Earth Sciences Commons^™

One Diamictite And Two Rifts: Stratigraphy And Geochronology Of The Gataga Mountain Of Northern British Columbia, Athena Eyster, Filippo Ferri, Mark D. Schmitz, Francis A. Macdonald

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Neoproterozoic glacial diamictites and rift-related volcanics are preserved throughout the North American Cordillera, yet the nature and timing of both glaciation and rifting are poorly constrained. New geochronological, geochemical, and stratigraphic data from the Cryogenian Gataga volcanics and bounding units at Gataga Mountain, in the Kechika Trough of northern British Columbia, better constrain the age of these rift-related volcanics and suggest that they erupted during glaciation. At Gataga Mountain, three informal sequences are exposed; a basal quartzite, the Gataga volcanics, and an overlying mixed carbonate-siliciclastic succession. The basal quartzite is dominated by cross-bedded sandstone with an intertidal facies assemblage including …

Evidence Of The 1762 Arakan And Prior Earthquakes In The Northern Sunda Subduction, Dhiman Ranjan Mondal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this dissertation is to understand the seismic hazard associated with Arakan segment of the northern Sunda subduction along SE Bangladesh. In order to do that, it is necessary to document geologic evidence for the 1762 Arakan earthquake and prior events, to help estimate the recurrence interval (repeat time) for that earthquake. Historical records described that the 1762 earthquake caused extensive damage along the Arakan segment of the Sunda subduction system. But the geologic evidence for the earthquake farther north is necessary to better understand its associated seismic hazard to the densely populated nation of Bangladesh. This dissertation …

Postaragonite Phases Of Caco3 At Lower Mantle Pressures, Dean Smith, Keith V. Lawler, Miguel Martinez-Canales, Austin W. Daykin, G. Alexander Smith, Christian Childs, Jesse S. Smith, Chris J. Pickard, Ashkan Salamat

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

The stability, structure, and properties of carbonate minerals at lower mantle conditions have significant impact on our understanding of the global carbon cycle and the composition of the interior of the Earth. In recent years there has been significant interest in the behavior of carbonates at lower mantle conditions, specifically in their carbon hybridization, which has relevance for the storage of carbon within the deep mantle. Using high-pressure synchrotron x-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell coupled with direct laser heating of CaCO3 using a CO2 laser, we identify a crystalline phase of the material above 40 GPa—corresponding to a …

Conservation Limnogeology And Benthic Habitat Mapping In Central Lake Tanganyika (Tanzania), Joseph S. Lucas

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Small scale protected zones are valuable for helping the health and productivity of fisheries at Lake Tanganyika (East Africa). Spatial placement of protected areas relies on accurate maps of benthic habitats, consisting of detailed bathymetry data and information on lake-floor substrates. This information is unknown for most of Lake Tanganyika. Fish diversity is known to correlate with rocky substrates in ≤ 30 m water depth, which provide spawning grounds for littoral and pelagic species. These benthic habitats form important targets for protected areas, if they can be precisely located.

At the NMVA, echosounding defined the position of the 30-m isobath …

Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis, Phase 3: A Provisional Conceptual Model Of The Camas Prairie, Snake River Plain, Idaho, Lee M. Liberty

CGISS Publications and Presentations

The Snake River Plain (SRP) Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis team identified two regions of interest during Phase 2 studies: the western SRP near Mountain Home, Idaho and Camas Prairie, Idaho. New geological, geochemical, and geophysical (gravity, magnetic, MT, seismic) studies of both areas led to a focus on Camas Prairie for validation during Phase 3. Camas Prairie is an EW-trending half-graben bounded on the north by the Idaho Batholith and on the south by the Mount Bennett Hills. Camas Prairie is bisected by a major NW-trending fault system (The Pothole fault) that separates NW-trending faults to east from ENE-trending faults …

Assessment Of Ground-Based And Aerial Cloud Seeding Using Trace Chemistry, James M. Fisher, Marion L. Lytle, Shawn G. Benner

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Targeting seedable clouds with silver iodide in complex terrain adds considerable uncertainty in weather modification studies. This study explores the geographic and temporal distribution of silver iodide associated with an active cloud seeding program in central Idaho snowpack using trace chemistry. Over 4,000 snow samples were analyzed for the presence of a cloud seeding silver iodide (AgI) signature over two winter seasons. The results indicate the following. (1) At sites within 70 km of AgI sources, silver enrichments were detected at 88% of cases involving seeding efforts from ground generators, but none from aircraft seeded cases. (2) Real-time snow collection …

Seismic Anisotropy And The Mantle Dynamics Beneath The Arabian Plate, Saleh Ismail Hassan Qaysi

Doctoral Dissertations

"We investigate mantle seismic azimuthal anisotropy and deformation beneath the Arabian Plate and adjacent areas using data from 182 broadband seismic stations which include 157 stations managed by the Saudi Geological Survey. A total of about 4000 pairs of shear wave splitting parameters are obtained using the transverse minimization technique. The individual XKS (including PKS, SKS, and SKKS) splitting measurements were manually checked to ensure the quality. The well-defined parameters show dominantly N-S fast orientations at the majority of the stations, and NW-SE fast orientations along the Zagras Mountain front. No clear systematic variations of the splitting parameters as a …

Crustal Structure Beneath The Eastern Margin Of The Tibetan Plateau And Adjacent Areas From Receiver Function Stacking And Gravity Modeling, Yunxin Peng

Doctoral Dissertations

"To provide constraints on the mechanisms responsible for the uplift and crustal thickening of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, the thickness and Vp/Vs values of the Moho beneath 153 seismic stations are obtained by stacking P-to-S converted phases from the Moho and gravity modeling. The resulting crustal thickness generally decreases from the northwest to the south-east, from about 60 km in the Bayan Har Block to 30 km in the Sichuan Basin. The crustal Vp/Vs measurements in the Qinling Orogenic Belt, Bayan Har Block, Chuxiong Basin, and Yangtze Platform indicate an overall intermediate to felsic crustal composition. With a relatively thick …

Paleogene-Early Neogene Palynomorphs From The Eastern Equatorial Atlantic And Southeastern Florida, Usa: Biostratigraphy And Paleoenvironmental Implications, Walaa K. Awad

Doctoral Dissertations

"The transition from greenhouse conditions (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, PETM) to icehouse conditions (Early Oligocene) is not well documented in tropical-subtropical regions. One hundred and five samples from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 959 (Hole 959A and Hole 959D) in the Cote d'Ivoire-Ghana Transform Margin, Alo-1 Well in the northern Niger Delta (Anambra) Basin, Nigeria, and W-17001 in southeastern Florida were studied for their palynological contents. Dinoflagellate cysts were mainly utilized for age refinement and to detect subtle changes in paleoenvironment and paleoclimate during the Paleocene-Early Eocene (ODP Hole 959D and Alo-1 Well) and Late Eocene-Early Miocene (ODP Hole 959A and …

The Utility Of Geophysical Techniques To Image The Shallow Subsurface In Karst Areas In Missouri, Nathainail Bashir

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation is composed of three papers, which are focused on the utility of geophysical techniques to imaging the shallow subsurface in karst areas in Missouri.

In the first paper, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and time domain electromagnetic metal detector (TDEM-MD) methods were effectively deployed in an investigation of the cemetery with the intent of locating unmarked graves. The outcome of this study is to expand the knowledge of GPR and TDEM-MD methods, to locate unmarked graves in cemeteries. The study concluded that the GPR method is superior than TDEM-MD to locate buried caskets in cemetery investigations.

In the second …

Lithospheric Layering And Thickness Beneath The Contiguous United States, Lin Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

"The Upper Mississippi Embayment (UME), where the seismically active New Madrid Seismic Zone resides, experienced two phases of subsidence commencing in the Late Precambrian and Cretaceous, respectively. To provide new constraints on models proposed for the mechanisms responsible for the subsidence, we computed and stacked P-to-S receiver functions recorded by 49 USArray and other seismic stations located in the UME and the adjacent Ozark Uplift and modeled Bouguer gravity anomaly data. The inferred thickness, density, and Vp/Vs of the upper and lower crustal layers suggest that the UME is characterized by a mafic and high-density upper crustal layer of ∼30 …

Importance Of Hydrothermal Vents In Scavenging Removal Of 230th In The Nansen Basin, O. Valk, M. M. Rutgers Van Der Loeff, W. Geibert, S. Gdaniec, M. J.A. Rijkenberg, S. B. Moran, K. Lepore, R. L. Edwards, Y. Lu, Viena Puigcorbe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In this study we present dissolved and particulate ²³⁰Th and ²³²Th results, as well as particulate ²³⁴Th data, obtained as part of the GEOTRACES central Arctic Ocean sections GN04 (2015) and IPY11 (2007). Samples were analyzed following GEOTRACES methods and compared to previous results from 1991. We observe significant decreases in ²³⁰Th concentrations in the deep waters of the Nansen Basin. We ascribe this nonsteady state removal process to a variable release and scavenging of trace metals near an ultraslow spreading ridge. This finding demonstrates that hydrothermal scavenging in the deep‐sea may vary on annual time …

Climate Change On The Quelccaya Ice Cap, Central Andes, And Its Relationship With The Large-Scale Circulation, Christian Pedro Yarleque Galvez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Glaciated areas over the central Andes are highly sensitive to atmospheric forcings, as demonstrated by their current accelerated retreat in response to global warming. The present Thesis is focused on quantifying and assessing future climate change impacts over Quelccaya ice cap (QIC), the world-largest tropical ice body, which is considered as a representative case of the tropical Andean cryosphere. I focused my study on characterizing large-scale forcing and future changes of precipitation and temperature, since they represent the most important variables for accumulation and ablation processes in glaciated mountain regions. In my research I developed tools to overcome the lack …

Petrology And Geochronology Of Metamorphic Zircon, Matthew J. Kohn, Nigel M. Kelly

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Zircon is unusually well suited for investigating metamorphic processes because it is readily analyzed for U‐Pb ages, it harbors diverse mineral inclusions, and its chemistry can be linked to metamorphic parageneses and P‐T paths. Metamorphic zircon chemistry and ages are relevant only at the sub‐grain micron scale, and consequently many analytical methods, such as depth profiling, have been developed to exploit such spatially resolute infor­mation. Here we review how metamorphic zircon grows, and how its chemistry and inclusion assemblages may be used to link the age of a zircon domain to its metamorphic P‐T condition. Domain‐specific ages and inclusion assemblages …

A Geophysical Characterization Of The Structural Framework Of The Camas Prairie Geothermal System, Southcentral Idaho, Lee Liberty

CGISS Publications and Presentations

Play Fairway Analysis methods, utilizing existing geologic, thermal, geochemical, and geophysical data were employed in an initial assessment of geothermal resources in the Snake River Plain. These efforts identified the Camas Prairie in southcentral Idaho as a region with elevated resource potential. Subsequent efforts included structural and geophysical data collection to identify the most favorable structural settings for exploiting resources in the valley. The present work involved high-resolution gravity, magnetic, magnetotellurics (MT), field mapping, and seismic surveys to further characterize the system and target sites for exploration drilling around Barron’s Hot Springs (BHS) in the southwest part of the valley. …

Bridge Deck Assessment Using Visual Inspection, Ground Penetrating Radar, Portable Seismic Property Analyzer-Ultrasonic Surface Wave, Hammer Sounding And Chain Drag, Abdullah Hadi Zaid Alhaj

Masters Theses

"Integrated non-destructive techniques were utilized to assess the condition of a reinforced concrete bridge deck. There were two main objectives accomplished.

The first objective was to assess the integrity of the reinforced concrete bridge deck using four non-destructive techniques, namely visual inspection, ground penetrating radar, portable seismic property analyzer-ultrasonic surface wave, and hammer sounding and chain drag. Visual inspection data were used to identify signs of deterioration on surface of the bridge deck such as cracking, concrete leaching, and reinforcement corrosion. Ground penetrating radar data were used to determine the relative condition of the bridge deck. However, due to the …

Application Of Seismic Attributes For 3-D Seismic Visualization Contributed In Structural And Stratigraphic Interpretation Of The Tangahoe And Farewell Formations In The Kupe Field, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Housam Hussein Grabeel

Masters Theses

"Taranaki Basin is a mainly offshore basin covering an area of approximately 100,000 km², elongated across the western margin of New Zealand's north island. However, the modern limit of the basin is extended toward the deep water to cover about 330,000 km². The basin is divided by tectonic activities into northern and southern grabens. The southern region has become the most extensively researched district in recent years as its prime lithology and structural trap distributions provide numerous hydrocarbon fields. One such field is the Kupe Field (256 km²), which lies on a northerly-plunging, reverse-faulted, …

Salt Mobility Under Different Geological Regimes, Oznur Surek

Masters Theses

"This study investigates the evolution of Dan Salt Structure in the southern salt dome province, Danish Central Graben and Mars-Ursa Basin in the Northern Gulf of Mexico to understand salt and sediment interaction over time under different geologic regimes. An integration of structural and stratigraphic analyses is conducted to understand the relationship between halokinesis and sedimentation.

Interpretation of the seismic data in Dan Salt Structure shows that the structure has a complex geometry, which is divided into upper and lower parts. The evolutionary stage of both the upper and lower parts of the structure has been influenced by salt. The …

Hydrologic Monitoring And 2-D Electrical Resistivity Imaging For Joint Geophysical And Geotechnical Characterization Of Shallow Colluvial Landslides, Matthew M. Crawford

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Landslide characterization and hazard assessments require multidisciplinary approaches that connect geologic processes with geotechnical parameters. Field monitoring of hydrologic variables such as water content and water potential, coupled with geoelectrical measurements that can establish relationships used for geotechnical and landslide hazard investigations is deficient.

This study brings together different techniques to develop a methodology that connects geoelectrical measurements and shear strength. A field-based framework was established that includes (1) analysis of long-term soil moisture fluctuations within different landslides (2) establishment of constitutive and new equations that test the use of electrical conductivity to predict soil-water relationships and shear strength (3) …

Tsunami Excitation Estimation From Real-Time Gnss, Catherine Jeffries

All Master's Theses

Tsunami early warning systems currently comprise modeling of observations from the global seismic network, deep-ocean DART buoys, and a global distribution of tide gauges. While these tools work well for tsunamis traveling teleseismic distances, saturation of seismic magnitude estimation in the near field can result in significant underestimation of tsunami excitation for local warning (Wang et al., 2012). Moreover, DART buoy and tide gauge observations cannot be used to rectify the underestimation in the available time, typically 10-20 minutes, before local runup occurs. Real-time GNSS measurements of coseismic offsets may be used to estimate finite faulting within 1-2 minutes and, …

Slip Estimation From Real-Time Gps In Cascadia, Jesse Senko

All Master's Theses

Current systems for rapidly characterizing earthquakes are based on seismic, teleseismic, and Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoy data. These systems have significant limitations that hinder them from making rapid and accurate assessments of large earthquakes used for local tsunami warnings where run-up can occur minutes after the earthquake. Seismic and teleseismic networks saturate around M_w 7.0. Tsunami waves take tens of minutes to reach the buoys, so rapid assessment is impossible. GPS overcomes these limitations for large earthquakes. GPS does not saturate, and the offsets being detected occur very quickly after an earthquake. This thesis develops …

Failure Of The Alexander Dam Embankment And Reconstruction Using Drainage Mitigation On Kauai, Hawaii, 1930-1932, Kerry D. Cato, J. David Rogers

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Alexander Dam is a hydraulic fill earth dam and the second-highest embankment dam in Hawaii, having been built in 1929-1932 on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai to provide irrigation for McBryde Sugar Company Ltd. It was constructed across Wahiawa Stream mauka (Hawaiian for "stream that comes from the mountains," literally "toward the mountains"), upstream of Kalaheo, to store 800 million gallons (5 million m3) of water to irrigate sugarcane fields. The embankment dam was intended to have a maximum height of 125 ft (38 m), a crest length of 620 ft (189 m), and a maximum …

John Frank Stevens: Panama Canal Mastermind And Pioneering Railroad Pathfinder, J. David Rogers, Lawrence M. Magura

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

John Frank Stevens began his civil engineering career as a rodman on a survey crew in Maine in 1872. He soon moved to Minneapolis, where he apprenticed himself, eventually becoming Assistant City Engineer. In 1876 he began working for railroads in the western United States. In 1882 Stevens began working for a contractor laying tracks for the Canadian Pacific Railroad in Saskatchewan. The next spring he became assistant engineer of location for the Canadian Pacific, completing the first transcontinental line linking Montreal with Vancouver in 1888. In 1889 James Jerome Hill retained Stevens as chief pathfinder for the new Great …

Assessing The Use Of Tsunami Simulations As A Tool To Predict Source Magnitudes And Locations Of Paleoearthquakes In Chile, Rebeca Isabel Becerra

All Master's Theses

A long-term goal of paleotsunami studies is the ability to predict paleoearthquake parameters based on tsunami deposits found on land. Chile provides an exemplary location for testing methods of making these predictions because the historical record includes 41 major earthquakes as far back as 1562 AD, and there are many known paleotsunami deposits throughout the region. Using these records as a comparison tool, I evaluated simulated tsunami wave heights and inundation extent with the tsunami model GeoClaw for nine hypothetical tsunamigenic large earthquakes (M_w 8.6, 8.8, and 9.0) in south-central Chile with epicenters at -35.1º, -38.8º, and -42.9º. As …

Reprocessing Of The 2 Hz P-P Data From The Blackfoot 3c-2d Survey With Special Reference To Multicomponent Seismic Processing, Onur Akturk

Masters Theses

"The 3C-2D multicomponent seismic survey was acquired in the Blackfoot Field, which is located 15 km southeast of Strathmore, Alberta. The 2 Hz vertical component data were reprocessed to better image the target reservoir, the Glauconitic sand formation at approximately 1150 ms. The zone of the major reflector at about 1550 ms was also taken into consideration to determine the better seismic section for further processing. The main characteristics of the converted wave processing, such as common conversion point (CCP), asymptotic binning, gamma ratios, receiver statics, rotation of the data, positive/negative offsets, and anisotropy, were also summarized in this study. …

Reprocessing Of 3c-2d Seismic Reflection Data From The Spring Coulee Field, Alberta, Yasin Demir

Masters Theses

"The 3C-2D seismic datasets were acquired in 2008 in the Spring Coulee Field, Alberta, which is located in Township 4, Range 23, and west of the 4th Meridian in the Alberta Basin. Line 2008-SC-01 was reprocessed to obtain better image of the formation targeted at between 1300 ms and 1400 ms. The depositional settings of the Madison Formation consist of shallow and carbonate shelf deposits. The processing workflow was designed by testing several methods, algorithms, and parameters, and finding the optimal processing solution. The processing steps included elevation statics, noise suppression, deconvolution operator, and 2D Kirchhoff poststack time migration. In …

Geophysical Investigations Of Southcentral Alaska, Felix Dziedzorm Ziwu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Castle Mountain Fault (CMF) is the closest (<50 km) active fault to Anchorage, Alaska and is known to be capable of producing earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 â?? 7.1. While several mapping and trenching studies have been conducted along the CMF, geophysical investigations along the fault zone have been limited. We use over 700 recently collected, closely spaced gravity observations, in addition to existing regional gravity, aeromagnetic, seismic reflection, well log data, and geologic information, to develop new 2D models of the deeper structure of the CMF system. We developed four 2D integrated forward models across the Castle Mountain Fault. These models indicate differences between the western and eastern segments of the Castle Mountain Fault. The models show a thick sequence of Tertiary to Mesozoic sediments overlying the Peninsular terrane basement at varying depths within the area. We identified two main intrusive granitic rocks based on the varying susceptibilities. These granitic rocks share a possible fault contact with the Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. The model also shows that the CMF cuts through the Mesozoic sediments at depth. These rocks can create strong coupling along the fault and with the decreasing eastward angle of subduction, it is highly for fluid migration to the eastern edge of the subducting Yakutat microplate. Seismic events plotted along the profiles supports the Holocene motion along the western CMF (WCMF) and indicates a deeper extent of the CMF into the crust. The eastern CMF shows high rate of deformation based on the structures associated with the Mesozoic rocks.

Gravitational Analysis And Fault Identification Within An Active Rift Basin: The Mesilla Valley Bolson In Western Texas - Southern New Mexico, Jose Pablo Cervantes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The metropolitan region of El Paso Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, located within the northern Chihuahua Desert, contains approximately two million inhabitants. The two main aquifers that supply groundwater to this region are the Mesilla and Hueco Bolsons. Both bolsons have been tapped for decades without sustainable recharge. This study's purpose is to use geophysical methods coupled with published geochemical analyses to determine the structural and stratigraphic controls on the quality and quantity of groundwater in the southern Mesilla Bolson.

The Mesilla Bolson is one of many fault-controlled basins within the Rio Grande Rift - southern Basin and Range. Faults …

Investigating The 2016 Jackson, Wyoming Earthquake Sequence Using Waveform Cross-Correlation And Seismic Array Methods, Emily Jo Graves

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

During a visual inspection of PDAR data extracted for the catalog events, I observed additional, unreported events, which is to be expected during an energetic swarm or seismic sequence. The casual observation of missed events strongly implied that more such missed events could be found in the data, which could improve the completeness of the earthquake catalog for the Jackson, Wyoming area. Catalog completeness improves our assessment of a region's tectonic behavior and earthquake exposure. To search for recurring swarm or earthquake sequence behavior, I applied waveform correlation methods to scan nearly two decades of continuous PDAR waveforms, comparing to …

Magnetotelluric Analysis Of Central Kenya Kenyan Rift Volcanoes For Geothermal Development, Anna Wairimu Mwangi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract

High temperature geothermal resources are vast along rift margins because of emplacement of magma in shallow crust. This is the case along the Kenyan Rift valley also known as the Gregory Rift. It is the Eastern arm of the East African rift and a chain of volcanoes along the rift graben characterizes it. We use (MT) magnetotelluric method to image beneath the peralkaline province of the Kenya Rift i.e. Olkaria, Eburru, Badlands, and Longonot volcanoes. The resistivity structure shows active geothermal activity happening at the upper 3km from the subsurface as evidenced by low resistivity cap rock comprised of …