Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Water Balance Models To Approximate The Effects Of Climate Change On Spring Catchment Discharge : Mt. Hanang, Tanzania , Randall E. Fish

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This project addresses the potential impacts of changing climate on dry-season water storage and discharge from a small, mountain catchment in Tanzania. Villagers and water managers around the catchment have experienced worsening water scarcity and attribute it to increasing population and demand, but very little has been done to understand the physical characteristics and hydrological behavior of the spring catchment. The physical nature of the aquifer was characterized and water balance models were calibrated to discharge observations so as to be able to explore relative changes in aquifer storage resulting from climate changes.

To characterize the shallow aquifer supplying water …

Lineament Mapping For Groundwater Exploration Using Remotely Sensed Imagery In A Karst Terrain : Rio Tanama And Rio De Arecibo Basins In The Northern Karst Of Puerto Rico, Carla A. Alonso-Contes

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Remote sensing and advanced digital image processing techniques were developed and tested for delineating karst features important for the subterranean hydrology in the Tanamá River and Rio Grande de Arecibo catchments located in the North Coast Tertiary Basin of Puerto Rico, where groundwater contributes to base flow for surface water bodies which in itself is the main supply of drinking water. This aquifer region is a karst platform of carbonate rocks and clastic beds, thought to comprise a confined aquifer beneath and an unconfined aquifer. Products derived from ASTER, Landsat (ETM+ and TM), a NED DEM (30 m), and a …

Recurrent Voluminous Sector Collapses At Volcán Barú, Panama, Julie A. Herrick

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Two volcanic debris avalanche deposits (VDADs), both attributed to sector collapse at Volcán Barú, Panama, have been identified after an investigation of deposits that covered more than a thousand square kilometers. The younger Barriles Deposit is constrained by two radiocarbon ages that are ~9 ka; the older Caisán Deposit is at or beyond the radiocarbon range, >43,500 ybp. The total runout length of the Caisán Deposit was ~50 km and it covers 1190 km². The Barriles Deposit extended to about 45 km and covered an area of 966 km², overlapping most of the Caisán. The VDADs …

Characterization Of Harmonic Tremor At Santiaguito Volcano And Its Implications For Eruption Mechanisms , Kyle Arthur Brill

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

We observed Santiaguito volcano in southwestern Guatemala from March 2008 - March 2010. Seismic and infrasound data collected between January and March of 2009 contain records of many diverse processes occurring at the dacitic dome complex, including the recurrence of short lived (30-200 seconds in duration) harmonic tremor concurrent with ash poor gas emissions from the volcano. We employ several different analytical techniques to examine different portions of the tremor and source mechanisms. We use the parameters derived by this analysis to compare the feasibility of several suggested models of eruption mechanisms, and determine that this type of harmonic tremor …

Sonic Log Prediction In Carbonates , Nayyer Islam

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This work is conducted to study the complications associated with the sonic log prediction in carbonate logs and to investigate the possible solutions to accurately predict the sonic logs in Traverse Limestone. Well logs from fifty different wells were analyzed to define the mineralogy of the Traverse Limestone by using conventional 4-mineral and 3-mineral identification approaches. We modified the conventional 3-mineral identification approach (that completely neglects the gamma ray response) to correct the shale effects on the basis of gamma ray log before employing the 3-mineral identification. This modification helped to get the meaningful insight of the data when a …

"The Need Obliged Us" : Culture As Capacity During The Hurricane Stan Emergency Response. A Case Study From Tectitan, Huehuetenango, Guatemala , Jesse Silverman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

A major deficiency in disaster management plans is the assumption that pre-disaster civil-society does not have the capacity to respond effectively during crises. Following from this assumption a dominant emergency management strategy is to replace weak civil-society organizations with specialized disaster organizations that are often either military or Para-military and seek to centralize decision-making. Many criticisms have been made of this approach, but few specifically addresses disasters in the developing world. Disasters in the developing world present unique problems not seen in the developed world because they often occur in the context of compromised governments, and marginalized populations. In this …

Comparisons Between Omi So2 Data And Ground-Based So2 Measurements At Turrialba Volcano , Anieri M. Morales Rivera

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Turrialba is one of the largest and most active stratovolcanoes in the Central Cordillera of Costa Rica and an excellent target for validation of satellite data using ground based measurements due to its high elevation, relative ease of access, and persistent elevated SO₂ degassing. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite makes daily global observations of atmospheric trace gases and it is used in this investigation to obtain volcanic SO₂ retrievals in the Turrialba volcanic plume. We present and evaluate the relative accuracy of two OMI SO₂ data analysis procedures, the automatic Band Residual Index …

Ultraviolet Digital Imaging Of Volcanic Plumes : Implementation And Application To Magmatic Processes At Basaltic Volcanoes, Patricia Amanda Nadeau

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Magmatic volatiles play a crucial role in volcanism, from magma production at depth to generation of seismic phenomena to control of eruption style. Accordingly, many models of volcano dynamics rely heavily on behavior of such volatiles. Yet measurements of emission rates of volcanic gases have historically been limited, which has restricted model verification to processes on the order of days or longer.

UV cameras are a recent advancement in the field of remote sensing of volcanic SO₂ emissions. They offer enhanced temporal and spatial resolution over previous measurement techniques, but need development before they can be widely adopted and …