Earth Sciences Commons^™

Arctic Landscapes In Transition: Responses To Thawing Permafrost, James P. Mcnamara

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Observations indicate that over the past several decades, geomorphic processes in the Arctic have been changing or intensifying. Coastal erosion, which currently supplies most of the sediment and carbon to the Arctic Ocean [Rachold et al., 2000], may have doubled since 1955 [Mars and Houseknecht, 2007]. Further inland, expansion of channel networks [Toniolo et al., 2009] and increased river bank erosion [Costard et al., 2007] have been attributed to warming. Lakes, ponds, and wetlands appear to be more dynamic, growing in some areas, shrinking in others, and changing distribution across lowland regions …

Characterization Of Englacial Voids Using Radar Velocity Anisotropy, Joshua D. Nichols

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Glacial hydrology plays an important role in the motion and melt of glaciers. The transport of water through glacial ice is still poorly understood. Previous studies show that much of the water is stored and routed through planar voids within the glacier. From borehole observations and previous radar surveys, the voids appear to have a preferential orientation. Transverse waves, including radar waves, and shear seismic waves, travel at different velocities when polarized at different orientations relative to aligned inclusions. I conducted two georadar surveys on Bench glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, AK. Bench glacier has been the field site of …

Reproducibility Of Soil Moisture Ensembles When Representing Soil Parameter Uncertainty Using A Latin Hypercube-Based Approach With Correlation Control, Alejandro N. Flores, Dara Entekhabi, Rafael L. Bras

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Representation of model input uncertainty is critical in ensemble‐based data assimilation. Monte Carlo sampling of model inputs produces uncertainty in the hydrologic state through the model dynamics. Small Monte Carlo ensemble sizes are desirable because of model complexity and dimensionality but potentially lead to sampling errors and correspondingly poor representation of probabilistic structure of the hydrologic state. We compare two techniques to sample soil hydraulic and thermal properties (SHTPs): (1) Latin Hypercube (LH) based sampling with correlation control and (2) random sampling from SHTP marginal distributions. A hydrology model is used to project SHTP uncertainty onto the soil moisture state …

Seismicity Associated With Geothermal Systems, Randi Walters

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Studying natural and induced seismicity associated with geothermal systems can provide information regarding the location and magnitude of hydraulic fracturing. Understanding the fracture system can aid geothermal exploration. In addition, seismicity can affect the output of a geothermal reservoir, and potentially be a seismic hazard to the surrounding area. This study focuses on two geothermal systems: the Raft River Geothermal System (RRGS) in southern Idaho and the Mt. Princeton Geothermal System (MPGS) in central Colorado. The seismic data analyzed for the RRGS is from the broadband sensors that are part of the EarthScope Project’s Transportable Array (TA), while the seismic …

Assessing The Potential To Detect Oil Spills In And Under Snow Using Airborne Ground-Penetrating Radar, John H. Bradford, David F. Dickens, Per Johan Brandvik

CGISS Publications and Presentations

With recent increased interest in oil and gas exploration and development in the Arctic comes increased potential for an accidental hydrocarbon release into the cryosphere, including within and at the base of snow. There is a critical need to develop effective and reliable methods for detecting such spills. Numerical modeling shows that ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is sensitive to the presence of oil in the snow pack over a broad range of snow densities and oil types. Oil spills from the surface drain through the snow by the mechanisms of unsaturated flow and form geometrically complex distributions that are controlled by …

Detrital Zircon Geochronology For Neoproterozoic To Cambrian Sediment Sources Of The Deep Creek Range And The Pilot Range In The Southwestern United States, Kaysea Perry

Earth and Soil Sciences

Detrital zircon studies of miogeoclinal sediments can help provide a deeper look into the mechanisms leading to continental breakup by studying the evolution of the continental margin of North America. Few detrital zircon studies have been conducted to support previous research and theories about the sedimentation of the Miogeocline from the Neoproterozoic to the Cambrian. Studies targeted at the Basin and Range province of the western United States show a trend of increasing local sediment sources. We analyzed detrital zircons from the Pilot and Deep Creek Ranges in Nevada and Utah via LA-MC-ICP-MS at the University of Arizona LaserChron Center …

High-Precision U-Pb Zircon Age Calibration Of The Global Carboniferous Time Scale And Milankovitch Band Cyclicity In The Donets Basin, Eastern Ukraine, Vladimir I. Davydov, James L. Crowley, Mark D. Schmitz, Vladislav I. Poletaev

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

High-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon ages for 12 interstratified tuffs and tonsteins are used to radiometrically calibrate the detailed lithostratigraphic, cyclostratigraphic, and biostratigraphic framework of the Carboniferous Donets Basin of eastern Europe. Chemical abrasion of zircons, use of the internationally calibrated EARTHTIME mixed U-Pb isotope dilution tracer, and improved mass spectrometry guided by detailed error analysis have resulted in an age resolution of

Geochemical Investigation Of An Offshore Sewage Sludge Deposit, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Michael A. Kruge, Albert Permanyer, Jordi Serra, Danlin Yu

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

For 20 years ending in the 1990’s the city of Barcelona discharged the products from a large primary sewage treatment plant directly into the Mediterranean Sea via underwater conduits. About ca. 3 million m³ of relict sewage sludge, rich in organic matter and heavy metals, has spread over an elongated area offshore, due to successive ruptures of the conduits. The use of the discharge pipes ceased, but he sludge deposit remains in place for the time being.

To understand the history and present state of the sludge deposit in advance of future remediation, a program of geophysical mapping, sampling, …

Ground Motion For The Maximum Credible Earthquake In Kentucky, Zhenming Wang

Report of Investigations--KGS

Although they are not frequent, earthquakes occur in and around Kentucky and pose certain hazards. Assessing seismic hazards is challenging, however, because of a lack of observations. The best estimates of ground motions that could be expected if the maximum credible earthquake occurs in or around Kentucky are depicted in maps showing peak ground acceleration and short-period (0.2 second) and long-period (1.0 second) response accelerations with 5 percent critical damping on hard rock. Another consideration for seismic safety is that the maximum credible earthquake has a long recurrenece interval, from 500 to 1,000 years in the New Madrid Seismic Zone …

Ground Penetrating Radar Investigations In Upper Kama Potash Mines, Oleg N. Kovin

Doctoral Dissertations

"An understanding of the structure and state of the rock mass surrounding underground openings in the potash mines is critically important for safe mining, planning the methods of extraction of an orebody, and preventing the influx of ground water. Continuous common offset ground penetrating radar (GPR) data were acquired in the potash mine operated by the Joint Stock Company (JSC) "Silvinit" (Russia) as part of an investigation of both pre-existing fractures exposed by mine workings and other anomalous geological structures. During the course of GPR investigation, the electrical properties of salt-bearing units were determined, site-specific data acquisition techniques and object-oriented …

Inversion Of 2d And 3d Dc Resistivity Imaging Data Forhigh Contrast Geophysical Regions Using Artificial Neuralnetworks., Ahmad Neyamadpour

Student Works (2010-2019)

In electrical resistivity imaging surveys, the field data along a profile are normally acquired as a subsurface distribution of apparent resistivity. One common method to obtain the true resistivity distribution is by inverting the apparent resistivity values. However, the inversion of DC resistivity imaging data is complex due to its non-linearity. This is especially true for regions with high resistivity contrast. For the complicated subsurface structure, especially when regions of high resistivity contrast exist, a conventional inversion technique based on least squares methods may not be able to invert the DC resistivity data with adequate accuracy. Therefore, in this study, …

Palynology Of The Middle To Upper Eocene Esmeraldas Formation In The Nuevo Mundo Syncline Area, Middle Magdalena Valley Basin, Colombia, Guillermo Rodriguez-Forero

Masters Theses

"The palynology of the Eocene Esmeraldas Formation in the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin, Colombia was analyzed in order to constrain the age of the unit. This formation is a very important oil reservoir in the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin, which is a product of a fragmentation of a Cenozoic foreland basin by the Northern Andes. It created structural complexities and syntectonic deposition. The lateral continuity of the formation, as well as its correlations with lithostratigraphic units is adjacent basins, are not clearly understood. The Los Corros Fossil Horizon, a mollusk horizon in the upper part of the Esmeraldas Formation, is …

Geophysical Investigation Of Paleoseismological Features In Eastern Arkansas, Usa, Okba Raad Al-Qadhi

Theses and Dissertations

Satellite images and field surveys reveal the existence of several liquefaction features in east central Arkansas on an area that is not known to have experienced major earthquakes in the past. The research of this dissertation is part of a long term comprehensive program to study and assess the seismic risk in the central United States. This research successfully showed that geophysical methods are effective and more economical than traditional drilling and trenching methods. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Capacitively Coupled Resistivity (CCR) techniques were comprehensively implemented at over 36 sites in the study area near Marianna, Arkansas, United States. …

A Study Of Fold Characteristics And Deformation Style Using The Evolution Of The Land Surface: Zagros Simply Folded Belt, Iran, Caroline M. Burberry, John W. Cosgrove, Jian-Guo Liu

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Deformation styles within a fold-thrust belt can be understood in terms of the spatial organization and geometry of the fold structures. In young fold-thrust belts such as the Zagros, this geometry is reflected topographically by concordant landform morphology. Thus, the distribution of deformation structures can be characterized using satellite image analysis, digital elevation models, the drainage network and geomorphological indicators. The two distinct fold types considered in this study (fault-bend folds and detachment folds) both trending NW-SE, interact with streams flowing NE-SW from the High Zagros Mountains into the Persian Gulf. Multiple abandoned stream channels cross fault-bend folds related to …

Fluid Budget Of Metasedimentary Rocks From A Tertiary Accretionary Prism And Connections To Seismicity, Olympic Peninsula, Northwest Washington State, Holly Makena Macfadden Rotman

All Master's Theses

Metamorphic dehydration reactions and fluid movement in accretionary prisms have been linked to the recently discovered episodic tremor and slip (ETS) earthquake events along subduction zones, but prior studies lack the detail to effectively test the hypothesis that fluid flow triggers ETS events. I conducted field work along a 52.5 km transect on the Olympic Peninsula metasedimentary accretionary prism of the Cascadia subduction zone, and collected approximately 40 representative samples of sandstone and mudrock that were buried to 6–15 km. This depth range intersects the 10–50 km depth range of ETS events. My objectives are to quantify the water flow …

Plains Co2 Reduction (Pcor) Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, Katherine K. Anagnost, Barry W. Botnen, Lisa S. Botnen, Daniel J. Daly, Charles D. Gorecki, Megan M. Grove, John A. Harju, Melanie D. Jensen, Michael L. Jones, Steven A. Smith, James A. Sorensen, Edward N. Steadman, Stephanie L. Wolfe, Andrea T. Mcnemar, John T. Litynski, Sean I. Plasynski

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Atlas, revised 3rd edition, introduces global climate change and a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential sinks across central North America. Carbon storage offers a promising set of technologies through which CO₂ can be stored for long periods of time.

Seismic Interpretation And Reservoir Characterization Of The Middle Frio Formation In The Stratton Field Gulf Coast Basin Of South Texas Using Three-Dimensional Seismic And Well Log Data, Uchenna H. Aboaja

Masters Theses

"The Stratton field is a large mature gas field located between Nueces County and Kleberg County in the northwest Gulf Coast Basin of south Texas. The Oligocene middle Frio Formation is one of the major progradational units within the Stratton field. It is characterized by rapid deposition and high subsidence rates that create complex internal facies architecture. The reservoir facies architecture of the middle Frio Formation is described as channel-fill deposits, crevasses-splay deposits, and floodplain mudstones. Previous two-dimensional seismic studies indicate some level of compartmentalization. Three-dimensional seismic and well log data provided by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the …

Cretaceous/Paleogene Boundary Biostratigraphy And Palynofacies Of The Alo-1 Well, Southeastern Nigeria, Janet Diane Raymer

Masters Theses

"The Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary (K/Pg) has been studied in great detail because of the fascination most people have with the extinction of the dinosaurs. The response of the vegetation to this extinction event has been studied in detail in mid to high latitudes, but little is known about what happened in the tropics. Sixty-seven samples from the Nsukka and Imo formations in the Alo-1 well in the Anambra Basin, southeastern Nigeria have been studied for their palynological contents. The aims of the study was to use spores, pollen and dispersed organic matter components to interpret biostratigraphy, and evaluate depositional conditions across …

Calcium Carbonate Precipitation Mechanisms And Geochemical Analysis Of Particulate Material Found Within The Waters Of Maramec Spring, St. James, Missouri, Kyle Steven Rybacki

Masters Theses

"The purpose of the present study is to determine whether a mineral phase is precipitating from solution in the natural Maramec Spring system giving the spring water a milky blue color, to identify the mineral phase, and to investigate potential mechanisms for inducing precipitation. Maramec Spring is a first-order magnitude spring located 11 km southeast of St. James, Missouri. The water that expels from Maramec Spring varies between being near saturation, but undersaturated in calcium, with respect to calcite (saturation index of 0.994 mg/L). Moving downstream, away from the conduit, the spring waters increase in pH and temperature. Eh is …

Bagc.M: Three Dimensional Gravity Modeling Software With An Application In Death Valley, Ca, Brian Eugene Eslick

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Basin Anomaly Gravity Calculator (BAGC.m) is a 3D interactive gravity modeling package designed to create, edit, and calculate the gravitational attraction of basin models entirely within the MATLABTM environment. Gravity anomalies are calculated using the Rectangular Prism Method (Bott, 1960; Kane, 1962; and Plouff, 1966) which subdivides earth models into regularly spaced rectangular prisms. This approach requires large 3D matrices to store most realistic earth models. The process of model editing is simplified by storing basins as 2D gridded files which define the depth to the boundary between basement rock and sedimentary fill for each model cell. In order to …

Studies Of Earthquakes Stress Drops, Seismic Scattering, And Dynamic Triggering In North America, Christian Rene Escudero Ayala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

I use the Relative Source Time Function (RSTF) method to determine the source properties of earthquakes within southeastern Alaska-northwestern Canada in a first part of the project, and earthquakes within the Denali fault in a second part. I deconvolve a small event P-arrival signal from a larger event by the following method: select arrivals with a tapered cosine window, fast fourier transform to obtain the spectrum, apply water level deconvolution technique, and bandpass filter before inverse transforming the result to obtain the RSTF. I compare the source processes of earthquakes within the area to determine stress drop differences to determine …

Seismic Investigation Of The Southern Rio Grande Rift, Lennox Emmanuel Thompson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Competing models exist to explain what caused the Earth's crust to spread apart 29 million years ago to create a region known today as the Rio Grande Rift (RGR). The RGR extends from central Colorado through New Mexico to northern Mexico, near El Paso. The RGR has different geologic features that distinguish it from most other valleys (e.g., the RGR was not cut by a river nor does a river branch upstream). A growing body of evidence shows that geologic activity still occurs in the RGR, with a continuation of faulting, seismicity and widening at a small rate of about …

Mixing By Shear Instability At High Reynolds Number, W. R. Geyer, A. C. Lavery, M. E. Scully, J. H. Trowbridge

CCPO Publications

Shear instability is the dominant mechanism for converting fluid motion to mixing in the stratified ocean and atmosphere. The transition to turbulence has been well characterized in laboratory settings and numerical simulations at moderate Reynolds number-it involves "rolling up", i.e., overturning of the density structure within the cores of the instabilities. In contrast, measurements in an energetic estuarine shear zone reveal that the mixing induced by shear instability at high Reynolds number does not primarily occur by overturning in the cores; rather it results from secondary shear instabilities within the zones of intensified shear separating the cores. This regime is …

Investigating The Source Of Thermal Anomalies In The Northern United Arab Emirates (Uae) Desert Using Geophysical Methods, Khalid Ahmad

Doctoral Dissertations

"We conducted geophysical surveys to investigate the source of thermal anomalies and to delineate any potential water transport pathways from the recharge zones in the Oman Mountains to the location of the temporal thermal anomalies within the desert plain of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the visible region of the spectrum of both ASTER and MODIS satellite images, the desert plain of the UAE appears as a bare sandy surface. However, detailed examination of these images in the thermal bands reveal cooler thermal anomalies within the desert plain following major rainfall events. This anomaly has a cooler surface of …

Accurate Inversion Of High-Resolution Snow Penetrometer Signals For Microstructural And Micromechanical Properties, Hans-Peter Marshall, Jerome B. Johnson

CGISS Publications and Presentations

Measurements of snow using a high-resolution micropenetrometer can be used to discriminate between different snow types; in lower-density snow the signal is sensitive to microstructure, and micromechanical properties can be estimated. Although a physics-based snow penetration theory was first developed almost a decade ago, since that time the majority of studies using snow micropenetrometers have focused on using direct hardness measurements in statistical relationships. We use Monte-Carlo simulations to rigorously test the existing physics-based snow micropenetration theories over a wide range of parameters. These tests revealed four major sources of error in the inversion, which are corrected in this analysis. …

Plains Co2 Reduction (Pcor) Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, Katherine K. Anagnost, Barry W. Botnen, Lisa S. Botnen, Daniel J. Daly, Charles D. Gorecki, Megan M. Grove, John A. Harju, Melanie D. Jensen, Michael L. Jones, Steven A. Smith, James A. Sorensen, Edward N. Steadman, Stephanie L. Wolfe, Andrea T. Mcnemar, John T. Litynski, Sean I. Plasynski

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) atlas, 3rd edition, introduces global climate change and provides a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential sinks across the PCOR Partnership region. Carbon storage offers a promising set of technologies through which CO₂ can be stored for long periods of time.

Modeling Soil Depth From Topographic And Land Cover Attributes, Teklu K. Tesfa, David G. Tarboton, David G. Chandler, James P. Mcnamara

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soil depth is an important input parameter in hydrological and ecological modeling. Presently, the soil depth data available in national soil databases (STATSGO and SSURGO) from the Natural Resources Conservation Service are provided as averages within generalized land units (map units). Spatial uncertainty within these units limits their applicability for distributed modeling in complex terrain. This work reports statistical models for prediction of soil depth in a semiarid mountainous watershed that are based upon the relationship between soil depth and topographic and land cover attributes. Soil depth was surveyed by driving a rod into the ground until refusal at locations …

Infrasonic Ambient Noise Interferometry From Correlations Of Microbaroms, Matthew M. Haney

CGISS Publications and Presentations

We show that microbaroms, continuous infrasound fluctuations resulting from the interaction of the ocean with the atmosphere, have long-range correlation properties that make it possible to estimate the impulse response between two microphones from passive recordings. The processing is analogous to methods employed in the emerging field of ambient noise seismology, where the random noise source is the ocean coupling with the solid Earth (microseisms) instead of the atmosphere (microbaroms). We find that timedependent temperature fields and temperature inversions determine the character of infrasonic impulse responses at Fourpeaked Volcano in Alaska. Applications include imaging and monitoring the gross structure of …

Geogram 2009, David J. Keeling Editor, Wku Department Of Geography And Geology

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Publications

No abstract provided.

Estimating Debye Parameters From Gpr Reflection Data Using Spectral Ratios, John H. Bradford

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the GPR frequency range, electromagnetic wave attenuation is largely controlled by dielectric relaxation processes. A primary relaxation commonly occurs in the 10 – 100 MHz range for many earth materials in which the GPR signal propagates effectively. This relaxation leads to strong nonlinearity in the frequency dependent attenuation and occurs in a frequency range that is often used for groundwater investigations. This non-linearity complicates data analysis but also may provide additional material property information. I investigate inversion for Debye relaxation parameters directly from GPR reflection data, including increasing the bandwidth of the signal by summing the response from 25 …