Earth Sciences Commons^™

Stanton County Test Hole Logs, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Frank A. Smith, Raymond R. Burchett

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Phelps County Test Hole Logs, S. E. Summerside

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Factors Affecting The Movements Of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss) In Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, Tadd M. Barrow

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Comment On "Beach Water Table Fluctuations Due To Wave Run-Up: Capillarity Effects" By L. Li Et Al., Vitaly A. Zlotnik

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Vitaly A. Zlotnik's comment on "Beach water table fluctuations due to wave run-up: Capillarity effects" by L. Li, D. A. Barry, J.-Y. Parlange, and C. B. Pattiaratchi, published in Water Resources Research (1997) 3(5): 935-945.

Antelope County Test-Hole Logs: Nebraska Water Survey Test-Hole Report No. 2, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Frank A. Smith, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

In 1930, the Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska and the United States Geological Survey began a program of cooperative groundwater studies in Nebraska. Since then test drilling by use of rotary drilling equipment has been an integral part of that program. This report contains logs of all the test holes drilled in the county under the program as well as those drilled by the Conservation and Survey Division with financial assistance from other government agencies.

The map in this report shows the location of all test holes drilled in the county since 1930.

Present techniques of …

Mountain Evolution And Environmental Changes Of Huangshan, China, P.-H. Huang, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., M. Yang, Patricia E. Helland

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) is located in southern part of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The highest Lotus Flower peak is 1,864 m above sea level. Formative ages of the Huangshan and its granite, process of mountain geomorphic evolution from the Eocene to Quaternary, environmental changes of Quaternary, formative origin of beautiful peaks and fascinating rocks were studied and questionable "Pleistocene glaciation" was also discussed in this paper.

Holt County Test-Hole Logs: Nebraska Water Survey Test-Hole Report No. 45, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Frank A. Smith, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

In 1930, the Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska and the United States Geological Survey began a program of cooperative groundwater studies in Nebraska. Since then test drilling by use of rotary drilling equipment has been an integral part of that program. This report contains logs of all the test holes drilled in Holt County, Nebraska, under the program as well as those drilled by the Conservation and Survey Division with financial assistance from other government agencies.

The map in this report shows the location of all test holes drilled in Holt County, Nebraska from 1944 to …

Climate Change And Nebraska

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The earth's climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases - primarily carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. The heat-trapping property of these greenhouse gases is undisputed. Although there is uncertainty about exactly how and when the earth's climate will respond to enhanced concentrations of greenhouse gases, observations indicate that detectable changes are under way. There most likely will be increases in temperature and changes in precipitation, soil moisture, and sea level, which could have adverse effects on many ecological systems, as well as on …

Birds And Agroecological Relationships In Organic And Non-Organic Farmland, Nancy A. Beecher

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Magnitude And Significance Of Carbon Burial In Lakes, Reservoirs, And Peatlands, Walter E. Dean, Eville Gorham

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Globally, lakes are currently accumulating organic carbon (OC) at an estimated annual rate of about 42 Tg•yr^-1. Most of the OC in all but the most oligotrophic of these lakes is autochthonous, produced by primary production in the lakes. The sediments of reservoirs accumulate an additional 160 Tg annually, and peatlands contribute 96 Tg annually. These three carbon pools collectively cover less than 2% of the Earth’s surface and constitute a carbon sink of about 300 Tg•yr^-1. Although the oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface, they accumulate OC at a rate of only about 100 …

Landowner And Tourist Attitudes Toward Elk Management In The Pine Ridge Region Of Northwestern Nebraska, R. Daniel Crank

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Buffer Strip Width And Composition In Reduction Of Agricultural Non-Point Source Contaminants, Tim Schmitt

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

An Atlas Of The Sand Hills, Ann S. Bleed, Charles A. Flowerday

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The Sand Hills region, approximately 19,300 square miles of sand dunes stretching 265 miles across Nebraska and into South Dakota, is the largest sand-dune area in the Western Hemisphere and is one of the largest grass-stabilized dune regions in the world.

Paleocene Mammalian Biostratigraphy Of The Carbon Basin, Southeastern Wyoming, And Age Constraints On Local Phases Of Tectonism, Ross Secord

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Mammalian fossils from two principal collecting areas in the lower Hanna Formation of the Carbon Basin comprise three faunas, the Grayson Ridge, Halfway Hill, and Sand Creek faunas. The Grayson Ridge and Halfway Hill faunas are diverse, consisting cumulatively of 29 mammalian species, at least two of which are new. The faunas are approximately equivalent in age and are either latest Torrejonian or earliest Tiffanian, or possibly sample both NALMAs. In any event, the faunas are very close in age to the lbrrejonian-Tiffanian boundary. Strata bearing the Grayson Ridge and Halfway Hill faunas were truncated by erosion, resulting in a …

A Diatom-Based Reconstruction Of Drought Intensity, Duration, And Frequency From Moon Lake, North Dakota: A Sub-Decadal Record Of The Last 2,300 Years, Kathleen R. Laird, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Brian F. Cumming

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Diatom assemblages preserved in sediment cores from closed-basin lakes can provide high-resolution records of past hydrologic and climatic conditions, including long-term patterns in the intensity, duration, and frequency of droughts. At Moon Lake, a closed-basin lake in eastern North Dakota, a comparison of diatom-inferred salinity and the precipitation-based Bhalme-Mooley Drought Index (BMDI) over the last 100 years was highly significant, suggesting that the diatom record contains a sensitive archive of past climatic conditions. A sub-decadal record of inferred salinity for the past 2300 years indicates that extreme droughts of greater intensity than those during the 1930s “Dust Bowl” were more …

How To Reduce Drought Risk, Cody Knutson, Mike Hayes, Tom Phillips

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This guide describes a practical step-by-step process for identifying actions that can be taken to reduce potential drought-related impacts before a drought occurs. Step 1 begins with making sure that the right people are brought together and supplied with adequate data to make informed and equitable decisions during the process. Steps 2 and 3 narrow the focus of the study by identifying high priority drought-related impacts that are relevant to the user’s location or activity. Step 4 demonstrates that in order to reduce the potential for the identified impacts to occur in the future, it is necessary to understand the …

Hydrology Of Two Interdunal Valleys In The Nebraska Sand Hills, Steve Drda

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two neighboring interdunal valleys are compared within a study area of about 15 square miles in the Nebraska Sand Hills. One is a subirrigated wet meadow drained by a manmade ditch. The other is topographically lower, but dry at the surface. The goal of this study is to identify the factors responsible for the hydrologic regime present in each valley, and to discern the reasons for the differences between the two valleys. Water levels in 39 piezometers positioned at different locations across both valleys, and at different depths were monitored for two-and-a-half years to determine groundwater flow paths, gradients, and …

Calcareous Nannofossil Paleogene Biostratigraphy Côte D'Ivoire-Ghana Marginal Ridge, Eastern Equatorial Atlantic, Samir Shafik, David K. Watkins, Im Chul Shin

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Paleogene sections on the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Marginal Ridge in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, sampled at three sites during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 159, are shown to have calcareous nannofossil assemblages in distinct packages of (sub)zones separated by hiatuses or barren sediments. The packages are different at each of the sites; all fall within the interval from late Paleocene Zone CP6 to latest Oligocene Subzone CN1a inclusive. Three packages (CP9b–CP11, CP13, and CP19) on the crest of the Marginal Ridge at Site 960, four (CP7–CP9b, CP11, CP13–?CP15, and CP17–CN1a) at nearby Site 959 on the shoulder of the Marginal Ridge, and …

Chapter 2 Climate, Donald A. Wilhite, Kenneth G. Hubbard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The broad climatic patterns of the Sand Hills region are also characteristic of the central Great Plains environment. The spatial and temporal patterns of these climatic variables have a significant effect on the natural resources of the region.

An Evaluation Of Methods For Identifying And Interpreting Buried Soils In Late Quaternary Loess In Alaska, Daniel R. Muhs, Thomas A. Ager, Josh M. Been, Joseph G. Rosenbaum, Richard L. Reynolds

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The presence of buried soils in Alaskan loess is controversial, and therefore criteria for identifying buried soils in these deposits need to be evaluated. In this paper, morphologic and chemical criteria for identifying buried soils are evaluated by studying modern soils developed mostly in Holocene loess under tundra, boreal forest, and transitional coastal-boreal forest vegetation in different parts of Alaska. Data from modern Alaskan soils that developed under vegetation similar to that of the present indicate that soil morphology, organic-matter concentrations, and P concentrations can be useful diagnostic tools for identifying buried soils. Soil morphologic criteria, particularly horizon colors and …

Water Quality In The Central Nebraska Basins, Nebraska, 1992-95, S. A. Frenzel, R. B. Swanson, T. L. Huntzinger, J. K. Stamer, P. J. Emmons, Ronald B. Zelt

United States Geological Survey: Publications

This report is intended to summarize major findings that emerged between 1992 and 1995 from the water-quality assessment of the Central Nebraska Basins Study Unit and to relate these findings to water-quality issues of regional and national concern. The information is primarily intended for those who are involved in waterresource management. Indeed, this report addresses many of the concerns raised by regulators, water-utility managers, industry representatives, and other scientists, engineers, public officials, and members of stakeholder groups who provided advice and input to the USGS during this NAWQA Study-Unit investigation. Yet, the information contained here may also interest those who …

Hydrogeology In The Vicinity Of The Nebraska Management Systems Evaluation Area Site, Centra! Nebraska, Virginia L. Mcguire, John M. Kilpatrick

United States Geological Survey: Publications

From 1991 to 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey participated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in research activities at the Nebraska Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) site near Shelton, Nebraska. The purpose of the U.S. Geological Survey study was to define the hydrogeologic system in the vicinity of the Nebraska MSEA site to aid the interpretation of ground-water sampling results by other researchers. The primary aquifer in the study area is the High Plains aquifer, which consists of an unconfined part, the shallow aquifer; a silt and clay unit that acts as a confining layer; …

Resource Notes-Academic Year 1997-98

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

South Central Nebraska Geology Field Trip Conservation And Survey Division-Ianr-Unl & Nebraska Well Drillers Association, Conservation Survey Division

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Oil And Gas Production And Value For 1996 And 1997, R. R. Burchett, W. H. Sydow

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

4. Grain-Size Distribution And Significance Of Clay And Clay-Sized Minerals In Eocene To Holocene Sediments From Sites 918 And 919 In The Irminger Basin, Kraig Heiden, Mary Anne Holmes

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Published by the Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A & M University, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc."

Dissociation Constants Of Oxalic Acid In Aqueous Sodium Chloride And Sodium Trifluoromethanesulfonate Media To 175 °C, Richard Kettler, David J. Wesolowski, Donald A. Palmer

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The first and second molal dissociation constants of oxalic acid were measured potentiometrically in a concentration cell fitted with hydrogen electrodes. Measurements were made at six temperatures ranging from 5 °C to 125 °C at four ionic strengths ranging from 0.1 mol•kg^-1 to 1.0 mol•kg^-1 (NaCl and NaCF₃-SO₃). The second molal dissociation constant was measured in NaCF₃SO₃ media only. The data obtained in this study were combined with the corresponding literature values, including a number of recalculated Harned cell and concentration cell measurements and previous results from this laboratory. Data for …

Mesozoic Biostratigraphic, Paleoenvironmental, And Paleobiogeographic Synthesis, Equatorial Atlantic, M. Moullade, David K. Watkins, F. E. Oboh-Ikuenobe, J.-P. Bellier, E. Masure, A. E.L. Holbourn, J. Erbacher, W. Kuhnt, T. Pletsch, M. A. Kaminski, R. Rauscher, S. Shafik, O. Yepes, J. Dejax, J. M. Gregg, Im Chul Shin, M. Schuler

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Cretaceous sediments from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 159 on the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Marginal Ridge (CIGMR), eastern equatorial Atlantic, are characterized by distinct stratigraphic changes in sedimentary facies associated with changes in the composition of the clayey and organic fractions, as well as of the calcareous nannofossil, radiolarian, foraminiferal, and palynomorph assemblages. In the absence of reliable magnetostratigraphic information, an integrated biostratigraphy provides the only means used to calibrate the geologic history of the Leg 159 area.

The existence of marine depositional environments as early as the late Aptian to early Albian close to the Leg 159 drill sites puts constraints …

7. Thermal Diagenesis Of Cretaceous Sediment Recovered At The Cote D’Ivoire – Ghana Transform Margin, Mary Anne Holmes

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The early opening of the South Atlantic ocean along the eastern Romanche Fracture Zone, including an initial phase of transform faulting and pull-apart basin formation, followed by the generation of a seafloor spreading center, was investigated during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 159 to the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana continental margin. Clay minerals in the <0.5-μm fraction of tectonically disturbed sediment recovered during this leg were analyzed by X-ray diffraction to determine the extent of thermal diagenesis caused by the passing of the South Atlantic spreading center along this transform margin, and to date the passing. Results from Sites 959-961 reveal mild thermal alteration of clays, to paleotemperatures of 120°–170°C, in older, mostly undated sediment, in response to an elevated paleogeothermal gradient, as indicated by the absence of randomly interstratified illite/smectite group clays (R = 0 I/S clay), and the presence of dominant regularly interstratified (R = 1) I/S clay. Thermally altered sediment at these sites underlie unaltered sediment with likely erosional contacts. Based on a date of nannofossil biozone CC9b for the oldest unaltered sediment at Site 959, the thermal event there must have been pre-CC9b.
At Site 962, drilled on a minor marginal ridge to the west of Sites 959–961, heat has altered clay in basal sediment to R = 1 I/S, and the transition uphole to thermally unaltered sediment, bearing R = 0 I/S clay, was recovered over a 175-m-thick interval, indicating …

Madison County Test Hole Logs, Raymond R. Burchett

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.