Earth Sciences Commons^™

Breckenridge Shelter Geoarchaeology, Trevor John Seekamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My graduate research mainly focuses on Breckenridge Shelter (3CR002), Carroll County, Arkansas. As a geoarchaeologist, my concerns are geomorphological and geological processes affecting the shelter and surrounding hill slope. Breckenridge is one of several similar, Pine Hollow bluff shelters, about Beaver Lake, an impoundment of the White River, in northwest Arkansas.

Subsurface Stratigraphy And Characterization Of Mississippian (Osagean To Meramecian) Carbonate Reservoirs Of The Northern Anadarko Shelf, North-Central Oklahoma, Brett Robert Wittman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mississippian carbonate strata of the midcontinent contain prolific oil and gas reservoirs. Production from these carbonates has been primarily from two reservoir types, the Mississippi "chat" and recently denser chert-rich mudstone intervals. The"chat" interval is a high porosity chert residuum associated with the both the Osagean and basal Pennsylvanian unconformity. The distribution of the "chat" reservoir is discontinuous and heterogeneous. Recent horizontal drilling successes have reinvigorated academic and industry interest in the Lower Mississippian. Much of the activity is now targeting lower porosity, cherty, mudstone intervals of the Reeds Spring and Cowley Formations, which were previously considered to be non-economic. …

Geophysical Surveys And Archaeological Insights At Fort Pierre Chouteau A Frontier Trading Post On The Middle Missouri, Margaret Maurine Patton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fort Pierre Chouteau in present day South Dakota was the most important fur trading post of the American Fur Company in the 1830s, serving as a regional hub for the fur trade. The Fort was sold to the U.S. Military in 1855 for use as a base in the Sioux Wars but was abandoned in 1856. Geophysical surveys and previous excavations indicate evidence of both occupations. Geophysics is an important tool for determining the extent of archaeological sites, yet the relationships between geophysical anomalies and excavation features may not be readily evident. Initial geophysical surveys (Kvamme 2007) were completed to …

Magnesium Isotopic Compositions Of The Moon And Achondrites: Implications For Their Origin And Evolution, Fatemeh Sedaghatpour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objectives of this thesis are to estimate Mg isotopic compositions of the Moon and achondrites, to understand the behavior of Mg isotopes during magmatic differentiation processes in different planetary bodies, and to evaluate the extent of Mg isotopic heterogeneity in the solar system. In order to achieve these goals, Mg isotopes have been measured for 47 well-characterized lunar samples and 22 differentiated meteorites by MC-ICPMS. The limited Mg isotopic variations among mare and highland regolith, mare breccias, and highland impact-melt rocks reflect negligible Mg isotope fractionation during lunar surface processes (e.g. solar wind, cosmic rays, micrometeorite bombardments, meteorite …

Springtime Contribution Of Dinitrogen Fixation To Primary Production Across The Mediterranean Sea, E. Rahav, B. Herut, A. Levi, Margaret Mulholland, I. Berman-Frank

OES Faculty Publications

Dinitrogen (N-2) fixation rates were measured during early spring across the different provinces of Mediterranean Sea surface waters. N-2 fixation rates, measured using N-15(2) enriched seawater, were lowest in the eastern basin and increased westward with a maximum at the Strait of Gibraltar (0.10 to 2.35 nmol NL-1 d(-1), respectively). These rates were 3-7 fold higher than N-2 fixation rates measured previously in the Mediterranean Sea during summertime and we estimated that methodological differences alone did not account for the seasonal changes we observed. Higher contribution of N-2 fixation to primary production (4-8 %) was measured in the western basin …

The Evaluation Of Water Storage In Death Valley Using Grace Satellite Data, Maile Sweigart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As drought conditions spread across the United States, concerns over water supplies, water use, and water management policies are growing and possible contributing environmental factors are continually being scrutinized. This thesis examines Death Valley as an analog for Southern Nevada and utilizes NASA EOS data, combined with ancillary climate data, to assess the effect of decadal climate variability on groundwater storage in the Death Valley area. Historical climate data, combined with satellite imagery observations, were compiled and calculated for analyses. Conclusions derived from statistical analyses infer trends between GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data and fluctuating levels of …

Dissolution Rates Of Amorphous Al- And Fe-Phosphates And Their Relevance To Phosphate Mobility On Mars, Valerie Tu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Phosphate is an essential element for life on Earth, and therefore if life exists or ever existed on Mars it may have required phosphate. Amorphous Al- and Fe-phosphates rapidly precipitate from acidic solutions and amorphous Al-phosphates likely control phosphate concentrations in some natural waters on Earth. Amorphous phases may be even more important on Mars than on Earth, and amorphous phosphates are therefore likely important in the phosphate cycle on Mars. Despite this importance, however, few dissolution rates exist for amorphous Al- and Fe- phosphates. In this study, dissolution rates of amorphous Al- and Fe-phosphates were measured in flow-through reactors …

Cretaceous And Eocene U-Pb Zircon Migmatite Ages From The East Humboldt Range Metamorphic Core Complex, Nevada, Jordan Drew

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Zircon separates from migmatite samples from the East Humboldt Range (EHR), northern Nevada were U-Pb dated using secondary ionization mass spectrometry. Cathodoluminescence images of zircons show bright anhedral cores with abundant euhedral overgrowths surrounding them.

The overgrowths give U-Pb dates indicating two periods of zircon growth. Inner rims have a Cretaceous age population at 70.6 ± 2.6 Ma. Outer rims give Eocene ages that either fall in to a single-age population at 45 ± 1.3 Ma or are part of a range from 41-31 Ma. Discordant zircon cores have upper intercepts between 1.8 -1.0 Ga.

Cretaceous and Eocene ages are …

Soil Moisture Recognition And The Spatial Distribution Of Storm Activity In The Mojave Desert Using High-Resolution Aster And Modis Imagery For Thermophysical Mapping, Russell J. Skuse

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Climate models suggest that the Mojave Desert ecoregion is vulnerable to becoming drier in the future, and as the human population grows and development increases, environmental stresses will likely increase. Determining the spatial distribution and variation of soil moisture on a regional scale is an essential component to climate change, hydrologic, and habitat analyses. Soil permeability and sediment stability are characteristics that have been shown to be measurable from remote sensing observations. The primary objective of this project is to map the mechanical composition of the surface materials in the Mojave Desert ecoregion with implications for soil permeability, sediment stability, …

Analysis Of The Blancan Procyonids Of Florida, Laura S. Gilmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Procyonids are well known biologically but knowledge of their fossil record is comparatively sparse. This study seeks to describe a sample of late Blancan procyonid fossils composed mostly of postcranial and dental material. Fossils are analyzed using linear and 2D geometric morphometrics and compared with a large sample of modern specimens from a wide geographic area to understand the range of intraspecific variation. The large Procyon species is described as a new taxon based on morphology of the postcrania and lower dentition, while another Procyon species is also described as new due to an apomorphy in the upper dentition. A …

Identifying Myotis Species Using Geometric Morphometrics And Its Implications For The Fossil Record And Conservation, Kyle J. Jansky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dentaries of the 6 species of Myotis that occur in the eastern United States were analyzed using landmark-based geometric morphometrics. The species could be distinguished with a high degree of accuracy. Evidence was found of a phylogenetic signal in the morphology of the Neotropical and Nearctic Myotis sub-clades. There is also evidence of convergence in the morphology of the dentary among Myotis species that feed primarily by gleaning. When analyzed together there was no evidence of sexual dimorphism among the 6 eastern U.S. Myotis, but when analyzed individually some dimorphism may be present. A sample of fossil Myotis of …

Classification Of Satellite Time Series-Derived Land Surface Phenology Focused On The Northern Fertile Crescent, Brian Embree Bunker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land surface phenology describes events in a seasonal vegetation cycle and can be used in a variety of applications from predicting onset of future drought conditions, to revealing potential limits of historical dry farming, to guiding more accurate dating of archeological sites. Traditional methods of monitoring vegetation phenology use data collected in situ. However, vegetation health indices derived from satellite remote sensor data, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), have been used as proxy for vegetation phenology due to their repeated acquisition and broad area coverage. Land surface phenology is accessible in the NDVI satellite record when images …

Litter Conditioning Is Differentially Affected By Leaf Species, Phosphorus Enrichment, And Light Availability, Erin E. Scott

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic enrichment of nitrogen and phosphorus is one of the most pervasive and detrimental threats to aquatic ecosystems worldwide. In streams that rely on allochthonous basal food resources, such as leaves, nutrient pollution can result in altered food quality and decreased carbon (C) standing stocks. However, the magnitude and mechanisms of this change in quality are poorly understood. Laboratory microcosm studies were conducted to 1) quantify the response of litter C:P to a gradient of phosphorus (P) enrichment (0, 0.05, and 0.5 mg SRP/L) across leaf species with variable levels of degradability (sugar maple and oak), and 2) quantify the …

Fe(Vi) As A New Chemical Agent For Treatment Of Landfill Leachate, Christopher Gravesen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

More than 50% municipal solid waste (MSW) is being disposed of within landfills in the United States. Despite many benefits, landfills inevitably produce highly contaminated wastewater - landfill leachate. Landfill leachate represents one of the most challengeable wastewaters in the world. Refractory organic matters and ammonia nitrogen are two major persistent traditional contaminants in landfill leachate. The contaminants ought to be properly removed prior to discharge into natural water resources.

Ferrate (FeO₄^2-) is a potential water treatment chemical agent in which iron is in its + 6 oxidation state. In engineering practice, Fe(VI) can concurrently function as …

Investigating Planetary Magnetic Fields : 1. Paleosecular Variation And Relative Paleointensity Curves From Maxwell Bay, Antarctica 2. Rock Magnetic And Remanence Properties Of Natural And Synthetic Martian Basalts, Deepa Shah

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis study investigates two individual projects to determine the paleomagnetic records from sediment core NBP0502-1B from Maxwell Bay Antarctica and SNC Martian meteorite Yamato-908459. Core NBP0502-1B from Maxwell Bay, South Shetland Islands, recovered a 108 m sedimentary record dating between 14.1-14.8 ka. The core has a silty-clay lithology and a calcite based radiocarbon chronology, making this an ideal site to reconstruct an independently dated record of paleosecular variation (PSV) and relative paleointensity (RPI). The interval 0-72 mbsf displays a normal sedimentary fabric, with K_mjn inclination values nearly vertical and K_int and K_max distributed within the bedding …

Fault Seal Analysis For Co2 Storage: Fault Zone Architecture, Fault Permeability, And Fluid Migration Pathways In Exposed Analogs In Southeastern Utah, David J. Richey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) primarily resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels can be captured and stored by injection into underground porous sandstone reservoirs. This process has been proposed as a method for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Two of the major risks associated with this technology include: 1) upwards migration and leakage of injected fluids along natural fault and fracture networks, and 2) possible induced seismicity (earthquakes) resulting from increasing the pressure in reservoirs and along existing faults.

We use geologic field mapping, petrographic analysis, characterization of the fault zone, analysis of altered …

A Middle To Late Holocene Record Of Arroyo Cut-Fill Events In Kitchen Corral Wash, Southern Utah, William M. Huff

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arroyos are steeply entrenched channels that form by incision into weakly consolidated valley-fill alluvium. This study attempts to offers clues into the processes behind their formation by dating arroyo sediments using luminescence and radiocarbon techniques. The importance of understanding arroyo formation is due to a possible linkage with decadal to centennial-scale climate fluctuations. In the 1800s and early 1900s, many of the shallow, perennial streams throughout southern Utah that used for a variety of agricultural and domestic uses were incised up to ~30 m into their alluvium by frequent and high-magnitude flood events. The economical and ecological effects of these …

Dendrochronology In Northern Utah: Modeling Sensitivity And Reconstructing Logan River Flows, Eric B. Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The population centers in northern Utah are highly dependent upon snowpack for drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower. When the snowpack melts in the spring and early summer, it feeds streams draining the Wasatch, Bear River, and Uinta Mountains. The rivers are diverted and dammed to deliver water to the greater Salt Lake metropolitan area. In order to properly allocate this water, managers need to know how much water normally flows in the rivers and the frequency and magnitude of wet and dry periods to expect. However, climate patterns in the region are not well understood and records of streamflows are …

Southward Continuation Of The San Jacinto Fault Zone Through And Beneath The Extra And Elmore Ranch Left-Lateral Fault Arrays, Southern California, Steven Jesse Thornock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Clark fault is a significant fault within the southern San Andreas fault system. The Clark fault abruptly ends where it intersects a second, smaller fault that crosses it called the Extra fault zone. In this study we investigate the possibility of the Clark fault continuing beneath and beyond the Extra fault zone. Based on field mapping and other geological data that we present, we determine that the Clark fault continues below the Extra fault and is not evident on the surface. Over time, earthquake slip along the Clark fault has caused the Extra fault zone to rotate in a …

Evaluation Of The Geothermal Potential Of The Snake River Plain, Idaho, Based On Three Exploration Holes, Thomas G. Freeman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work in this thesis was based on analyzing water samples collected from three exploratory boreholes drilled during Project Hotspot. The water samples were analyzed for their chemical properties. The chemical properties of the water samples were used as a basis for further analysis.

Geophysical logs, mainly temperature logs, were also analyzed for this project. Temperature logs measure temperature in relation to depth within a borehole.

All the analyses were made in order to estimate the geothermal potential of the project areas. The exploratory boreholes were all drilled in different areas and each had unique characteristics. The Mountain Home borehole …

Earthquake Petrology: Linking Fault-Related Deformation To The Earthquake Cycle, Mitchell R. Prante

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Faults have a controlling influence on a variety of geologic processes including fluid flow, the mechanical behavior of the crust, and seismicity. The geologic sciences have long recognized that faults generate earthquakes; however, few indicators of ancient earthquakes exist in fault-zones. This dissertation documents several indicators for the preservation of ancient earthquakes in fault-zones including frictional melt (pseudotachylyte), highly-polished fault slip surfaces, and hydrothermal alteration.

These deformation products result from rapid generation of frictional heat during earthquakes. This dissertation also focuses on the seismic potential of continental low-angle normal faults (LANF). We document the preservation of voluminous pseudotachylyte along a …

Comparison Of Topographic Surveying Techniques In Streams, Sara G. Bangen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Fish and Wildlife Program (FWP) mitigates impacts, including mortality, from hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin for ESA-listed salmon and steelhead populations and other species of special concern. Given the extensive economic resources invested in mitigation and the incredible diversity of in-stream habitat across the Columbia River basin, questions have arisen about which sampling strategies are most tractable across the entire Columbia River Watershed, but also produce datasets that allow researchers to answer meaningful questions about salmonid populations and trends in habitat. In response to these issues, the NOAA Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring …

Applications Of Bayesian Statistics In Fluvial Bed Load Transport, Mark L. Schmelter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The science of fluvial sediment transport studies the processes involved in the movement of river sediments. It is commonly understood that when rivers flood they have a great capacity to move sand, gravel, and even larger cobbles and boulders. This process is not only limited to the big floods that usually attract so much attention, but also the more common river flows play a very important role in forming a river. As engineers and scientists, we like to be able to develop equations and relationships that describe some natural phenomenon—in this case, fluvial sediment transport. While we are able to …

U.S. Drought Monitor, April 30, 2013, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for April 30, 2013 (4/30/13) 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: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Assessing The Impact Of Additional Seismic Sources On The Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment For The Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, Suchan Lamichhane, Barbara Luke, Wanda Taylor, William Savage

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

• The densely populated (~2M) Las Vegas Valley, Nevada (LVV) is underlain by sediments that are cut by six mapped, active normal faults that comprise the Las Vegas Valley Fault System (LVVFS). Recent research indicates that these faults have the potential to generate earthquakes up to a maximum magnitude of 6.8.
• The current (2008) USGS national seismic hazard model (NSHM) explicitly considered only the Eglington fault of the LVVFS (the remaining 5 LVVFS sources were classified as "Class B" in the USGS fault and fold database and effectively given a weight of zero in the 2008 NSHM) and also did not …

Understanding The Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum: Evaluation Of Deuterium Values (Δd) Related To Precipitation And Temperature, Colin Gannon

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The Middle Miocene Climate Optimum was a unique warming period in the Earth’s geologic history, when a high global mean annual temperature was accompanied by a relatively low global CO2 concentration. Hydrogen isotopic signals (specifically molecular δD, the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen) from lipids of fossils and sediments offer intrinsic insights into precipitation of ancient climates. Using samples collected from known Middle Miocene deposits, we measured δD of n-alkanes extracted from well-preserved plant and sediment samples from varying latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere, and then analyzed the data through a zonally averaged precipitation and evaporation climate model. The reduced …

Icy Satellite Tectonic, Geodynamic And Mass Wasting Surface Features: Constraints On Interior Processes And Evolution, Kelsi Nab Singer

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Empirical data collected from mapping campaigns combined with modeling of geologic processes improves our understanding of planetary geology. Many planet- or satellite-scale processes cannot be reproduced in labs, thus analyzing surface features provides insights to confirm, discount, or improve models. I present the methods used to map and characterize the morphometry of several types of geologic features found on three icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, and the resulting data. Trends in the data provide insight into feature formation, and to both surface and interior processes occurring in icy satellites. Topics include: i) linear features and despinning stresses on Iapetus, …

U.S. Drought Monitor, April 23, 2013, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for April 23, 2013 (4/23/13) 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: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Hidden Markov Models For Estimating Animal Mortality From Anthropogenic Hazards, Matthew A. Etterson

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Carcass searches are a common method for studying the risk of anthropogenic hazards to wildlife, including nontarget poisoning and collisions with anthropogenic structures. Typically, numbers of carcasses found must be corrected for scavenging rates and imperfect detection. Parameters for these processes (scavenging and detection) are often estimated using carcass distribution trials in which researchers place carcasses in the field at known times and locations. In this manuscript I develop a variety of estimators based on multi-event or hidden Markov models for use under different experimental conditions. I apply the estimators to two case studies of avian mortality, one from pesticide …

A Combined Radio- And Stable-Isotopic Study Of A California Coastal Aquifer System, Peter W. Swarzenski, Mark Baskaran, Robert J. Rosenbauer, Brian D. Edwards, Michael Land

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Stable and radioactive tracers were utilized in concert to characterize geochemical processes in a complex coastal groundwater system and to provide constraints on the kinetics of rock/water interactions. Groundwater samples from wells within the Dominguez Gap region of Los Angeles County, California were analyzed for a suite of major cations (Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) and anions (Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻), silica, alkalinity, select trace elements (Ba, B, Sr), dissolved oxygen, stable isotopes of hydrogen (δD), oxygen (δ¹⁸O), dissolved inorganic carbon (δ¹³C_DIC), and radioactive …