Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Structural Analysis Of Deformed Caprock Associated With A Salt Shoulder At Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Paradox Basin, Colorado, Hanah Draper

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study documents the style and distribution of deformation present in Triassic-age gypsic and carbonate caprock associated with the Gypsum Valley Salt Wall Salt Shoulder in the Paradox Basin, Colorado in order to determine the mechanism and timing of deformation. Mapping of gypsic and carbonate capstone facies shows that the caprock layering that was generated during formation has been deformed by large-and-small-scale folding and faulting, brecciation, and boudinage. Deformation within the caprock resulted in widely variable orientations along the length of the salt shoulder, that also varies locally in intensity of deformation and with proximity to the passively rising diapir …

Application Of Non-Seismic Methods To Analyze And Model The Geometry Of The Northern Margin Of The Onion Creek Salt Diapir, Paradox Basin, Utah, Julia Michelle Astromovich

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Onion Creek salt diapir lies within the Paradox Basin of Utah where it forms part of a series of salt walls that separate the Paradox Basin into smaller sub-basins. These sub-basins and associated salt diapirs remain key to several oil and gas traps in the region. A series of anomalous tight folds occur on the northern side of the Onion Creek diapir within the Permian Cutler Group Undifferentiated. These folds are thought to be associated with a shallow detachment horizon with three possible origins:1) a weak shale layer within the Cutler Group, 2) a salt shoulder, or 3) a …

Water Sourcing Strategies Of Highly Resilient Vegetation In Desert Soils: Stable Isotope Analysis Of A Northern Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem, Hayden Eleanor Thompson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Plant water use strategies and water transport dynamics are important for understanding ecosystem productivity and soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions within an environment (Li et al., 2007). Recent research using stable isotope analysis in wet and humid climates has found that vegetation uses tightly particle-bound water stored in the soil that does not participate in translatory flow (Brooks et al., 2010; Goldsmith et al., 2011; McDonnell 2014). In arid and semi-arid deserts of the United States, highly resilient vegetation, such as the Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and the Creosote shrub (Larrea tridentata), exhibit some degree of activity year-round despite limited water availability during …

Lévy Processes: Characterizing Volcanic And Financial Time Series, Peter Kwadwo Asante

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this work, we use the Diffusion Entropy Analysis (DEA) to analyze and detect the scaling properties of time series from both emerging and well established markets as well as volcanic eruptions recorded by a seismic station, both financial and volcanic time series data are known to have high frequencies (i.e they are collected at an extremely fine scale). The objective is to determine the characterization i.e whether they follow a Gaussian or Lévy distribution. If they do follow a Lévy distribution we are then interested in finding if they are characterized by a Lévy walk which has a finite …

Fluvial Interactions Of The Jurassic Salt Wash Member Of The Morrison Formation With The Gypsum Valley Salt Diapir, Co, Clair Henry Bailey

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Gypsum Valley diapir in Gypsum Valley Colorado is an ideal location to investigate the interaction between a fluvial system and a diapir going through late stage collapse and rise. The outcrop exposures in Gypsum Valley allow for the analysis in changes of the fluvial system of the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation as it gets redirected by the salt wall and deposits sediment on top of, on the margins, and in the Disappointment and Dry Creek minibasins. Previous work has focused on understanding and predicting how fluvial systems react when they encounter a salt diapir, but all the …

Shallow Seismic Modeling Of The Hydrothermal Plumbing System Beneath Old Faithful Geyser In The Upper Geyser Basin Of Yellowstone National Park, Jordan Rigdon Caylor

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In November 2016, a 2-D and 3-D seismic survey was performed around Old Faithful Geyser in the southeastern portion of the Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. The survey consisted of 521 3-component seismic receiver locations including 39 receivers on a ~1km NE-SW trending line crossing Old Faithful Geyser. A 5.4kg sledgehammer striking a metal plate was our source with a dominant frequency of ~40Hz. Our 2-D line crosses Old Faithful in a NE-SW direction with station spacing at 25-30m with ~100m spacing on either side of Old Faithful and a total length of 1024m. Our 3-D seismic grid …

Uranium Series Dating And Geochemistry Of Fault Zone Precipitated Secondary Carbonates: Insights Into Paleo Fluid Sources, Tectonics And Climate In The Rio Grande Rift, Victor Higareda Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Fault zones in the shallow crust impact a variety of geological processes including mineral deposition, fluid flow patterns in shallow and deep groundwater aquifers, and most importantly seismic activity. The specific interplays of fault zones, seismicity, and groundwater flows are complex and not well understood despite the importance they have to society. The Rio Grande rift is a region impacted by seismic and volcanic activity that place the first order control on mineral formation and fluid flow patterns. It is also a region that is often disregarded as a seismic hazard due to its inferred low tectonic rates and long …

Geophysical Investigations Of The San Andreas Fault System And Evaluations In Geoscience Education, Sandra Hardy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Chapter 1: Investigating Earthquake Cycle Vertical Deformation Recorded by GPS And Regional Tide Gauge Stations in California

Geodetic and tide gauge measurements of vertical deformation record localized zones of uplift and subsidence that may document critical components of both long and short-period earthquake cycle deformation. In this study, we compare vertical tide gauge data from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) and vertical GPS data from the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) for 10 approximately co-located station pairs along coastal California from Point Reyes, CA to Ensenada, Mexico. To compare these two data sets, we first truncate both …

Active Seismic Studies In Lemon Creek Valley Glacier, Juneau, Alaska: Characterization Of Subglacial Sediments To Understand Glacier Dynamics, Lucia Fernanda Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Deformation and flow properties of subglacial sediments as well as the presence and volume of water at the ice/bed interface strongly influence glacier dynamics. Studies of Lemon Creek Glacier, a small temperate valley glacier in the Juneau Icefield, near Juneau, Alaska, have shown that the glacier is rapidly retreating, with a negative mass balance every year since 1957. However, the bed topography and properties of subglacial sediments at the base of Lemon Creek Glacier remained unknown until now. In this project, we process and interpret ~1-km-long NW-SE trending active-source seismic reflection profiles collected during June and July 2017 near the …

Utilizing Zircon (U-Th)/He And 40ar/39ar Thermochronology To Refine The Thermal History Of The Great Unconformity Within New Mexico And Colorado, Jacoup Roiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Great Unconformity beneath Paleozoic strata represents 100-1000 m.y. of missing rock record that formed through extensive weathering and erosion. Despite its global extent, the timing of Precambrian crystalline rock exhumation prior to Phanerozoic sediment deposition remains relatively unresolved in many locations. I utilized zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) thermochronology in order to constrain the long-term thermal history of Precambrian rocks in Colorado and New Mexico, and test my hypoThesis that these units below the Great Unconformity experienced multiple cooling and reheating episodes resulting in a compound surface representing multiple unconformities. In addition to a synThesis of previously reported data in the …

Supra-Salt Syndepositional Folding Within The Jurassic Morrison Formation, Big Gypsum Valley, Colorado, Alondra Soltero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Paradox Basin, along the Utah and Colorado border, exposes salt diapirs that form elongate "salt walls". Most exposures of sediments that were deposited during salt movement are hundreds of meters from the contacts. However, in the southeastern part of the Gypsum Valley diapir, a set of tight folds within the Jurassic Morrison Formation are preserved along the diapir margins where they overlie salt. These are best exposed at the southeastern end of Big Gypsum Valley. Previous interpretations suggested that the Morrison Formation folding and faulting occurred during dissolution of the diapir. However, field mapping reported here reveals that the …