Earth Sciences Commons^™

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 6, 2012, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 6, 2012 (11/6/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Temporal And Crustal Effects On Differentiation Of Tholeiite To Calcalkaline And Ferro-Trachytic Suites, High Lava Plains, Oregon, Usa, Martin J. Streck, Anita L. Grunder

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Strongly bimodal, basalt-rhyolite volcanism of the High Lava Plains Province of Oregon followed the Middle Miocene flood basalts of the Pacific Northwest and extends to recent time. During the 8 m.y. of volcanism recorded in the central High Lava Plains, in western Harney Basin, three distinct mafic magmatic trends originate from primitive high-alumina olivine tholeiites (HAOT); they are tholeiitic, calcalkaline and ferro-trachytic. Tholeiitic basalts occur throughout the history and their compositions are derived by crystal fractionation while traversing the crust and mixing with evolved mafic magmas. Scavenging of apatite from crustal rocks and minor contamination with felsic melts accounts for …

Sigma Gamma Epsilon Undergraduate Research Poster Session, Erika Elswick

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Sigma Gamma Epsilon undergraduate research poster session will highlight recent and on-going student research. Abstracts for poster presentations will be available in the Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 2012 Annual Meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, 4-7 November 2012.

Geochemistry And Geochronology Of The Central Metasedimentary Belt Boundary Thrust Zone Thrust Sheets In Southern Ontario, Grenville Province, Kenjo Agustsson

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Studies of pre-Grenvillian (1.4–1.3 Ga) plutons offer insight into the dynamics of arc amalgamation and backarc rifting prior to continental collision in the Ottawan orogeny. The Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone (CMBbtz) is a northeast–southwest trending thrust zone consisting of metaplutonic thrust sheets enveloped in gneissic tectonites and calcitic– dolomitic marbles. Tonalitic CMBbtz thrust sheets (Dysart and Redstone) are made up of upper amphibolite-facies, foliation-concordant metatonalites (+ amphibole ± biotite ± accessory zircon and titanite) and amphibolites (± biotite ± clinopyroxene), and are located in the southern Ontario Grenville Province. These thrust sheets are thought to have formed and …

Geosciences Newsletter - 2012, Department Of Geosciences

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol. 5, No. 1

• Faculty Updates
• Faculty Updates
• Deanna Romanosky
• Publications
• MGRRE
• Alumni Award
• Gifts
• Grants
• Endowments

Gps Constraints On Indo-Asian Convergence In The Bhutan Himalaya: Segmentation And Potential For A 8.2-8.8 Mw Earthquake, Dowchu Drukpa, Phuntsho Pelgay, Anjan Bhattacharya, Phillipe Vernant, Walter Szeliga, Roser Bilham

Faculty Scholarship for the Cascadia Hazards Institute

The seismogenic setting of Bhutan is unusual due to its lower-than-average 20th century seismic moment release (Drukpa et al. 2006), its absence of a reliable historical record, and its unusual location near the Shillong plateau where a great earthquake in 1897 resulted in ≈10 m of N/S shortening of the Indian plate to its south (Gahalaut et al. 2011). Despite these indicators that lower than normal convergence velocities should currently prevail, the GPS velocity between Shillong and Lhasa suggests that convergence in Sikkim and Bhutan occurs at velocities exceeding 20 mm/yr. GPS points between the Greater Himalaya and the Shillong …

A Modified Delay-Time Method For Statics Estimation With The Virtual Refraction, T. Dylan Mikesell, Kasper Van Wijk, Elmer Ruigrok, Andrew Lamb, Thomas E. Blum

CGISS Publications and Presentations

Topography and near-surface heterogeneities lead to traveltime perturbations in surface land-seismic experiments. Usually, these perturbations are estimated and removed prior to further processing of the data. A common technique to estimate these perturbations is the delay-time method. We have developed the “modified delay-time method,” wherein we isolate the arrival times of the virtual refraction and estimate receiver-side delay times. The virtual refraction is a spurious arrival found in wavefields estimated by seismic interferometry. The new method removes the source term from the delay-time equation, is more robust in the presence of noise, and extends the lateral aperture compared to the …

3-D Seismic Interpretation, Seismic Attribute Analysis, And Well Log Interpretation Of An Area Between Ellis And Rooks Counties, Kansas, Vilma I. Perez De Pottella

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The researched area covers the extent of the Keller 3D seismic survey [2 mi2 (5.2 km2)] and is located approximately 12 miles northeast of the city of Hays, Kansas and NW of Ellis and SW of Rooks counties, Kansas. Eight producing oil wells along with one dry hole are located within the research area. This study is focused on the Cambrian-Ordovician Arbuckle Group which is the principal oil bearing reservoir within the research area and in the region. Interpretation of the Keller 3-D seismic data, well-log correlation and a study and description of the drilling samples suggest that the Arbuckle …

Point Source And Non-Point Source Pollution In A Secondary Stream: Nutrient Concentration And Fecal Microbe Counts In Tates Creek, Madison County, Kentucky, Walter S. Borowski, Krisopher H. Carroll, Bethany Gabbard

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Nutrient concentration and fecal microbe counts are elevated in Tates Creek, a stream that emanates from the town of Richmond, KY, passes by a conventional sewage treatment plant that discharges into the stream, and winds for 13 miles through pastureland and a series of small communities on septic systems before entering the Kentucky River. The sewage treatment plant shut-down operations during our study and we monitored dissolved nutrients (ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate), fecal microbes (total coliform and Escherichia coli), and stream biota before and after treatment operations ceased. Sampling occurred 4 times in both 2011 and 2012 between May …

Emerging Technology Monitors Ice-Sea Interface At Outlet Glaciers, Timothy H. Dixon, Denis Voytenko, Chad Lembke, Santiago De La Pena, Ian Howat, Noel Gourmelen, Charles Werner, Björn Oddsson

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Recent melting in Greenland and Antarctica has led to concerns about the long-term stability of these ice sheets and their potential contributions to future sea level rise. Marine-terminating outlet glaciers play a key role in the dynamics of these ice sheets; recent mass losses are likely related to increased influx of warmer water to the base of outlet glaciers, as evidenced by the fact that changes in ocean currents, calving front retreats, glacial thinning, mass redistribution based on satellite gravity data, and accelerating coastal uplift are roughly concurrent [e.g., Holland et al., 2008; Wouters et al., 2008; Jiang …

Injecting Large Volumes Of Preformed Particle Gel For Water Conformance Control, Baojun Bai, Mingzhen Wei, Yuzhang Liu

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes Preformed Particle Gel (PPG) treatments for in-depth fluid diversion in four injection wells located in the northern section of the Lamadian reservoir, Daqing oilfield, China, which is a sandstone reservoir with thick heterogeneous pay zones. Forty-six producers were connected to the four treated injectors with an average water cut of 95.4% before PPG treatments. A large volume (more than 1 000 m³) of PPG suspension with concentrations of 1 900-2 500 mg/L and particle sizes of 0.06-3.0 mm was injected into each well, each injection spanning approximately four months. The injection PPG suspension volumes range …

Strategies To Minimize The Effects Of Drought, Gary Bates

Kentucky Grazing Conference

As this summer has shown, forage production from cool-season pasture and hay fields across the state can be dramatically affected by drought. Pastures that consist of cool-season grasses like tall fescue and orchardgrass have been severely overgrazed, and many may have lost some significant stand. Even if you have reseeded these fields, the question is how to prevent having the same problem next year. One of the best practices is to develop a forage program that doesn’t rely on cool-season grasses for summer production, but selects forage species that are better able to produce during periods of limited rainfall and …

Grassfed Beef From A Global Perspective, Glen Aiken

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Beef production and marketing has been shifting over the last few decades in response to unstable cattle markets, higher input costs, and a need to better meet market demands. Advancement of vertical integration of the production and marketing of beef calves through retained ownership from suckling calf to feedyard has certainly enhanced the genetics of the U.S. beef herd and improved the consistency of beef products. Another shift in production has been an increased number of grassfed cattle (grass finished) for marketing either organic or locally grown beef. These niche markets have developed primarily from concerns of urban consumers regarding …

The Cost Of Pasture Versus Hay, Kenneth H. Burdine

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Whenever I discuss the economics of grazing, I like to start by thinking about hay production costs. Regardless of which species we are talking about, a livestock producer should know what his / her most expensive feeding days are. In most cases, these will be winter feeding days, and that will generally consist of feeding either purchased or home-grown hay. So, I encourage producers to start by getting a solid feel for what their daily winter feeding costs are. For the purposes of this article, I am going to present some specific estimates for winter feeding costs, and other items, …

Pastures For Horses, Robert Coleman

Kentucky Grazing Conference

For horse owners, the use of pasture in the daily management of their horses provides both exercise for the horses, but also is a valuable source of nutrients. Horse feeding programs are based on forage and pasture is an excellent means to supply nutrients. To make effective use of the forage, horse owners need to manage both the horse and the grass.

Winter Annuals And Short Term Perennials For Grazing, S. Ray Smith

Kentucky Grazing Conference

During the last 5 years there has been a renewed interest in winter annual and short term perennials for grazing and for stored feed. There are many sources of information on this subject. I especially encourage you to read the new publication written by Dr. Garry Lacefield and colleagues, “Extending Grazing and Reducing Stored Feed Needs”. I have used information from this publication and other publications from the University of Kentucky Forage Website (www.uky.edu/Ag/Forage) in writing this article. This website contains many use publications on the subject of winter annuals and variety trial information on annual ryegrass and …

Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Grazing Conference

“Novel” endophyte is a term used to describe a “good” or “friendly” fungus (endophyte) in tall fescue as opposed to the endophyte that’s present if over eighty-five percent of the tall fescue in the Fescue Belt of the USA. This endophyte is costing beef producers an estimated $1 Billion dollars in losses from animal gains, reproduction and overall performance.

Forages On My Farm, Brent White

Kentucky Grazing Conference

No abstract provided.

Foreword And Kfgc Award Winners [2012], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Kentucky Grazing Conference

No abstract provided.

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 30, 2012, Michael J. Brewer, Liz Love-Brotak

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 30, 2012 (10/30/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Insights Into The Early Transgressive History Of Lake Bonneville From Stratigraphic Investigation Of Pilot Valley Playa, Ut/Nv, Usa, Kevin A. Rey

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple shallow sediment cores were obtained from Pilot Valley playa, a sub-basin located in the northwestern Bonneville basin. Analysis of stratigraphy, ostracodes, mineralogy, chemistry, total inorganic carbon (TIC), total organic carbon (TOC), and stable isotopes were performed to better place these sediments into proper context with respect to the Lake Bonneville cycle. Results showed Pilot Valley playa contains a nearly full sequence of Lake Bonneville deep-water marl in addition to sediments deposited before and after the Lake Bonneville cycle. Within the marl is a sequence of organic rich algal laminated marl correlated with the Stansbury oscillation. Four 14C ages ranging …

The Role Of Case-Hardening In The Development And Preservation Of Narrow, Vertical-Walled Canyons In Adršpach-Teplice, Czech Republic, Shawn Austin Wiggins

Theses and Dissertations

The geomorphology at Adršpach-Teplice, Czech Republic is dominated by vertical-walled, fracture-controlled features including slot canyons, gorges and pillars. Surfaces of canyon walls in Adršpach are case-hardened and more resistant to erosion than the bulk of the sandstone, which appears to be fundamental to the formation and preservation of canyons. Core and whole rock samples from Adršpach-Teplice were analyzed in thin section, including SEM analysis with cathodo luminescence. XRF and XRD analyses indicated that silica case-hardened surfaces are chemically and mineralogically similar to the rock interior, while iron case-hardened surfaces have an increase in iron present at the surface as the …

Applicability And Estimation Of Error For Determination Of Hydraulic Conductivity Values Based Upon Traditional Aquifer Test Methods For 2-D Groundwater Modeling, Timothy W. Freed Sr.

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

The Theis method and its derivative Cooper-Jacob method are commonly used for determining hydraulic conductivity (K) for aquifer studies using two-dimensional (2-D) groundwater modeling. Theis and derivative equations assume isotropic, homogeneous aquifers and horizontal flow. In nature, saturated permeable layers of an aquifer are often separated by less permeable layers or lenses, which commonly have K's that are lower by several orders of magnitude. The presence of such geologic features induces vertical flow during aquifer tests violating assumptions for Theis based methods. This study assesses the appropriateness and error of using Theis based equations to determine K for use in …

Geologic Observations Along The Steamboat Trace Trail, Markers 16-20, In The Vicinity Of Peru, Nemaha County, Nebraska (Including On The Indian Cave Sandstone), Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

This section of the Steamboat Trace Trail from markers 16 through 20 (Figure 1) offers especially good examples of geologic features in this part of Nebraska (Figure 2). These include: The Missouri River, its valley, river cuts into the valley side, tributaries to the river, and flood control structures; Sites of active and potential landslides; Wind-deposited silts (called loess by geologists and soil scientists); Glacial deposits; Bedrock exposures of ancient sandstone, shale, conglomerate, and limestone; Fossils of ocean- and land-dwelling plants and animals; Coal deposits.

Predictability Of Biomass Burning In Response To Climate Changes, A.-L. Daniau, Megan Walsh

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Climate is an important control on biomass burning, but the sensitivity of fire to changes in temperature and moisture balance has not been quantified. We analyze sedimentary charcoal records to show that the changes in fire regime over the past 21,000 yrs are predictable from changes in regional climates. Analyses of paleo- fire data show that fire increases monotonically with changes in temperature and peaks at intermediate moisture levels, and that temperature is quantitatively the most important driver of changes in biomass burning over the past 21,000 yrs. Given that a similar relationship between climate drivers and fire emerges from …

Transition In The Fractal Geometry Of Arctic Melt Ponds, C. Hohenegger, B. Alali, K. R. Steffen, D. K. Perovich, K. M. Golden

Dartmouth Scholarship

During the Arctic melt season, the sea ice surface undergoes a remarkable transformation from vast expanses of snow covered ice to complex mosaics of ice and melt ponds. Sea ice albedo, a key parameter in climate modeling, is determined by the complex evolution of melt pond configurations. In fact, ice–albedo feedback has played a major role in the recent declines of the summer Arctic sea ice pack. However, understanding melt pond evolution remains a significant challenge to improving climate projections. By analyzing area–perimeter data from hundreds of thousands of melt ponds, we find here an unexpected separation of scales, where …

Erosion Vulnerability In The Zarati Subwatershed And Its Impact Of Water Quality, Savanna Guelde, Alicia Mata, Troy Atchison

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Ground Based Remote Sensing Approach For Direct Evaluation Of Aerosol-Cloud Interaction, Bomidi Lakshmi Madhavan, Yuzhe He, Yonghua Wu, Barry Gross, Fred Moshary, Samir Ahmed

Publications and Research

The possible interaction and modification of cloud properties due to aerosols is one of the most poorly understood mechanisms within climate studies, resulting in the most significant uncertainty as regards radiation budgeting. In this study, we explore direct ground based remote sensing methods to assess the Aerosol-Cloud Indirect Effect directly, as space-borne retrievals are not directly suitable for simultaneous aerosol/cloud retrievals. To illustrate some of these difficulties, a statistical assessment of existing multispectral imagers on geostationary (e.g., GOES)/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite retrievals of the Cloud Droplet Effective Radius (Reff) showed significant biases especially at larger solar zenith angles, …

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 16, 2012, Matthew Rosencrans

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 16, 2012 (10/16/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 9, 2012, Matthew Rosencrans

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 9, 2012 (10/9/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.