Earth Sciences Commons^™

The Performance Of 2d And 3d Tsunami Evacuation Maps: A Case Study For Seaside, Oregon, Aaron M. Taveras

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Tsunami evacuation maps are intended to inform the public about the geographic extent of the hazard and where to evacuate, but these maps can be difficult to interpret for people unfamiliar with cartographic semiology. This study focuses on the performance of tsunami evacuation maps and how the tsunami hazard is represented cartographically, as at-risk communities must be able to act quickly, and effectively understand tsunami maps to remain aware of the hazard and adequately evacuate. This study investigated the use of static three-dimensional (3D) perspective maps and travel time to safety representation (shown using point markers and choropleth symbology), as …

Assessment Of Upper Cretaceous Strata For Offshore Co2 Storage: Southeastern United States, Khaled F. Almutairi

Theses and Dissertations

This is the first assessment of Upper Cretaceous strata for offshore CO2 storage resources in the southeastern United States outer continental shelf. This research focuses on Upper Cretaceous geological units using legacy industry 2-D seismic reflection and well data. It provides an integrated description and reliable subsurface evaluation of Upper Cretaceous potential storage reservoirs. In addition, it provides a detailed evaluation on how rock porosities and permeabilities are distributed across the Upper Cretaceous strata restricted to the South Georgia Embayment (SGE). Structure and thickness (isochore) maps were generated for the main potential reservoirs and seals on a regional and local …

Driving Factors On Runoff Change In The North Semiarid Rapidly Urbanization Watershed, Yong Bai, Rui-Zhong Gao, Xi-Xi Wang, Wei-Na Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The hydrological process of a watershed influences a lot on the local socioeconomic development. The analysis of runoff change caused by the rapid urbanization on the watershed is of important significance in the management and protection of the local water resource. In this study, based on the land use information from remotely sensed images, the hydrometeorological observation data and the social economy data from 1997 to 2015, the relationship between the influencing factors and the runoff trend in Wulanmulun River watershed was analyzed at different time scale using the improved Mann-Kendall Test and PCA (principal component analysis) method. The results …

Interpreting Mosaics Of Ocean Biogeochemistry, Andrea Fassbender, A. Bourbonnais, Sophie Clayton, P. Gaube, M. Ormand, P.J.S. Franks, M. A. Altabet, D.J. Mcgillicuddy Jr.

OES Faculty Publications

Advances in technology and modeling capabilities are driving a surge in progress in our understanding of how ocean ecosystems mix and mingle on medium to small scales.

Composition Of Dissolved Organic Matter In Pore Waters Of Anoxic Marine Sediments Analyzed By 1h Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Christina A. Fox, Hussain A. Abdulla, David J. Burdige, James P. Lewicki, Tomoko Komada

OES Faculty Publications

Marine sediments are globally significant sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to the oceans, but the biogeochemical role of pore-water DOM in the benthic and marine carbon cycles remains unclear due to a lack of understanding about the molecular composition of DOM. To help fill this knowledge gap, we used 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to examine depth variability in the composition of pore-water DOM in anoxic sediments of Santa Barbara Basin, California Borderland. Proton detected spectra were acquired on whole samples without pre-concentration to avoid preclusion of any DOM components from the analytical window. Broad unresolved resonance (operationally …

Evidence For Ephemeral Middle Eocene To Early Oligocene Greenland Glacial Ice And Pan-Arctic Sea Ice, Aradhna Tripati, Dennis Darby

OES Faculty Publications

Earth's modern climate is defined by the presence of ice at both poles, but that ice is now disappearing. Therefore understanding the origin and causes of polar ice stability is more critical than ever. Here we provide novel geochemical data that constrain past dynamics of glacial ice on Greenland and Arctic sea ice. Based on accurate source determinations of individual ice-rafted Fe-oxide grains, we find evidence for episodic glaciation of distinct source regions on Greenland as far-ranging as ~68°N and ~80°N synchronous with ice-rafting from circum-Arctic sources, beginning in the middle Eocene. Glacial intervals broadly coincide with reduced CO_{2 …}

Volcanogenic Pseudo-Fossils From The ~3.48 Ga Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia, David Wacey, Nora Noffke, Martin Saunders, Paul Guagliardo, David M. Pyle

OES Faculty Publications

The ~ 3.48 billion-year-old Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, is a key geological unit for the study of Earth's earliest life and the habitats it occupied. Here, we describe a new suite of spheroidal to lenticular microstructures that morphologically resemble some previously reported Archean microfossils. Correlative microscopy shows that these objects have a size distribution, wall ultrastructure, and chemistry that are incompatible with a microfossil origin and instead are interpreted as pyritized and silicified fragments of vesicular volcanic glass. Organic kerogenous material is associated with much of the altered volcanic glass; variable quantities of organic carbon line or fill …

Spatial And Temporal Variability Of The Snow Environment In The Western Canadian Arctic, Philip Mann

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Snow cover in the Western Canadian Arctic is a significant input to the hydrological mass balance, it produces shelter and habitat for animals and humans, and supports interactions with vegetation and climate. The Arctic-tundra snow cover is greatly impacted by wind erosion, redistribution and deposition of snow during high wind events over the winter months. As a result, the end of winter snow cover is characterised by significant small-scale (on the order of a few meters) spatial variations in snow cover depth, density, and thus snow water equivalent (SWE), and runoff. Future climate related changes to snow cover depth and …

The Effects Of Fire On Snow Accumulation, Snowmelt And Ground Thaw On A Peat Plateau In Subarctic Canada, Elyse Mathieu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During the past century, the highest rates of warming have occurred at latitudes above 60^oN, where air temperatures have risen at twice the rate of other regions. In northwestern Canada, this warming has coincided with an increase in the frequency, size and severity of wildfires. The influence of such fires on the trajectory of on-going permafrost thaw is not well understood. As a consequence, the combined impacts of climate warming induced permafrost thaw and possible feedbacks arising from wildfires cannot be properly assessed. This study examines the impact of a 2.7 ha low-severity wildfire (July 2014) on water …

Near-Surface Permafrost Ground Ice Characteristics And Ecological And Physical Drivers Of Transient Layer Ice Content In Discontinuous Permafrost, Jason Paul

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Accelerated climate warming in northern regions is causing permafrost degradation, leading to the reduction of the areal extent of permafrost. Permafrost is the foundation for many northern ecosystems and communities, so its thaw can have important ecological and societal consequences. Thaw of ice-rich permafrost can cause subsidence of the ground surface proportional to excess ice content. Terrain settlement can cause ponding or damage to infrastructure. Following a surface disturbance that removes much of the vegetation cover, a shift in the ground thermal regime can cause an increase in active layer thickness and rapid thaw of the top portion of permafrost. …

Quantifying Excess Deaths Related To Heatwaves Under Climate Change Scenarios: A Multicountry Time Series Modelling Study, Yuming Guo, Antonio Gasparrini, Shanshan Li, Francesco Sera, Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, Micheline De Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coêlho, Paulo Hilário Nascimento Nascimento Saldiva, Éric Lavigne, Benjawan Tawatsupa, Kornwipa Punnasiri, Ala Overcenco, Patricia Matus Correa, Nicolas Valdes Ortega, Haidong Kan, Samuel Osorio, Jouni J.K. Jaakkola, Niilo R.I. Ryti, Patrick J. Goodman, Ariana Zeka, Paola Michelozzi, Matteo Scortichini, Masahiro Hashizume, Honda, Yasushi Honda, Yasushi, Xerxes T. Seposo, Ho Young Kim, Aurelio Tobías, Carmen Iñiguez Fernández, Bertil Forsberg, Daniel Oudin Åström, Guo, Yue Leon Guo, Yue Leon, Bing Yu Chen, Antonella Zanobetti, Joel D. Schwartz, Tranngoc Ngoc Dang, Dung Do Van, Michelle L. Bell, Ben G. Armstrong, Ebi, Kristie L. Ebi, Kristie L., Shilu Tong

Articles

Background: Heatwaves are a critical public health problem. There will be an increase in the frequency and severity of heatwaves under changing climate. However, evidence about the impacts of climate change on heatwave-related mortality at a global scale is limited. Methods and findings: We collected historical daily time series of mean temperature and mortality for all causes or nonexternal causes, in periods ranging from January 1, 1984, to December 31, 2015, in 412 communities within 20 countries/regions. We estimated heatwave–mortality associations through a two-stage time series design. Current and future daily mean temperature series were projected under four scenarios of …

Terrestrial Lidar Raw Dataset For: Stemflow Dynamics In Relation To Individual Tree Canopy Structure, Neighborhood Conditions, And Meteorological Factors, Sandra A. Yankine, John T. Van Stan Ii, Jean-Francois Cote, Anke Hildebrandt, Dylan C. Mesta, Gustavo O. Maldonado, Jan Friesen

Datasets

These are raw 3-D (x,y,z) point files of a forest plot. Scans were collected at Herty Pines in Statesboro, Georgia, USA. Scans were collected using a Leica ScanStation C-10. Files were co-registered using Leica Cyclone II. Although file extension is ".pts" these are in ASCII format.

Temporal Changes In Submarine Groundwater Discharge In A Georgia Salt Marsh, Tanner C. Avery, Jacque L. Kelly

Earth, Environment & Sustainability: Faculty Presentations (1988-2022)

No abstract provided.

Lithospheric Layering And Thickness Beneath The Contiguous United States, Lin Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

"The Upper Mississippi Embayment (UME), where the seismically active New Madrid Seismic Zone resides, experienced two phases of subsidence commencing in the Late Precambrian and Cretaceous, respectively. To provide new constraints on models proposed for the mechanisms responsible for the subsidence, we computed and stacked P-to-S receiver functions recorded by 49 USArray and other seismic stations located in the UME and the adjacent Ozark Uplift and modeled Bouguer gravity anomaly data. The inferred thickness, density, and Vp/Vs of the upper and lower crustal layers suggest that the UME is characterized by a mafic and high-density upper crustal layer of ∼30 …

3d Seismic Imaging Of Submarine Stratovolcanic And Salt Structures Beneath The Taranaki Basin, New Zealand And The Gulf Of Mexico, Ersin Erdem Unkaracalar

Masters Theses

"The relationship of submarine stratovolcanic and salt structures with overlying sediments creates a significant role in the petroleum system due to the emplacement and burial of volcano and salt. This study characterizes the spatial and temporal distribution of structural and stratigraphic features associated with submarine stratovolcano and salt body to provide insights for elements and processes of petroleum geology related to regional tectonics.

The stratovolcanic and salt structures are clearly identified on seismic sections. However, distortion of ray paths passing through the salt and turning seismic waves prevents accurate identification of steep flanks of salt. The seismic response to a …

Bridge Deck Assessment Using Visual Inspection, Ground Penetrating Radar, Portable Seismic Property Analyzer-Ultrasonic Surface Wave, Hammer Sounding And Chain Drag, Abdullah Hadi Zaid Alhaj

Masters Theses

"Integrated non-destructive techniques were utilized to assess the condition of a reinforced concrete bridge deck. There were two main objectives accomplished.

The first objective was to assess the integrity of the reinforced concrete bridge deck using four non-destructive techniques, namely visual inspection, ground penetrating radar, portable seismic property analyzer-ultrasonic surface wave, and hammer sounding and chain drag. Visual inspection data were used to identify signs of deterioration on surface of the bridge deck such as cracking, concrete leaching, and reinforcement corrosion. Ground penetrating radar data were used to determine the relative condition of the bridge deck. However, due to the …

Application Of Seismic Attributes For 3-D Seismic Visualization Contributed In Structural And Stratigraphic Interpretation Of The Tangahoe And Farewell Formations In The Kupe Field, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Housam Hussein Grabeel

Masters Theses

"Taranaki Basin is a mainly offshore basin covering an area of approximately 100,000 km², elongated across the western margin of New Zealand's north island. However, the modern limit of the basin is extended toward the deep water to cover about 330,000 km². The basin is divided by tectonic activities into northern and southern grabens. The southern region has become the most extensively researched district in recent years as its prime lithology and structural trap distributions provide numerous hydrocarbon fields. One such field is the Kupe Field (256 km²), which lies on a northerly-plunging, reverse-faulted, …

Imaging The Subsurface In Eastern Part Of Lake Chesterfield Using A Combination Of Geophysical Tools, Jiawei Li

Masters Theses

"The Lake Chesterfield North Dam in Wildwood city, Missouri has been leaking, more or less continuously since the dam was constructed in 1986 despite mitigation efforts in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2004, and 2005. Neither the grouting efforts in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2004 or 2005, nor the placement and rehabilitation of an impervious clay liner in 2005 has solved the problem. Indeed, in June of 2017, the water level in Lake Chesterfield dropped at an alarmingly rapid rate.

Prior to authorizing additional mitigation work, the Lake Chesterfield Home Owners Association (LCHOA) decided to acquire geophysical data across the dry lake bed. …

Ecological Resilience Indicators For Salt Marsh Ecosystems, Scott T. Allen, Camille L. Stagg, Jorge Brenner, Kathleen L. Goodin, Don Faber-Langendoen, Christopher A. Gabler, Katherine Wirt Ames

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Salt marshes are coastal ecosystems within the intertidal zone, characterized by hypoxic, saline, soil conditions and low biodiversity. Low diversity arises from frequent disturbance and stressful conditions (i.e., high salinity and hypoxia), where vegetative reproduction and low competition result in mostly monotypic stands, with some differences in plant community influenced by flooding regime (described below). While there are several types of salt marshes in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGoM), ranging from low to high salt marshes and salt flats (Tiner, 2013), Spartina alterniflora–dominated salt marshes in the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) Low and Intermediate Salt Marsh …

First Record Of The Yellowfin Soldierfish, Myripristis Chryseresjordan & Evermann, 1903, In The Easter Island Ecoregion, Erin E. Easton, Javier Sellanes, Matthias Gorny

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Myripristis chryseres Jordan & Evermann, 1903, is recorded for the first time in the Easter Island Ecoregion. Two specimens were observed swimming along a rock cliff and entering a cavern at ∼163 m depth near the peak of Pukao seamount, located ∼85 km (46 nm) west of Easter Island. This report expands the geographic range of M. chryseres eastward by ∼3,800 km and is the first report of the species for the eastern Pacific. It is unclear whether this new record is indicative of a relatively recent range expansion or a lack of visual surveys in the region, which …

Preliminary Multivariate Comparison Of Coral Assemblages On Carbonate Banks In The Western Gulf Of Mexico, Rebekah E. Rodriguez, Erin E. Easton, Thomas C. Shirley, John W. Tunnell, David Hicks

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Hermatypic corals flourished on reefs in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Today, many of these relict reefs are mesophotic banks that have unique coral assemblages and provide critical habitat; however, the South Texas Banks (STB) lack quantitative surveys. Therefore, we used a remotely operated vehicle to conduct quantitative surveys of 5 banks: Baker, Aransas, Dream, Blackfish Ridge, and Harte. Coral communities, based on estimated coral densities (colonies/m2), significantly differed among banks for terraces, slopes, and overall (combined terrace and slope) communities for most banks examined. Within banks, terrace and slope communities significantly differed …

An Integrated Method For Forecasting Well Deliverability In Gas Condensate Reservoirs With Bottom Aquifer Drive, Abdulaziz Ellafi, Ralph E. Flori, Shari Dunn-Norman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gas condensate reservoirs constitute a significant portion of global hydrocarbon reserves. In these reservoirs, liquids develop in the pore space once bottomhole pressure falls below dew point. This results in the formation of a liquid bank near the wellbore region which decreases gas mobility, which then reduces gas inflow. In such complex reservoirs, it is important to correctly describe PVT impacts, adjustments to well test analysis and inflow performance, and then combine all effects in the reservoir analysis. The literature contains many references to individual adjustments of PVT analysis, well testing, or inflow performance for gas condensate reservoirs, but few …

Computational Modeling Of Heat Transport And Volatile Extraction From Asteroid Materials, Joel C. Sercel, Mark A. Crawford, Christopher Dreyer, Egboche Unobe, Robert Jedicke, Stanley Love, Leslie S. Gertsch

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the results of a program of computational modeling focused on elucidating the physics and chemical processes associated with the extraction of volatile materials from asteroid feedstocks with an eye toward use of the extracted materials for propulsion, radiation shielding, and replenishment of mission consumables. We present a math model of conductive heat transport, chemical processes, and gas escape by Darcian diffusion. Chemical processes in the model include pyrolysis of organic chemical constituents and thermal dehydration and decarbonization of hydrates and carbonates. The model is implemented in a spherical finite difference computational engine that predicts time histories of …

John Frank Stevens: Panama Canal Mastermind And Pioneering Railroad Pathfinder, J. David Rogers, Lawrence M. Magura

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

John Frank Stevens began his civil engineering career as a rodman on a survey crew in Maine in 1872. He soon moved to Minneapolis, where he apprenticed himself, eventually becoming Assistant City Engineer. In 1876 he began working for railroads in the western United States. In 1882 Stevens began working for a contractor laying tracks for the Canadian Pacific Railroad in Saskatchewan. The next spring he became assistant engineer of location for the Canadian Pacific, completing the first transcontinental line linking Montreal with Vancouver in 1888. In 1889 James Jerome Hill retained Stevens as chief pathfinder for the new Great …

Testing And Evaluation Of Shale Stability For Zubair Shale Formation, Ahmed K. Abbas, Ralph E. Flori, Ahmed Al-Anssari, Mortadha Alsaba

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Zubair Formation consists of approximately 55% shale, which causes almost 70% of wellbore problems due to incompatibilities of drilling fluids and shale formations. The most common and effective solution to shale instability is through the design and selection of drilling fluids. Understanding the interaction between drilling fluids and shale has been a challenge due to the complexity of both physical and chemical variations in shale formations. This paper presents some of the important laboratory and well-site testing techniques that are often used by mud engineers for characterizing and remediating drilling fluids and shale interaction. Well-preserved shale samples were analyzed to …

Comparing Source Rock Maturity With Pore Size Distribution And Fluid Saturation In The Bakken-Three Forks Petroleum System, Williston Basin, North Dakota, Adedoyin Suleman Adeyilola

Theses and Dissertations

With the continuous demand for fossil fuel and advancement in technology, the unconventional petroleum resources have come into limelight. The Devonian Three Forks Formation consisting of carbonate and clastic sediments is an unconventional oil accumulation

containing about 3.73 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. However, understanding rock properties of the various lithofacies and fluid saturation is still challenging.

The petroleum prospectivity was evaluated by integrating organic maturity and hydrocarbon generation with porosity distribution and fluid saturation in the Ambrose field and adjacent fields. The organic maturity was done with a programmed pyrolysis analysis (Source

Rock Analyzer) using samples taken at …

Global Plate Motions And Earthquake Cycle Effects, Shannon E. Graham, John P. Loveless, Brendan J. Meade

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

The rotations of tectonic plates provide a partial description of the total observed displacements at the Earth’s surface. The estimated number of kinematically distinct plates has increased from 12 in 1990 to 56 in 2010 as a result of the increase in the number of kinematic observables. At length scales <1,000 km, rotation-only plate models are inaccurate because geodetic signals of long-term plate motions are complicated by earthquake cycle effects. Here we present results from a global block model that unifies large-scale plate motions and local earthquake cycle effects at plate boundaries. Incorporating the rotations of 307 distinct plates, elastic strain accumulation from 16 subduction zones and 1.59×107 km2 of fault system area, this model explains 19,664 interseismic GPS velocities at a resolution of 2.2 mm/year. Geodetically constrained fault slip deficit rates yield a cumulative global moment accumulation rate of 1.09 × 1022 N⋅m/year, 12% larger than the average annual coseismic moment release rate from 1900 to 2013. The potential contribution to the total moment rate budget can be estimated from the frequency distribution of the modeled fault slip-deficit rates, which follow an exponential distribution. Integrating this frequency distribution over all possible slip rates indicates that the geologic structures included in this reference global block model account for 98% of the global moment budget. Comparing our results with population distribution, we find that ∼50% of the world’s population lives within 200 km of an active fault with a slip rate >2 mm/year.

Hydrogeology And Water Management In The Arkwright Underground Coal Mine, Pittsburgh Seam, Northern West Virginia, Bryant D. Mountjoy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Arkwright #1 is a closed underground mine in the Pittsburgh coal seam near Morgantown, West Virginia USA. Arkwright shares perimeter boundaries/barriers with three other closed Pittsburgh seam mines (Osage #3, Jordan #93, Federal #1) and is partially overlain by flooded Sewickley seam mines, 25 m above it. This mine is significant primarily because it manages and treats water diverted from nearly 20 other closed mines over a 600 square kilometer area. This study examines water levels, pump records, and mine maps to describe the hydrogeology of Arkwright Mine. After closure in 1995, Arkwright and the adjacent northern Osage mines began …

Population Dynamics And Water Resource Consumption In Spokane, Wa, Daniel Jesus Castillo

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Reprocessing Of The 2 Hz P-P Data From The Blackfoot 3c-2d Survey With Special Reference To Multicomponent Seismic Processing, Onur Akturk

Masters Theses

"The 3C-2D multicomponent seismic survey was acquired in the Blackfoot Field, which is located 15 km southeast of Strathmore, Alberta. The 2 Hz vertical component data were reprocessed to better image the target reservoir, the Glauconitic sand formation at approximately 1150 ms. The zone of the major reflector at about 1550 ms was also taken into consideration to determine the better seismic section for further processing. The main characteristics of the converted wave processing, such as common conversion point (CCP), asymptotic binning, gamma ratios, receiver statics, rotation of the data, positive/negative offsets, and anisotropy, were also summarized in this study. …