Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cmas/Volcanic Ash Infiltration Performance Of Yttria Rich-Zirconia Thermal Barrier Coatings Produced By Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition, Juan Jose Gomez Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For many years the use of thermal barrier coatings (TBC) in gas turbine engines has allowed a significant increase in engine operating temperatures which are above the Ni-based super alloys' melting point. The base material for TBCs is the state of the art 7 wt % yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) which provides the thermal protection. Current industry demands for increased engine efficiency has pushed TBCs to the limits where significant technological constrains have been identified. One of the main ones represents the high temperature corrosion of the TBC material due to the ingestion of silicate based airborne particles commonly referred …

Fault Kinematics Of The Southern Rio Grande Rift: Exploring The Possibility Of Fault Reactivation, Georgina Rodriguez Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The region in and around the southern Rio Grande rift has experienced a long and complex tectonic history since the Precambrian era. In addition to recording extension directions due to the opening of the Rio Grande rift, faults can also possibly record contractional deformation related to the Laramide orogeny, extension along the boundary of the Mesozoic Chihuahua Trough, and possibly strike - slip movement since the Precambrian related to the Texas Lineament. The northern and central segments of the Rio Grande rift preserve mostly N - S-trending faults, whereas the southern segment preserves NW - SE-trending faults. The main hypoThesis …

Origin And Characterization Of Intrasalt Non-Halite Lithologies Of The Neoproterozoic Patawarta Diapir, Central Flinders Ranges, South Australia, Rachelle A. Kernen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Non-halite lithologies in salt diapirs are variously referred to as clasts, chips, rafts, stringers, sutures, and encased minibasins in the literature. Due to the complexities of gathering and processing seismic reflection data within salt bodies, nonhalite intrasalt lithologies, collectively referred to as inclusions here, are often first identified while drilling wells. These wells may penetrate unexpected lithologies of unknown fluid pressure, which can result in economic failure and pose serious drilling hazards and a threat to human life. Therefore, it is imperative to identify and determine the nature of inclusions prior to drilling, and ideally during the well planning process …

Stratigraphic Response Of The Differential Rise Of The Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Jurassic Entrada Formation, Paradox Basin, Colorado, Rafael Andres Delfin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The effect of halokinetic processes on fluvial and marine depositional environments adjacent to salt diapirs have been well established through extensive research, however eolian systems in similar geologic settings have not been documented. This has left a void in our understanding of eolian depositional environments adjacent to salt diapirs. This study is aimed at providing new knowledge and a solid foundation on eolian systems and diapiric processes. Despite our limited understanding of theses interactions, there has been a recent interest in deep water prospectively in the Gulf of Mexico. Successful tests of the Norphlet Formation prove that eolian sandstones deposited …

Precipitation And Transformation Of Iron-Sulfide Nanoparticles In Low-Temperature Aqueous Environment: Effects Of Reactant Iron And Sulfide Sources, Ezequiel A. Moreno Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Iron sulfide nanoparticles assume an important role within a wide range of geological settings as indicators of redox environmental conditions and elemental cycling mechanisms. Initial precipitates of iron sulfide are exclusively nanoscale sized in low temperature aqueous conditions and have been reported to go through diverse morphological and phase transformations, possibly leading to the ultimate deposits of pyrite in geologic records of various times. A systematic understanding of how the early-stage nanoparticles of iron sulfide may develop into more crystalline iron sulfide forms is still lacking however. The major goal for this study was to illuminate the effects of the …

Zircon (U-Th)/He Thermochronologic Investigation Of The Long-Term Thermal History Of Proterozoic Rocks In West Texas And Southern New Mexico, Nathan Zachary Reade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The tectonic history of west Texas and southern New Mexico is well documented, however existing geologic data only provide limited snapshots of the region’s prolonged and complex tectonic evolution. Zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) thermochronology is used to examine the long-term thermal history of Proterozoic rocks exposed in the southern Rio Grande rift. ZHe data were collected from the Carrizo Mountains (10 dates), Cookes Range (16 dates), and Franklin Mountains (30 dates) in order to constrain the long-term (>1 Ga) thermal history of rocks in this region and relate this history to known tectonic or climatic events. Individual ZHe dates range …

Structural And Sedimentological Analysis Of The Bear Canyon Conglomerate, Southeastern California: Implications For The Timing And Style Of Miocene Deformation Within The Eastern California Shear Zone, Garrett Goff

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The region between Indian Pass and Picacho State Recreation Area (PSRA) in southeastern California records complex deformation related to the transition from a Paleogene convergent margin to a Neogene transform setting, although the timing and nature of youngest deformation in this region remains incompletely known. A 1.7 km-thick section of Miocene Bear Canyon conglomerate (BCC) was studied to constrain this young period of deformation. These rocks lie unconformably upon 23 Ma volcanic and epiclastic rocks and a Mesozoic metamorphic basement terrane. Near PSRA the BCC contains locally derived clasts and can be further subdivided into three unconformity-bounded sequences, referred to …

Petrophysical, Geostatistical And Geo-Spatial Analysis Of Round Top Mountain Rhyolite (Hudspeth County, West Texas, Usa), Lorraine Marie Negron

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project consists of three separate projects that all investigate Round Top Mountain, a rhyolite laccolith located in Sierra Blanca, west Texas in Hudspeth County (U.S.A). The three projects will explore and analyze the petrophysical, geostatistical and geo-spatial aspects of this unique deposit.

Project 1:

This petrophysical study examines the porosity and micro-permeability of the Round Top rhyolite at a scale, roughly 5 to 10 mm or pebble sized, similar to anticipated heap leach crush sizes. Large voids and fluid paths, such as faults and joints in the massive rock (meter to km scale, boulder to outcrop size), are not …

Decision Making Under Uncertainty With Applications To Geosciences And Finance, Laxman Bokati

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In many practical situations, we need to make a decision. In engineering, we need to decide on the best design of a system, and, for existing systems â?? on the best control strategy. In financial applications, we need to decide what is the best way to invest money. In geosciences, we need to decide whether we should explore a possible mineral deposit â?? or whether we should perform more experiments and measurements (and what exactly). In some cases, we can compute the exact consequences of each decision - e.g., if we are controlling a satellite. However, in many other cases, …

Interactions Of Bacterial Communities With Hydrous Sulfate Minerals In Water-Restricted Gypsic Environments: A Case Study Based In The White Sands National Monument, Brandon Nicholas Lajoie

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Microbial communities have been commonly found to survive and thrive in arid to hyper-arid gypsic environments that are considered hostile to most other forms of life. The mechanisms through which microbes have conquered these harsh environments remain poorly understood. Here I hypothesize that the microbial communities in water-restricted gypsic settings could benefit in terms of energy and water sources via their interactions with the abundant hydrous sulfate minerals [i.e., gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O)] that build up these niches. Gypsum is of high bio-relevance because its sulfate component may be used as electron acceptor by sulfate-reducing bacteria and the crystallization water may be …

Sequence Stratigraphy, Diagenesis, And Depositional Facies Of An Exposed Megaflap: Pennsylvanian Hermosa Group, Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Paradox Basin, Colorado, Kyle Thomas Deatrick

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Outcrop exposures mostly of the Pennsylvanian Honaker Trail Formation provide a 2 km strike-oriented view of a megaflap on the southwestern flank of the Gypsum Valley salt wall, Paradox Basin, Colorado that serves as an outcrop analog for megaflaps recently drilled unexpectedly in the Gulf of Mexico and other salt basins worldwide. The near vertical (80-90°) stratal panel comprises a 60 m thick succession of non-evaporite facies of the Pennsylvanian upper Paradox Formation, overlain by a 117 m section of cyclic shallow marine carbonates and siliciclastics of the Honaker Trail Formation. Near vertical upper Paradox and Honaker Trail strata are …

Mineral Exploration Investigation In The Northern Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico, Labdan Nijr Alqahtani

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Sierra Madre region is rich in mineralized deposits, but it is hard to access because of the rugged terrain. Remote sensing and GIS can help in mineral exploration and regional structural analysis. The purpose of this project is to study linear, curvilinear, arcuate, and circular features in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico in order to improve exploration possibility. It is of great interest to know the relationship between lineament intersections, caldera features because of the location of potential mineral occurrences. In this study, 4,445 lineaments were mapped manually using directional filters applied to satellite images. A total of …

Exploring Dynamic Triggering Of Earthquakes Within The United States & Quaternary Faulting And Urban Seismic Hazards In The El Paso Metropolitan Area, Richard Alexander Alfaro-Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Technological advances in combination with the onslaught of data availability allow for large seismic data streams to automatically and systematically be recorded, processed, and stored. Here, we develop an automated approach to identify small, local earthquakes within these large continuous seismic data records. Our aim is to automate the process of detecting small seismic events triggered by a distant large earthquake, recorded at a single station. Specifically, we apply time-domain short-term average (STA) to long-term average (LTA) ratio algorithms to three-component data to create a catalog of detections. We remove some of the false detections by requiring the detection be …

Stratigraphic And Structural Characterization And Evolution Of Exposed Megaflaps Flanking Salt Diapirs, Cora Evelyn Gannaway Dalton

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A Neoproterozoic salt system exposed in the Willouran Ranges of South Australia and a Mesozoic salt system in the south-central Pyrenees of Spain provide natural laboratories to investigate the stratigraphic and structural development of megaflaps flanking salt diapirs. Megaflaps are near-vertical to overturned, deep minibasin stratal panels that extend far up the flanks of steep diapirs or their equivalent welds. Megaflaps can form by halokinetic drape-folding, contraction, or a combination of these processes. The existing models of megaflap development are based primarily on seismic data, well penetrations, cross-section restorations, and numerical and analog modeling. Investigation of the sedimentology, stratigraphy, and …

Ductile Deformation In The Central Panamint Mountains - A Multi-Disciplinary Approach To A Multi-Dimensional Problem., Tai Antonia Subia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study provides new insights into the geometry and timing of ductile, syn-metamorphic structures in the central Panamint Mountains of eastern California. The study focused on Surprise Canyon, where exposures of Meso- to Neoproterozoic miogeocline rocks, reworked crystalline basement, and syn-metamorphic granitoids record fabric overprints indicative of at least two distinct dynamo-thermal metamorphic events. Prograde metamorphism at greenschist and amphibolite metamorphic facies conditions occurred during Early Jurassic plutonism based on deformation of a dioritic pluton with a U-Pb date reported here of 175.6 ± 3.2 Ma. Mid Jurassic deformation (D1) generated the main continuous cleavage in the rocks (S1) as …

Geophysical Studies Of The Three Sisters Andesite, West El Paso, Texas, Alexander D'Marco Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Three Sisters andesite intrusion is part of series of three small igneous bodies that crop out in western El Paso to the north of the more extensive intrusions found on the University of Texas at El Paso campus and at Mount Cristo Rey. These Oligocene age intrusions are believed to form part of a deeper, more extensive igneous body that may lie beneath much of western El Paso and the southern Mesilla Valley. I used several geophysical techniques to determine the size and shape of the Three Sisters intrusion to better understand its connection to other andesite outcrops and …

Characterization And Geochemistry Of Carbonate Caprock Associated With The Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Paradox Basin, Colorado: Implications For Understanding Lateral Caprock Emplacement, Piper Lee Poe

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

On the northeastern side of Gypsum Valley salt wall in the Paradox Basin of Colorado, discontinuous exposures of layered gypsum and carbonate rocks were previously mapped as the contact between diapiric Paradox Formation and marine limestone of the Pennsylvanian Honaker Trail Formation. Utilizing new and existing mapping, petrographic and isotopic geochemical analyses, this study reinterprets this zone to represent lateral gypsum and carbonate caprock that formed in the Triassic during passive rise of the Gypsum Valley salt wall. Gypsum Valley lateral carbonate caprock can be distinguished from Pennsylvanian and Permian depositional carbonate strata exposed elsewhere on the salt wall by …

Mapping Complex Fold-Thrust Systems In An Inverted Rift Basin: Indio Mountains, West Texas, Samantha Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study reports on new geologic mapping in the southern Indio Mountains of west Texas, where minimal research has been done since development of modern fold-thrust belt concepts. This study integrated an analysis of structure and the stratigraphy of the region. A stratigraphic column of the middle Cretaceous upper Yucca Formation was measured to 1) compare the lithology to that of the section previously measured in the hanging wall of the Squaw Peak thrust in the footwall of the Indio normal fault, 2) create informal members in the formation to aid mapping; and 3) identify previously unmapped structures in the …

Geometry, Timing, And Kinematics Of Neogene Extensional And Transtensional Structures Of Southern Death Valley: Implications For Regional Reconstructions And A Corrective Method For Rigid Body Rotations, Zachariah Fleming

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Chapter 1:Advancements in computing capabilities over the last decade have allowed for the routine creation of Structure from Motion-Multiview Stereo (SfM-MVS) terrain models that can serve as base for high resolution geologic mapping. Outcrops models developed from these systems are high-resolution, photo-realistic 3D base providing unprecedented capability for geometric analysis. Yet, before this technology becomes a mainstay of field geology, the potential errors associated with it must be well understood. Here, we compare orientation measurements from multi-point analyses on the SfM-MVS point clouds to those taken in the field with the objective of resolving the geometry of complex folds within …

Facies Changes Associated With Formation Of An Extensive Salt Shoulder By The Coastal And Eolian Carmel And Entrada Formations, Gypsum Valley, Colorado, Ryan Burtron Ronson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A salt shoulder forms a zone at the margin of a salt diapir where that margin steps relatively abruptly inward. These shoulders form when the salt rise rate near the diapir margin substantially decreases or stops relative to the salt rise rate at the inboard central part of the diaper. Based on current models of interactions between these salt shoulders and overlying sediment, it was anticipated that the thickness changes of the Entrada and Carmel formations would be only gradual and that any notable thinning would take place proximal to the neck portion of the diapir that would still have …

Gravitational Analysis And Fault Identification Within An Active Rift Basin: The Mesilla Valley Bolson In Western Texas - Southern New Mexico, Jose Pablo Cervantes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The metropolitan region of El Paso Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, located within the northern Chihuahua Desert, contains approximately two million inhabitants. The two main aquifers that supply groundwater to this region are the Mesilla and Hueco Bolsons. Both bolsons have been tapped for decades without sustainable recharge. This study's purpose is to use geophysical methods coupled with published geochemical analyses to determine the structural and stratigraphic controls on the quality and quantity of groundwater in the southern Mesilla Bolson.

The Mesilla Bolson is one of many fault-controlled basins within the Rio Grande Rift - southern Basin and Range. Faults …

Trace Metal And Metalloid Behavior In The Submicron Scale Components Of Coal Fly Ashes: Insights From Combined Microscopic And Microbiological Studies, Matthew Costa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For over a century, coal has been used worldwide to meet ever-growing energy demands. Coal combustion accounts for over 30% of electricity generation in the United States. In the U.S., coal combustion produces annually over 100 million tons of coal combustion products (CCPs) of which only 30% are used in beneficial and economic ways. One of the primary CCPs from coal-burning power plants is fly ash, typically fine-sized and enriched in many trace elements (e.g., arsenic, chromium, lead, and vanadium). When disposed in the environment, fly ash may release significant concentrations of trace elements into surrounding ecosystems and induce toxicity …

Evaluating Fold And Thrust Systems Within An Inverted Basin: Indio Mounntains, West Texas, Myra Guerrero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Fold and thrust belts often are complicated by out of sequence thrust faulting and inverted basins display these structures particularly often due to reactivation of original normal faults as well as complex topographic evolution. The Indio Mountains lie along the northern margin of the Chihuahua trough which formed as a mid-Cretaceous extensional basin and was subsequently shortened during the Laramide orogeny, making the Indio Mountains an exceptional site for studies of structures produced by large scale basin inversion. This study focuses on the subsurface structures in a complexly imbricated thrust window developed along the paleo rift basin margin.

This study …

Attributes Of The Fisher Valley Megaflap And Comparison To The Gypsum Valley Megaflap, Paradox Basin, Utah And Colorado: Implications For Controls On Megaflap Formation, Kate Grisi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Megaflaps are panels of steeply dipping to overturned strata that extend kilometers up the side of a salt diapir or equivalent weld. They often form important components of salt-diapir related hydrocarbon systems, though little is known about their geologic characteristics or how they form. In this study, I collected structural, stratigraphic, and sedimentologic data of the Fisher Valley megaflap and compared these attributes to the previous studied Gypsum Valley megaflap to test the differential sediment loading model proposed for initiation of megaflap formation. This model predicts that the sediment source proximal megaflap of Fisher Valley should have started rotation earlier, …

A Machine Learning Approach To Rendering 3d Stratigraphic Models Of The Hueco Bolson, Western Texas And Northern Mexico, Joel Gerardo Castro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Data visualization is an effective way to analyze large amounts of spatial information to identify correlations, trends, outliers, and patterns. In this Thesis I test the application of supervised machine learning algorithms to render a series of 3D visualizations designed to highlight general traits of the Hueco Bolson, a geologic basin located east of the Franklin Mountains in far west Texas and northern Mexico. A geologic basin is one of the most common inland places where sediments are collected. The geology of basins is of much interest to geophysicists, hydrologists, paleontologists, and oil prospectors. Here the task of 3D geologic …

Comparison Of Mesoscopic Fracture Analysis Techniques: A Case Study Near Onion Creek Diapir, Paradox Basin, Utah, Muhammed Tarik Iraz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Faults and fractures are abundant along the diapir contact in the Onion Creek Diapir in eastern Utah and relate to the mechanisms of diapir formation. Western Onion Creek exhumes two spectacular exposures of the diapir contact and adjacent wall rocks providing two nearly orthogonal transects oriented ~E-W and S-N. In this study, I used field measurements from natural outcrops and a 3D model developed using Structure-from-Motion/Multiview Stereo photogrammetry to evaluate fracture reservoir development along diapir margins. The 3D-Model was developed using Agisoft Photoscan from ~3200 ground-based images and was georeferenced using 76 ground control points located with a GPS unit …

Grenvillian Tectonomagmatic Evolution Of Southwestern Laurentia; Virtual Tour Of Multidimensional Orders Of Scale; Two Methods To Describe The Vastness Of Time; Math Concepts Utilizing Google Earth; Systematic Approach To Motion Analyses; Mathematics And Earth Science-Based Knowledge And Learning, Anthony M. Alvarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation is the product of several individual multi-disciplinary investigations that cover a variety of topics in mathematics, physics, geology, and geoscience education. The first chapter formulates a better understanding of the timings, magma source, and relationships between dikes and associated magmatic bodies of the Red Bluff Granitic Complex to provide a clearer picture of the evolution of post-Grenville magmatism and tectonism of southwestern USA. The second chapter provides an improved method for representing spatial information in the form of a multidimensional virtual tour where the background map is used as a central object. The third chapter describes two methods …

Need For A Large-N Array (And Wavelets And Differences) To Determine The Assumption-Free 3-D Earth Model, Solymar Ayala Cortez, Aaron A. Velasco, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the main objectives of geophysical seismic analysis is to determine the Earth's structure. Usually, to determine this structure, geophysicists supplement the measurement results with additional geophysical assumptions. An important question is: when is it possible to reconstruct the Earth's structure uniquely based on the measurement results only, without the need to use any additional assumptions? In this paper, we show that for this, one needs to use large-N arrays -- 2-D arrays of seismic sensors. To actually perform this reconstruction, we need to use differences between measurements by neighboring sensor and we need to apply wavelet analysis to …

Constraining Times Of Extension In The Southern Rio Grande Rift And Basin And Range Using Apatite And Zircon (U-Th)/He Thermochronology, Julian Biddle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Rio Grande rift and the Basin and Range are adjacent extensional domains that have evolved contemporaneously in western North America. Although the rift is often considered to be the easternmost boundary of Basin and Range extension, there is geologic and geophysical evidence that suggests the two are discrete provinces. Existing low-temperature thermochronologic data indicate that a period of synchronous extension occurred across the entire length of the rift from ~25-10 Ma. However, these studies were more focused on the northern and central sections of the rift, and thermochronologic data remains sparse in southern New Mexico. We collected rock samples …

Cycling Of Gypsiferous White Sands Aerosols In The Shallow Critical Zone At White Mountain, New Mexico, Patrick Richard Rea

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Dry deposition significantly affects evolution of the critical zone by nutrient supply and contributing to soil genesis. Dust influx and cycling in soils are difficult to quantify because dust sources can be chemically similar to local soils. White Sands, New Mexico, emits gypsum dust with a unique chemical and isotopic signature, providing an opportunity to investigate dust deposition and its movement in soils. This study evaluated the mobility of White Sands dust particles in the critical zone at White Mountain, New Mexico, a highland 100 km downwind. Four soil profiles were collected over limestone, igneous, mixed limestone and dolostone, and …