Earth Sciences Commons^™

Pacific Northwest Streamflow Data Landscape: A Report From The 2022 Streamflow Data Roundtables, Kendra E. Kaiser

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center to catalog the location, temporal extent and purpose of non-USGS streamflow datasets. As part of this project, roundtable meetings convened local, state and federal agencies, and nonprofits to explore the complexity of gathering and integrating the identified datasets and identify issues surrounding data-sharing across organizations.

This report synthesizes discussions from each of the state roundtable discussions convened in the spring of 2022, and highlights common challenges and needs across the region. Additional information from organizations not able to be present at the meetings were added after …

New Age Constraints On The Break-Up Of Rodinia And Amalgamation Of Southwestern Gondwana From The Choquequirao Formation In Southwestern Peru, Eben Blake Hodgin, Victor Carlotto, Francis A. Macdonald, Mark D. Schmitz, James L. Crowley

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Choquequirao Formation is a >3 km-thick amphibolite-grade succession that outcrops in the Central Andes of southern Peru. To constrain its age and tectonostratigraphic setting, detrital zircon and metamorphic zircon, titanite, and rutile U–Pb isotopic analyses were conducted. Mantle-derived c. 640 Ma detrital zircons constrain the maximum age of the lower part of the succession and 550–490 Ma metamorphic zircon domains constrain its minimum age. The absence of early Paleozoic detrital zircons suggests that deposition predated early Paleozoic orogenesis in southwestern Gondwana. The close similarity of detrital zircon age spectra to those from sediments deposited on the Arequipa basement suggests …

Causes, Responses, And Implications Of Anthropogenic Versus Natural Flow Intermittence In River Networks, Kendra E. Kaiser

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rivers that do not flow year-round are the predominant type of running waters on Earth. Despite a burgeoning literature on natural flow intermittence (NFI), knowledge about the hydrological causes and ecological effects of human-induced, anthropogenic flow intermittence (AFI) remains limited. NFI and AFI could generate contrasting hydrological and biological responses in rivers because of distinct underlying causes of drying and evolutionary adaptations of their biota. We first review the causes of AFI and show how different anthropogenic drivers alter the timing, frequency and duration of drying, compared with NFI. Second, we evaluate the possible differences in biodiversity responses, ecological functions, …

Uncertainty Of Icesat-2 Atl06- And Atl08-Derived Snow Depths For Glacierized And Vegetated Mountain Regions, Ellyn M. Enderlin, Colten M. Elkin, Madeline Gendreau, H.P. Marshall, Shad O'Neel, Christopher Mcneil, Caitlyn Florentine, Louis Sass

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Seasonal snow melt dominates the hydrologic budget across a large portion of the globe. Snow accumulation and melt vary over a broad range of spatial scales, preventing accurate extrapolation of sparse in situ observations to watershed scales. The lidar onboard the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation, Satellite (ICESat-2) was designed for precise mapping of ice sheets and sea ice, and here we assess the feasibility of snow depth-mapping using ICESat-2 data in more complex and rugged mountain landscapes. We explore the utility of ATL08 Land and Vegetation Height and ATL06 Land Ice Height differencing from reference elevation datasets in two …

Predictions And Drivers Of Sub-Reach-Scale Annual Streamflow Permanence For The Upper Missouri River Basin: 1989–2018, Kendra E. Kaiser

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The presence of year-round surface water in streams (i.e., streamflow permanence) is an important factor for identifying aquatic habitat availability, determining the regulatory status of streams, managing land use change, allocating water resources, and designing scientific studies. However, accurate, high resolution, and dynamic prediction of streamflow permanence that accounts for year-to-year variability at a regional extent is a major gap in modeling capability. Herein, we expand and adapt the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) PRObability of Streamflow PERmanence (PROSPER) model from its original implementation in the Pacific Northwest (PROSPER_PNW) to the upper Missouri River basin (PROSPER_UM), a …

The Formation Of The 8˚20’ N Seamount Chain, East Pacific Rise, Dorsey Wanless

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Near-axis seamounts provide a unique setting to investigate three-dimensional mantle processes associated with the formation of new oceanic crust and lithosphere. Here, we investigate the characteristics and evolution of the 8˚20’N Seamount Chain, a lineament of seamounts that extends ~ 175 km west of the East Pacific Rise (EPR) axis, just north of the fracture zone of the Siqueiros Transform Fault. Shipboard gravity, magnetic, and bathymetric data acquired in 2016 are utilized to constrain models of seamount emplacement and evolution. Geophysical observations indicate that these seamounts formed during four distinct episodes of volcanism coinciding with changes in regional plate motion …

Statistical Analysis Of Aquifer Hydraulic Properties By A Continuous Pumping Tomography Test: Application To The Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site, Kan Bun Cheng, Gedeon Dagan, Warren Barrash, Michael Cardiff, Avinoam Rabinovich

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Characterizing aquifer heterogeneity is paramount for accurate flow and transport modeling. In this work, we present a new approach for statistical analysis of hydraulic properties in continuous pumping tomography tests of a phreatic aquifer. The method entails determining equivalent hydraulic conductivity (K_eq), specific storage (S_s,eq), and specific yield (S_y,eq) at many locations in the field and then calculating statistical moments of the equivalent properties, assuming they are random space variables. Equivalent properties are defined as the ones pertinent to a homogeneous aquifer for which the head time …

Emplacement Of The Franklin Large Igneous Province And Initiation Of The Sturtian Snowball Earth, Mark D. Schmitz

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the Cryogenian (720 to 635 Ma ago) Snowball Earth glaciations, ice extended to sea level near the equator. The cause of this catastrophic failure of Earth’s thermostat has been unclear, but previous geochronology has suggested a rough coincidence of glacial onset with one of the largest magmatic episodes in the geological record, the Franklin large igneous province. U-Pb geochronology on zircon and baddeleyite from sills associated with the paleo-equatorial Franklin large igneous province in Arctic Canada record rapid emplacement between 719.86 ± 0.21 and 718.61 ± 0.30 Ma ago, 0.9 to 1.6 Ma before the onset of widespread glaciation. …

Infrasonic Gliding Reflects A Rising Magma Column At Mount Etna (Italy), Mariangela Sciotto, Leighton M. Watson, Andrea Cannata, Massimo Cantarero, Emanuela De Beni, Jeffrey B. Johnson

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Infrasound is increasing applied as a tool to investigate magma dynamics at active volcanoes, especially at open-vent volcanoes, such as Mt. Etna (Italy), which are prodigious sources of infrasound. Harmonic infrasound signals have been used to constrain crater dimensions and track the movement of magma within the shallow plumbing system. This study interprets the remarkable systematic change in monotonic infrasound signals preceding a lava fountaining episode at Mt. Etna on 20 February 2021. We model the changing tones (0.7 to 3 Hz fundamental frequency) as a rise in the magma column from 172 ± 25 m below the crater rim …

Improving Moisture Content Estimation From Field Resistivity Measurements With Subsurface Structure Information, Hang Chen, Qifei Niu

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In Earth sciences, the measurement of soil and rock moisture content is essential in improving our understanding of various hydrologic processes. Recently, the electrical resistivity method has been frequently used to estimate the moisture content in the field. The uncertainty associated with resistivity-estimated moisture content is mainly from two sources: regularized inversion and petrophysical interpretation. In this study, to reduce the uncertainty, we propose (1) to use subsurface structural information from seismic refraction measurements to relax the smoothness-based regularization at structural boundaries and (2) to use structural unit-specific petrophysical relationships to translate resistivity into moisture content. The proposed methods are …

Upper-Plate Structure And Tsunamigenic Faults Near The Kodiak Islands, Alaska, Usa, Marlon D. Ramos, Lee M. Liberty, Peter J. Haeussler, Robert Humphreys

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Kodiak Islands lie near the southern terminus of the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake rupture area and within the Kodiak subduction zone segment. Both local and trans-Pacific tsunamis were generated during this devastating megathrust event, but the local tsunami source region and the causative faults are poorly understood. We provide an updated view of the tsunami and earthquake hazard for the Kodiak Islands region through tsunami modeling and geophysical data analysis. Using seismic and bathymetric data, we characterize a regionally extensive seafloor lineament related to the Kodiak shelf fault zone, with focused uplift along a 50-km-long portion of the newly …

Review Article: Global Monitoring Of Snow Water Equivalent Using High-Frequency Radar Remote Sensing, Hans-Peter Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Seasonal snow cover is the largest single component of the cryosphere in areal extent, covering an average of 46 × 10⁶ km² of Earth's surface (31 % of the land area) each year, and is thus an important expression and driver of the Earth's climate. In recent years, Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover has been declining at about the same rate (∼ −13 % per decade) as Arctic summer sea ice. More than one-sixth of the world's population relies on seasonal snowpack and glaciers for a water supply that is likely to decrease this century. Snow is also …

Relative Timing Of Off-Axis Volcanism From Sediment Thickness Estimates On The 8°20’N Seamount Chain, East Pacific Rise, Andrea Fabbrizzi, Ross Parnell-Turner, Patricia M. Gregg, Daniel J. Fornari, Michael R. Perfit, V. Dorsey Wanless, Molly Anderson

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Volcanic seamount chains on the flanks of mid-ocean ridges record variability in magmatic processes associated with mantle melting over several millions of years. However, the relative timing of magmatism on individual seamounts along a chain can be difficult to estimate without in situ sampling and is further hampered by Ar⁴⁰/Ar³⁹ dating limitations. The 8°20’N seamount chain extends ∼170 km west from the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise (EPR), north of and parallel to the western Siqueiros fracture zone. Here, we use multibeam bathymetric data to investigate relationships between abyssal hill formation and seamount volcanism, transform fault slip, and …

The Geochemical Evolution Of Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos Archipelago, E. L. Wilson, K. S. Harpp, D. M. Schwartz, R. Van Kirk

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding how ocean island volcanoes evolve provides important insight into the behavior of mantle plumes, how plumes interact with mid-ocean ridges, and potential risks posed to inhabitants as the islands age. In this field-based study of the Galápagos Islands, we use radiogenic isotope ratio, major element, and trace element analysis of >70 new lava samples to document the geochemical evolution of Santa Cruz Island over the past ∼2 million years, as it has been carried away from the plume. Currently, Santa Cruz is a dormant shield volcano in the central archipelago. Previous work indicates that exposed lavas preserve >1 million …

Airborne Snowsar Data At X And Ku Bands Over Boreal Forest, Alpine And Tundra Snow Cover, Hans-Peter Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The European Space Agency SnowSAR instrument is a side-looking, dual-polarised (VV/VH), X/Ku band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), operable from various sizes of aircraft. Between 2010 and 2013, the instrument was deployed at several sites in Northern Finland, Austrian Alps and northern Canada. The purpose of the airborne campaigns was to measure the backscattering properties of snow-covered terrain to support the development of snow water equivalent retrieval techniques using SAR. SnowSAR was deployed in Sodankylä, Northern Finland, for a single flight mission in March 2011 and 12 missions at two sites (tundra and boreal forest) in the winter of 2011–2012. Over …

Diverse Magmatic Evolutionary Trends Of The Northern Andes Unraveled By Paleocene To Early Eocene Detrital Zircon Geochemistry, James L. Crowley

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Paleocene-early Eocene continental magmatic arc (PECMA) in the Northern Andes is an example of arc magmatism following a major collisional event. This arc formed after the arc-continent collision between the Caribbean Plate and the South American continental margin at ca. 72 Ma. We used detrital zircon LA-ICP-MS and CA-ID-TIMS geochronology and geochemistry to complement the limited plutonic record of the PECMA and better characterize the PECMA's magmatic evolution. Zircon geochronology and their respective trace element geochemistry were analyzed from Paleocene-early Eocene strata of the Bogotá Formation in the foreland region. Our results show that after the collision of the …

Nsf Supported Socio-Environmental Research: How Do Crosscutting Programs Affect Research Funding, Publication, And Citation Patterns?, Kendra E. Kaiser, Anna E. Braswell, Megan L. Fork

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recognizing the continued human domination of landscapes across the globe, social-ecological systems (SES) research has proliferated, necessitating interdisciplinary collaborations. Although interdisciplinary research started gaining traction in academic settings close to 50 years ago, formal frameworks for SES research did not develop until the late 1990s. The first National Science Foundation (NSF) funding mechanism specifically for interdisciplinary SES research began in 2001 and the SES-specific Coupled Natural Human (CNH) Systems program began in 2007. We used data on funded NSF projects from 2000 to 2015 to examine how SES research was funded, where the research is published, and the scholarly impact …

Low-Volume Magmatism Linked To Flank Deformation On Isla Santa Cruz, Galápagos Archipelago, Using Cosmogenic 3He Exposure And 40Ar/39Ar Dating Of Fault Scarps And Lavas, D. M. Schwartz, K. Harpp, M. D. Kurz, E. Wilson, R. Van Kirk

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Isla Santa Cruz is a volcanic island located in the central Galápagos Archipelago. The island’s northern and southern flanks are deformed by E–W-trending normal faults not observed on the younger Galápagos shields, and Santa Cruz lacks the large summit calderas that characterize those structures. To construct a chronology of volcanism and deformation on Santa Cruz, we employ ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology of lavas and ³He exposure dating of fault scarps from across the island. The combination of Ar–Ar dating with in situ-produced cosmogenic exposure age data provides a powerful tool to evaluate fault chronologies. The ^{40 …}

Regolith And Host Rock Influences On Co2 Leakage: Active Source Seismic Profiling Across The Little Grand Wash Fault, Utah, Lee M. Liberty, Jonathan Yelton, Elin Skurtveit, Alvar Braathen, Ivar Midtkandal, James P. Evans

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding carbon dioxide (CO₂) reservoir to surface migration is crucial to successful carbon capture and sequestration approaches; especially fault/reservoir interactions under injection pressure. Through seismic imaging, we explore regolith and shallow stratigraphy across the Little Grand Wash fault. The presence of natural CO₂ seeps, travertine and tufa deposits confirm modern and ancient fault-controlled CO₂ leakage. We consider this an analogue for a long-failed sequestration site. We estimate bulk porosity and fracture density for host rock, regolith, and fault zone from petrophysical relationships. When combined with existing geochemical and geological data, we characterize a 60 m wide …

A Classification Framework To Assess Ecological, Biogeochemical, And Hydrologic Synchrony And Asynchrony, Kendra E. Kaiser

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ecosystems in the Anthropocene face pressures from multiple, interacting forms of environmental change. These pressures, resulting from land use change, altered hydrologic regimes, and climate change, will likely change the synchrony of ecosystem processes as distinct components of ecosystems are impacted in different ways. However, discipline-specific definitions and ad hoc methods for identifying synchrony and asynchrony have limited broader synthesis of this concept among studies and across disciplines. Drawing on concepts from ecology, hydrology, geomorphology, and biogeochemistry, we offer a unifying definition of synchrony for ecosystem science and propose a classification framework for synchrony and asynchrony of ecosystem processes. This …

A Typology For Characterizing Human Action In Multisector Dynamics Models, Kendra Kaiser

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The role of individual and collective human action is increasingly recognized as a prominent and arguably paramount determinant in shaping the behavior, trajectory, and vulnerability of multisector systems. This human influence operates at multiple scales: from short-term (hourly to daily) to long-term (annually to centennial) timescales, and from the local to the global, pushing systems toward either desirable or undesirable outcomes. However, the effort to represent human systems in multisector models has been fragmented across philosophical, methodological, and disciplinary lines. To cohere insights across diverse modeling approaches, we present a new typology for classifying how human actors are represented in …

Possible Bipolar Global Expression Of The P3 And P4 Glacial Events Of Eastern Australia In The Northern Hemisphere: Marine Diamictites And Glendonites From The Middle To Upper Permian In Southern Verkhoyanie, Siberia, V. I. Davydov

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Three intervals of glaciomarine diamictites with extensive glendonites in middle to upper Permian sediments were found in the Kobyume River, southern Verkhoyanie, Russia. The successions are biostratigraphically constrained as middle to upper Permian. The middle Permian diamictite horizons extend over a large area with a lateral distance of >1000 km. The upper Permian diamictites developed only locally. The diamictites are interpreted as glaciomarine sediments containing ice-rafted debris. Two glacial episodes in Siberia temporally correspond to the P3 (middle Permian) and P4 (late Permian) glacial events of eastern Australia, strongly suggesting a global bipolar climate and well-developed climatic belts during the …

Interpreting Sentinel-1 Sar Backscatter Signals Of Snowpack Surface Melt/Freeze, Warming, And Ripening, Through Field Measurements And Physically-Based Snowmodel, Jewell Lund, Richard R. Forster, Elias J. Deeb, Glen E. Liston, S. Mckenzie Skiles, Hans-Peter Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The transition of a cold winter snowpack to one that is ripe and contributing to runoff is crucial to gauge for water resource management, but is highly variable in space and time. Snow surface melt/freeze cycles, associated with diurnal fluctuations in radiative inputs, are hallmarks of this transition. C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reliably detects meltwater in the snowpack. Sentinel-1 (S1) C-band SAR offers consistent acquisition patterns that allow for diurnal investigations of melting snow. We used over 50 snow pit observations from 2020 in Grand Mesa, Colorado, USA, to track temperature and wetness in the snowpack as a function …

High-Precision Ca-Id-Tims U-Pb Zircon Geochronology Of Felsic Rocks In The Finlayson Lake Vms District, Yukon: Linking Paleozoic Basin-Scale Accumulation Rates To The Occurrence Of Subseafloor Replacement-Style Mineralization, Matthew J. Manor, Stephen J. Piercey, Corey J. Wall, Nikola Denisová

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Felsic igneous complexes and associated volcano-sedimentary rocks in continental back-arc environments host large-tonnage and/or high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits. The emplacement mechanisms, style, and preservation of these deposits is thought to be partially dependent on depositional rates of the host lithofacies (i.e., discrete volcanic eruptions) relative to the setting of massive sulfide genesis on the seafloor as mounds and/or via subseafloor replacement of existing strata. The localization and occurrence of subseafloor replacement-style VMS deposits is therefore strongly influenced by the characteristics of the volcano-sedimentary facies in the hosting basin and the rates of their emplacement; the latter are poorly …

Petrochronology And Statistical Analysis To Integrate Different Types Of Data To Solve Complex Earth Systems Problems, Claire Ostwald Harrigan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Complex Earth systems problems, like reconstructing orogens and calibrating the geologic time scale, require investigations that link time to geologic processes. To use time as a means of organizing geologic evidence, geochronometric dates must be contextualized by integrating with different data types. This is the work of petrochronology—linking mineral ages to geochemical, textural, or other geologic information. The U-Pb isotopic system as preserved in the minerals zircon (ZrSiO₄) and titanite (CaTiSiO₅) can be used in a petrochronological context to date geologic events including the age of granitoid pluton emplacement, the age of rock fabric formation in …

The Curacautín Eruption Of Llaima Volcano, Chile, Aaron Asdale Marshall

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Mafic magmas are the most common magmas erupted on Earth and on rocky bodies in the Solar System. The low viscosity of mafic magmas results in eruptions that are primarily effusive to mildly explosive. Rarely, mafic magmas erupt as more violent, explosive events, and the causes of this transition in eruptive style are hotly debated. In this dissertation, I investigated the conditions in the conduit and shallow subsurface that generated the unusually explosive mafic, Curacautín eruption of Llaima volcano, Chile. The Curacautín ignimbrite (Ci) is a basaltic andesite ignimbrite consisting of four flow units of variable thicknesses. New ¹⁴C …

Advancements In Measuring And Modeling The Mechanical And Hydrological Properties Of Snow And Firn: Multi-Sensor Analysis, Integration, And Algorithm Development, Tate G. Meehan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Estimating snow mechanical properties – such as elastic modulus, stiffness, and strength – is important for understanding how effectively a vehicle can travel over snow-covered terrain. Vehicle instrumentation data and observations of the snowpack are valuable for improving the estimates of winter vehicle performance. Combining in-situ and remotely-sensed snow observations, driver input, and vehicle performance sensors requires several techniques of data integration. I explored correlations between measurements spanning from millimeter to meter scales, beginning with the SnowMicroPenetrometer (SMP) and instruments applied to snow that were designed for measuring the load bearing capacity and the compressive and shear strengths of roads …

From River Channel To Cloud Tops: Evaluation And Applications Of Regional Climate Models In Mountain Watersheds, William J. Rudisill

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Mountain ranges are vital ”water towers” of the world and are uniquely threatened by anthropogenic climate change. At the same time, the paucity of observing networks limits our understanding of hydrometeorological processes in water-resource critical regions, including the Western United States. In the past decade, non-hydrostatic, convection permitting ( 1-4km horizontal resolution) regional climate models (RCMs) have emerged as a promising tool for both reconstructing regional scale mountain hydroclimates, and for forecasting the impacts of climate perturbations on watersheds and water-resources. Still, challenges remain. To-date, computational and data storage limitations have generally precluded many RCM studies to a handful of …

Time-Lapse Active Source Seismic Characterization Of A Leaky Co2 Reservoir: Little Grand Wash Fault, Utah, Stephen Slivicki

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

A carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) approach requires economical methods to monitor reservoir CO₂ flow paths through time. I explore the use of an inexpensive surface seismic approach to monitor the time-varying response of a leaky CO₂ reservoir. My site is located in east central Utah, where the Little Grand Wash fault provides a natural analogue for a failed sequestration site. This fault and related anticlinal trap provides a conduit to collect and deliver CO₂ from shallow reservoir depths to the atmosphere. Elevated soil CO₂ flux measurements, outgassing at the Crystal Geyser, and travertine deposits provide …

Machine-Learning Reveals Aftershock Locations For Three Idaho Earthquake Sequences, Spencer F. Wilbur

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

I explore spatial and temporal aftershock patterns related to three instrumentally recorded earthquakes in Idaho -- the Sulphur Peak, the Challis, and the Stanley earthquakes. These three M > 5 earthquakes border the eastern Snake River Plain and lie within the Intermountain Seismic Belt and Centennial Tectonic Belt. Using machine learning for event detection and phase picking from local and regional seismic networks, I generate new aftershock catalogs. I locate more aftershocks than in the USGS catalog due to lower signal-to-noise detections. Using my phase picks, I locate aftershocks using a range of velocity models and select a catalog that represents …