Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Kentucky Geological Survey Landslide Inventory: From Design To Application, Matthew M. Crawford

Information Circular--KGS

The Kentucky Geological Survey is compiling a landslide inventory database to better document the distribution and geologic context of Kentucky’s landslides. The database provides users with easy access to landslide information, raises awareness of landslide causes, and will help prevent property damage or injury. The database was used to create an online landslide information map, which provides online access to landslide data and gives users the ability to customize the map using other data layers pertinent to landslides. The database design is based on common attributes collected by other states with active inventories and landslide hazard programs, as well as …

Holocene Sedimentary Responses To Growth Faulting In A Back-Barrier Setting: East Matagorda Peninsula, Texas, Phillip Wolfe

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The structural framework of the northern Gulf of Mexico coastal zone is characterized by numerous growth fault systems. Neotectonic processes in coastal marshes in this region have been shown to be important drivers of relative sea-level rise as well as having significant influence on marsh accretion processes. One active growth fault has been identified at East Matagorda Peninsula, Texas. To characterize the Holocene behavior of this fault and the consequent sedimentary responses, a suite of fallout radionuclides (⁷Be, ¹³⁷Cs, ²¹⁰Pb) and radiocarbon, supplemented by sediment physical property data have been used to determine sediment mixing depths, …

Application Of The Kalman Filter On Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry Data Around The Vinton Salt Dome, Louisiana, Mahnaz Sepehrmanesh

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Full tensor gravity (FTG) data are known for their high resolution but also for higher noise in its components due to the dynamic nature of the platform used for data acquisition. Although a review of the literature suggests steady increase in the success of gravity gradiometry, we still cannot take advantage of the full potential of the method, mostly because of the noise with the same amplitude and wavenumber characteristics as the signal that affects these data. Smoothing from common low pass filters removes small wavelength features and makes it difficult to detect structural features and other density variations of …

Paleoseismic And Structural Characterization Of The Hines Creek Fault: Denali National Park And Preserve, Alaska, Sara E. Federschmidt

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Hines Creek fault (HCF) is a Holocene-active fault in central Alaska. Its trace has been mapped several times, but data on the history of fault displacement is scarce. As a major crustal-scale geologic boundary with uncertain Quaternary tectonic activity, it is a priority for more to be known about the activity of this fault to better understand the hazards it presents to the Denali National Park and Preserve and Alaskan infrastructure. This study characterizes the late Quaternary activity of the HCF through surficial geologic mapping and paleoseismic investigations. Mapping revealed a very steep (~84°-88° apparent dip), north dipping fault …

Age Of The Walden Creek Group, Western Blue Ridge Province: Resolving A Decades-Old Controversy Via Detrital Mineral Geochronology And Sedimentary Provenance Analysis, Evan A. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Originally mapped as Precambrian and uppermost Ocoee Supergroup (OS), recent discoveries of Paleozoic microfossils have placed the Walden Creek Group (WCG), eastern Tennessee, into a younger depositional framework (Silurian or younger). In this study, monazite geochronology using SIMs, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology determined by LA-ICP-MS, feldspar compositions determined by microprobe, zircon-tourmaline-rutile (ZTR) indices, and framework mineral modes were used to characterize provenance of sandstones of the WCG. Monazite ages cluster at 450 and 1050 Ma. All Ordovician ages are from grains that, in BSE images, have inclusion-rich microtextures interpreted as diagenetic and/or metamorphic, thus requiring that the WCG was deposited …

A Petrographic Characterization Of The Leatherwood Coal Bed In Eastern Kentucky, Michelle N. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Eastern Kentucky Coal Field is located in the central portion of the Appalachian Basin. The Pennsylvanian Breathitt Formation in this region is characterized by numerous sequences of bituminous coal-bearing sedimentary rocks. These coals have distinct maceral compositions due to variations in depositional environments. Coal characterization is an important method for determining conditions that influenced peat accumulation and overall depositional settings of mires.

This study focuses on the characterization of the maceral composition of the Middle Pennsylvanian-age Leatherwood coal bed. It utilizes petrographical, palynological, and geochemical analyses to describe specific depositional environments and associated peat accumulation conditions.

Petrographic analyses indicate …

Instrument Correction And Dynamic Site Profile Validation At The Central United States Seismic Observatory, New Madrid Seismic Zone, Clayton M.J. Brengman

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Central United States Seismic Observatory (CUSSO), is a fifteen-element array of three-component accelerometers and seismometers in the New Madrid seismic zone, within the upper Mississippi embayment. Its location within the thick (up to 1 km) sequences of unlithified sediment comprising the embayment, make CUSSO a unique array in its ability to directly measure seismic wave propagation, including ground motion site effect; however, before the observational data can be used for analysis, the orientation and instrument response of the CUSSO array must be defined. This study used cross-correlation and direct comparisons to filter out the instrument response and determine the …

Geology Of The West Half Of The Cove Creek Gap Quadrangle And Adjacent Areas, Western North Carolina: Insights Into Eastern Great Smoky Mountains Tectonometamorphism, Daniel F. Spaulding

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Three outstanding problems related to the tectonic evolution of the Western Blue Ridge in the eastern Great Smoky Mtns. (GSM) include: (1) the nature of the Greenbrier Fault, previously interpreted as a younger over older pre-Taconic thrust fault with ~24 km of displacement between the Snowbird and Great Smoky Groups; (2) the relationship of regional metamorphism, expressed by the growth of porphyroblastic index minerals, to folding and foliation development in pelitic metasediments; (3) the relation of deformation to regional Taconian metamorphism. These problems were addressed in previous studies that did not have detailed mapping and petrography as a context. By …

Geology Of The Kentucky Geological Survey Marvin Blan No. 1 Well, East-Central Hancock County, Kentucky, J. Richard Bowersox, David A. Williams

Report of Investigations--KGS

The Kentucky Geological Survey’s Marvin Blan No. 1 well was drilled in east-central Hancock County, Ky., about 4 mi southwest of the Ohio River, to demonstrate CO₂ injection in the Western Kentucky Coal Field, following the mandate and partial funding from Kentucky’s House Bill 1, August 2007. Installation of a groundwater monitoring well was required as a condition of obtaining a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control Class V Permit prior to drilling the Blan well; however, no groundwater was encountered under the Blan well site. The groundwater monitoring well was immediately plugged and abandoned in accordance with …

Shallow Groundwater Monitoring Associated With The Deep Saline Reservoir Co2 Storage Test In Hancock County, Kentucky, E. Glynn Beck

Report of Investigations--KGS

A carbon dioxide injection test well was drilled in 2009 to a depth of 8,126 ft below ground surface in Hancock County, Kentucky. Six hundred ninety tons of CO₂ was successfully injected into Knox Group saline aquifers. Two domestic wells (MB and GB) and two domestic springs (CA and RC) were sampled to monitor any potential changes in groundwater quality associated with possible migration of CO₂ from deeper saline aquifers into shallow freshwater aquifers. The four sites were sampled for pH, bicarbonate, total dissolved solids, turbidity, anions, total dissolved metals, dissolved inorganic carbon, total CO₂, and …

Hydrogeologic Investigations Of Pavement Subsidence In The Cumberland Gap Tunnel, James S. Dinger, James C. Currens, Junfeng Zhu, Steven E. Webb, Brad W. Rister, R. C. Graves, David L. Allen, Tim C. Scully

Report of Investigations--KGS

Cumberland Gap Tunnel was constructed under Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in 1996 to improve transportation on a segment of U.S. 25E, connecting Kentucky and Tennessee and restoring Cumberland Gap to its historical appearance.

The concrete pavement in the tunnel started to subside in 2001. Ground penetrating radar surveys revealed voids in many areas of the limestone roadbed aggregate beneath the pavement. To investigate possible hydrogeologic processes that may have caused favorable conditions for voids to form in the aggregate, we studied geology, groundwater flow, and groundwater chemistry in the tunnel using a variety of methods, including bore drilling, packer …

The Nature And Origin Of Cyclicity In The Cleveland Member Of The Ohio Shale (Upper Devonian), Northeastern Kentucky, U.S.A., Alice C. O'Bryan

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Cleveland Shale displays a characteristic and distinctive pattern of promontories and recessed intervals on weathered outcrops, which appears to represent cyclicity. This weathering pattern can be observed in other shales, both within and outside the Appalachian Basin; so determining the nature of these cycles may be critical for understanding the origin of, not only the Cleveland Shale, but also of black shales in general. Cyclicity in the Cleveland was examined on a decimeter-to-meter scale using lithologic characterization, gamma-ray stratigraphy and x-ray fluorescence, and on a millimeter-to-centimeter scale using organic petrography. Lithologic characterization and gamma-ray stratigraphy revealed Milankovitch-band fourth- and …

Using Time-Lapse Three Dimensional Vertical Seismic Profiling To Monitor Injected Fluids During Geologic Carbon Sequestration, John B. Hickman

Report of Investigations--KGS

Two three-dimensional vertical seismic profiles (3D-VSP) were acquired at the KGS Marvin Blan No. 1 CO₂ sequestration research well outside of Cloverport in Hancock County, Ky. The initial (preinjection) survey was performed September 15-16, 2010, and was followed by the injection of 361.2 metric tons of supercritical CO₂ and then 584 m³ of 2 percent potassium chloride water (to displace the remaining CO₂ in the wellbore) on September 22, 2010. After injection, the well was shut in with a downhole pressure of 17.5 MPa at the injected reservoir depth of 1,545.3 m. A second 3D-VSP was …

Determining Hillslope Diffusion Rates In A Boreal Forest: Quaternary Fluvial Terraces In The Nenana River Valley, Central Alaska Range, Laurel Anne Walker

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The subarctic boreal forest biome is predicted to experience higher magnitudes of warming than other biomes due to climate change. The effects of this warming will be pronounced in areas underlain by discontinuous permafrost where melting permafrost and distinct changes in vegetation patterns are expected. To better understand rates of hillslope diffusion in the boreal forest I have used a geomorphic process modeling approach, using data from a sequence of Quaternary fluvial terraces located in the Nenana River valley of central Alaska. I hypothesized that diffusion rates here would be slower when compared to the mid-latitudes, and faster on north …

From Geology To Art History: Ceramist Alexandre Brongniart’S Overlooked Contribution To The Developing Science Of Art History In The Early Nineteenth Century, Julia A. Carr-Trebelhorn

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

Alexandre Brongniart was known for his work as an important geologist and as an administrator at the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, but his roles as art historian and museologist are overlooked. Brongniart created a holistic methodology taken directly from science and applied it to ceramic art of all cultures and eras. He had a uniquely modern perspective on time, world culture, and archeology. Brongniart wrote about the art of Asia and the Americas on an equal status with that of the Classical West at least fifty years before it became a mainstream idea. Brongniart integrated scientific principle and practice into the …

Science And Public Policy Of Earthquake Hazard Mitigation In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Alice M. Orton

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

In the central United States, undefined earthquake sources, long earthquake recurrence intervals and uncertain ground motion attenuation models have contributed to an overstatement of regional seismic hazard for the New Madrid Seismic Zone on the National Seismic Hazard Maps. This study examined concerns regarding scientific uncertainties, overly stringent seismic mitigation policies and depressed local economy in western Kentucky through a series of informal interviews with local businessmen, public officials, and other professionals in occupations associated with seismic mitigation. Scientific and relative economic analyses were then performed using scenario earthquake models developed with FEMA’s Hazus-MH software. Effects of the 2008 Wenchuan …