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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Sediment Provenance Of Tsunami Deposits: Implications For Assessing The Relative Intensity Of Paleotsunamis From The Sendai Coastline Of Japan, Tiffany Otai Dec 2020

Sediment Provenance Of Tsunami Deposits: Implications For Assessing The Relative Intensity Of Paleotsunamis From The Sendai Coastline Of Japan, Tiffany Otai

Master's Theses

The 2011 Tohoku tsunami impacted the northeastern coast of Japan and caused unexpected damages due to the underestimation of this type of hazard. Of particular importance is the fact that geologic evidence for a predecessor event, the Jogan tsunami (CE 869), could have forecasted the severity of the 2011 Tohoku event. While the timing of tsunamis is important for effective hazard mitigation, outside of the 2011 Tohoku event, the intensity of past tsunamis remains unclear. To understand paleotsunami intensity, it is important to document characteristics of modern analogues like the 2011 event. This study utilizes surface distributions of foraminifera from …


Experiments To Synthesize Soft-Sedimentary Deformation And Clastic Dikes, Chelsi K. Howard May 2020

Experiments To Synthesize Soft-Sedimentary Deformation And Clastic Dikes, Chelsi K. Howard

2020 Symposium Posters

Clastic dikes are intrusions of sediments into layers of other sedimentary strata that are found in various places across eastern Washington. Three notable sites include Burlingame Canyon in Touchet, WA, Tucannon Valley near Starbuck, WA and Campion Park in Spokane, WA. Clastic dikes are thought to be formed by either overburden stress or from seismic activity. In eastern WA, the dikes were formed by large overburden pressure and seismic-like forces caused by cataclysmic floods that washed over eastern WA (known as the Missoula floods). We recreated this environment by layering saturated sand below and on top of kaolinite clay, and …


Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt Jan 2020

Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Carmel Formation of the Middle Jurassic has many mysteries. One of these enigmas is its bivalves. The formation contains the famous oyster balls called ostreoliths. Despite bivalves making up 80 percent of the fossils found in the Carmel Formation, it is not understood how the bivalves lived in this community. The formation is located in southwestern and central Utah. It was deposited when an epicontinental seaway covered most of Utah. The paleoclimate of Utah was hot and dry, which meant that the environment was evaporite heavy. This also meant that the seawater at the southernmost extent of the seaway …


Fluvial Sedimentology And Architecture Of Two Latest Devonian Lower Huntley Mountain Formation Outcrops, North-Central Pennsylvania, Usa, Evan W. Filion Jan 2020

Fluvial Sedimentology And Architecture Of Two Latest Devonian Lower Huntley Mountain Formation Outcrops, North-Central Pennsylvania, Usa, Evan W. Filion

Honors Theses

Thick successions of river deposits accumulated in the north-central Pennsylvania region of the Appalachian foreland basin during Late Devonian time (~380-360 Ma). The properties and morphologies of these paleorivers are not well characterized. Latest Devonian tectonic, climatic, and eustatic controls on river dynamics and basin infilling also remain unclear. This study assesses the sedimentology, facies architecture, paleochannel depths, and grain size of a 133 m thick section of fluvial strata exposed across two outcrops, Blossburg South (older) and Blossburg West (younger), mapped as lower Huntley Mountain Formation near Blossburg, Pennsylvania. Field-based lithofacies observations, high-resolution panoramic photography, terrestrial lidar scanning, and …


Paleoenvironments Containing Coryphodon In The Fort Union And Willwood Formations Spanning The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Petm), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Emily N. Randall Jan 2020

Paleoenvironments Containing Coryphodon In The Fort Union And Willwood Formations Spanning The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Petm), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Emily N. Randall

Senior Independent Study Theses

Preliminary data point toward a new hypothesis in which Coryphodon lived in wetter habitats before the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), but was able to adapt to drier habitats in order to survive post-PETM. Early Paleogene nonmarine strata are extensively exposed in the Bighorn Basin of northwestern Wyoming. The Fort Union and Willwood Formations represent alluvial deposition within a Laramide Basin formed from the Paleocene through early Eocene. Therefore, the basin is an ideal place to study the local effects of the PETM, a rapid global warming event that occurred about 55.5 million years ago at the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. During this …


Interpretive Geologic Maps And Cross Sections For Phelps, Kearney, And Adams Counties In Nebraska, Dana Divine, Leslie M. Howard Jan 2020

Interpretive Geologic Maps And Cross Sections For Phelps, Kearney, And Adams Counties In Nebraska, Dana Divine, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division

Data from thousands of test-hole and well logs were interpreted to improve understanding and management of the High Plains aquifer in a three-county study area adjacent to the Big Bend reach of the Platte River. Five principal conclusions resulted from these interpretations: (1) the extent of Neogene Ogallala deposits beneath the study area is different than previously mapped; (2) a large paleovalley incised into Cretaceous bedrock probably cuts across Kearney and Adams counties and may be the course of the ancestral Platte River prior to formation of the Big Bend; (3) a groundwater mound created by irrigation canals artificially raises …