Earth Sciences Commons^™

Sequence-Paleogeography And Coal Accumulation Of The Paleogene Hunchun Formation In The Hunchun Basin, Hou Haihai, Li Qiangqiang, Shao Longyi, Fan Xuejie, Liang Guodong, Li Yanan

Coal Geology & Exploration

The Hunchun Basin is an important coal-bearing region in Jilin Province, northeastern China. The analysis of the sedimentary paleogeography of the Paleogene Hunchun Formation and coal-accumulation law in the sequence framework provides a theoretical basis for future coal and coalbed methane exploration. The lithofacies, sedimentary systems, sequence paleogeography, and coal accumulation characteristics were analyzed based on regional geology, drilling cores and well logging data. The results show five rock types, including gravel, sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, and combustible organic rock, and twelve lithofacies. The Hunchun Formation was divided into three third-order sequences by three sequence interfaces, including the regional unconformity surface, …

Stress Sensitivity Characteristics Of Deep Coal Reservoirs And Its Influence On Coalbed Methane Productivity, Liu Shunxi, Fan Kunyu, Jin Yi, Yu Zhenfeng, Dong Jiabin, Wang Changzheng

Coal Geology & Exploration

Deep coal reservoirs are in a high in-situ stress environment, and their permeability change characteristics are quite different from those of shallow ones. In order to study the effect of the effective stress on the permeability difference of deep coal reservoirs and the characteristics of stress sensitivity anisotropy, the samples from 1 200 m to 1 700 m of the No.15 coal seam in the Hengling block in the Qinshui Basin are taken as the research objects. The overburden porosity and permeability experiments are used to study the permeability changes of parallel and vertical bedding samples under different effective stress …

High-Pressure Jet Disturbance Grouting Technology For Water And Sand Inrush In Roadway Tunneling And Its Application, Zhao Baofeng, Zhu Mingcheng, Li Debin

Coal Geology & Exploration

In order to control the water and sand inrush in roadway tunneling under weak consolidated formation conditions, taking water and sand inrush during the No.2 coal seam roadway tunneling in Maiduoshan Coal Mine of Ningdong Coalfield as the research object, the problems of large amount of engineering, long period of surface treatment and high risk of underground treatment were solved. The construction of the blocking body at the water and sand inrush point was completed by using the water-retaining wall construction technology, high-pressure jet disturbance grouting technology, the integration of drilling and grouting technology, and the pressure control and slurry …

Recognition Of Land Use On Open-Pit Coal Mining Area Based On Deeplabv3+ And Gf-2 High-Resolution Images, Zhang Chengye, Li Feiyue, Li Jun, Xing Jianghe, Yang Jinzhong, Guo Junting, Du Shouhang

Coal Geology & Exploration

A highly efficient means is provided by remote sensing and deep learning to keep tracking of land use in open-pit coal mining area. Based on the high–resolution images from the domestic GF-2 satellite, a DeepLabv3+ model was utilized to achieve recognition of land use on open-pit coal mining area. In addition, a comparison was made among Deeplabv3+, U-Net, FCN, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and Maximum Likelihood Method. Firstly, samples data from high-resolution images were produced and sensitivity tests were conducted to determine the optimal cutting size and mode of the sample. Then, the deep neural network model (DeepLabv3+) was …

Typical Characteristics Of Geological Hazards And Ecological Environment Of Coal Base In The Bends Area Of The Yellow River, Shen Yanjun, Yang Bohan, Wang Shuangming, Kou Haibo, Chen Xing, Xu Yali, Han Senlei

Coal Geology & Exploration

“The ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin” has now been upgraded to a major national strategy. The bends area (the “几” shaped area, also known as the Jiziwan area) is an important part of the Yellow River Basin, and it is also an important gathering area of China’s coal energy. Now the region has six large modern coal bases, coal production accounts for about 40% of the country, in China’s energy security supply security occupies the “ballast” position. However, the region is located in the western arid-semi-arid region, with fragile ecological environment and poor anti-disturbance ability, …

Risk Assessment Of Floor Water Inrush By Weighted Rank Sum Ratio Based On Combination Weighting, Yao Hui, Yin Shangxian, Xu Wei, Zhang Runqi, Jiang Zhiting

Coal Geology & Exploration

Deep mining of the coal seam causes frequent water hazards in the coal mine floor. As the disadvantages of traditional water inrush risk assessment methods, such as single evaluation index and deviation of the evaluation results from reality are gradually revealed, many new assessment methods are emerging. In this paper, Donghuantuo Coal Mine, a North China type coalfield, in Hebei province is taken as the research object. The evaluation factor sets including aquifer capacity, aquifuge capacity, geological conditions and coal seam conditions are selected, and with ten evaluation factors being considered, a floor water inrush risk evaluation index system applicable …

Transport Mechanism Of Ammonia Nitrogen In The Simulated Gob Area Packed With Coal Gangue, Li Yusong, Lu Yucan, Cao Qiong, Zhao Li, Zhu Kaipeng, Zhang Qing, Yu Hongfei, Zhang Lei

Coal Geology & Exploration

In many coal mining areas in western China, waste water produced during coal mining is often dominant in mine water, resulting in high ammonia nitrogen content. The pretreatment of mine water by filling gangue in coal mine gob areas has become an important measure for the resource utilization of mine water and gangue. The research took the coal gangue from Baode Coal Mine of Shenhua Shendong Coal Group Corporation as the filling medium and the ammonia nitrogen in mine water as the research object. Based on CXTFIT2.1, column simulation experiments were carried out to study the migration mechanism of ammonia …

Sedimentary Characteristics And Associated Carbon And Nutrients Of Overbank Sediments Deposited During The 2018, 2019, And 2020 Floods In Embanked Floodplains Along The Lower Mississippi River Near Natchez, Mississippi, Rachel Kelk

Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) experienced major floods in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Sediment deposition in the embanked floodplains during floods represent important storage and sequestration opportunities for carbon and nutrients from ~40% of the continental USA. This research aims to compare depositional thicknesses, organic matter (OM), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) concentrations, and grain sizes in floodplain sediments deposited by the combined 2018-19 floods to the 2020 flood along the LMR near Natchez, Mississippi. Greater depositional thicknesses in 2018-19 are best explained by their combined flood durations; the 2019 flood was the longest in recorded history. Slightly higher …

Ice Deposits In Lava Tubes From West-Central New Mexico As Archives Of Past Volcanic Eruptions And Climate Change, Quinton Z. Vitelli-Hawkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Southwest of the United States is currently in a megadrought phase. Recent studies have shown that three of the most severe droughts of the last two millennia have occurred in the last 120 years, while geo-archaeological evidence suggests there were five megadroughts just from 150 to 950 CE. To try to better understand the causes of the droughts across the Southwest, a 110-cm long ice core was drilled from an ice deposit in a lava tube (Cave 29) from El Malpais National Monument in west-central New Mexico. The δ18O values in the ice core (ranging from −11.78 to −3.54‰) …

Observational Constraints On The 520 Km Mantle Discontinuity, Mantle Transition Zone Anisotropy, And Local Seismicity At Mount St. Helens, Han Zhang

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Seismology provides valuable observational constraints to thermal and compositional states at inaccessible depths via understanding how elastic wave propagating through them. While many of fundament questions regarding solid Earth structures have been addressed during its more than 100 years history, some details remain unfilled and carefully designed approaches are needed to complete the pictures. This dissertation contributes observational constraints on three topics with newly developed methods. 1) We detected a controversial mantle discontinuity at about 520 km and concluded a mean mantle composition close to the Pyrolite model based on its seismic properties. 2) We isolated anisotropic effects in mantle …

A Technique-Based Approach To Structure-From-Motion: Applications To Human-Coastal Environments, Robert Van Alphen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Photogrammetry is a method by which physical information can be extracted from thecorrespondence of 2-dimensional images. In the geosciences, Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry is a technique that has seen considerable interest in the past decade of research. Here I present three case studies of various scope and methodologies which can inform the use of SfM in the geosciences. First, I discuss the theoretical and algorithmic basis of SfM photogrammetry and its uses thus far in the geosciences. Chapters two through four show specific studies which highlight several approaches to SfM and the data which can be produced. Chapter five then concludes …

Population Genetics Reveals Bidirectional Fish Movement Across The Continental Divide Via An Interbasin Water Transfer, Audrey C. Harris, Sara J. Oyler-Mccance, Jennifer A. Fike, Matthew P. Fairchild, Christopher M. Kennedy, Harry J. Crockett, Dana L. Winkelman, Yoichiro Kanno

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Interbasin water transfers are becoming an increasingly common tool to satisfy municipal and agricultural water demand, but their impacts on movement and gene flow of aquatic organisms are poorly understood. The Grand Ditch is an interbasin water transfer that diverts water from tributaries of the upper Colorado River on the west side of the Continental Divide to the upper Cache la Poudre River on the east side of the Continental Divide. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms to characterize population genetic structure in cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) and determine if fish utilize the Grand Ditch as a movement corridor. …

A Participatory Assessment Of Nitrified Urine Fertilizer Use In Swayimane, South Africa: Crop Production Potential, Farmer Attitudes And Smallholder Challenges, Benjamin C. Wilde, Eva Lieberherr, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira, Alfred Odindo, Johan Siz

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Long-term nutrient mining of soil hampers agricultural production across Africa. However, emerging sanitation technologies afford a hygienically safe and ecologically sustainable solution to this development challenge by providing fertilizers derived from human excreta that could facilitate a socio-technical transition toward a more sustainable food system. To evaluate one such technology, nitrified urine fertilizer (NUF), we conducted participatory action research to assess the potential, from both a biophysical and social perspective, of NUF to serve as a soil fertilizer to support smallholder agricultural production in Swayimane, South Africa. To achieve this objective, we formed a stakeholder group comprised of a cooperative …

Differentiating Fissure-Fed Lava Flow Types And Facies Using Radar And Lidar: An Example From The 2014–2015 Holuhraun Lava Flow-Field, Gavin Douglas Tolometti, Catherine D. Neish, Christopher W. Hamilton, Gordon R. Osinski, Antero Kukko, Joana R.C. Voigt

Earth Sciences Publications

Distinguishing between lava types and facies using remote sensing data is important for interpreting the emplacement history of lava flow-fields on Earth and other planetary bodies. Lava facies typically include a mixture of lava types and record the collective emplacement history of material preserved at a particular location. We seek to determine if lava facies in the 2014–2015 Holuhraun lava flow-field are discernible using radar roughness analysis. Furthermore, we also seek to distinguish between lava types using high resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. We extracted circular polarization ratios (CPR) from the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar and …

The Natural History And Ecology Of Melanism In Red Wolf And Coyote Populations Of The Southeastern United States – Evidence For Gloger’S Rule, Joseph W. Hinton, Kyla M. West, Daniel J. Sullivan, Jacqueline L. Frair, Michael J. Chamberlain

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Background: Gloger’s rule postulates that animals should be darker colored in warm and humid regions where dense vegetation and dark environments are common. Although rare in Canis populations, melanism in wolves is more common in North America than other regions globally and is believed to follow Gloger’s rule. In the temperate forests of the southeastern United States, historical records of red wolf (Canis rufus) and coyote (Canis latrans) populations document a consistent presence of melanism. Today, the melanistic phenotype is extinct in red wolves while occurring in coyotes and red wolf-coyote hybrids who occupy the …

Steel Module-To-Concrete Core Connection Methods In High Rise Modular Buildings: A Critical Review, Bishal Poudel, Seungtaek Lee, Jin Ouk Choi

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Modularization in a high-rise building is different from a small building, as it is exposed to more lateral forces like wind and earthquakes. The integrity, robustness, and overall stability of the modules and their performance is based on the joining techniques and strong structural systems. High lateral stiff construction structures like concrete shear walls and frames, braced steel frames, and steel moment frames are used for the stability of high-rise modular buildings. Similarly, high-rise stick-built buildings have concrete cores and perimeter frames for lateral load strength and stiffness. Methods for general steel-concrete connections are available in many works of literature. …

Emplacement Of The Dadeville Complex Of The Southernmost Inner Piedmont Within The 7.5 Min. Cusseta Quadrangle, Chambers County, Alabama: Channel Flow, Klippe Kinematics, Or Orogen Parallel Translation, Timothy Black

Master's Theses

The Appalachian Mountains have a complex geologic history spanning three orogenic periods, the Taconic, the Acadian/Neoacadian, and Alleghanian orogenies. The Inner Piedmont of the Appalachian Mountains within Alabama contains two distinct lithologic complexes, the Dadeville Complex, and the Opelika Complex separated by the Stonewall Line. These complexes were formed during an arc-back arc fringing system during the Taconic orogeny and emplaced and recorded peak metamorphism during the Acadian orogeny.

The Dadeville Complex is an allochthonous arc terrain built on extended Laurentian crust. The mode of transportation and accretion after formation is not well understood, which has implications for the role …

Determining Depth Of Closure Based On Time-Series Beach Profiles And Empirical Formulas: A Case Study Along The Florida Coast, Elizabeth Royer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Depth of closure (DOC) is defined as the most landward depth seaward of which there is no significant change in bed elevation and no significant net sediment exchange between the nearshore and the offshore over a certain period of time, such as 5 to 20 years. DOC is an essential parameter used in beach and shore protection, sediment management, and many other aspects of coastal studies. Taking advantage of advancements in wave hindcast and bathymetry measurement in the past 20 years (2000-2019), this study determined the DOC at 12 locations along the Florida coast, including three from the northwest Gulf …

Microbiome Assembly In Thawing Permafrost And Its Feedbacks To Climate, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Robyn A. Barbato, Virginia I. Ritch, Christina Schadel, Rebecca E. Hewitt, Stacey J. Doherty, Emily D. Whalen, Benjamin Abbott, Jiri Barta, Christina Biasi, Chris L. Chabot, Jenni Hultman, Christian Knoblauch, Maggie C. Y. Lau Vetter, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Susanne Liebner, Rachel Mackelprang, Tullis C. Onstott, Andreas Richter, Ursel M. E. Schutte, Henri M. P. Siljanen, Neslihan Tas, Ina Timling, Tatiana A. Vishnivetskaya, Mark P. Waldrop, Matthias Winkel

Faculty Publications

The physical and chemical changes that accompany permafrost thaw directly influence the microbial communities that mediate the decomposition of formerly frozen organic matter, leading to uncertainty in permafrost–climate feedbacks. Although changes to microbial metabolism and community structure are documented following thaw, the generality of post-thaw assembly patterns across permafrost soils of the world remains uncertain, limiting our ability to predict biogeochemistry and microbial community responses to climate change. Based on our review of the Arctic microbiome, permafrost microbiology, and community ecology, we propose that Assembly Theory provides a framework to better understand thaw-mediated microbiome changes and the implications for community …

Foraging Habitat Selection Of Shrubland Bird Community In Tropical Dry Forest, Anant Deshwal, Steven L. Stephenson, Pooja Panwar, Brett A. Degregorio, Ragupathy Kannan, John D. Willson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Habitat loss due to increasing anthropogenic disturbance is the major driver for bird population declines across the globe. Within the Eastern Ghats of India, shrubland bird communities are threatened by shrinking of suitable habitats due to increased anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. The development of an effective habitat management strategy is hampered by the absence of data for this bird community. To address this knowledge gap, we examined foraging sites for 14 shrubland bird species, including three declining species, in three study areas representing the shrubland type of forest community in the Eastern Ghats. We recorded microhabitat features within an …

Ocean-Atmosphere Variability In The Northwest Atlantic Ocean During Active Marine Heatwave Years, Lydia D. Sims, Bulusu Subrahmanyam, Corinne B. Trott

Faculty Publications

The Northwest (NW) Atlantic has experienced extreme ecological impacts from Marine Heatwaves (MHWs) within the past decade. This paper focuses on four MHW active years (2012, 2016, 2017, and 2020) and the relationship between Sea Surface Temperature anomalies (SSTA), Sea Surface Salinity anomalies (SSSA), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Geopotential Height anomalies (ZA), and anomalous Jet Stream positions (JSPA). Multichannel singular spectrum analysis (MSSA) reveals the strongest temporal covariances between SSSA and SSTA, and JSPA and SSTA for all years, particularly for 2020 (SSSA–SSTA: 50%, JSPA–SSTA: 51%) indicating that this active MHW year was more atmospherically driven, followed by 2012, which …

Evaluating The Biogeochemical Effects Of Enhanced Rock Weathering At Lawrence University, Katie Mahorney

Lawrence University Honors Projects

On geologic timescales, the weathering of silicate rocks is among the most powerful negative feedbacks controlling atmospheric CO₂. However, this process is too slow to meaningfully impact our current climate crisis. Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) is one of the most promising carbon capture strategies to remove anthropogenic carbon from the atmosphere. Models suggest that by crushing silicate rocks such as basalt to increase surface area, the process of rock weathering can be accelerated to sequester enough carbon to be significant on human timescales. At Lawrence University, ERW is being investigated to (1) field test the efficacy of the …

A Westerly Wind Dominated Puna Plateau During Deposition Of Upper Pleistocene Loessic Sediments In The Subtropical Andes, South America, Alex Pullen, David L. Barbeau Jr, Andrew Leier, Madison Ward, Austin Bruner, Mary Kate Fidler

Faculty Publications

The Tafí del Valle depression (~27° S) in the eastern Andes of Argentina provides a record of late Pleistocene dust deposition in the subtropics of South America. We present large-n U-Pb geochronology data for detrital zircons from upper Pleistocene loess-paleosol deposits. When compared to regional data, the age spectra from the Tafí del Valle samples are most like the southern Puna Plateau, supporting derivation largely from the west and northwest. This runs counter to hypotheses suggesting these loessic sediments were derived from the low elevation plains to the east or extra-Andean Patagonia. Mapping of linear wind erosion features on …

Tree Ring Isotopic Reconstruction Of Hurricane Dolores, Jonathan Kane

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Tree rings contain high-resolution climate proxies of temperature and precipitation (Hughes et al., 1982; Fritts 2012; Scuderi 1993). The objective of this study was to use tree ring cellulose, specifically measuring δ18O - the oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 stable isotope ratio- to investigate the impact of Hurricane Dolores, a tropical cyclone that produced heavy precipitation in the Sierra Nevada in July 2015. Prior studies (Berkelhammer and Stott, 2008, 2009) have shown that conifer forests in California record the influence of varying precipitation regimes in their ring alpha-cellulose. Hurricane Dolores produced an intense precipitation event that inundated parts of the Mojave Desert …

Evaluation Of Measurement Data Across Eight Gis Basemaps Using Drumlins: Combining Basemaps Is Optimal, Gretchen A. Wambach, Alexander K. Stewart

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

Choosing the best basemap for landform data collection and analysis is fundamental for accurate measurements and usability. Different types of basemaps may affect how we perceive relief through a map (Phillips et al., 1975); thereby, affecting the precision of data collected. This project collected length and azimuth data of 60 drumlins in Western, NY from four different, ArcGIS online (AGOL)-provided basemaps, as well as two parallel-to-strike and two perpendicular-to-strike hillshades (n=4). Testing the mean length (1,662m, ±529) and azimuth (171°, ±0.3) data for uniformity across basemaps determined if any basemap is more or less reliable for data collection. The Terrain …

Gigapan® Photogrammetry For Outcrop Description, 3d Modeling, And 3d Printing, Preston Liles, Logan Pearson, Samantha Barnett, Dakota G. Simpson, David B. Fitzpatrick, Erik B. Larson, Maurice Testa

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The collection of 3D information on geological media is fundamental for field geology, however it can be both time consuming and expensive. This report proposes a new method for the collection of 3D information of outcrops using simple to use and inexpensive technology. GigaPan® systems can be used to take high resolution images of outcrops and these images then be either left in 2D for additional description of the outcrop in the lab, or they can be processed in Autodesk 3ds Max® to create realistic 3D models of the outcrops which can then be 3D printed. The collection of this …

Two New Late Quaternary Avifaunas From The East-Central Great Basin With The Description Of A New Species Of Falco, Steven D. Emslie, Jim I. Mead

Western North American Naturalist

We report 2 new late Quaternary avifaunas from cave deposits in Snake Valley, White Pine County, eastern Nevada, that provide new records of extinct and extant species in the east-central Great Basin. These avifaunas collectively represent at least 24 species, including the most northern inland record of California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) in western North America and a new species of kestrel (Falco sp.) described herein. Two extralimital living species also were identified—the Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) and Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus)—and are the first fossil records of these species in the Great Basin. …

Quantitative Relationships Between River And Channel-Belt Planform Patterns, Tian Y. Dong, Timothy A. Goudge

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Channel planform patterns arise from internal dynamics of sediment transport and fluid flow in rivers and are affected by external controls such as valley confinement. Understanding whether these channel patterns are preserved in the rock record has critical implications for our ability to constrain past environmental conditions. Rivers are preserved as channel belts, which are one of the most ubiquitous and accessible parts of the sedimentary record, yet the relationship between river and channel-belt planform patterns remains unquantified. We analyzed planform patterns of rivers and channel belts from 30 systems globally. Channel patterns were classified using a graph theory-based metric, …

Bathymetry Based Modeling Of Subaxial Magma Flows Under The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 0 To 30° N, Adam R. Tjoelker, Neil Van Kanegan, Simon Detmer, C. Renee Sparks

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

Fracture patterns of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) provide evidence of tectonic forces related to divergence and magma upwelling at the ridge axis. In this study, we focus on the MAR from 0 to 30° N, where the N-S ridge exhibits slow spreading rates (2-4 cm/yr) and pronounced axial topography. Ridge segments and transform faults identified in bathymetry data were analyzed for strike orientation and axial depth profiles. Azimuths of transform faults and ridge segments exhibit increasing clockwise rotation with latitude, and all have left lateral displacement. Bathymetric sampling along ridge segments occurred at 9 km intervals with 20 km sampling …

Sand Microtextures As Indicators Of Depositional Environment – A Comparison Of Fluvial, Marine And Aeolian Sediments, Brian Hanson, Diane M. Burns

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) has been used to examine sediment surfaces since the late 1960’s. More recently, results of SEM analyses of grains have been used to link depositional environments and modes of transport for sediments and sandstones (Krinsely and Trusty, 1986; Mahaney and Kalm 2000; Mahaney et al., 2001). This technique has been considered to be a viable, though time consuming, option for researchers interpreting depositional environments. V-pits are a microfeature which is claimed to indicate a littoral deposition environment (Krinsley and Trusty, 1986; Middleton and Kassera, 1987), while others claim it is a result of fluvial processes …