Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Paleogeographic, Paleoceanographic, And Tectonic Controls On Early Late Ordovician Graptolite Diversity Patterns, Daniel Goldman, Shuang-Ye Wu

Daniel Goldman

The Katian Age (early Late Ordovician) was a time of significant decline in marine biodiversity, but whether this decline was a real phenomenon or an artifact of the relatively few studies devoted to this interval requires further research. We examined the pattern of graptolite faunal changes across the boundary between the Climacograptus bicornis and Diplacanthograptus caudatus graptolite zones in North America and on several other continents.

A sharp decline in species diversity occurs in the Appalachian Basin. Scores for normalized diversity dropped from 20 in the C. bicornis Zone to 7 in the D. caudatus Zone. Only 11% of the …

Iceland: Extreme Learning In The Land Of Fire And Ice, Jason Polk, Leslie North

Leslie North

WKU Libraries kicked off the spring season of "Far Away Places" with Dr. Jason Polk and Dr. Leslie North, Asstant Professors from the Department of Geography and Geology at WKU, who talked about leading a study abroad group to Iceland in the summer of 2015. WKU Libraries kicks off the spring season of Far Away Places with Jason Polk and Leslie North, Asst. Professors from the Department of Geography and Geology at WKU, who will be talking about leading a study abroad group to Iceland in the summer of 2015. Dr. Polk and Dr. North co-taught this course with faculty …

Boom Or Bust? Mapping Out The Known Unknowns Of Global Shale Gas Production Potential, Jérôme Hilaire, Nico Bauer, Robert Brecha

Robert J. Brecha

To assess the global production costs of shale gas, we combine global top-down data with detailed bottom-up information. Studies solely based on top-down approaches do not adequately account for the heterogeneity of shale gas deposits and hence, are unlikely to appropriately capture the extraction costs of shale gas. We design and provide an expedient bottom-up method based on publicly available US data to compute the levelized costs of shale gas extraction. Our results indicate the existence of economically attractive areas but also reveal a dramatic cost increase as lower-quality reservoirs are exploited. At the global level, our best estimate suggests …