Drucker

Theses - ALL

The D’Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) contain the youngest known ultrahigh- and high pressure ((U)HP) terrane in the world (Davies and Warren, 1992; Baldwin et al., 2008). Conventional peak pressure-temperature (P-T) estimates for the (U)HP terrane do not confirm (U)HP conditions, despite the presence of coesite in a sample from the terrane (Baldwin et al., 2008). The objective of this project was to apply phengite geobarometers to samples from the (U)HP terrane in PNG, providing new pressure estimates. Si-in-phengite (Massonne and Schreyer, 1987) and Ti-in-phengite (Auzanneau et al., 2010) barometry were applied to two samples from the PNG …

Enigmatic Rift-Parallel, Strike-Slip Faults Around Eyjafjörður, Northern Iceland, James Arthur Proett

Theses - ALL

Strike-slip faults along mid-ocean ridge and subaerial spreading centers are generally thought to be restricted to transform boundaries connecting rift segments. Faults that are parallel to spreading centers are generally assumed to be normal faults associated with tectonic extension. However, clear evidence of north-south (rift-parallel), strike-slip displacements occur widely around the southern portion of Eyjafjörður, northern Iceland about 50 km west of the actively spreading Northern Rift Zone. The area is south of the southernmost strand (Dalvík Lineament) of the NW-SE-trending, dextral-slip, Tjörnes Fracture Zone (where N-S, sinistral, strike-slip “bookshelf” faulting occurs). Faults in the Eyjafjörður area cut 8.5-10 Ma …

Multiple Generations Of Faulting: A Kinematic Analysis Of The Lagarfljót Region, Northeast Iceland, Keegan Runnals

Theses - ALL

The North American/Eurasian plate boundary in Iceland is structurally diverse with oblique rifts, volcanic fissure swarms, and transform zones, and a hotspot. Lagarfljót is a lake located in the Tertiary flood basalts of East Iceland, that range in age from ~7 to 3 Ma. The lake is approximately 50 km east of the actively spreading, NS-trending, Northern Rift Zone (NVZ), and occupies a northeast-trending depression in an area of strong NS lineaments. A flexure zone, or zone of steeply dipping lavas, runs N-S across the southern part of the lake, and predates an angular unconformity in the regional lava pile. …

Mass And Nutrient Loss In Decaying Hardwood Boles At Hubbard Brook, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

No abstract provided.

Is Horizon Sampling More Powerful Than Depth Sampling?, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions To Improve The Outcomes Of Human Activities, Ryan Parish Gordon

Dissertations - ALL

Interactions between surface water and groundwater impact both the quality and quantity of water resources. This dissertation is focused on the interactions between surface water in streams and groundwater in hyporheic zones and shallow fluvial aquifers, and how human beings influence these interactions and are influenced by them. The three chapters of this dissertation span scales from cm to km and locations from Upstate New York to the Peruvian Andes, but are united by the goal to improve the scientific understanding of groundwater-surface water interactions (GWSWI) using novel techniques, in order to improve the outcomes of human activities for people …

Will Hubbard Brook Soils Be A Source Or Sink Of Carbon In A Changing Climate?, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

No abstract provided.