Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Upper Ocean At The End Of An Ice Age: Using Proxies In Benthic Foraminifera To Investigate Intermediate Water Changes During The Last Glacial Termination, Cassandre R. Stirpe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ocean is an important component of the global climate system and plays a key role as a storage reservoir for heat and carbon. Under glacial conditions, the ocean sequestered carbon from the atmosphere, contributing to a cooler global climate. During the last glacial termination, that carbon was released back into the atmosphere, but the exact timing and mechanisms of this transfer are still not fully understood. This study examines waters from the intermediate depths of the Southern Ocean to gain insight into deglacial processes. Intermediate waters are capable of reacting to climate change on decadal timescales, making them a …

Investigating Mercer's Paradox: A 10be Chronology Of Moraines Deposited During The Last Glaciation At Soda Lake, Wind River Range, Wyoming, U.S.A., Lauren M. Woods

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Here I use geomorphic mapping and ¹⁰Be surface-exposure dating to address the paradox that lies within the general understanding of the mechanisms driving ice-age climate and glacial cycles. The long-standing and widely accepted Murphy-Milankovitch hypothesis suggests glacial cycles are controlled by the local intensity of summer-time insolation. By this hypothesis, glacier maxima should be achieved at times of low insolation intensity and asynchronously between the polar hemispheres, a pattern which is inconsistent with the glacial geomorphic record. The ¹⁰Be chronology I have constructed of moraines at Soda Lake, Wind River Range, Wyoming, U.S.A. shows nine glacial advances to …

Silting Dynamics And Metal Contaminants In The Georgetown Inner Harbor, Ezekiel Wil Meyers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Georgetown inner harbor is an abandoned oxbow-like river loop and a vital historic site with a wealth of traditional businesses and heavy local industry located within Winyah Bay. Since the modification of the Sampit River in 1949, chronic rapid silting has plagued the inner harbor. With these substantial amounts of fine-grained material accumulating inside the inner harbor, business operations along the waterfront, navigational and maritime operations, and contamination within the harbor are of major concern. The goals of this study were to (a) understand the silting dynamics inside the inner harbor, (b) identify heavy metals which might be of …

Geochemical Characterization Of The Louann Salt, Puma Field, Green Canyon, Gulf Of Mexico Basin – Using Xrf And Xrd, Brian Lesh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Jurassic-aged Louann Salt is an evaporite sequence deposited in the Gulf of Mexico Basin (GOMB). It is an important component of the GOMB petroleum system and influences the facies pattern in overlying strata and the distribution of petroleum stratigraphic traps. The Louann Salt is composed primarily of halite with intercalated anhydrites and silty or sandy-halite intervals, with overall thicknesses in excess of four kilometers (~13,000 feet). Suture zones occur intermittently within the Louann Salt, formed by the collision of allochthonous evaporite layers. The mineralogy and geochemistry of the suture zones are currently understudied and can be hazardous during drilling …

Geochemical Characterization Of The Bone Spring Formation, Delaware Basin, Using Chemostratigraphy And Integrated Petrophysics, David Tonner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Delaware Basin forms part of West Texas's and New Mexico’s famous petroleum-generating Permian Basin. The Bone Spring Formation is a prolific hydrocarbon producer within this basin, creating one of the world’s richest oil shales. This formation has lithological sequences that are characterized by repeating carbonate and siliciclastic intervals of a third-order cycle which can largely be correlated to highstand and lowstand systems tracts, respectively. Lithological complexity and facies change are manifested by debris flows, turbidites, and slumps. In addition to glacio-eustasy, both tectonism and broader Milankovitch cycles have influenced the depositional history. Previous investigations have utilized cores and wireline …

Glaciochemical Investigations In Three Southern Hemisphere Mountain Sites, Mariusz Potocki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation focuses on glaciochemical records of trace elements, major ions, and stable water isotopes from three mountain regions: the Antarctic Peninsula, the Central Chilean Andes, and South Georgia Island.

The first section reports a significant increase in U concentration over 27 years on Detroit Plateau, Antarctic Peninsula. U concentrations in the ice core increase by as much as 102 between the 1980s and 2000s, accompanied by increased variability in recent years. The U concentration increase coincides with expanded open pit mining in the Southern Hemisphere, most notably Australia. Since other land-source dust elements do not …

Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Capps Limestone In The North Norton Oil Field In Runnels County, Texas, William Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Desmoinesian (Middle Pennsylvanian) Capps Limestone Member of the Mineral Wells Formation is a carbonate reservoir located in North Central Texas. It consists of interbedded limestone, sandstone, and shale units. Much of the Capps Limestone exists in the subsurface of Brown, Coleman, Runnels, Coke, Nolan, and Taylor counties, however, the Capps Limestone outcrops on the surface in Brown, Eastland, and Palo Pinto counties.

The cored interval from Runnels County was deposited in a marginal marine environment during the Middle Pennsylvanian Period. Although the Capps Limestone was first described in the 1890s, there is still much to be discovered about its …

Numerical Modeling Of Controlling Factors For Formation Of Unconformity-Related Uranium Deposits In Sedimentary Basins, Jiayue Shen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unconformity-related uranium (URU) deposits are the most profitable uranium deposits in the world. Among those deposits, the Athabasca Basin hosts the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposits. A series of numerical experiments regarding the effect of uranium source location, fault location, and fault dip angle on the formation of URU deposits have been conducted by using software TOUHREACT.

Simulation results suggest that although both sandstone-sourced and basement-sourced models can generate economical deposits, basement-sourced models are more likely to form larger deposits since uranium-carrying fluid only needs to move a shorter distance to reach the structural trap for further ore forming reaction. …

Sulfur Isotope Composition Of Sulfides In Mafic Cumulates, Lesser Antilles Arc, Tyler Pollock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sulfur isotope composition of sulfides in igneous rocks from magmatic arcs can be difficult to constrain due to the tendency for sulfur isotopes to fractionate during magma ascent and degassing. Cumulate xenoliths from the lower arc crust are representative of the most primitive magmas of the arc system. The Lesser Antilles arc presents a unique opportunity to investigate the sulfur isotope composition of arc magmas along a magmatic arc with many different magma plumbing systems. Here we present sulfur isotope compositions for primary magmatic sulfide inclusions and secondary interstitial hydrothermal sulfides in mafic cumulates from ten islands along the …

Geology And Lithogeochemistry Of The Pickett Mountain Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposit, Northern Maine, Michael J. Mccormick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Pickett Mountain deposit is a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) base-metal deposit located 15 miles north of Patten, ME. The deposit, discovered in 1979, was abandoned in 1989. The deposit remained abandoned until 2017, when Wolfden Mt. Chase LLC purchased the land for further development after Maine mining regulations changed. This project is a collaboration between the University of Maine, the University of Maine – Presque Isle, Wolfden Resources Corp., and the University of New Brunswick to better understand the regional and deposit-scale geology related to the deposit to fill in gaps of the geologic story of northern Maine as …

Impacts Of Oil And Gas Wastes On Landfill Leachate, Sewage Treatment Plants, And The Environment, Lauren Badertscher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Between January 2011 and March 2021 oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania produced

305,637,795 barrels of liquid waste and 6,992,957 tons of solid waste with the majority from

Marcellus Shale unconventional wells. This waste is not considered hazardous and over 89% of

the solid waste generated by unconventional and conventional oil and gas extraction has been

disposed of in landfills over the past decade. This study examined trends in the quantity of waste

produced and methods of disposal. Landfills accepting this waste were identified and their

general method of leachate treatment, using onsite facilities or offsite at wastewater treatment

plants, …

Develop A Multi-Functional Green Pervious Concrete (Mgpc) Pavement With Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) Removal Function., Hong Shang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater runoff induced Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminant increasingly imperils the groundwater quality and the sustainable development of human society due to the potential carcinogenic risks. Pavement can be considered as the first line of defense for contaminant removal of the stormwater runoff. New construction materials with stormwater runoff quantity and quality control are in urgent demand for updating the existing pavement system. An innovative material called Multi-functional Green Pervious Concrete (MGPC) was developed in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Louisville. This material uses organoclay as the amendment to enhance the PAHs removal capacity of …

The Persistence Of Acid Mine Drainage At An East Texas Coal Mine, Sarah Zagurski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to estimate the time it will take for acid forming materials (pyrite) to be weathered to a state of equilibrium and thus cease to produce acid in ground and surface waters within Oak Hill Mine. This was accomplished using an ex-situ kinetic leaching study incorporating a humidity cell in a controlled laboratory setting. Leaching was conducted on soil cores obtained from the vadose zone at Oak Hill Mine and the humidity cell was used to accelerate oxidation of the pyrite within the cores.

An in-situ field study was also conducted that monitored groundwater conditions …

Sulfur And Trace Metal Cycling At Convergent Margins, Jesse B. Walters

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Subduction zones are the site of long-term chemical exchange between Earth’s surface and interior geochemical reservoirs. Subducting slabs are progressively depleted in volatiles and other mobile elements through dehydration and melting reactions. These elements are then introduced to the mantle wedge and volcanic arc. One consequence of this cycle is that volcanic arcs produce the most oxidized magmas on Earth. Sulfur, which exhibits a range in valence states from S^2- to S⁶⁺, is one of the few elements in the subducting slab capable of oxidizing the arc and mantle wedge. Sulfides in the slab may also act …

Variations In The Southern Hemisphere Westerlies Over The Last 23,000 Years From Lake Records In The Falkland Islands, Meghan M. Spoth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Southern Hemisphere Westerlies (SHW) are an important driver of climate in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Abrupt latitudinal migration of this coupled atmospheric-oceanic system is thought to be linked to the onset of the Termination at the end of the last ice age and to subsequent climatic variation through the late-glacial period and Holocene. However, the timing and spatial extent of these shifts, as well as variations in wind intensity, are poorly constrained, hindering our understanding of abrupt climate change in the Southern Hemisphere. In addition, future changes in the position and intensity of the SHW are a …

Chemostratigraphy Of Carbonate Gravity Flows Of The Wolfcamp Formation In Crockett County, Midland Basin, Texas, Alex Blizzard, Julie Bloxson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sediment gravity flows into deep-water environments are important stratigraphic traps in lithologically diverse reservoirs generating multiple plays for hydrocarbon exploration. These highly heterogeneous deposits can be studied by utilizing chemostratigraphy and higher-order sequence stratigraphy; being an accurate method for reservoir characterization. Studying these gravity flows along a carbonate platform’s slope can further expand an understanding of the stratigraphy that is filling adjacent basins. The application of elemental analyses can support in identifying mineralogy that impact reservoir quality, especially when conventional testing cannot be applied.

This study utilizes five cores containing the Wolfcamp Formation from the southeastern slope of the Central …

Temporal Transport Dynamics Of The Amazon River Plume Revealed Using Radium Isotope Analysis, Elana J. Ames

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Amazon River is the largest river by discharge in the world. It carries terrestrial nutrients into the Western Tropical North Atlantic via a buoyant freshwater plume, conveying water hundreds to thousands of kilometers away and driving critical biogeochemical cycles near the coast. Factors controlling the delivery of nutrients offshore by the plume are complicated and interconnected, yet these nutrients impact the foundation of phytoplankton community structures across the entire plume ecosystem. To better understand the temporal dynamics of this massive, highly influential region, we employ naturally occurring radium isotopes (223Ra, 224Ra, 226Ra, and 228Ra) to analyze mixing and transport …

The Potential Of Radium-224 As A Tracer Of Timescales Of Gulf Of Mexico Crude Oil Exposure To The Marine Environment, Matthew T. Kurpiel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Petroleum pollution in the marine environment can be deleterious to coastal and marine ecosystems and can have sustained effects for years. While oil slicks on the surface of the ocean are tracked with relative ease using satellite-based technology, deep sea, neutrally-buoyant hydrocarbon plumes remain exceedingly difficult to track. We provide evidence for the utility of Ra-224 as a potential hydrocarbon tracer to determine the marine exposure time of crude oil. We employed time course incubations to constrain a time dependent Ra-224 release signature and tested a variety of timescales, temporal resolutions, oil sources, seawater, and experimental treatments to determine potential …

Mechanisms Of Ice Core Stable Isotope Variability In The Upper Kaskawulsh-Donjek Region, St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada, Erin A. Mcconnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I use instrumental and ice core records to examine drivers of observed isotope variability in the Upper Kaskawulsh-Donjek (UKD) region of the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada over the time frame of instrument-proxy overlap (mid-1900s to present). One of the drivers of post-depositional isotope signal alteration is the vertical percolation of meltwater from the glacier surface through shallow layers of snow, which causes a reduction in the amplitude of the isotope signal recorded in ice cores. I examine isotope signal preservation in two sites in the St. Elias Mountains: Eclipse Icefield and Icefield Divide. These sites are relatively close (~30 …

Fractures, Fluids, And Metamorphism: Shear Zone Initiation In The Marcy Anorthosite Massif, Adirondacks, New York, Usa, James Hodge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Localized shear zones are important rheological features that influence deformation behavior throughout the Earth’s middle-to-lower crust. Therefore, the processes through which shear zones initiate and localize remains an important geologic question. The study of strain localization and shear zone initiation is made difficult due to continued deformation overprinting the microstructures which lead to initiation and obfuscating the context in which localization occurred. The Marcy anorthosite in the Adirondack Highlands, New York, is a nominally granulite-facies, plagioclase-rich massif cut by centimeter-to-meter scale shear zones which provides a natural example of shear zone localization within the middle-to-lower crust. My work focuses on …

Evaluating Fluid Fluxes From Deep-Sea Seepage Habitats, Leigha E. Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The permanently dark deep-sea, located at oceanic water depths greater than 200 m, represents the largest potential habitat space on Earth. The physicochemical conditions of the planet’s largest biome are tightly coupled to the exchange of matter and energy from terrestrial and sea-floor end-members. In fact, global ocean and climate systems are significantly impacted by deep-sea processes. Seafloor vents and seeps appear to act as geologic exchange conduits, returning recycled materials to the hydrosphere to sustain another generation of life. Despite submarine seepage having control on global elemental cycling, it is estimated that less than 1% of the deep-sea has …

The Medicine Hat Block And The Assembly Of Laurentia: New Interpretations From Single-Grain Zircon Analyses, Blake Oswell Ladouceur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Medicine Hat Block (MHB) is one of the core cratonic elements that amalgamated in the Paleoproterozoic to form Laurentia. However the role of the MHB in the formation of Laurentia is poorly constrained due to virtually all of the MHB being concealed by Proterozoic and younger supracrustal sequences limiting availability of data. The primary sources of samples from the MHB are 1) xenoliths of variable metamorphic grade including gneisses amphibolites and meta-plutonic rocks collected from Eocene volcanic rock; and 2) similar lithologies recovered from boreholes that penetrate to the MHB basement. Previous work on samples from the MHB yielded …

Mercury In Big Cypress Bayou And Caddo Lake Watersheds In Marion And Harrison Counties Texas, Joseph Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caddo Lake has been included on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality 303(d) list for impairment due to mercury (Hg) content since 1996. One of the primary tributaries, Big Cypress Bayou, flows across Eocene-aged rocks and sediments associated with the Wilcox Group; the Wilcox is of interest because it contains lignite coal, which has a direct link to mercury. Previous research has focused on dry deposition from fossil fuel combustion as the primary source of mercury but has not addressed the potential watershed contribution to mercury concentrations in Caddo Lake.

Big Cypress Bayou flows through Harrison and Marion counties in …

Groundwater Hydrogeolgy And Hydrochemistry Of Karst Springs In The Eastern Peninsula Of Fort Hood Military Installation, William Scribner Welles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The eastern peninsula of Fort Hood Military Installation is underlain by a complex karst spring network. These springs are a primary water source in a protected habitat for endangered songbirds, which has only recently begun to be fully investigated. These Fredericksburg Group springs express both epigenetic and hypogenetic karst signatures. The study area is part of a paleo reef trend, a hydraulically disconnected segment of the northern section of the Edwards Aquifer. This study utilized standard ion index values, repeated measures, and principal component analyses on the chemical profiles of six perennial springs to classify spring water sources and their …

A Glacial History Of Roberts Massif, Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, Using Cosmogenic 3he, 10be, And 21ne Surface Exposure Ages, Alexandra M. Balter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ice-free areas at high elevation in the central Transantarctic Mountains preserve moraines and drift deposits that delineate the former thickness and extent of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS); cosmogenic exposure ages on these features indicate when the ice sheet was as or more extensive than today. Approximately 30 existing cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages from scattered locations within these deposits suggest that some moraines and drift sheets are at least 5 Ma old. Those ages imply that the age range of these deposits may span warm periods during the Miocene and Pliocene, during which the EAIS is hypothesized to have been …

Hardbottom Characterization And Relationship To The Geologic Framework In Long Bay, South Carolina, Cathryn J. Wheaton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hardbottom seafloor is a common element among sediment-starved portions of the inner continental shelf along the U.S. Atlantic margin. These areas are characterized by indurated sediment surfaces that are heavily altered by biological and physical processes. Long Bay, in northeastern South Carolina, offers ideal environmental conditions for hardbottom exposure with only patchy Holocene sand deposits, interspersed with extensive hardbottom areas. Here we use high-resolution multibeam bathymetry, CHIRP subbottom profiling and electrical resistivity data, along with surficial sediment samples, hardbottom thin sections, and water column radioisotope (radon-222) analysis to investigate the origin and geologic framework of a region of hardbottom seafloor …

Geophysical Delineation Of Megaporosity And Fluid Migration Pathways For Geohazard Characterization Within The Delaware Basin, Culberson County, Texas, Jonathan David Woodard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Differential dissolution of gypsum karst within the Delaware Basin poses a significant threat to infrastructure that society depends on. The study area is located in Culberson County, Texas and traverses a distance of approximately 54 kilometers along RM 652 within the Gypsum Plain which is situated on the northern margin of the Chihuahua Desert and includes outcrops of Castile and Rustler strata that host karst geohazards. Regions of karst geohazard potential have been physically surveyed proximal to the study area in evaporites throughout the Castile Formation outcrop; minimal hazards, in comparison to the Castile Formation, have been documented in …

Cone In Cone Concretions Of The Stanley Group In Southeastern Oklahoma, Kyle B. Ayres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cone in cone concretions found in the Stanley Group of Southeastern Oklahoma have a variety of external and internal attributes which allow diagenetic and theoretical models of formation to be hypothesized. Stanley Group carbonate cone in cone concretions are initially formed in sulfur reducing horizons at shallow burial depths in a poorly circulated possibly deep trough containing siliceous sediments and organic matter. Collected concretions near the town of Smithville, Oklahoma displayed four different external morphologies and four variations of mineral constituents. All concretions contained microscopic cones which initiated diffusion and/or fluid patterns and is an early cementation process that directly …

An Investigation Of Hydrogeologic, Stratigraphic, And Structural Controls On Acer Grandidentatum Communities In A Karst Landscape, Owl Mountain Province, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas, Melinda S. Faulkner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Owl Mountain Province is located within the Fort Hood Military Installation, an approximately 880 km2 installation established in the 1940s in Bell and Coryell counties, Texas, which has undergone extensive land use changes associated with military training, maintaining much of the vegetation in early succession. This study investigates thelithologic, stratigraphic, and structural controls on the hydrologic, hydrogeologic, and geomorphologic evolution of the Owl Mountain Province as expressed by mesic vegetation communities, including Pleistocene relicts Acer grandidentatum, within karst terrains. These systems exhibit complexly overprinted speleogenetic evolutions within a dynamic groundwater regime resulting from regional climate shifts throughout the …

The Stratigraphic Position Of Fossil Vertebrates From The Pojoaque Member Of The Tesuque Formation (Middle Miocene, Late Barstovian) Near Española, New Mexico, Garrett R. Williamson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stratigraphy of the Pojoaque Member of the Tesuque Formation near Española, NM is not well understood. This region, during the Middle Miocene, represented a dynamic alluvial fan-fluvial-lacustrine environment within the Española Basin while the Rio Grande Rift was active. Cavazza (1986) identified two paleodrainage systems (lithosome A, basin-margin facies and B, basin-floor facies) by means of sandstone and conglomerate petrology, paleocurrent, and sedimentary facies analyses. After x-ray diffraction analyses of claystones within lithosome B, mordenite was discovered, which is a zeolite mineral commonly found within volcanic rocks. This is significant because the presence of mordenite confirms Cavazza’s (1986) conclusion …