Earth Sciences Commons^™

Early History Of The Atlantic Ocean And Gas Hydrates On The Blake Outer Ridge: Results Of The Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 76, Robert E. Sheridan, Felix M. Gradstein, Leo A. Barnard, Deborah M. Bliefnick, Dan Habib, Peter D. Jenden, Hideo Kagami, Everly M. Keenan, John Kostecki, Keith A. Kvenvolden, Michel Moullade, James Ogg, Alastair H.F. Robertson, Peter H. Roth, Thomas H. Shipley, Larry Wells, Jay L. Bowdler, Pierre H. Cotillon, Robert B. Halley, Hajimu Kinoshita, James W. Patton, Kenneth A. Pisciotto, Isabella Premoli-Silva, Margaret M. Testarmata, Richard V. Tyson, David K. Watkins

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Leg 76 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project achieved two major scientific objectives. The first objective was met at Site 533, where on the Blake Outer Ridge, gas hydrates were identified by geophysical, geochemical, and geological studies. Gas-hydrate decomposition produced a volumetric expansion of 20:1 of gas volume to pore-fluid volume; this expansion exceeded by about a factor of four the volume of gas that could be released from solution in pore water under similar conditions. The gas hydrate includes methane, ethane, propane, and isobutane but apparently excluded normal butane and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons as predicted from gas hydrate …

Ice Segregation As An Origin For Lenses Of Non-Glacial Ice In “Ice-Cemented” Rock Glaciers, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

ABSTRACT. In order to flow with the gradients observed (10° to 15°) rock glaciers cannot be simply ice-cemented rock debris, but probably contain masses or lenses of debris-free ice. The nature and origin of the ice in rock glaciers that are in no way connected to ice glaciers has not been adequately explained. Rock glaciers and talus above them are permeable. Water from snow-melt and rain flows through the lower part of the debris on top of the bedrock floor. In the headward part of a rock glacier, where the total thickness is not great, if this groundwater flow is …

Kansan Proglacial Environment, East-Central Nebraska, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A stream bank along a tributary of Salt Creek in east·central Nebraska displays a sequence of sediments deposited along an eastward flowing stream during part of the approach and subsequent retreat of the last ice sheet to expand into this area during the Kansan glaciation. The section exposes a series of beds of calcareous silt which contain fossil·rich lenses. Sediment characteristics and the habitat requirements of 31 species of snails recovered suggest that the silts accumulated on an aggrading floodplain and probably were derived from erosion of unweathered cal· careous till and calcareous wind·blown silts deposited during an earlier ice …

Geochemistry Of The Cenozoic Volcanic Rocks Of Ross Island And Vicinity, Antarctica, S. S. Goldich, S. B. Treves, N. H. Suhr, J. S. Stuckless

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Cenozoic volcanic rocks of Ross Island and vicinity, Antarctica, are surface flows, tuffs, breccias, and small intrusives. The prominent rock is basanitoid. Alkali-basalt magma reached the surface over an appreciable length of time and was differentiated to produce a rock series: basanitoid → trachybasalt → phonolite. The alkalic, silica-undersaturated rocks are part of a larger petrologic province composed of volcanic centers in a belt nearly 2,000 km long roughly parallel to the Transantarctic Mountains. Two trends of magmatic differentiation are apparent. At depth the fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene, and opaque oxide minerals, all of which are abundant as …

Urban Geology Of Madison County, Indiana: Special Report 10, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

During recent years many of the population centers of Indiana have undergone growth that has resulted in expansion of urban uses into land that has been largely rural. As a result of that expansion, conflicts have arisen between expanding urban uses and the agricultural and mineral resource uses of land that lies near the centers of population. In addition, uncontrolled use of flood plains, steep slopes, and areas of soft sediments and high water tables has caused inconvenience and financial loss to individuals and industries that unknowingly have built structures in those places. Generally, these situations have developed as a …

Epeirogenic And Climatic Controls Of Early Pleistocene Fluvial Sediment Dispersal In Nebraska, K. O. Stanley, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The change from Pliocene to Pleistocene fluvial sedimentation in Nebraska is denoted by gravel with relative enrichment of mechanically weak rock species and a two-fold increase in largest clast size. These changes in fluvial sediments suggest modification in degradational energy affecting detritus apparently related to deterioration of climate in the early Pleistocene. Cooler Pleistocene climates with increased moisture resulted in greater discharge and carrying capacity for streams headed in the Rocky Mountains and flowing across Nebraska. These streams carried granitic detritus eastward toward the continental glacier margin in easternmost Nebraska. There, streams flowing off ice sheets carrying sedimentary and metamorphic …

Miocene Amphicyonids (Mammalia, Carnivora) From The Agate Spring Quarries, Sioux County, Nebraska, Robert M. Hunt Jr.

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Miocene late Arikareean land mammal "age" is largely defined by the faunal assemblage from the Agate Spring Quarries and other nearby localities in the Harrison Formation of Sioux County, Nebraska. Amphicyonid carnivores of the genera Cynelos Jourdan and Ysengrinia Ginsburg were previously known only from European Oligocene and Miocene deposits. These genera are now known from the Harrison Formation of Sioux and Box Butte counties, western Nebraska, and therefore the late Arikareean fauna now includes three amphicyonids: Cynelos sp., (?) Ysengrinia sp., Daphoenodon superbus Peterson. The stage of evolution of these carnivores suggests a correlation of the Agate Spring …

Guidebook To The Late Pliocene And Early Pleistocene Of Nebraska, T. M. Stout, H. M. Degraw, L. G. Tanner, K. O. Stanley, William J. Wayne, J. B. Swinehart

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The interesting geographic and even strategic position of Nebraska between regions of mountain and interior glaciation during the Quaternary was emphasized by A. L. Lugn, Professor Emeritus of Geology at the University of Nebraska, more than thirty years ago. The earlier studies are summarized in two principal works by Lugn (1935; 1939a; see Selected References), to whom this guidebook is dedicated, much has been learned since and much remains to be recorded concerning the Tertiary and Pleistocene of Nebraska. In this centennial year, commemorating the beginning of a second century of geological instruction at the University of Nebraska, it seems …

Native Indiana Iron Ores And 19th Century Ironworks, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Introduction / 1

Phase one: Charcoal and native ores / 4

Northern Indiana ironworks and the postglacial bog ores / 4

Southern Indiana ironworks, Pennsylvanian and Mississippian ores / 10

Phase two: Block coals and Missouri ores / 15

Selected bibliography / 21

"The coming of iron manufacturers into the Indiana field should be encouraged. The reopening of ore deposits, the development of the coal fields, the building of furnaces within the state to smelt northern ores, the building of new railroads, and the extension of others, and the aggressive policy of existing roads to encourage industries along their lines, …

Urban Geology—A Need And A Challenge, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Urban land uses are rapidly converting open land into intensively used land. Generally, in planning those uses, a comprehensive study has included everything except an evaluation of the land in three dimensions. Geologists are eminently well equipped to supply the missing data, but they must also be aware of the needs of the urban community and the kinds of information needed by planners if they are to write reports usable by planners. Urban and environmental geology is a newly expanding field in the use of geologic data to help solve some urban problems in the planning stage. It is likely …

Pleistocene Formations In Indiana, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The system of stratigraphic classification used in North America for all sedimentary rock units except nonmarine deposits of the Pleistocene Series established groups, formations, and smaller units based on objectively determined characteristics of the rocks and not on geomorphology or subjective features, such as geologic time. Not all students of the nonmarine Pleistocene have kept these two kinds of units distinct from each other. The Pleistocene sediments of Indiana and the surrounding States are continental in origin rather than marine, and thus they show far less lithologic homogeneity than sediments and rocks of marine origin. Nevertheless, these Pleistocene sediments can …

Field Conference On The Tertiary And Pleistocene Of Western Nebraska (Guide Book For The Ninth Field Conference Of The Society Of Vertebrate Paleontology), C. Bertrand Schultz, Thompson M. Stout, Charles H. Falkenbach, Lloyd G. Tanner, Harold J. Cook, Alvin Leonard Lugn

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

This Field Conference is scheduled for five days, July 31-August 3 (main excursion) and August 4 (post-conference excursion), 1961. Its purpose is to consider recent work and problems in stratigraphy and vertebrate paleontology concerned with deposits ranging in age from Oligocene through Pleistocene, in western Nebraska. The Guide Book is the Ninth issued by sponsoring institutions for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (the others having been published in 1941, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1'953, 1956, and 1958). It thus commemorates the 20th Anniversary of the First Field Conference of the Society, as well as the 90th Anniversary of the establishment …

On The Status Of Theocampe Haeckel, And Certain Similar Genera, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

This paper is a revision of the generic nomenclature of a few radiolarian genera whose species are good zone and index fossils. The following genera are revised more or less extensively: Sethamphorus, Sethocephala, Dictyocephalus, Theocampe, and Tricolocampe. The following names are reduced to synonomy: Dictyocryphalus, Cryptocephalus, Dictyoprora (1882), Platycryphalus, Dictyoprora (1887), Theocamptra, Theocampana, Tricolocampium, Tricolocamptra, and Theocampula. Diabolocampe is described as a new genus.

Two Unusual Occurrences Of Microstylolites, Benjamin H. Burma, Charles M. Riley

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Microstylolites are here reported in both quartzite and in welded tuff. Descriptions of these unusual occurrences and accompanying photomicrographs suggest difficulties in applying the widely held theory of pressure-solution for the origin of these features.

Studies In Quantitative Paleontology. Iii. An Application Of Sequential Analysis To The Comparison Of Growth Stages And Growth Series, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Detailed directions for carrying out a comparison of characters of fossils by a sequential analysis are given. The method is adapted to comparison at a single growth stage and to the comparison of growth series. The method has the advantage of, in general, requiring fewer specimens than the classical methods of comparison.

Pre-North Horn Orogeny In Gunnison Plateau, Utah, Benjamin H. Burma, Clyde T. Hardy

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

This paper presents evidence for the post-Price River and pre-North Horn orogeny, in the Gunnison Plateau of central Utah (Fig. 1), and shows its magnitude. The first definite evidence of such a movement was found by C. T. Hardy in 1951, although it had been suggested previously, without definite evidence, by Gilliland (1949, 1951).

An Introduction To The Geology Of Parke County, Indiana, Charles E. Wier, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Parke County, which is located about 50 miles west of Indianapolis, has an area of 447 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Fountain County, on the northeast by Montgomery County, on the east by Putnam County, on the south by Clay and Vigo Counties, and on the west by Vermillion County. This publication provides a summary of the glacial and bedrock geology of Parke County, Indiana, including information on landforms, bedrock geology and mineral resources.

Landscape features are natural phenomena which long have attracted man's attention. Fr.equent reference to the permanence of mountains has been made in …

Pleistocene Evolution Of The Ohio And Wabash Valleys, William J. Wayne

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Studies of drift thickness and character currently in progress in Indiana indicate changes in drainage that have occurred in Indiana and some adjoining states since the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch. After late Tertiary (Lexington) peneplanation the master-drainage line, the Mahomet-Teays Valley system, became entrenched about 200 feet below its former level before it was ponded by Nebraskan ice and diverted into a new course. During the Parker cycle, which was interrupted by glaciation, the present physiographic features of southern Indiana and their now buried extensions to the north became recognizable. Static rejuvenation then was a major factor in erosion …

The Red Cloud Sand And Gravel, A New Pleistocene Formation In Nebraska, C. Bertrand Schultz, Eugene C. Reed, Alvin Leonard Lugn

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Recent studies of the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Pleistocene of Nebraska have resulted in additional data that require further clarification and partial revision of the Grand Island sand and gravel formation (1,2) in order that there may be no confusion as the result of varying usage of the term.

The Nebraska Geological Survey, the University of Nebraska State Museum, and the Department of Geology at the University of Nebraska have approved the foregoing restriction of the term Grand Island and the adoption of the new name Red Cloud sand and gravel, and these names will be used in future …

Glacial Geology Of Wabash County, Indiana, William J. Wayne, William D. Thornbury

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Most of the topographic features of Wabash County are of glacial origin or are glacial deposits eroded by postglacial streams. Shales, limestones, and dolomites, all Silurian, are exposed only along some of the deeper valleys. Four major rivers and six smaller streams in Wabash County flow in glacial sluiceways. Only the Eel and Wabash sluiceways carried large quantities of melt-water. The Eel River valley train occupies an interlobate position, and the Wabash Valley bears evidence of its roles as a sluiceway and as an outlet for glacial Lake Maumee in late Cary time. Three topographic areas comprise the upland part …

The Species Concept: A Semantic Review, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

In some respects, it is extremely unfortunate that names are ever attached either to ideas or objects. The false attachment of names to ideas or objects similar but not identical with the original can work harm far exceeding the benefits conferred by having a convenient label. The name "species" has come to such a state. As we shall see, a species, be it plant or animal, is a fiction, a mental construct without objective existence. Animal, and plant, lines of descent exist in a four-dimensional continuum. To set up species in this continuous line of descent, we must chop it …

Studies In Quantitative Paleontology Ii. Multivariate Analysis—A New Analytical Tool For Paleontology And Geology, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Multivariate analysis is the simultaneous comparison of three or more variables in order to determine the significance of their likenesses and differences. The technique has been in use for some thirteen years, but no simple account of the method has hitherto been available. An illustrative example from invertebrate paleontology is here used, but the method is applicable to any problem in geology involving several quantitatively known variables.

Studies In Quantitative Paleontology: I. Some Aspects Of The Theory And Practice Of Quantitative Invertebrate Paleontology, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

For some time there has been a noticeable trend toward a more strictly quantitative outlook in paleontology. In view of many special circumstances encountered in dealing with fossil material, there is a rather extended consideration here given to the theoretical background of the quantitative method as applied to fossil invertebrates. First there is a consideration of the relations between sampling theory and paleontology. This is followed by a discussion of variability in populations and the problem of inference from sample to population. A consideration is next given to the species concept and a comparison of the units which can be …

The Possibility Of A Land Bridge Across Nebraska In Mississippian Time, E. C. Reed

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The lithologic and paleontologic differences between the Mississippian sediments of the Mid-Continent region and those of the northern Rocky Mountain and Black Hills regions suggest either that the Mississippian seas were not directly continuous between these two regions or that sea connections were greatly restricted. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the available subsurface data in Nebraska and surrounding states in the light of this problem. The study is primarily lithologic. Mississippian sediments are known to be widely distributed in the subsurface of much of Iowa and Kansas, in southeastern and extreme southwestern Nebraska, and in …

Missourian Triticites Of The Northern Mid-Continent, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The tendency toward fine discrimination in fusulinid species has made necessary standardization in their study. Theories and practices of fusulinid study are herein discussed in some detail. Four new species of Triticites are described from the Missouri series of the Pennsylvanian system; one species from the Virgil series and two froim the Missouri are redescribed, and the characters of the other five known Missourian species from the northern mid-Continent are shown in graphs, thus bringing together the known Missourian species. Finally consideration is given to the ontogeny and phylogeny of the group.

Parabos Dodsoni Barbour And Schultz: A Correction, Erwin Hinckley Barbour, C. Bertrand Schultz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A Bos-like animal, Parabos dodsoni, was recently described by Barbour and Schultz (1941, "A New Fossil Bovid from Nebraska", Bull. Univ. Nebr. State Museum, Vol. II, No. 7, pp. 63-66, Figs. 24-27, December) as a new genus and species from the Pleistocene of Nebraska. Attention has been called to the writers by Dr. E. H. Colbert of the American Museum of Natural History that the name Parabos is preoccupied. Parabos was introduced as a generic name by C. Arambourg and J. Piveteau (1929, "Note preliminaire sur un Ruminant du Pliocene inferieur du Roussillon," C. R. Bull. Soc. Geol. de …

Thickness And Structural Study Of Major Divisions Of Cretaceous System In Nebraska, Paul Fuenning

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to present isopach maps of certain stratigraphic divisions of the Cretaceous system and structure-contour maps of certain horizons of that system in Nebraska. Tables of factual data also are included. The maps indicate clearly that certain structural "highs" such as the Chadron-Cambridge axis and the Sioux Falls "high," in conjunction with a large well defined basin across central Nebraska and another deep basin west of the Chadron-Cambridge axis, dominated the structural and depositional history of Nebraska during the Cretaceous period.

The Origin Of Daemonelix, Alvin Leonard Lugn

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Attention is called to the controversy of some years ago over the origin of the "Devil's Corkscrews." The problem may have appeared unimportant then, but now a correct understanding of the paleoecology of Harrison time may hinge on the explanation of these strange "fossils." The characteristics of Daemonelix are briefly reviewed, they are compared to the lianas of the modern tropical jungle, and the postulated conditions of Harrison sedimentation are believed to supply an adequate explanation for the presence of fossil rodent remains in the Daemonelices. The possibility of a vegetal origin of these fossils is believed to be demonstrated.

Will Russia Win The War?, Alvin Leonard Lugn

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

As this is written, Russia is not in the war; nevertheless, she may eventually win the war. It may not be immediately, it may not be for a generation, it may not be for fifty or more years, and it may be very soon. The "War" may not even be the present holocaust which engulfs Europe; but eventually Russia may win, even though new battles may be won and lost and perhaps much more blood spilled in the meantime; even a German victory may intervene with far-flung domina- tion in all of the continents.

Russia possesses unmeasured elements of strength …

Permian Pelecypods In The Lower Quartermaster Formation, Texas, Robert Roth, Norman D. Newell, Benjamin H. Burma

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The age of the Quartermaster formation of Oklahoma and Texas has been the subject of some controversy, being variously given as late Permian or Triassic (?). Fossils have not been reported from these beds until the present discovery of a faunule in the lower part of the Doxey shale at the base of the Quartermaster. Three species are recognized, Naticopsis transversus (Beede), Schizodus oklahomensis Beede, and Myalina acutirostris, n. sp. These forms characterize the recently described Whitehorse fauna and indicate close relationship of the enclosing beds with the Whitehorse formation, even though the Quartermaster fossils occur more than a …