Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Uncovering The Mysteries Of Retention Ponds: Comparing The Abundance And Type Of Microplastics In Storm Water Ponds In London Ontario, Natalie Rose Minda

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Microplastics are plastics <5 mm (Liu, 2019; Arthur et al., 2009). They are created in two ways: Intentionally or from the fragmentation of larger pieces of plastic (National Ocean Service, 2021). They can negatively impact human, wildlife and ecosystem health in many ways depending on the exposure, type, size, and shape of the microplastic (Campanale, 2020). Retention ponds are often created in neighborhoods to collect water in order to prevent flooding. They also often serve as habitat for wildlife. Sediment samples were collected in two ponds in London Ontario both dredged in 2016. Samples were processed in the lab and further analyzed under the microscope to isolate the microplastics. Results have not been determined yet, but the abundance and type of microplastic varies in both ponds. Plastic pollution in retention ponds should be considered more, as it poses a threat to human and ecosystem health.

Stratigraphy And Depositional Environment Of The Middle Atoka Formation, Central Arkoma Basin, Western Arkansas, Yueyang Wang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wire line logs are widely used in analysis of the subsurface stratigraphy of the middle Atoka Formation, Central Arkoma Basin, Western Arkansas. SP log, Gamma ray log, resistivity log and conductivity log provide valuable information to construct cross sections.

The middle Atoka formation is composed of a succession of shale and sandstone alternations with thickness reaching approximately 3000 feet in the study area. It contains several sandstone units which include Morris, Tackett, Areci, Bynum, Casey and Dunn”A” separated by shale intervals. The purpose of this study is to identify these units and predict sequence stratigraphy and depositional environment by constructing …

Sedimentary Petrology Of The Hartshorne Formation, Southeastern Arkoma Basin, Arkansas, Ruizhe Yin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Pennsylvanian Hartshorne Sandstone crops out in an east trending belt across central Arkansas immediately north of the Ouachita orogenic belt and south of the Boston Mountains. The unit, composed of massive to cross bedded sandstone ranging to 150m in thickness, was deposited by a west-flowing river system that extended from central Arkansas to southeastern Oklahoma. The source of the sediment has been extensively discussed but not completely established. The object of this thesis is to constrain the source area and terrain based on thin section mineralogy and texture. Thin sections were prepared from outcrops in the Arkoma Basin and …

Examining Denitrification In Agricultural Ditch Sediments Vegetated With Rice Cutgrass (Leersia Oryzoides): Modeling Seasonal Variation Across Increasing Levels Of Nitrate Loading And Model Application To Pre-Existing Datasets, Shannon Lee Speir

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen (N) derived from fertilizer application in agricultural systems may contribute to significant environmental impacts, including eutrophication of fresh and coastal waters. Rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides) can significantly enhance denitrification potential in agricultural ditch sediments, but relationships with known drivers are not well understood. To address this, I examined effects of nitrate (NO3-) availability on dinitrogen gas (N2) and NO3- fluxes seasonally in Chapter 2. Denitrification rates were measured as N2 flux from intact vegetated sediment cores using Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS). Michaelis-Menten models were developed from observations to mathematically describe N2 fluxes across the spring, summer, and fall …

Early And Middle Atokan Lithostratigraphy And Reservoir Development, Northern Arkoma Basin, Northwestern Arkansas, Matthew Alan Blaylock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma Basin is a peripheral foreland arc basin associated with the Ouachita orogenic belt. In Arkansas, the basin is bounded by the Ouachita belt to the south and the Ozark Dome to the north. Sedimentary rocks of early to middle Atokan age are present in the shallow subsurface at the northern margin of the Arkoma Basin in northwestern Arkansas. Sedimentary units of this time interval reflect basinal subsidence, and the transition of the Arkoma Basin from a passive margin shelf to a rapidly evolving foreland arc basin. Sediment sources from the north and east produced a thickened Lower and …

Statistical Analysis Of Fluvial Channel Belts, Kyle Ryan Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As meandering rivers laterally migrate over time, they build channel belts. The accumulation of all previous flow paths creates the channel belt. To better understand these ancient rivers, modern river systems are being mapped to find statistical relationships between current flow path and the channel belt of river systems. It is important to examine a wide range of systems in terms of age, size, and location. The rivers are being mapped using an ImageJ, interpretations from Saucier (1994) and Google Earth. Three channel belt morphologies are mapped for 15 modern channel belts; the width of the river in relation to …

Reservoir Characterization And Depositional System Of The Atokan Grant Sand, Fort Worth Basin, Texas, Victoria Wood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Atokan Grant Sands are a tight gas sand play that would add new reserves to the Fort Worth Basin. The Fort Worth Basin is located in north-central Texas just west of Dallas, Texas. Within the basin, the study area consists of Denton, Wise, Tarrant, and Parker Counties in Texas. The basin is bounded to the north by the Red River Arch, to the west by the Bend Arch, to the south by the Llano uplift, to the east by the Ouachita structural front, and to the northeast by the Muenster Arch. The Grant Sands are approximately 1,500 ft stratigraphically …

Stratigraphic Characterization And Depositional History Of The Barnett Shale Within The Fort Worth Basin In Denton County, Texas, Matthew Loren Cope

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Barnett shale, located in the Fort Worth Basin, is a geologic unit that has undergone extensive study and currently holds great economic importance. It contains well-known stratigraphy, but still holds questions with regard to the specific stratigraphic variation over much of its area. Denton County contains a large geographic area of the Barnett shale, and holds many answers to the varying stratigraphy of the Barnett shale, as well as an explanation into its depositional history. The investigation involved the use of two cross sections utilizing 32 and 26 wells respectively in the western region of Denton County, Texas. From …

Stratigraphic Analysis With Respect To Aggregate Potential In The Duffield Quarry In Gum Log, Arkansas, Brock Evan Langford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The crushed stone mining industry is valued at nearly one billion dollars in Arkansas alone. Physical properties of the rock dictate whether or not an area may be suited for the establishment of an aggregate quarry. The Gum Log quarry located 10 miles northeast of Russellville, Arkansas is geographically well situated near areas in need of aggregate material, as well as physically competent rock. The rock mined in Gum Log is located in the Upper Atoka Formation, a Middle Pennsylvanian aged member of the Arkoma Basin. There are five different lithologic facies identifiable in the quarry (Facies 1-5 respectively): A …

Sedimentary Provenance Of The Wedington Member, Fayetteville Shale, From Age Relations Of Detrital Zircons, William Tyson Cains

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

U-Pb geochronology of detrital zircons collected from the Chesterian Wedington Sandstone allows interpretation of sediment provenance and dispersal patterns in the southern midcontinent during the Late Mississippian. Detrital zircons analyzed from six samples of Wedington Sandstone yielded a final result of 565 concordant analyses used for interpretation. Results are plotted as Probability-Density Plots to interpret the spectrum of ages. Significant peaks occurred at 350-500 Ma, 950-1250 Ma, 1300-1500 Ma, 1600-1800 Ma, 1800-2300 Ma, and >2500 Ma. These peaks are interpreted as sourced by crystalline rocks within the Laurentian craton from Taconic-Acadian, Grenville, Midcontinent Granite-Rhyolite, Yavapai-Mazatzal, Paleoproterozoic, and Superior Provinces. The …

Insights Into The Timing, Origin, And Deformation Of The Highland Mountains Gneiss Dome In Southwestern Montana, Usa, Lane Markes Boyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Highland Mountains of southwestern Montana offer a unique view of the Archean igneous and metamorphic rocks within the Great Falls tectonic zone (GFTZ). A Paleoproterozoic structural gneiss dome has been interpreted in the southern extent of the Highland Mountains. The ∼ 130km² of exhumed metamorphic rocks and gneiss dome exposed in the Highland Mountains are the primary focus of this research. The formation of the Highland Mountains gneiss dome is proposed to be directly related to a northwest-side down detachment (the Steels Pass shear zone) that formed during terrane collision along the GFTZ. The field investigation determined foliation …

Analysis Of Tripolitic Chert In The Boone Formation (Lower Mississippian, Osagean), Northwest Arkansas And Southwestern Missouri, Paul Marchand Minor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Boone Formation in northwest Arkansas and southwestern Missouri exposes a nearly complete sequence of Lower Mississippian chert-bearing carbonates deposited by a single 3rd order transgression and regression. An abundant amount of chert that has replaced limestone highlights the Boone, but little is understood about the timing and development of chert in Lower Mississippian carbonates. Interpretation of the diagenetic history of the chert, in particular tripolite, has significant implications beyond the outcrop. Determining the origin, timing, and extent of tripolitic chert in the Lower Mississippian System improves reservoir characterization in subsurface petroleum reservoirs in the mid-continent that are laterally equivalent …

Subsurface Stratigraphy And Characterization Of Mississippian (Osagean To Meramecian) Carbonate Reservoirs Of The Northern Anadarko Shelf, North-Central Oklahoma, Brett Robert Wittman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mississippian carbonate strata of the midcontinent contain prolific oil and gas reservoirs. Production from these carbonates has been primarily from two reservoir types, the Mississippi "chat" and recently denser chert-rich mudstone intervals. The"chat" interval is a high porosity chert residuum associated with the both the Osagean and basal Pennsylvanian unconformity. The distribution of the "chat" reservoir is discontinuous and heterogeneous. Recent horizontal drilling successes have reinvigorated academic and industry interest in the Lower Mississippian. Much of the activity is now targeting lower porosity, cherty, mudstone intervals of the Reeds Spring and Cowley Formations, which were previously considered to be non-economic. …

Diagenesis And Reservoir Characterization Of The Pennsylvanian Middle Atoka Formation, Sebastian And Logan Counties, West-Central Arkansas, Elvis Chekwube Bello

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Middle Atoka Formation evolved from a stable passive margin during the early Pennsylvanian time to a rapidly subsiding basin, with the sedimentary fill thickening greatly southward during the middle Pennsylvanian time. The basin dips in north-south direction. An east-west anticlines and synclines were observed.

The purpose of this study is to establish the stratigraphic units, reservoir geometry and distribution, and infer the depositional environments and reservoir quality. Well correlation and petrographic studies are used to achieve the goals.

Sandstone Point Count method was used. The Point Counts was divided into five categories. They include the framework grains (quartz, feldspar, …

Outcrop Investigation Of The Reeds Spring (Boone, Mississippian) Of The Hindsville Quarry Using Terrestrial Lidar, Terryl Glenn Daniels

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas the Reeds Springs Formation (Boone, Mississippian) is a hydrocarbon exploration objective (Mazullo et al, 2011). The Hindsville quarry located in the northeastern portion of Washington County in Arkansas is the focus of this study. The objective of this study is to characterize the Reeds Spring at the Hindsville Quarry. The use of terrestrial light detecting and ranging(LiDAR) is used to assist in the characterization of the quarry.

The unit architecture within the Hindsville Quarry outlines varying transitional periods that give insight into the deposition of the Reeds Springs Formation. There are comparable formations within …

Reservoir Characterization And Outcrop Analog: The Osagean Reeds Spring Formation (Lower Boone), Western Osage And Eastern Kay County, Oklahoma, Taylor Friesenhahn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Reeds Spring Formation (Osagean) is a member of the Lower Mississippian carbonate series developed on the Cherokee Platform Province of northeastern Oklahoma. On the western flank of the Ozark Dome, these rocks dip in a west-southwest direction into the subsurface where they are oil and gas reservoirs. A series of road cuts and surface exposures are cropped out in the tri-state area of northwest Arkansas, northeastern Oklahoma, and southwestern Missouri. Outcrop characteristics, including an abundant amount of nodular, anastomosing chert, generally finer-grained carbonate texture, and stratigraphic relationships provide an analog for its subsurface counterpart. Based on core description and …

Sequence Stratigraphy And Depositional Systems Of The Mansfield Sand, Upper Atoka Formation, Arkoma Basin, Arkansas, Scott Cherry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Mansfield sand is an informally named member of the Pennsylvanian Atoka Formation in Arkansas. Once a productive gas reservoir, the Mansfield is situated in a double plunging anticline in the southern portion of the Arkoma Basin. The formation is internally composed of sandstone units ranging in thickness from tens of feet to over a hundred feet interbedded with shale units ranging in thickness from several tens of feet to hundreds of feet. Previous studies have focused on the stratigraphy of the lower and middle Atoka. A detailed subsurface study of the stratigraphic framework of the Mansfield sand was conducted …

The Fluvial Muddy Creek Formation Near Overton, Nevada, Carl Taylor Swenberg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Muddy Creek Formation (MCF) may represent an ancestral Colorado River deposit. To test this hypothesis, I mapped exposures of the MCF within the Virgin River Depression (VRD), a rift basin in the central Basin and Range. This is the first study to analyze fluvial MCF facies and test their viability as ancestral Colorado River deposits.

Mapping, paleocurrent analysis, conglomerate provenance, and architectural elements analysis were used in order to characterize the fluvial MCF near Overton NV. Architectural elements analysis revealed that MCF fluvial facies are most closely associated with those of a high-energy sand-bed braided river system. These results …

Muddy Creek Formation: A Record Of Late Neogene Tectonics And Sedimentation In Southern Nevada, Thomas William Muntean

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Late Neogene Muddy Creek Formation (MCF), exposed in the vicinity of Lake Mead in southern Nevada, represents the youngest widespread Cenozoic sedimentary sequence in the region and is the focus of this study. Historically, the MCF has been largely ignored, with limited previous studies providing only regional-scale constraint on the age, stratigraphy, and mode of deposition for the formation; resulting in a data gap for our understanding of the Late Cenozoic tectonic and sedimentological evolution of southern Nevada.