Earth Sciences Commons^™

Using Time-Lapse Three Dimensional Vertical Seismic Profiling To Monitor Injected Fluids During Geologic Carbon Sequestration, John B. Hickman

Report of Investigations--KGS

Two three-dimensional vertical seismic profiles (3D-VSP) were acquired at the KGS Marvin Blan No. 1 CO₂ sequestration research well outside of Cloverport in Hancock County, Ky. The initial (preinjection) survey was performed September 15-16, 2010, and was followed by the injection of 361.2 metric tons of supercritical CO₂ and then 584 m³ of 2 percent potassium chloride water (to displace the remaining CO₂ in the wellbore) on September 22, 2010. After injection, the well was shut in with a downhole pressure of 17.5 MPa at the injected reservoir depth of 1,545.3 m. A second 3D-VSP was …

Development Of Structural Basins And Domes On The Sinn El-Kaddab Plateau, Egypt: Insights From In Situ Data And Application Of Moderate Resolution Orbital Imagery Of The Seiyal Fault, Thomas J. Jerris

Masters Theses

"The Seiyal Fault, one of many east-west trending faults located in the Western Desert of Egypt, and associated structural basins and domes are investigated using remote sensing imagery and field studies. Analysis of Shuttle Reconnaissance Topography Mission data, multi-spectral data from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (LM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectometer (ASTER) data, and imagery from Google Earth. Band combinations 3-2-1 and 7-4-2 in ETM+ and 3N-2-1 and 7-3-1 in ASTER, and Google Earth provided the most useful images for geologic mapping. The Seiyal Fault is best characterized as a zone …

A Remote Sensing Investigation Of Elevated Sub-Horizontal Topographic Surfaces In The Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma, Liang Xue

Masters Theses

"Multiple elevated horizontal to sub-horizontal topographic surfaces are present in the Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma. Elevated topographic surfaces, developed primarily on granite bedrock with gentle slopes of 0.5 to 7⁰,were investigated using 1) Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) extracted from NAD 27 UTM coordinates, 2) Google Earth imagery, and 3) USGS topographic maps. In the western Wichita Mountains prominent topographic surfaces at elevations of 720 ± 5 m, 685 ± 5 m, and 660 ± 5 m are well preserved on at least four different mountains (e.g., Solder's Peak, King Mt.) and can be correlated with similar surfaces on at least seven …

Pn Anisotropy Tomography Of The Colorado Plateau And Adjacent Areas, Shengyao Cheng

Masters Theses

"The Pn tomography method utilizes seismic waves that refract along the Moho interface to perform inversion in order to investigate velocity anomalies and seismic anisotropy in the uppermost mantle. Results from Pn tomography can provide important information about the composition, temperature, and tectonic processes beneath the study area. Over the past decades, numerous seismic and geologic studies have been conducted in the Colorado Plateau and its adjacent areas to reveal crustal and mantle structures and processes responsible for the diverse surface geological features and tectonic events that have occurred in this area. To investigate lateral variations in the uppermost mantle …

Shear-Wave Splitting And Mantle Deformation Beneath The Western Tibetan Plateau, Melissa Ann Ray

Masters Theses

"The Tibetan Plateau has been an enigma to the scientific community since scientists first began to focus their attention on the area. Numerous studies over the decades were conducted to address how the plateau formed, mostly in the central and eastern portions of the Tibetan Plateau. Many questions still remain regarding the western Tibetan Plateau, and this study will add constraints to the mechanisms which regulated the formation of the plateau.

Data was acquired from over 13,000 measurements from 172 stations covering the western region of the plateau encompassing the Qiangtang Terrane, the Lhasa Terrane, and the Himalayan Orogenic Zone. …

Brownfield Action: Dissemination Of A Sencer Model Curriculum And The Creation Of A Collaborative Stem Education Network, Peter Bower, Ryan Kelsey, Joseph Liddicoat, Doug M. Thompson, Angelo Lampousis, Bret Bennington, Bess Greenbaum Seewald, Arthur D. Kney, Saugata Datta, Lawrence D. Lemke, Briane Sorice Miccio, Tamara Graham

Publications and Research

Brownfield Action (BA) is a web-based environmental site assessment (ESA) simulation in which students form geotechnical consulting companies and work together to solve problems in environmental forensics. Developed at Barnard College with the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, BA has been disseminated to ten colleges, universities, and high schools, resulting in a collaborative network of educators. The experiences of current users are presented describing how they have incorporated the BA curriculum into their courses, as well as how BA affected teaching and learning. The experiences demonstrate that BA can be used in whole or in part, is …

Instrument Correction And Dynamic Site Profile Validation At The Central United States Seismic Observatory, New Madrid Seismic Zone, Clayton M.J. Brengman

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Central United States Seismic Observatory (CUSSO), is a fifteen-element array of three-component accelerometers and seismometers in the New Madrid seismic zone, within the upper Mississippi embayment. Its location within the thick (up to 1 km) sequences of unlithified sediment comprising the embayment, make CUSSO a unique array in its ability to directly measure seismic wave propagation, including ground motion site effect; however, before the observational data can be used for analysis, the orientation and instrument response of the CUSSO array must be defined. This study used cross-correlation and direct comparisons to filter out the instrument response and determine the …

Application Of The Kalman Filter On Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry Data Around The Vinton Salt Dome, Louisiana, Mahnaz Sepehrmanesh

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Full tensor gravity (FTG) data are known for their high resolution but also for higher noise in its components due to the dynamic nature of the platform used for data acquisition. Although a review of the literature suggests steady increase in the success of gravity gradiometry, we still cannot take advantage of the full potential of the method, mostly because of the noise with the same amplitude and wavenumber characteristics as the signal that affects these data. Smoothing from common low pass filters removes small wavelength features and makes it difficult to detect structural features and other density variations of …

Reconstruction Of The Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) Palaeotopography In The Upper Yangtze Region, Linna Zhang, Junxuan Fan, Qing Chen, Shuang-Ye Wu

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Reconstruction of the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) palaeotopography in South China is important for understanding the distribution pattern of the Hirnantian marine depositional environment. In this study, we reconstructed the Hirnantian palaeotopography in the Upper Yangtze region based on the rankings of the palaeo-water depths, which were inferred according to the lithofacies and biofacies characteristics of the sections. Data from 374 Hirnantian sections were collected and standardized through the online Geobiodiversity Database. The Ordinary Kriging interpolation method in the ArcGIS software was applied to create the continuous surface of the palaeo-water depths, i.e. the Hirnantian palaeotopography. Meanwhile, the line transect analysis …

Tidal Pacing, Skipped Slips And The Slowdown Of Whillans Ice Stream, Antarctica, J. Paul Winberry, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, Richard B. Alley, Douglas A. Wiens, Martin J. Pratt

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We summarize new observations of the deceleration and stick–slip motion of Whillans Ice Stream (WIS), Antarctica. We refine the location of the large sticky spots that resist motion between slip events, the locations of which are controlled by the patterns of subglacial water flow. Our examination of the long-term velocity time series for the ice stream reveals that the decadal-scale deceleration is not occurring at a steady rate, but varies at the sub-decadal timescale. This unsteady deceleration modulates the temporal evolution of a broad (~50 km across) surface-elevation bulge forming at the junction between the relatively narrow upstream portion of …

Constraints On Interplate Locking Within The Makran Subduction Zone Using Gps, Elyse Erin Frohling

All Master's Theses

We use GPS measurements from 20 stations located in Iran, Pakistan, and Oman along with International Seismological Centre hypocentral locations to create a fault coupling model for the Makran subduction zone. The 3-D geometry of the megathrust fault is estimated from five profiles landward of the Makran trench. Continuous GPS on the Arabian plate show convergence of ~27 mm/year, and interseismic deformation is calculated using the back-slip method of Savage [ 1983]. We find the entire subduction zone appears to be accumulating stress uniformly from ~15-60 km depth and find no evidence of along-strike segmentation in strain accumulation, suggesting the …

Proxy-Based Reconstructions Of Earthquakes And Tsunamis At Quidico, South-Central Chile, Isabel J. Hong

All Master's Theses

We utilized geomorphic, microfossil, sedimentological, and stratigraphic methods to investigate the paleotsunami history at Quidico, Chile (38.1° S, 73.2° W). A combination of pits, cores, and riverbank exposures provide stratigraphic evidence of 8 sand layers at Quidico, including tsunami deposits from 2010 and 1960. The sands are laterally continuous but display landward thinning, disappearing completely from the stratigraphy 1.2 km inland from the coast. Intervening sediment layers consist of organicrich silts and peat. Grain size analysis shows the sand units are bimodal in distribution whereas the organic-rich silts and peat have a broader, bimodal distribution. Lithological analysis showed similarities among …

Controls On Fault Geometry During Early Stages Of Extension In The Larkspur Hills, Northwest Basin And Range, Diana Jean Strickley

All Master's Theses

Detailed analyses of normal faults in the Larkspur Hills, CA-NV, northwest Basin and Range, offer insight into factors controlling normal fault initiation, growth, and distribution. N-trending faults in the southern portion of the study area share trends of major range-bounding structures and Pliocene linear volcanic vents; in contrast, NNW- and NNE- trending faults dominate further north and into south-central Oregon. Stress analyses and comparison with experimental and field data suggest that preexisting structures control faults in the northern Larkspur Hills, while faults form perpendicular to σ3 in the southern hills. The change in fault orientations is abrupt, occurring across a …

Spatial Relationship Between Gps Slip And Seismic Tremor During Cascadia Slow Slip Events, Hillary Lynn Goodner

All Master's Theses

We model GPS deformation and timing of seismic tremor associated with transient deformation in Cascadia to test the hypothesis that tremor and slip occur synchronously but are spatially offset. For the period 2010–2013, we use seismic tremor data with a duration-moment relationship to predict GPS time series and compare them to observations. We find that observed GPS displacements are best predicted when tremor locations on the plate interface are shifted 15 km up-dip of their published epicenter. To test whether the spatial offset of tremor and slip is due to systematic mislocation of published epicenters, we attempt to identify individual …

Thermobarometry And Geochronology In The Dulan Region, North Qaidam Ultrahigh-Pressure Terrane: Resolving Spatial Variation Of Ages, Temperatures, And Pressures, Megan Eileen Regel

All Master's Theses

The Dulan ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) terrane exposes 449-422 Ma eclogites in the east and 449-418 Ma high-pressure granulites to the west, but the relationship between the units is poorly understood. Zirconium-in-rutile temperatures show an east-west 3- 5°C/km gradient in four UHP eclogites: 662-716±10°C; garnet-omphacite-phengite thermobarometry of peak conditions yields 659-730±82°C, 25.3-27.1±3.2 kbars. Zircon U-Pb ages of four eclogites are the same within uncertainty, averaging 434±2.9 Ma. Tiin- zircon thermometry and rare earth element patterns indicate these ages represent eclogite facies metamorphism. One high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) granulite yields a minimum rutile temperature of 773±4°C. Previous thermobarometry of highpressure granulites yields ≥800°C and 14-17 …

Use Of An Electrical Impedance Tomography Method To Detect And Track Fractures In A Gelatin Medium, Evan G. Lucas

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

Electrical impedance tomography is applied to the problem of detecting, locating, and tracking fractures in ballistics gelatin. The hardware developed is intended to be physically robust and based on off-the-shelf hardware. Fractures were created in two separate ways: by shooting a .22 caliber bullet into the gelatin and by injecting saline solution into the gelatin. The .22 caliber bullet created an air gap, which was seen as an increase in resistivity. The saline solution created a fluid filled gap, which was seen as a decrease in resistivity. A double linear array was used to take data for each of the …

Time Lapse Seismic Observations And Effects Of Reservoir Compressibility At Teal South Oil Field, Nayyer Islam

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

One of the original ocean-bottom time-lapse seismic studies was performed at the Teal South oil field in the Gulf of Mexico during the late 1990’s. This work reexamines some aspects of previous work using modern analysis techniques to provide improved quantitative interpretations. Using three-dimensional volume visualization of legacy data and the two phases of post-production time-lapse data, I provide additional insight into the fluid migration pathways and the pressure communication between different reservoirs, separated by faults. This work supports a conclusion from previous studies that production from one reservoir caused regional pressure decline that in turn resulted in liberation of …

Large-Scale Fluidization Features From Late Holocene Coseismic Paleoliquefaction In The Willamette River Forearc Valley, Central Cascadia Subduction Zone, Oregon, Usa, Curt D. Peterson, Kurt Kristensen, Rick Minor

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A search of Willamette River cutbanks was conducted for the presence of late Holocene paleoli-quefaction records in the Willamette forearc valley, located 175 ± 25 km landward from the buried trench in the central Cascadia subduction zone. A search of Willamette River cutbanks was conducted for the presence of late Holocene paleoli-quefaction records in the Willamette forearc valley, located 175 ± 25 km landward from the buried trench in the central Cascadia subduction zone. Eight cutbank sites are reported that show evidence of large-scale fluidization features (≥10 cm width) including clastic sand dikes and intruded sand sills in Holocene overbank …

Geodesy- And Geology-Based Slip-Rate Models For The Western United States (Excluding California) National Seismic Hazard Maps, Mark D. Petersen, Yuehua Zeng, Kathleen M. Haller, Robert Mccaffrey, William C. Hammond, Peter Bird, Morgan Moschetti, Zheng-Kang Shen, Jayne Bormann, Wayne R. Thatcher

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2014 National Seismic Hazard Maps for the conterminous United States incorporate additional uncertainty in fault slip-rate parameter that controls the earthquake-activity rates than was applied in previous versions of the hazard maps. This additional uncertainty is accounted for by new geodesy- and geology-based slip-rate models for the Western United States. Models that were considered include an updated geologic model based on expert opinion and four combined inversion models informed by both geologic and geodetic input. The two block models considered indicate significantly higher slip rates than the expert opinion and the two fault-based combined inversion models. For the hazard …

Doing More With Short Period Data: Determining Magnitudes From Clipped And Over-Run Seismic Data At Mount St. Helens, John J. Wellik Ii

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

How can we calculate earthquake magnitudes when the signal is clipped and over-run? When a volcano is very active, the seismic record may saturate (i.e., the full amplitude of the signal is not recorded) or be over-run (i.e., the end of one event is covered by the start of a new event). The duration, and sometimes the amplitude, of an earthquake signal are necessary for determining event magnitudes; thus, it may be impossible to calculate earthquake magnitudes when a volcano is very active. This problem is most likely to occur at volcanoes with limited networks of short period seismometers. This …

Static And Dynamic Stress Change At 27 Volcanoes Of The Central American Volcanic Arc After The Mw. 7.6 Costa Rica Earthquake Of 5 September 2012, Lorenzo Gratton

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

Large earthquakes may strongly influence the activity of volcanoes through static and dynamic processes. In this study, we quantify the static and dynamic stress change on 27 volcanoes in Central America, after the M_w 7.6 Costa Rica earthquake of 5 September 2012. Following this event, 8 volcanoes showed signs of activity. We calculated the static stress change due to the earthquake on hypothetical faults under these volcanoes with Coulomb 3.3. For the dynamic stress change, we computed synthetic seismograms to simulate the waveforms at these volcanoes. We then calculated the Peak Dynamic Stress (PDS) from the modeled peak ground …

Tuning, Avo, And Flat-Spot Effects In A Seismic Analysis Of North Sea Block F3, Qiang Guo

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

Reflection seismic data from the F3 block in the Dutch North Sea exhibits many large-amplitude reflections at shallow horizons, typically categorized as “brightspots ” (Schroot and Schuttenhelm, 2003), mainly because of their bright appearance. In most cases, these bright reflections show a significant “flatness” contrasting with local structural trends.

While flatspots are often easily identified in thick reservoirs, we have often occasionally observed apparent flatspot tuning effects at fluid contacts near reservoir edges and in thin reservoir beds, while only poorly understanding them. We conclude that many of the shallow large-amplitude reflections in block F3 are dominated by flatspots, and …

An Investigation Of Contaminant Metal Distribution And Mineral Speciation In The Soil Near The Buick Recycling Division Smelter, Iron County, Missouri, Krista Nicole Rybacki

Masters Theses

"Trace metal contamination studies were conducted near the Buick Resource Recycling Division. This study used sequential extraction, total digestion, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to study trace metals in two soil cores. Sequential extraction analysis of the soil cores revealed that lead was associated with either iron or manganese oxides. Zinc and copper were bound to soil components, extracted mainly from organics, sulfides, and clays. Total digestion results compared favorably to the sum of the sequential extraction results for lead, thus validating the sequential extraction methodology. The highest concentration observed for lead was 4,743 parts …

A Receiver Function Study Of Crust Thickness And Composition Beneath The Southwestern United States, Si Wu

Masters Theses

"Over the past decades, the seismic structure of the crust and upper mantle of the southwestern United States was examined using an array of different methods. The structure and composition of crust received special attentions, most due to the hydrocarbon reserves in this area. Here new constraints on crustal evolution and structure models are provide by systematically analyzing 37,402 receiver functions recorded at 234 seismic stations on the southwestern United States. The results reveal that the Transitional Crust is characterized by a thin (29.0±1.0 km) crust, a low Vp/Vs ratio of 1.76±0.016 and a high amplitude (R) of P-to-S converted …

Geochemical Studies Of Backfill Aggregates, Lake Sediment Cores And The Hueco Bolson Aquifer, Anita Thapalia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation comprises of three different researches that focuses on the application of geochemistry from aggregates, lake sediment cores and Hueco Bolson Aquifer. Each study is independent and presented in the publication format. The first chapter is already published and the second chapter is in revision phase. Overall, three studies measure the large scale (field) as well as bench scale (lab) water-rock interactions influenced by the climatic and anthropogenic factors spans from the field of environmental geology to civil engineering.

The first chapter of this Dissertation addresses the chemical evaluation of coarse aggregates from six different quarries in Texas. The …

Geophysical Model Of The Cu-Mo Porphyry Ore Deposit At Copper Flat Mine, Hillsboro, Sierra County, New Mexico, Adrian Emmanuel Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A 3D gravity model of the Copper Flat Mine was performed as part of the exploration of new resources in at the mine. The project is located in the Las Animas Mining District in Sierra County, New Mexico. The mine has been producing ore since 1877 and is currently owned by the New Mexico Copper Corporation, which plans o bringing the closed copper mine back into production with innovation and a sustainable approach to mining development. The Project is located on the Eastern side of the Arizona-Sonora-New Mexico porphyry copper Belt of Cretaceous age. Copper Flat is predominantly a Cretaceous …

Did A Submarine Landslide Contribute To The 2011 Tohoku Tsunami?, David R. Tappin, Stephan T. Grilli, Jeffrey C. Harris, Robert J. Geller, Timothy Masterlark, James T. Kirby, Fengyan Shi, Gangfeng Ma, K.K.S. Thingbaijam, P. Martin Mai

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Many studies have modeled the Tohoku tsunami of March 11, 2011 as being due entirely to slip on an earthquake fault, but the following discrepancies suggest that further research is warranted. (1) Published models of tsunami propagation and coastal impact underpredict the observed runup heights of up to 40. m measured along the coast of the Sanriku district in the northeast part of Honshu Island. (2) Published models cannot reproduce the timing and high-frequency content of tsunami waves recorded at three nearshore buoys off Sanriku, nor the timing and dispersion properties of the waveforms at offshore DART buoy #21418. (3) …

Why Ricker Wavelets Are Successful In Processing Seismic Data: Towards A Theoretical Explanation, Afshin Gholamy Salehabady

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In many engineering applications ranging from engineering seismology to petroleum engineering and civil engineering, processing seismic data plays a key role. In processing seismic data, it turns out to be very efficient to describe the signal's spectrum as a linear combination of Ricker wavelet spectra.

In this Thesis, we provide a possible theoretical explanation for this empirical efficiency. Specifically, signal propagation through several layers is discussed, and it is shown that the Ricker wavelet is the simplest non-trivial solution for the corresponding data processing problem, under the condition that the described properties of the approximation family are satisfied.

Geophysical Investigation Of Hot Springs In The Vicinity Of Shoshone, California, Felix Dziedzorm Ziwu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Magnetic and gravity surveys were conducted in the vicinity of Shoshone, California to test a hypothesis from investigating hotsprings within Tecopa and Saratoga which states that deep faults must intersect with a specific orientation relative to the regional stress field in order to create hot springs along the Amargosa River.

Three isolated basalt flows with different gravity and magnetic properties were identified near the Shoshone hot spring. Two of the flows have very low magnetic anomalies and the remaining one has a high magnetic anomaly. The high magnetic anomaly basalt flow also has a significantly higher Bouguer anomaly than the …

Analyzing Stress Drops Of Earthquakes Near Wellington, New Zealand, Kyle Eugene Barnes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stress drop studies analyze the change of stress across faults before and after an earthquake. The goal of this study was to determine how stress drop varies throughout the Wellington region of the North Island of New Zealand. To the east of the North Island, the Hikurangi Trough obliquely subducts the Pacific Plate beneath the younger Australian Plate. Toward the southern end of the North Island and into Cook Strait the Pacific plate becomes more buoyant and the plate interface displays strong coupling as subduction diminishes into the strike-slip Marlborough fault system. Subduction of the Pacific plate ceases beneath the …