Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hydrothermal Alteration Footprint Of The Monument Bay Project, Manitoba, Canada, Juliana Casali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Monument Bay (MB) project is a greenstone hosted gold deposit, located in NE Manitoba. Previous studies show significant gold grades in the area. This research aims to characterize and delineate the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the hydrothermal footprint and mineralization of MB. Combined synchrotron X-ray fluorescence, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, petrography, and electron microprobe techniques were used to support this study. Results indicate sericite and carbonate are the main hydrothermal alteration minerals with homogeneity in their mineralogical, textural, and geochemical characteristics across the deposit. Also, a strong relationship between Au, sericite alteration, and arsenopyrite grains is observed associating the …

Geometallurgy And Gold Mineralization Of The Monument Bay Project, Stull Lake Greenstone Belt, Manitoba, Canada, Chunyi Hao

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The Monument Bay Project is located in the Archean Stull Lake Greenstone Belt, in Northern Manitoba, Canada. This thesis focuses on the geometallurgy and gold mineralization of the Monument Bay Deposit in order to better understand the multiple gold mineralizing events and provide a pathfinder to gold mineralization. Traditional microscopy is used in combination with geochemical and mineralogical analytical techniques (Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) and Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS)/(WDS) element map) and synchrotron geochemical techniques (synchrotron X-ray Diffraction (SR-XRD), synchrotron micro X-ray fluorescence (SR-µXRF) mapping, X-ray Absorption Near-edge Structure (XANES) Spectroscopy). Metallic gold (Au⁰) exists as free gold …

Reconstructing Carbon Dynamics Of Alpine And Temperate Zone Lakes Using Stable Isotopic Analysis, Rebecca M. Doyle

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Lake sediments integrate signals from the catchment, atmosphere and water column, offering a unique window through which to view changes in the carbon cycle. Carbon dynamics in lakes are changing due to nitrogen loading and anthropogenic climate warming (ACW), threatening the water quality of lakes. This thesis identifies how the carbon dynamics of lakes have responded to anthropogenically-driven forcings by comparing pre- and post- AD 1850 records preserved in lake sediments. First, the carbon dynamics of Barry Lake (Ontario, Canada), a low-elevation temperate lake, are investigated. Effective moisture (the net of water inputs and evaporation) is reconstructed using the carbon …

An Investigation Of The Adsorption Mechanism Of An Aliphatic Nitrile (Tecflote S11) On Sulphide Mineral Surfaces., Trevor Holness

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As grades of new base metal deposits decline and environmental restrictions on their extraction, increase, the mining industry is looking for new methods of processing minerals. This thesis, investigates the manner in which an aliphatic nitrile (TECFLOTE S11) is adsorbed onto the surface of sulphide mineral surfaces, to understand how TECFLOTE S11 can improve the extraction of base metals from their ores.

Bench tests, including micro-flotation, were conducted and their products examined by Time of Flight – Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to establish where the TECFLOTE S11 was adsorbed onto the mineral surface. The tests showed that the adsorption …

Impact Of Interlayer Cation Composition And Strongly Bound Water On Smectite ẟ²H, As Determined By A Modified Tcea Method, Nadine J. Kanik

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Interlayer cation composition and cation hydration enthalpy can potentially affect the excess hydrogen-yield and δ²H of smectitic clays. Complexities arise from condensed atmospheric water adsorbed on the clay, as it constitutes a potential additional source of hydrogen when attempting to measure the δ²H of structural OH groups. To approach this problem, the δ²H of different cation-saturated, dried forms of six Clay Minerals Society Source Clay smectites were measured. A modified sample drying and on-line High-Temperature-Conversion-Elemental-Analysis (TCEA) Continuous-Flow-Isotope-Ratio-Mass-Spectrometry protocol, facilitated isotopic measurements. A stronger interlayer cation hydration enthalpy (Ca²⁺>Na⁺>K⁺), …

Raman Spectroscopy And Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Study Of Lunar And Terrestrial Plagioclase Feldspar At High-Pressure And High-Temperature Conditions, Tianqi Xie

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Plagioclase feldspar is one of the abundant minerals on the surface of the Earth, the Moon and Mars, and is also commonly found in meteorites. This dissertation seeks to better understand the phase changes in plagioclase when subjected to meteorite impact and fundamental information about impact cratering process.

Shock features in plagioclase from Mistastin Lake impact structure, Canada, and Apollo samples returned from the Moon were investigated. A series of progressive optical shock features were observed, and their Raman spectra was collected systematically. Identified shock featurs include deformed twins, planar features, and partially to completely isotropic or diaplectic glass. However, …

Clay Mineral Characterization And Production In Impact Settings: A Case Study On The Chicxulub Impact Structure, Mexico, Sarah L. Simpson

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Impact cratering is the most ubiquitous geologic process shaping the surface of solid bodies in our Solar System. Despite their deleterious effects, impacts have the potential to initiate transient hydrothermal systems, making them attractive targets in the search for water and extraterrestrial life. The relatively low temperature nature of these environments and poor preservation state of craters on Earth leads to difficulties in determining the provenance of many alteration phases, particularly clay minerals. This becomes especially problematic on other clay-rich planetary bodies (e.g., Mars) where limited geologic information can lead to ambiguous and/or inaccurate interpretations. This thesis presents a case …

Hargraves Crater Ejecta And Implications For Impact Processes, Leah E. Sacks

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Impact craters and their ejecta deposits offer insights into the structure and composition of planet crusts. Hargraves Crater, Mars, demonstrates an unusual balance of exposure and preservation in its ejecta. Analysing its morphologic, morphometric, thermophysical, and stratigraphic characteristics, we interpret two predominant units: an underlying ballistic lithic breccia and an overlying impact melt-bearing deposit. The lower unit is a lithic breccia composed of sub-angular, unsorted clasts (~10-12 m mean diameter), while the overlying unit is a smooth, dark toned, smaller clast-bearing (~1 m diameter at image resolution) impact melt-bearing unit with polygonal fracturing. There appears to be a sharp contact …

A Periglacial Landsystem Analysis In The Canadian High Arctic: A Tool For Planetary Geomorphology, Chimira Nicole Andres

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Permafrost underlies 50% of Canada’s terrain and underlies 24% of the Earth’s total land area. It is a major driving force in the generation and evolution of patterned ground landforms such as polygons, stone circles, mud boils, and stripes, etc. that are seen on both the surface of the Earth and Mars, specifically in periglacial domains. The distribution of subsurface ice in these landforms (i.e. polygonal terrain) on Earth is a key constraint on past climate and process-form relationships in high arctic and periglacial regions. These landforms also have the potential of storing ice in the subsurface meaning that the …

Stable Carbon And Oxygen Isotope Investigation Of Pleistocene Growing-Season Paleoclimate Using Tree-Ring Cellulose From The Missinaibi Formation, Adam Creek, James Bay Lowland, Canada, Jumin Lee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The isotopic compositions of cellulose in tree rings provide a record of seasonal and annual climatic conditions such as precipitation and temperature. We analyzed stable isotopes of carbon (δ¹³C_cellulose) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O_cellulose) in early-wood and late-wood of five conifer sub-fossil wood samples from the Missinaibi Formation, which likely grew during the peak of Marine Isotope Substage (MIS) 5a (~82 kya) at Adam Creek, Ontario. There was no systematic difference between early-wood and late-wood for either δ¹³C_cellulose or δ¹⁸O_cellulose, suggesting similar climatic conditions throughout …

Spatial And Temporal Variation Of Nutrients In The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin: Implications For Primary Production In Stream Ecosystems, Nolan Pearce

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Growing human populations and associated land use activities has increased the amount of nutrients delivered to surface waters. Eutrophication from the over-enrichment of nitrogen and phosphorus has degraded ecosystem conditions in streams, lakes, and coastal areas worldwide. Thus, the management of anthropogenic nutrient loading is a global concern. This thesis employed a combination of field and experimental research to provide watershed managers with information on the spatial and temporal patterns in stream nutrient enrichment, and the associated ecological effects of anthropogenic nutrient loading in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin. Four studies were completed to address this research goal. First, I …

Impact Melt-Bearing Deposits Around Martian Craters, William A. Yingling

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this work, we investigate impact melt emplacement around Martian craters. We compare our results to melt emplacement processes found on Venus, the Moon, and Mercury. We tentatively find Martian melt emplacement more closely resembles Venusian emplacement, rather than lunar emplacement. This suggests Martian melt emplacement likely takes place during the excavation stage where impactor momentum is imparted to the melt. Mercury and Mars have amongst the highest and lowest average impact velocities, respectively, of terrestrial bodies in the Solar System, but a significant difference in emplacement is not observed. This suggests impact velocity may not have as large an …

Determining Geological Controls On Nutrient Availability At Different Depths In The Soils Of The Pelee Island Winery, Lindsay M. Blythe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Terroir describes a sense of place that can give a unique flavour to wines grown in different environments. We explored the role of soil in the terroir at Canada’s most southern vineyard, Pelee Island Winery. This study examined the abundance of major nutrients, trace and rare earth elements of minerals and plant extractable nutrients from 19 soils across the vineyard to a depth of 2 m. We found that bedrock does not influence the element content of Pelee Island soils, the parent materials of the soils are tills and there are geochemical, mineralogical and grain size differences between the two …

The Relationship Between Visible Gold And Arsenopyrite At The Orenada Zone 4 Deposit, Val D'Or, Quebec, Cassandra Powell

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The Orenada Zone 4 deposit is an Archean orogenic gold deposit situated southeast of Val d’Or, Québec in the southeastern Abitibi Greenstone Belt. It is located directly within the Cadillac-Larder-Lake Deformation Zone. Mineralization is hosted within a volcanoclastic horizon of the Cadillac Group where two distinct facies were defined. Both facies underwent a pervasive sericite-chlorite-carbonate±albite alteration assemblage that predates gold mineralization. Gold is associated with two generation of auriferous quartz-carbonate-tourmaline veins and within fractures of corroded arsenopyrite grains, located proximal to the vein walls. A LA-ICP-MS study determined that neither textural type of arsenopyrite displayed refractory gold. Therefore, gold was …

Physical Dispersions Of Meteor Showers Through High Precision Optical Observations, Denis Vida

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Meteoroids ejected from comets form meteoroid streams which disperse over time due to gravitational perturbations and non-gravitational forces. When stream meteoroids collide with the Earth's atmosphere, they are visible as meteors emanating from a common point-like area (radiant) in the sky. Measuring the size of meteor shower radiant areas can provide insight into stream formation and age. The tight radiant dispersion of young streams are difficult to determine due to measurement error, but if successfully measured, the dispersion could be used to constrain meteoroid ejection velocities from their parent comets. The estimated ejection velocity is an uncertain, model-dependent value with …

Earthquake Site Characterization Of Rock Sites In Eastern Canada And Stiff Ground Sites In Vancouver, British Columbia, Sameer Ladak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Site characterization is a crucial component in assessing seismic hazard, typically involving in situ shear-wave velocity (V_S) depth profiling, and measurement of site amplification including site period. These methods are ideal for soil sites and less reliable in more complex geologic settings including rock sites. A multi-method approach to earthquake site characterization is tested at 25 seismograph stations across Eastern Canada. It is typically assumed these stations are installed on hard rock. We seek to identify which site characterization methods are most suitable at rock sites as well as to confirm the hard rock assumption. Active-source refraction and …

Impact-Generated Dykes And Shocked Carbonates From The Tunnunik And Haughton Impact Structures, Canadian High Arctic, Jennifer D. Newman

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The Canadian High Arctic contains two impact structures created by hypervelocity impact events in carbonate-rich target rocks. The remote locations of the Tunnunik and Haughton impact structures means that there are aspects of these impact structures which have yet to be fully investigated. This study characterizes the range of impact-generated dykes exposed from both impact structures which include lithic breccias, impact melt-bearing breccias, and impact melt rocks. Breccias may include silicate impact glass fragments and evidence for carbonate melt. Impact melt rocks from the Haughton impact structure contain the rare terrestrial mineral moissanite. This is only the third reported occurrence …

Characterization Of Impact Melt Rocks And Hydrothermal Mineralization At The Haughton Impact Structure, Devon Island, Canada: An Investigation Of Impacts Into Carbonate Targets, Cassandra L. Marion

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Impact cratering is a fundamental and ubiquitous geological process on all solid planetary bodies in our solar system. Impacts into carbonate-rich sedimentary target rocks on Earth are still poorly understood. The fate of carbonates during impact, in particular whether they undergo melting or decomposition, is actively debated. The dominant process is significant as decomposition would cause severe climatic effects due to release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. At the root of the problem is the difficulty to distinguish and characterize the genesis of the variety of impactite carbonates produced. The Haughton impact structure in the Canadian …

Characterization Of Impactite Clay Minerals With Implications For Mars Geologic Context And Mars Sample Return, Christy M. Caudill

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Geological processes, including impact cratering, are fundamental throughout rocky bodies in the solar system. Studies of terrestrial impact structures, like the Ries impact structure, Germany, have informed on impact cratering processes – e.g., early hot, hydrous degassing, autometamorphism, and recrystallization/devitrification of impact glass – and products – e.g., impact melt rocks and breccias comprised of clay minerals. Yet, clay minerals of authigenic impact origin remain understudied and their formation processes poorly-understood. This thesis details the characterization of impact-generated clay minerals at Ries, showing that compositionally diverse, abundant Al/Fe/Mg smectite clays formed through these processes in thin melt-bearing breccia deposits of …

Quantification Of Septic System Contribution To Nutrient Loads In Surface Waters, Archana Tamang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Freshwater systems worldwide are threatened by excessive nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) loading. This study evaluated the contribution of septic systems to stream nutrient loads in nine subwatersheds. Stream sampling was conducted during low and high discharge conditions, with samples analyzed for total phosphorus (TP), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), nitrate (NO₃-N), and acesulfame (ACE; wastewater tracer). Higher septic effluent reached the subwatershed outlets during high discharge conditions. Subwatersheds with newer households had a lower percentage of septic effluent reaching the stream compared with subwatersheds with older households. Seasonal and event-based ACE concentration-discharge relationships revealed that the hydrological pathways delivering …

Source Parameters Of Induced Seismicity In North America, Joanna M. Holmgren

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Source parameters of earthquakes play a key role in the understanding of earthquake behavior and modelling of seismic hazard. They describe the size of earthquakes, including how much energy is generated during the rupture, and how the ground motion is distributed over different frequency bands and azimuths. The last decade’s increase in induced seismicity caused by oil and gas production has led to an interest in understanding the underlying earthquake processes and how they can be modelled. This thesis is divided into three studies, each examining source parameters of induced earthquakes in North America.

In the first study, I show …

Paleoproductivity Of Late Holocene Lake Huron, Jamal Khaled Nigim

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The paleolimnology of North America’s Lake Huron is described using lead-210 dating, mineralogy, magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), carbon:nitrogen (C/N) ratio, grain size, and the δ¹³C_OM and δ¹⁵N_TN of organic matter. Sediment cores from Lake Huron’s 6 depositional basins and Georgian Bay span the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, and Canadian-European settlement. The main organic matter source is lacustrine algae, as indicated by δ¹³C_OM, δ¹⁵N_TN and C/N. Prior to the 19th century, primary production changes are reflected only by small variations in …

A Micromechanics-Based Multiscale Approach Toward Continental Deformation, With Application To Ductile High-Strain Zones And Quartz Flow Laws, Xi Lu

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Earth’s lithosphere may be regarded as a composite material made of rheologically heterogeneous elements. The presence of these heterogeneous elements causes flow partitioning, making the deformation of Earth’s lithosphere heterogeneous on all observation scales. Understanding the multiscale heterogeneous deformation and the overall rheology of the lithosphere is very important in structural geology and tectonics. The overall rheology of Earth’s lithosphere on a given observation scale must be obtained from the properties of all constituents and may evolve during the deformation due to the fabric development. Both the problem of flow partitioning and characterization of the overall rheology are closely related …

Rare-Metal Alkaline Granite From The Arabian Shield, Saudi Arabia, Abdullah A. Aseri

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Mineral deposits of high field strength elements (HFSE) and rare earth elements (REE) are commonly within granites that have experienced strong post-magmatic alterations. There has been a long debate on whether the mineralization is due to magmatic and/or hydrothermal processes. The Arabian Shield hosts several economical rare-metal alkaline granites that are poorly understood. This work aims to evaluate the nature of the mineralization in three rare-metal granites from the Arabian Shield, showing distinct mineralization styles ranging between disseminated mineralization at Al-Ghurayyah, pegmatite and hematized granite at Jabal Sayid, and quartz veins at Dyaheen.

The granites from all three areas are …

Early Meteoritic Records Of Asteroidal Melt And Impact Environments, Brendt Hyde

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The characterization of meteorites formed in early melt and impact environments helps deepen our understanding of the processes involved in the formation and modification of terrestrial bodies in the solar system. The main objective of this thesis is to interpret and describe a range of igneous and metamorphic environments on asteroidal bodies, through the chemical, microstructural and isotopic analysis of meteorites, and to place these in the context of evolving rocky bodies in the early protoplanetary disk. Study of the meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 869 has led to the novel discovery of a eucrite impactor clast in chondritic regolith material. …

The Effects Of Legacy Sulphur Deposition On Methylmercury Production In Northern Peatlands; Geochemical And Biological Considerations, Jennifer L. Blythe

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Mercury is a ubiquitous element with a complex geochemical cycle. Aquatic ecosystems such as wetland soils convert inorganic mercury to organic, neurotoxic methylmercury though the activity of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB). Sulphate stimulates the activity of SRB, and the production of methylmercury in these environments. My aim was to investigate the effect that legacy sulphate has on Hg methylation in northern peatlands through a laboratory sulphate addition experiment with differentially sulphate-exposed peats and a field study of peatlands subjected to different levels of sulphate. Results from the laboratory study indicate that peatlands in regions of higher atmospheric sulphate deposition show enhanced …

Stratigraphic Studies Of Late Albian Strata, North-Eastern Alberta., Arwa Zourob

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Late Albian rocks of the Upper Viking, Westgate and lower Fish Scales alloformations were deposited about 101-100 Ma in the Western Canada Foreland Basin. Sediments in the study area span the forebulge, and are dominated by mudstone which forms 5-15 m thick, siltier-or sandier-upward sucessions bounded by marine flooding surfaces. Stratification is on a mm scale and represents storm deposits and fluid muds. Viking allomember VD and Westgate allomembers WA, WB and WC all thin towards the E and S and progressively onlap the forebulge. They record relative sea-level rise and gradual drowning and subsidence of the forebulge. In contrast, …