Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A 60- Year Record Of The Demotechnic Index Of States, 1960-2019, Gavin James Kellough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A country’s dependency on energy resources can be interpreted through the calculation of energy indices. The Demotechnic Index (DI) was used to determine the trajectory of energy efficiency of each state in the United States over the period 1960-2019. The DI serves as a measure of the energy intensity of states and a proxy for energy sustainability of each state.The DI is the ratio of total energy use to total metabolic energy demand of a population. Mathematically, DI = (E_T-E_M)/E_M E_T represents the total energy used (metabolic energy + technological energy in kilojoules annually, kJ/y), while EM represents the basic …

Diversity – Independent Factors Predict Elevated Extinction Rates, Dustin Perriguey, Corinne Myers, Jason Moore, Louis Scuderi

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Multiple linear regression was used to determine the relationships between diversity-independent factors (i.e., abiotic, climatic) 2, 5, and 10 Myrs-prior to the most elevated Phanerozoic extinctions. We constructed five abiotic variables from Phanerozoic proxy records1–5 to compare to extinction rates: mean temperature, temperature instability, carbon cycle instability, continental weathering rates, and habitat instability. All three models were statistically significant (P < 0.05) and explained > 70% of the variation in Alroy’s6 three-timer generic extinction rates. However, the 2 Myr-prior model explained the most variance in extinction rates and had the most predictive power, based on adjusted and predictive R2 (~ 72% and 41%, respectively). Carbon …

Paleoenvironmental Analysis Of Cretaceous Mudstones At Slope Mountain, Alaska Using Carbon Stable Isotopes, Ashley Ratigan

Honors Papers

This project uses field samples, microfacies analysis, and carbon stable isotopes of mudstones to determine past environmental conditions of North Slope, Alaska during the Albian-Cenomanian (Cretaceous). Samples were taken at Slope Mountain, Alaska located north of the Brooks Range. Slope Mountain includes the Torok Formation and the upper and lower Nanushuk Formations that consist of alluvial, deltaic, and shallow marine facies that were deposited into the North Slope foreland basin on the Arctic Alaska micro plate. An exhaustive search for identifiable microfossils, such as pollen, diatoms, and foraminifera in the samples yielded nothing but charcoal and carbon residue. No other …

Petrology Of The Upper Nounan - Worm Creek Sequence, Upper Cambrian Nounan And St. Charles Formations, Southeast Idaho, Lillian Donley Wakeley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The upper member of the Nounan Formation and the Worm Creek Member of the St. Charles Formation, both late Cambrian in age, were studied in the Bear River Range and the Fish Creek Range in southeast Idaho. Lithology and sedimentary structures of these units were compared with characteristics of similar modern sediments and ancient rocks, to determine the environments of deposition and effects of diagenesis for the interval studied.

On the basis of widely traced marker horizons, the two-member interval is divided into three parts, with parts 1 and 2 comprising the upper member of the Nounan Formation, and part …