Earth Sciences Commons^™

Radiocarbon Date List Xi: Radiocarbon Dates From Marine Sediment Cores Of The Iceland, Greenland, And Northeast Canadian Arctic Shelves And Nares Strait, U. Quillmann, J.T. Andrews, A.E. Jennings, J. Bendle, H. Jonsdottir, G.B. Kristjansdottir, J. Lloyd, S. Olafsdottir, Sarah M. Principato

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Radiocarbon Date List XI contains an annotated listing of 178 AMS radiocarbon dates on samples from marine (169 samples) and lake (9 samples) sediment cores. Marine sediment cores, from which the samples for dating were taken, were collected on the Greenland Shelf, Baffin Bay, and the Eastern Canadian Arctic shelf. About 80% of the marine samples for dating were collected on the SW to N Icelandic shelf. The lake sediment cores were collected in northwestern Iceland. For dating of the marine samples, we submitted molluscs (117 samples), benthic and planktic foraminifera (45 samples), plant macrofauna (3 samples), and one serpulid …

Review Of Hard Road West: History And Geology Along The Gold Rush Trail By Keith Heyer Meldahl, Harmon D. Maher Jr.

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

The dust jacket of Hard Road West promises familiar pleasures to John McPhee lovers, and so I picked the book up with great anticipation. McPhee’s works have greatly heightened the interest of writers and readers in the genre of creative nonfiction, and while for me, Keith Meldahl’s work does not quite reach McPhee’s stratospheric heights, for the right audience it is definitely a very good read.

Droughtscape, Winter 2009, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Bastrop TX: Feb. 12 Central CA: Feb. 24, 26

La Niña May Keep West and Gulf Coast Dry

Big Canoes to Launch

2008 in Review

U.S. Feels Drought Impacts in 2008

NDMC Welcomes Widhalm, Sakamoto

Climate Modelers at Workshop Look to Sea Surface Temperatures for Drought Prediction

Barriers And Drivers Influencing Adoption Of Perennial Pastures On The South Coast Of Wa, Jamie Bowyer, Rebecca Heath

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Farming For The Future : Industry Practice Baselines, Danielle England, Susan Murphy-White, John Noonan, Marie Shanks, Jon Warren

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Markov Models For Linking Environments And Facies In Space And Time (Recent Arabian Gulf, Miocene Paratethys), Bernhard Riegl, Samuel J. Purkis

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

If, as comparative sedimentology maintains, knowledge of the Recent can sometimes be helpful to explain the past (and vice-versa), common quantitative denominators might exist between Recent and fossil systems. It may also be possible to describe dynamics and find linkages between space and time with a unique set of quantitative tools. To explore such conceptual links, spatial facies patterns mapped using satellite imagery were compared with temporal patterns in analogous ancient outcropping facies using Markov chains and graphs. Landsat and Ikonos satellite imagery was used to map benthic facies in a nearshore carbonate ramp (Ras Hasyan) and offshore platform system …

Using Gis To Quantify Patterns Of Glacial Erosion On Northwest Iceland: Implications For Independent Ice Sheets, Sarah M. Principato, Jeremiah S. Johnson

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Glacial erosion patterns on northwest Iccliind are quantified using a Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to interpret subglacial characteristics of part of northwest Iceland affected by ice sheet glaciation. Ice scour lake density is used as a proxy for glacial erosion. Erosion classes are interpreted from variations in the density of lake basins. Lake density was calculated using two dilTerent methods: the first is sensitive to the total number of lakes in a specific area, and the second is sensitive to total lake area in a specific area. Both of these methods result in a value for lake density, …

Sedimentology, Ichnology, Depositional Environment Interpretation, And Reservoir Characterization In The Cotton Valley Formation Sandstone In The Amoco Grace Lowry #1, Harrison County, Texas, Justin D. Bagley

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The Cotton Valley formation in east Texas and north Louisiana is a proven hydrocarbon producing tight gas sand reservoir. Understanding the depositional environment, sandstone body geometries and reservoir properties are important for exploration and development. Two hundred and thirty eight feet of conventional core, over the Cotton Valley sandstone interval, was described and interpreted from the Amoco Grace Lowry #1, located in Harrison County, Texas. The sedimentology and ichnology as well as the net sandstone isopachous maps provided the basis for the depositional environment interpretation. Core plug derived porosity and permeability, electric logs, and thin sections were utilized for reservoir …

A Geologic Map And Stratigraphy Of Upper Guadalupian - Lower Ochoan (Permian) Strata Along And East Of Fm 2185 In The Northwestern Apache Mountains Near Van Horn, West Texas, Michael James Sweatt

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

A surface geologic map is constructed for an area of approximately four square miles east of Texas FM 2185, 35 miles northeast of Van Horn, West Texas in the northwestern part of the Apache Mountains. Middle Permian Guadalupian-Late Permian Ochoan age strata containing Capitan Reef debris and shelf to basinal beds are exposed and can be correlated to similar age strata of the Guadalupe Mountains to the north and northwest of the map area. In the area of study, three formations of the uppermost Middle and Upper Permian, Bell Canyon, Castile, and Rustler, expose strata that can be seen in …

A Computational Study Of Tsunami Runup As A Function Of Coastline Morphology, Kevin Ewell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tsunamis are surface waves with wavelengths on the order of tens to hundreds of kilometers. Modeling the propagation of a tsunami as it approaches shore requires detailed knowledge of bathymmetry in order to correctly capture the evolution of the wave as it slows down. Most published studies of terminal tsunami behavior (such as wave height and runup) are done for specific sites, often comparing model "postdictions" to recorded events. The goal of the present study is to understand in a general way how coastline indentations (such as bays and inlets) affect tsunami runup and wave height. The COMCOT tsunami propagation …

Processes Controlling Magma Chamber Evolution Beneath Mt. Rainier, Washington, Sean Ross Scott

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mt. Rainier is an active composite volcano located in the Cascade volcanic arc, ~90km southeast of Seattle, Washington. Based on a compilation of data representing basaltic andesites through dacites, thermodynamic simulations have been run to constrain the mechanisms of formation of the typical liquid line of descent. Using a variety of parental magmas and iterating through parameters such as water content, pressure, and oxygen fugacity, the best fit models suggest magmas are stored at shallow levels and have initial water contents of~ 1-2.0 wt. % and oxygen fugacity of ~QFM+ 1 to +2. One lava flow, classified as a spessartite, …

Precise Location Of San Andreas Fault Tremors Near Cholame, California Using Seismometer Clusters: Slip On The Deep Extension Of The Fault?, David R. Shelly, William L. Ellsworth, Trond Ryberg, Christian Haberland, Gary S. Fuis, Janice Murphy, Robert M. Nadeau, Roland Bürgemann

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We examine a 24-hour period of active San Andreas Fault (SAF) tremor and show that this tremor is largely composed of repeated similar events. Utilizing this similarity, we locate the subset of the tremor with waveforms similar to an identified low frequency earthquake (LFE) ‘‘master template,’’ located using P and S wave arrivals to be ~26 km deep. To compensate for low signal-to-noise, we estimate event-pair differential times at ‘‘clusters’’ of nearby stations rather than at single stations. We find that the locations form a near-linear structure in map view, striking parallel to the SAF and near the surface trace. …

Chapter 13: Space- And Ground-Based Studies Of Lightning Signatures, Timothy Hamlin, Kyle Wiens, Abram Jacobson, Tracey E. L. Light, Kenneth B. Eack

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

This article provides a brief survey of the space- and ground-based studies of lightning performed by investigators at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The primary goal of these studies was to further understand unique lightning signatures known as Narrow Bipolar Events (NBEs). First, an overview is presented of the Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events (FORTE) satellite and of the ground-based Los Alamos Sferic Array (LASA). This is followed by a summary of the phenomenology, physics, and meteorological context of NBEs and NBE-related discharges. This article also discusses additional radio frequency and optical observations of lightning made by the FORTE …

The Dilemma Of Disappearing Diatoms: Incorporating Diatom Dissolution Data Into Paleoenvironmental Modeling And Reconstruction, David B. Ryves, Richard W. Battarbee, Sherilyn C. Fritz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Taphonomic issues pose fundamental challenges for Quaternary scientists to recover environmental signals from biological proxies and make accurate inferences of past environments. The problem of microfossil preservation, specifically diatom dissolution, remains an important, but often overlooked, source of error in both qualitative and quantitative reconstructions of key variables from fossil samples, especially those using relative abundance data. A first step to tackling this complex issue is establishing an objective method of assessing preservation (here, diatom dissolution) that can be applied by different analysts and incorporated into routine counting strategies. Here, we establish a methodology for assessment of diatom dissolution under …

Inventories And Mobilization Of Unsaturated Zone Sulfate, Fluoride, And Chloride Related To Land Use Change In Semiarid Regions, Southwestern United States And Australia, Bridget R. Scanlon, David A. Stonestrom, Robert C. Reedy, Fred W. Leaney, John B. Gates, Richard G. Cresswell

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Unsaturated zone salt reservoirs are potentially mobilized by increased groundwater recharge as semiarid lands are cultivated. This study explores the amounts of pore water sulfate and fluoride relative to chloride in unsaturated zone profiles, evaluates their sources, estimates mobilization due to past land use change, and assesses the impacts on groundwater quality. Inventories of water-extractable chloride, sulfate, and fluoride were determined from borehole samples of soils and sediments collected beneath natural ecosystems (N = 4), nonirrigated ("rain-fed") croplands (N = 18), and irrigated croplands (N = 6) in the southwestern United States and in the Murray Basin, …

The Nature And Origin Of Decadal To Millennial Scale Climate Variability In The Southern Tropics Of South America: The Holocene Record Of Lago Umayo, Peru, Paul A. Baker, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Stephen J. Burns, Erik Ekdahl, Catherine A. Rigsby

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

This paper serves two purposes: to review current ideas about the nature and forcing of decadal to millennial scale precipitation variation in the southern tropics of South America during the late Quaternary and to present a new methodology for the reconstruction of precipitation as applied to a Holocene stable isotopic record of carbonate sediments in a tropical Andean lake, Lago Umayo, Peru. The basic thesis of the first part of the paper is that, although modern instrumental records suffice for deducing climate variability at decadal and shorter time scales, these records cannot adequately characterize the nature and forcing of lower-frequency …

On The Sensitivity Of Ocean Circulation To Arctic Freshwater Pulses During The Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum, Jesse Tiner Cope

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) corresponds to a period characterized by extreme global warming caused by a massive carbon input into the ocean and atmosphere. Approximately 55 Ma in the early Cenozoic, evidence suggests an ice-free Arctic exchanged relatively fresh water with the remainder of the global ocean. In this study we use the Community Climate Systems Model version 3 (CCSM-3), including a carbon cycle model, to examine the sensitivity of deep-water formation and circulation within the global ocean to freshwater exchange from the Arctic Ocean during the PETM. Past modeling experiments show how alterations to seaway exchanges can have …

Seismic Inversion In Fluvial Reservoirs: Building A Geologic Model-Based Inversion For The Stratton Field 3d Survey, Richard Charles Odom

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

Seismic surveys, in particular 3-D surveys, are an important tool for imaging geologic structure in the subsurface; they are routinely applied to map structural trends and geometry to define the reservoir structure. Many of the world's oil and gas reservoirs are sands deposited by river systems but the scales of fluvial architectural elements challenge the resolution of the seismic method. One such challenging field is the Stratton field in the FR-4 Gas Play of south Texas; the reservoir is Frio formation, a thick collection (greater than 3000 feet) of stacked fluvial deposits consisting of thin channels and splays of reservoir …

The Nature Of Boulder-Rich Deposits In The Upper Big Flat Brook Drainage, Sussex County, New Jersey, Gregory A. Pope, Andrew J. Temples, Sean I. Mclearie, Joanne C. Kornoelje, Thomas J. Glynn

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The upper reaches of the Big Flat Brook drainage, northwest of Kittatinny Mountain, contain a variety of glacial, pro-glacial, and periglacial deposits from the Late Quaternary. The area is dominated by recessional moraines and ubiquitous ground moraine, along with meltwater deposits, drumlins, and possible postglacial periglacial features. We have identified a curious boulder-rich deposit in the vicinity of Lake Ocquittunk and Lake Wapalanne on upper Big Flat Brook. The area where these boulder deposits occur is mapped (1:24,000 surficial geology) as till. As mapped and observed, larger cobbles and boulders within the till are quartz-pebble conglomerate, quartzite, sandstone, and shale. …

Geochemistry Of Molybdenum In The Aquia Aquifer, Maryland, Usa, Teresa Iafelice Valle

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The present study contributes to the understanding of controls on and behavior of molybdenum (Mo) in an aquifer, and its potential as an indicator of changing redox conditions along the groundwater flowpath. The central hypothesis of the present work is that the hydrogeochemical evolution along two separate groundwater flowpaths of the Aquia Aquifer, Maryland, USA, one each on the Eastern and Western Shore of Chesapeake Bay, consists of chemical weathering and oxidation-reduction reactions that dictate the degree of Mo mobilization, as well as mineral co-precipitation/re-adsorption reactions that dictate the degree of Mo immobilization (i.e., scavenging). This hypothesis is evaluated by …

Removal Of Butylene And Propylene Gas Using Biofiltration, Madhu Rani

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

Air pollutants are produced from a variety of anthropogenic activities such as food production, wastewater treatment plants, painting, industrial activities, and biomass combustion. Such pollutants are becoming a cause of concern worldwide because of their harmful effects on ecosystems, human health, and the atmosphere. One technology for treatment of these hazardous, odorous, and ozone-forming compounds is biofiltration. Biofilters are relatively inexpensive to install and operate, and can achieve high pollution removal efficiencies. This research was carried out to determine the removal efficiency of pollutants propylene and butylene using biofilter technology. In a biofilter column, air is passed through a packed …

Cave Minerals Of San Salvador Island, Bahamas, Bogdan P. Onac, Jonathan Sumrall, John E. Mylroie, Joe B. Kearns

Environmental Sustainability Books

This volume describes the results of a 2009 fieldwork season focusing on the cave minerals found in karst environments throughout San Salvador Island in the Bahamian archipelago. The caves visited represent a sampling of pit and flank margin caves. Each cave description includes a map.

Significance Of The Trace Fossil Zoophycos In Pliocene Deposits, Antarctic Continental Margin (Andrill 1b Drill Core), Molly F. Miller, Ellen A. Cowan, Simon H. H. Nielsen

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Zoophycos is a complex three dimensional trace fossil that is abundant in deep ocean sediments worldwide, but has not been described previously from Cenozoic continental margin deposits of Antarctica. In the ANDRILL 1B core drilled through the north-west McMurdo ice shelf, Zoophycos occurs in a 17m thick unit of interglacial sediments bounded above and below by glacial surfaces of erosion. This unit was deposited during the transition from the relatively warm Early Pliocene characterized by productive open waters to the cooler Late Pliocene with fluctuating subpolar ice sheets. Globally, Late Cenozoic Zoophycos are most abundant at great depths (.1000 m), …

Ecosystem Jenga!, Natalie Umphlett, Tierney Brosius, Ramesh Laungani, Diandra L. Leslie-Pelecky

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Students are often taught that ecosystems are "delicately balanced," But what. exactly, does this mean? How do we help students relate what they learn in the classroom about ecosystems to the world immediately around them?

As scientists who work closely with middle school students as part of a National Science Foundation-funded Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education program called Project Fulcrum. we have learned that abstract concepts, such as "delicately balanced ecosystem," are often not truly understood. We addressed this concern in a seventh-grade science classroom in Lincoln. Nebraska. by introducing students to locally threatened saline wetlands and the endangered Salt …

Models Of Garnet Differential Geochronology, Matthew J. Kohn

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rayleigh distillation models are developed to describe theoretical growth zoning of Lu, Hf, Rb, Sr, Sm and Nd in typical garnet crystals from metapelites and metabasites. Effects of diffusion limited transport within the matrix and intracrystalline diffusion are also considered qualitatively. Theoretical zoning profiles show strong depletions of Lu in garnet rims compared to cores, but virtually invariant Hf, Rb, Sr, Sm, and Nd profiles, generally consistent with natural profiles for Lu and Hf and previously published models. Theoretical isochron diagrams for Lu-Hf exhibit distinctive arcuate distributions and high MSWD’s consistent both with Himalayan data, and with expectations that garnet …

Potential Habitat Distribution For The Freshwater Diatom Didymosphenia Geminate In The Continental Us, Sunil Kumar, Sarah A. Spaulding, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Karl A. Hermann, Travis S. Schmidt, Loren L. Bahls

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The diatom Didymosphenia geminate is a single-celled alga found in lakes, streams, and rivers. Nuisance blooms of D. geminate affect the diversity, abundance, and productivity of other aquatic organisms. Because D. geminate can be transported by humans on waders and other gear, accurate spatial prediction of habitat suitability is urgently needed for early detection and rapid response, as well as for evaluation of monitoring and control programs. We compared four modeling methods to predict D geminata’s habitat distribution; two methods use presence-absence data (logistic regression and classification and regression tree [CART]), and two involve presence data (maximum entropy model [Maxent] …

Effects Of Groundwater Development On Uranium: Central Valley, California, Usa, Bryant C. Jurgens, Miranda S. Fram, Kenneth Belitz, Karen R. Burow, Matthew K. Landon

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Uranium (U) concentrations in groundwater in several parts of the eastern San Joaquin Valley, California, have exceeded federal and state drinking water standards during the last 20 years. The San Joaquin Valley is located within the Central Valley of California and is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. Increased irrigation and pumping associated with agricultural and urban development during the last 100 years have changed the chemistry and magnitude of groundwater recharge, and increased the rate of downward groundwater movement. Strong correlations between U and bicarbonate suggest that U is leached from shallow sediments by high …

Influences Of Channel Dredging On Flow And Sedimentation Patterns At Microtidal Inlets, West-Central Florida, Usa, Tanya M. Beck, Ping Wang

Geology Faculty Publications

Four inlets (Johns Pass and Blind Pass; and New Pass and Big Sarasota Pass) in two multi-inlet systems along the West-central Florida coast were studied. Johns Pass, New Pass, and Blind Pass are dredged every 4-9 years, whereas Big Sarasota Pass has never been dredged. The goal of this study was to investigate the morphodynamics of the four inlets and the influences of channel dredging on the flow patterns over the ebb tidal delta and sediment bypassing. Time-series aerial photographs and bathymetric maps starting from the 1920s were analyzed to assess the pathways of sand bypassing and morphodynamics at the …

Resistivity And Conductivity Studies Of The Rattlesnake Springs, New Mexico Watershed, Claudia Santiago

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rattlesnake Springs are a high-discharge artesian springs situated in the upper Black River Valley in southwestern Eddy Country, New Mexico. The aquifer that supplies the Rat- tlesnake Springs has been the main water source for domestic use by visitors of Carlsbad Caverns National Park and residents of neighboring ranches since the 1930s. Several ge- ological studies relying on surface geology and limited water wells had previously been conducted in the area to examine the trend of ground water flow. In this study I used con- ductivity and resistivity geophysical techniques to identify possible locations of fractures in the subsurface of …

Analysis Of Shallow Seismicity And Stress Fields In Southeastern Alaska, Hugo Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Southeastern Alaska is dominated by strike-slip motion along the Queen Charlotte-southern Fairweather fault system (QCFS) in the south and transitions to oblique convergent motion partitioned between strike-slip motion along the Denali and northern Fairweather fault systems and thrusting along faults of the St. Elias region. Geologic complications are further increased by the subduction of the Yakutat microplate beneath North America and glacial processes. By studying regional background seismicity we intend to better determine the current state of stress of southeastern Alaska from the Dixon Entrance to Yakutat Bay. Phase data was gathered for over 4000 earthquakes of depths <20 km and magnitude <5 that occurred from 1973-2005 from Alaskan and Canadian databases. We relocated these earthquakes using the Double-Difference joint hypocenter method. Two areas of interest were identified with high concentrations of seismicity after relocation calculations for the entire southeast Alaska region; Glacier Bay through Yakutat (GBY) and the area surrounding Mt. Ogden (MOG). Earthquake locations in GBY are diffuse with some isolated clusters. The MOG subregion is dominated by a large northeast to southwest trending cluster that trends along the Speel River. We used these relocations and first motion data to estimate the stress fields for earthquake clusters that formed. Only a few of the calculated stress tensors were successful in representing the region's overall tectonic signature. We combined the calculated stress information with GPS, magnetic and gravity data in order determine how plate motion is partitioned in this region and to identify other potentially active faults.