Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evaluation Of Collapse Indicators For Seismically Vulnerable Reinforced Concrete Buildings, Nicholas R. Skok

Open Access Theses

Older reinforced concrete buildings can be prone to column shear and compression failures during earthquakes because of inadequate transverse reinforcement. Cities in seismic areas still have large inventories of older and potentially deficient buildings. To analyze every building and estimate its vulnerability in detail is costly. A simple method to rank quickly older buildings according to their seismic vulnerability is needed to help engineers prioritize the use of resources for rehabilitating the most vulnerable buildings.

Four indicators of building damage or collapse were evaluated using numerical analysis and prior data from building surveys: column index (Hassan & Sozen, 1997), R …

Cosmogenic Radionuclides In Ice Cores From West Antarctica, Zhijie Chen, Thomas Edward Woodruff, Marc W. Caffee

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cosmogenic nuclides such as ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al are formed in the atmosphere by cosmic rays and come down to the ground through snow which became ice in Antarctica. The concentrations of ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al in ice cores can reveal important information about climate change, solar activity and geomagnetic change in the past. They can also be used to date very old ice. Since there is very little ²⁶Al in the ice, its actual concentration is poorly known and the measured results don’t agree with each other. My research is focused on the measurement of the …

Earth History Visualization System, Xinjie Lei, James G. Ogg

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Time Scale Creator (TSCreator), a geological chart generator, displays any portion of Earth history including chemo- magneto-, and other aspects. TSCreator is used by many universities, petroleum companies, and international geological surveys. In order to improve the quality of Time Scale Creator, tools were developed to provide users with more friendly graphical user interfaces (GUIs), accurate scaling of specific isotope, internationalization of data input and output, and smart depth scaling in wells to age conversion. To implement such tools, research for algorithm and common methods was basically done by searching articles online and reading posts on forums for Java developers. …

Effective Geoscience Pedagogy At The Undergraduate Level, Kelsey Warden

Open Access Theses

This investigation used constructivist pedagogical methods within the framework of an introductory level undergraduate geoscience course to gauge both the changes in attitude and cognition of students. Pedagogy was modified in the laboratory setting, but maintained in the lecture setting and homework. Curriculum was also maintained in the lecture, but was changed in the laboratory to emphasize the large concepts and systems stressed in Earth Science Literacy Principles. Student understanding of these concepts and systems was strengthened by factual knowledge, but recall and memorization were not the goal of the laboratory instruction. The overall goal of the study was to …

The Geologic Framework Of Acoma Pueblo And Its Cultural Context: A Western & Native Perspective, Darryl Reano

Open Access Theses

The sequence of sedimentary rocks at Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, are important both in terms of their cultural significance for the Native people of Acoma Pueblo and the insight they provide into the long term geologic history of the Colorado Plateau. In this thesis we present the first stratigraphic and provenance analysis of the Mesozoic strata at Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, based on field observations and detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology. Acoma Pueblo was located in the distal part (i.e. backbulge) of a foreland basin system during most of the Mesozoic. Acoma Pueblo has not been included in previous regional studies …

Part I: Neoacadian To Alleghanian Foreland Basin Development And Provenance In The Central Appalachian Orogen, Pine Mountain Thrust Sheet Part Ii: Structural Configuration Of A Modified Mesozoic To Cenozoic Forearc Basin System, South-Central Alaska, Peter Benjamin Robertson

Open Access Theses

Foreland and forearc basins are large sediment repositories that form in response to tectonic loading and lithospheric flexure during orogenesis along convergent plate boundaries. In addition to their numerous valuable natural resources, these systems preserve important geologic information regarding the timing and intensity of deformation, uplift and erosion history, and subsidence history along collisional margins, and, in ancient systems, may provide more macroscopic information regarding climate, plate motion, and eustatic sea level fluctuations. This thesis presents two studies focused in the Paleozoic Appalachian foreland basin system along the eastern United States and in the Mesozoic to Cenozoic Matanuska forearc basin …