Earth Sciences Commons^™

Paleohydrology And The Origin Of Jewel Cave, Mike Wiles

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

With more than 267 m (166 miles) of mapped cave passages, Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world. The passages are beneath an area of 775 ha (3 mi²), located almost entirely within the Hell Canyon drainage basin. The canyon itself is situated in the bottom of a south-plunging syncline and most of the cave passages are located within the east limb. A down-dip cross section shows the cave passages assuming the shape of an elongate lens, located just below the Pahasapa/Minnelusa contact. The lower boundary is a maximum of 75 m (250 feet) below …

Hydrogeologic Controls On The Occurrence And Movement Of Groundwater Discharged At Magic Springs In The Spring Branch Creek Drainage Basin: Spring Branch, Texas, Mark T. Childre

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The hydrogeologic controls, flow velocities, flow direction, groundwater delineation, and physical characteristics in a joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system have been characterized. The known conduit branches from Magic Springs past C My Shovel (CM) Cave with 4475 meters (m) of measurable passages and tributaries. Surface entrance to CM Cave is located 1360 m upstream from discharge at Magic Springs.

Four storm events were measured characterizing the dynamics. The rise time and half flow period time (t_0.5) occur in less than one day. The conduit volume exceeds one half million m³. The conduit-spring system drains within 3.7 …

The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project: A Model For Agency – Caver Partnership In Cave Management, Steve S. Peerman, Michael J. Bilbo

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project and the Roswell Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management have been working together to manage Fort Stanton Cave for over 40 years. This successful partnership is a shining example of resource managers and resource users collaborating to the mutual benefit of both. There are several specific aspects to this partnership which could be regarded as a model for other user groups and agencies who need or want to enter into a cooperative relationship.

Solution Mining And The Protection Of Karst Groundwater Supplies In Burton Flats, Southeast New Mexico, Usa, James R. Goodbar

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency of the United States of America Department of Interior and responsible for stewardship of public lands. It is committed to manage, protect and improve these lands in a manner to serve the needs of the American people. Management is based upon the principles of multiple use and sustained yield of our nation’s resources within a framework of environmental responsibility and scientific technology. These resources include recreation, rangelands, timber, minerals, watershed, fish and wildlife habitat, wilderness, air and scenic quality, as well as scientific and cultural values.

The BLM received a potash …

Caver Quest 3d Virtual Cave Simulation Of Snowy River In Fort Stanton Cave, Ronald J. Lipinski, Pete Lindsley

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Virtual worlds, or 3D simulations through which an avatar can travel, is becoming a common means to display products or provide training in new environments. This paper describes the steps in producing the 3D virtual simulation of Snowy River in Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico. A traditional cave survey and map with cross sections was used to produce a 3D meshed surface of the cave walls using the Blender software package. Photographs were taken of the walls, ceiling, and floor and merged together. The merged montage was applied to the 3D mesh walls as a “texture”. Unity3D was used to …

The Nps Cave Visitor Impact Vital Signs Monitoring Protocol, Rodney Horrocks

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The national Cave Visitor Impact Vital Signs Monitoring Protocol is an attempt to standardize visitor impact monitoring in all National Park Service managed caves. With standardized monitoring in place, it will be feasible for the first time to compare monitoring data from caves across the country. This cave monitoring protocol was initiated at the NPS Cave Vital Signs Workshop held in Lakewood, Colorado in 2008. That workshop identified the vital signs that were common to all caves, including cave visitor impact. A committee convened at that workshop decided that the cave visitor impact monitoring protocol would address four parameters of …

City Of Tampa Urban Forest Management Plan, Robert J. Northrop, Kathy Beck, Rob Irving, Shawn M. Landry, Michael G. Andreu

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The 5 September 2012 Nicoya, Costa Rica Mw 7.6 Earthquake Rupture Process From Joint Inversion Of High‐Rate Gps, Strong‐Motion, And Teleseismic P Wave Data And Its Relationship To Adjacent Plate Boundary Interface Properties, Han Yue, Thorne Lay, Susan Y. Schwartz, Luis Rivera, Marino Protti, Timothy H. Dixon, Susan Owen, Andrew V. Newman

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

On 5 September 2012, a large thrust earthquake (Mw 7.6) ruptured a densely instrumented seismic gap on the shallow‐dipping plate boundary beneath the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. Ground motion recordings directly above the rupture zone provide a unique opportunity to study the detailed source process of a large shallow megathrust earthquake using very nearby land observations. Hypocenter relocation using local seismic network data indicates that the event initiated with small emergent seismic waves from a hypocenter ~10 km offshore, 13 km deep on the megathrust. A joint finite‐fault inversion using high‐rate GPS, strong‐motion ground velocity recordings, GPS static offsets, …

A Preliminary Assessment Of Speleothem Sampling Methods For Paleoclimate Research, Sarah Truebe

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Speleothems are incomparable archives of paleoclimate information. Most methods to extract past climate information from speleothems are necessarily destructive; sampling must occur along the growth axis. Development of sustainable methods for sampling these nonrenewable resources, whereby the needs of science and cave conservation are balanced, ought to be a priority of the paleoclimate community. Ergo, I am studying currently practiced methods in the field of speleothem paleoclimatology. Part 1 of this two-part study entails surveying active speleothem paleoclimatology labs nationally and internationally. The results of this portion of the survey will be converted to an anonymous list of current methods …

Unusual Polygenetic Void And Cave Development In Dolomitized Miocene Chalks On Barbados, West Indies, Jonathan B. Sumrall, John E. Mylroie, Hans G. Machel

International Journal of Speleology

Barbados provides an unusual case of polygenetic cave development within dolomitized chalks and marls of the Miocene Oceanics Group. These diagenetic processes are driven by a succession and interplay of tectonic uplift, fracturing, hypogene fluid injection, overprinting by mixing zone diagenesis, and mechanical and biological erosion in the current littoral zone. The significance of the voids and caves within the chalks on Barbados are: 1) these appear to be the first dissolution caves documented in dolomitized chalk, and 2) these features show a polygenetic origin documenting the diagenetic changes in lithology that allowed the development and preservation of these cave …

Insights Into Distributed Plate Rates Across The Walker Lane From Gps Geodesy, Zachery M. Lifton, Andrew V. Newman, Kurt L. Frankel, Christopher W. Johnson, Timothy H. Dixon

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Contemporary geodetic slip rates are observed to be approximately two times greater than late Pleistocene geologic slip rates across the southern Walker Lane. Using a dense GPS network, we compare the present‐day crustal velocities to observed geologic slip rates in the region. We find that the Walker Lane is characterized by a smooth transition from westward extension in the Basin and Range to northwestward motion of the Sierra Nevada block. The GPS velocity field indicates that (1) plate parallel (N37°W) velocities define a velocity differential of 10.6 ± 0.5 mm/yr between the western Basin and Range and the Sierra Nevada …

City Of Tampa 2011 Urban Forest Analysis: The Structure, Composition, Function And Economic Benefits Of Trees And The Urban Forest, Shawn M. Landry, Robert J. Northrop, Madison Andreu, Carolyn Cheatham Rhodes

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Hypogenic Origin Of Provalata Cave, Republic Of Macedonia: A Distinct Case Of Successive Thermal Carbonic And Sulfuric Acid Speleogenesis, Marjan Temovski, Philippe Audra, Andrej Mihevc, Jorge E. Spangenberg, Victor Polyak, William Mcintosh, Jean-Yves Bigot

International Journal of Speleology

Provalata Cave (Republic of Macedonia) is a small but remarkable hypogenic cave, developed in Cambrian marbles by successive thermal carbonic and sulfuric acid speleogenesis. The cave has a thick partly corroded calcite crust, abundant gypsum deposits, with cupolas, ceiling and wall channels, feeders and replacement pockets as some of the most characteristic morphological features. Distribution of morphology and deposits suggest a hypogenic origin in two distinct speleogenetic phases: the first by thermal CO₂ rich waters, the second by sulfuric acid dissolution, which were separated by complete infilling of cave passages with pyroclastic-derived clays. In the first phase of speleogenesis, …

Concentration And Stable Carbon Isotopic Composition Of Co2 In Cave Air Of Postojnska Jama, Slovenia, Magda Mandić, Andrej Mihevc, Albrecht Leis, Ines Krajcar Bronić

International Journal of Speleology

Partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) and its isotopic composition (δ¹³C_airCO2) were measured in Postojnska jama, Slovenia, at 10 locations inside the cave and outside the cave during a one-year period. At all interior locations the pCO₂ was higher and δ¹³C_airCO2 lower than in the outside atmosphere. Strong seasonal fluctuations in both parameters were observed at locations deeper in the cave, which are isolated from the cave air circulation. By using a binary mixing model of two sources of CO₂, one of them being the atmospheric CO_{2 …}

Initial Morphologic Evolution Of Perdido Key Berm Nourishment, Florida, Ping Wang, Katherine E. Brutsche, Tanya M. Beck, Julie D. Rosati, Linda S. Lillycrop

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) documents the initial morphologic evolution of the Perdido Key, FL, swash-zone berm based on beach-nearshore profile, sediment samples, and nearshore wave data collected during the first six months after berm construction. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Mobile District, dredged the navigation channel at Pensacola Pass, FL, from November 2011 to January 2012 and placed the 520,000 cubic yards (yd3) of dredged sand as a swash-zone berm nearshore of Perdido Key, FL. Beach quality sands are a valuable resource within the coastal zone in maintaining regional sediment balance. Compared to a …

Performance Monitoring Of A Nearshore Berm At Ft. Myers Beach, Florida: Final Report, Ping Wang, Katherine E. Brutsche, James W. Lagrone, Tanya M. Beck, Julie D. Rosati, Linda S. Lillycrop

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This report documents the placement and monitoring of an active nearshore berm at Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. From May to July 2009, mixed sand and finer sediment dredged from a nearby inlet were placed in the active littoral zone in the form of a bar-shaped nearshore berm. Six sets of beach-nearshore profile surveys and two periods of sediment sampling along profiles were collected. The Ft. Myers Beach nearshore berm migrated onshore roughly 300 ft during the first 2 years. The elevation of the berm crest increased up to 2 ft. Nearly half of the onshore migration occurred during the first …

Incision History Of Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, Usa, From The Uranium-Series Analyses Of Water-Table Speleothems, Victor J. Polyak, Harvey R. Duchene, Donald G. Davis, Arthur N. Palmer, Margaret V. Palmer, Yemane Asmerom

International Journal of Speleology

Uranium-series analyses of water-table-type speleothems from Glenwood Cavern and “cavelets” near the town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA, yield incision rates of the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon for the last ~1.4 My. The incision rates, calculated from dating cave mammillary and cave folia calcite situated 65 and 90 m above the Colorado River, are 174 ± 30 m/My for the last 0.46 My and 144 ± 30 m/My for the last 0.62 My, respectively. These are consistent with incision rates determined from nearby volcanic deposits. In contrast, δ²³⁴U model ages (1.39 ± 0.25 My; 1.36 ± 0.25 …

Distinct Iron Isotopic Signatures And Supply From Marine Sediment Dissolution, William B. Homoky, Seth G. John, Tim M. Conway, Rachel A. Mills

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Oceanic iron inputs must be traced and quantified to learn how they affect primary productivity and climate. Chemical reduction of iron in continental margin sediments provides a substantial dissolved flux to the oceans, which is isotopically lighter than the crust, and so may be distinguished in seawater from other sources, such as wind-blown dust. However, heavy iron isotopes measured in seawater have recently led to the proposition of another source of dissolved iron from ‘non-reductive’ dissolution of continental margins. Here we present the first pore water iron isotope data from a passive-tectonic and semi-arid ocean margin (South Africa), which reveals …

Evidence For Reactive Reduced Phosphorus Species In The Early Archean Ocean, Matthew A. Pasek, Jelte P. Hammeijer, Roger Buick, Maheen Gull, Zachary D. Atlas

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

It has been hypothesized that before the emergence of modern DNA–RNA–protein life, biology evolved from an “RNA world.” However, synthesizing RNA and other organophosphates under plausible early Earth conditions has proved difficult, with the incorporation of phosphorus (P) causing a particular problem because phosphate, where most environmental P resides, is relatively insoluble and unreactive. Recently, it has been proposed that during the Hadean–Archean heavy bombardment by extraterrestrial impactors, meteorites would have provided reactive P in the form of the iron–nickel phosphide mineral schreibersite. This reacts in water, releasing soluble and reactive reduced P species, such as phosphite, that could then …

Annual Variation Of Coastal Uplift In Greenland As An Indicator Of Variable And Accelerating Ice Mass Loss, Qian Yang, Shimon Wdowinski, Timothy H. Dixon

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Seasonal melting of the coastal part of the Greenland ice sheet is investigated using GPS vertical displacement data from coastal stations, combined with data on atmospheric and ocean temperatures. Using a high pass filter and cubic spline models, we estimate five variables describing seasonal uplift, a proxy for proximal mass loss, including duration of the melt season and the amount of summer uplift. Our analysis shows both temporal and spatial variations of uplift. Southern coastal Greenland experienced anomalously large uplift in summer 2010, implying significant melting that year. However, the northwest coast did not experience significant change in uplift at …

How Rigid Is A Rigid Plate? Geodetic Constraint From The Trignet Cgps Network, South Africa, Rocco Malservisi, Urs Hugentobler, Richard Wonnacott, Matthias Hackl

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Rigidity and continuity of the Nubia plate is a fundamental assumption for the kinematic description, the dynamic implications of its interaction with surrounding plates and ultimately an important constraint to the geodynamics processes involved in continental lithospheric rupture. Geophysical, neotectonic and geodynamics considerations suggest the possibility that the Nubia plate is not completely rigid but could be undergoing internal deformation due to the southward propagation of the East African Rift. Here, we utilize the South African TrigNet geodetic network to evaluate the amount of internal deformation within the South African region and the possibility of motion between South Africa and …

Detailed Data Available For Recent Costa Rica Earthquake, Timothy H. Dixon, Susan Schwartz, Marino Protti, Victor Gonzalez, Andrew Newman, Jeff Marshall, Jim Spotila

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

On 5 September 2012 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred beneath the Nicoya Peninsula of northwestern Costa Rica, rupturing the subduction zone between the Cocos and Caribbean plates. In most subduction zones the locus of seismic slip lies far offshore, making it difficult to infer interface seismogenic processes from on-shore observations. In contrast, the Nicoya Peninsula lies close to the trench (within 70 kilometers), allowing observations directly over the earthquake rupture zone.

Preliminary Summary Of Water Resource Investigations During 2012 At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, Utah, Lee J. Florea, Chelsie R. Dugan, Camille Mckinney

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

This manuscript considers the hydrology and geochemistry of water resources within Timpanogos Cave National Monument in American Fork, Utah. In particular, data are presented for five cave pools within the Monument and the American Fork River that flows through the Monument. Two independent dye trace attempts in this study have not established a connection between the surface near the canyon rim at the south border of the Monument and the cave pools or the river. Ion chemistry of the pools reveals elevated sulfate concentrations. Analysis of sulfate and other reaction products suggests the possibility of combined carbonic and sulfuric acids …

Impact Of Climate Change On Human And Ecological Use Of Karst Groundwater Resources: A Case Study From The Southwestern Usa, George Veni

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Climate change models for the arid southwestern USA predict increasing temperatures and declines in precipitation. These changes will have multiple adverse impacts on water and ecological resources and pose diverse challenges on their management. The San Solomon Spring system of west Texas discharges from the western edge of the karstic Edward-Trinity Plateau Aquifer. It consists of six springs in Jeff Davis and Reeves counties, is one of the largest spring groups in the state, and provides water for agricultural use and habitat to two federally listed endangered species and three species proposed for listing. It serves in this paper as …

Challenges Of Cave Management In A Developing Country: A Case Study Of Grotte Marie-Jeanne, Departemente Sud, Haiti, Patricia N. Kambesis, Brian Oakes, Michael Lace

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

As with many developing countries,Haiti has environmental, economic and cultural challenges that complicate natural resource management. Karst landscapes dominate Haiti and caves are abundant as recent cave and karst inventory data indicate. Though the caves and karst are subject to environmental challenges they also provide the potential for the development of tourism that would improve local economic conditions. There are 500 documented caves in Haiti of which, five are show caves. Of those, only one, Grotte Marie-Jeanne, located in Port-ấ -Piment in Departement Sud, has a structured cave management plan that addresses identification of cave resources, visitor access, interpretive guidelines, …

Water Column Variability In A Coastal Tourist Cave In Mallorca, Spain, Liana M. Boop, Bogdan P. Onac, Jonathan G. Wynn, Joan J. Fornós, Marta Rodríguez-Homar

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Coves del Drac is visited by more than 1 million tourists annually and has been a tourist destination in the western Mediterranean for over 100 years. All areas of the cave are developed with historic or current tour route infrastructure, including walkways, handrails, and electric lighting. This study compares one vertical water profile collected along the current tour path with two other profiles from historic tour route locations. Differences in freshwater and organic inputs, as well as direct anthropogenic impacts, are clearly observed in the aquatic parameters and stable isotopes collected in the profiles. Anthropogenically-driven undersaturation in the cave pools, …

Evolution Of Guano Under Different Environmental Conditions: A Mineralogical Approach, Alexandra M. Giurgiu, Bogdan P. Onac, Tudor Tămaș, Joan J. Fornos

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The phosphate minerals from three Romanian caves that host bat guano deposits have been investigated. The XRD and SEM analyses have revealed the presence of seven phosphates (brushite, francoanellite, hydroxylapatite, leucophosphite, taranakite, vashegyite and variscite) along with the more common gypsum, calcite and various allochthonous clay minerals. The occurrence of these phosphate minerals highlights the decomposition and various reactions that take place between the phosphate-rich solutions leaching out from the guano and different cave sediments and/or bedrock. The variation of the environmental conditions in the vicinity and within the guano accumulations is responsible for the type of mineral that is …

Long-Range, Passive Wireless Monitoring Using Energy-Efficient, Electrically-Small Sensor Nodes And Harmonic Radar Interrogator, Ibrahim Nassar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the use of the harmonic radar technique for passive wireless sensing applications. Issues of DC power consumption, high RF activation power, large node size, and short communication range associated with the existing passive wireless sensing technologies are addressed by the development of novel, completely passive, high efficiency, compact 3-D harmonic sensor nodes. The node transceiver employs a passive frequency doubler to return the second harmonic of the interrogation signal, and electrically-small 3-D antennas to achieve the compactness and high efficiency. The developed nodes fit inside a sphere with a diameter < 3 cm and achieve communication range > 60 m using a 43 dBm EIRP …

Short And Long Term Volcano Instability Studies At Concepción Volcano, Nicaragua, Jose Armando Saballos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Concepción is the most active composite volcano in Nicaragua, and is located on Ometepe Island, within Lake Nicaragua. Moderate to small volcanic explosions with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 1-2 have been characteristic of this volcano during the last four decades. Although its current activity is not violent, its volcanic deposits reveal stages of violent activity involving Plinian and sub-Plinian eruptions that deposited vast amounts of volcanic tephra in the Atlantic Ocean. These observations, together with the 31,000 people living on the island, make Concepción volcano an important target for volcanological research.

My research focuses on the investigation of …

Harmful Algal Blooms Of The West Florida Shelf And Campeche Bank: Visualization And Quantification Using Remote Sensing Methods, Inia Mariel Soto Ramos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) are natural phenomena that can have negative impacts on marine ecosystems on which human health and the economy of some Gulf States depends. Many of the HABs in the GOM are dominated by the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. Non-toxic phytoplankton taxa such as Scrippsiella sp. also form intense blooms off the Mexican coast that result in massive fish mortality and economic losses, particularly as they may lead to anoxia.

The main objectives of this dissertation were to (1) evaluate and improve the techniques developed for detection of Karenia spp. blooms …