Geochemistry Commons^™

Minerals Rock!: Improving Audience Engagement And Interest In Stem Through Enhancement Of The In-Person And Online Mineral Collection At Ursinus College, Juliette Lyons

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

Museums are a vital source of educational resources for the general public. They provide information on a variety of topics and disciplines and encourage visitors to be excited about and engaged in learning something new. As we work to comprehend key topics such as climate change, it is especially important for the broader public to better understand science, including geology. While the geological collection at Ursinus, Pieces of Earth’s History, is not in a museum, implementing methods that museums use can improve the reception of the collection. Through the application of research gathered through articles, journals, books, and talking with …

The Effects Of A Microplate On Plume-Ridge Interactions: Constraints From Comparing Easter And Juan Fernandez Microplates In The Eastern Pacific Ocean, Katherine Ames, Jennifer Georgen

OES Faculty Publications

This study investigates the nature of plume-ridge interactions near a tectonic microplate using mantle Bouguer anomaly (MBA) gravity calculations. The focus of this investigation is a comparison of the Easter and Juan Fernandez microplates, which are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean along the Pacific, Nazca, and Antarctic plate boundaries. The microplates have several similar characteristics, including general size, time of formation, and clockwise rotation within the larger bounding mid-ocean ridge systems. Unlike the Juan Fernandez microplate, however, the Easter microplate is located near a mantle plume (Easter/Salas y Gomez). Previously published geochemical data suggest that material from this plume …

Paleoflood Chronology For The West Branch Of The Susquehanna River Using Abandoned Chute Channel Sediments, Pennsylvania, Usa, Juliette A. Vanluven

Honors Theses

Anthropogenic climate change is altering the hydrologic cycle, increasing flood frequency and severity, with associated increased risks in population exposure. This is associated with increasing risks to the population of the Susquehanna River Valley, which supports over 600,000 people today. However, our understanding of the frequencies of large floods is limited by relatively short instrumental records. By studying sediments from an abandoned chute channel in the Robert Allen Natural Area near Williamsport, PA, we can extend the existing flood records using paleoflood slackwater sediments along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.  Sylvan Dell is an abandoned chute channel that …

A Mineralogical And Geochemical Investigation Of The Influence Of Tectonic Setting On Accessory Mineral Assemblages In Serpentinites Along The Western North American Margins, Bryan H.T. Seymour

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Serpentinites are metamorphic rocks typically produced by hydrating mantle peridotites to form assemblages containing one or more serpentine minerals. They occur in various tectonic and geologic settings, such as submarine hydrothermal systems, ophiolite sequences, and the forearc mantle. Serpentinites are associated with highly reduced conditions, as indicated by low oxygen fugacity (ƒO₂) values. Previous investigations suggest that oxygen fugacity varies with tectonic setting due to differences in environmental conditions. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed serpentinites from a wide variety of tectonic settings in western North America: The New Idria forearc diapir (CA), Canyon Mountain Island arc complex (OR), Josephine …

Origins And Mechanisms Of Mobility Of Geogenic Arsenic Contamination In Toutle And Silver Lake, Wa, Usa, William A. Hays

All Master's Theses

Arsenic (As), a common contaminant in groundwater, is toxic to human health and has a maximum contaminant level of 10 ppb set by both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (ATSDR, 2007). In Toutle, WA, USA (30 km west of Mount Saint Helens), a private well, labelled TOU1, was previously identified with ~670 ppb of As and was the impetus of this study. This study targeted private wells in the vicinity of TOU1 to identify the extent of the arsenic contamination, identify the aquifer(s) of concern, and identify the mechanism(s) of mobility.

The wells were screened …

Zircon Age And Oxidation State Estimates For Plutons Spatially Associated With Mineral Deposits Along The Kettle Detachment Fault In The Orient Quadrangle, Northeastern Washington, Karla Ortega

All Master's Theses

Critical minerals are essential to national security, economic stability, and the transition to clean energy, making them a priority in geologic research and exploration. To better understand the magmatic conditions associated with critical mineral concentration, zircon, a recorder of magmatic history, was analyzed using U-Pb geochronology and trace element geochemistry. The analyses were conducted via LASS-ICP-MS on ten plutonic samples from the Orient quadrangle in northeastern Washington and one sample from the Adams Mountain and Hunter (AMH) quadrangles to constrain the geological processes leading to ore deposit formation, including tungsten (W). This region, cut by the Kettle Detachment fault, is …

Investigating Changes In Surface Water Chemistry Across The Llano Uplift And The Balcones Fault Zone In Central Texas Using Strontium And Uranium Isotopes, Hao Tuan Pham

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The landscape of central Texas is shaped by over one billion years of Earth's history. An array of lithology lies within central Texas along with two large geological structures. The Llano Uplift, characterized by Proterozoic metamorphic and igneous rocks dating back to 1.37 billion years ago, is encircled by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. To the southeast of the Llano Uplift lies the Balcones Fault Zone (BFZ), an extensional structural system of mostly normal faults that delineates the transition between Paleozoic-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and Cenozoic sedimentary cover, which are influential to the regional hydrogeology. This study investigates the hydrogeological dynamics …

Petrologic And Geochemical Constraints On The Pre-Eruptive Storage Conditions Of Magmas Erupted During The ~12.5 Ka Flare Up Of Medicine Lake Volcano, Ca, Regina M. Khoury

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Medicine Lake Volcano (MLV) system in the California Cascades is composed of a large shield volcano with numerous basaltic to rhyolitic vents on and around the flanks, many of which are aligned with N-S trending normal faults. A significant portion of the post-glacial volcanic activity at MLV is comprised of the ~12.5 ka “flare up” eruptions of basalt and basaltic andesite magmas from seven discrete flank vents. Prior work documented surface areas (0.02-198 km²), volumes (0.0001-4.35 km³), and eruption styles (Hawaiian to Strombolian; Donnelly-Nolan, 2010) of the ~12.5 ka deposits. This study uses new geologic …

Environmental Fate Of Sulfur In Sulphur Creek, Valles Caldera, Nm: Implications For Metal Transport And Water Quality, Daniel Lavery

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The 1.2 Ma Valles Caldera in north-central New Mexico hosts a young igneous volcanic hydrothermal system after the model proposed in Goff and Janik (2000). The Sulphur Springs area within Valles Caldera is an acid-sulfate area typical of this model, discharging acidic waters (pH 1.5-3) formed by oxidation of magmatic H₂S at the surface. We report on samples obtained from springs and streams collected between October 2021 and May 2023 in the Sulphur Creek and Alamo watersheds. Sulphur Creek receives input from Sulphur Springs and exhibits low pH (2-4) and high concentrations of Al (≤110 mg/L), Fe (≤60 …

Understanding The Connection Between Gypsum Blooms And Human Health At The Salton Sea, Isabel Ichiyama

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Salton Sea is a closed hypersaline lake in Southern California that has been receiving little input over the past few decades, leading to desiccation that is rapidly increasing every year. This large-scale evaporation of the sea has led to increased dissolved solutes, high salinity, and gypsum blooms. Gypsum blooms, the precipitation of gypsum (CaSO42H2O) in the sea, have been a prominent facet of the sea and their distribution is well known. However, much of their chemistry and potential health hazards are still undetermined. Potential health effects from gypsum salt, an atmospheric dust particle present at the sea, have known …

Quantifying Heterogeneity Along A Hillslope Using Seismic Refraction, Structure From Motion, And X-Ray Fluorescence In The Piedmont, South Carolina, Leah Topping

All Theses

The critical zone (CZ) is the life sustaining outer layer of the earth that spans from the top of unweathered bedrock to the tops of the trees. This dynamic zone is always evolving because a variety of chemical, physical, and biological processes transform bedrock into regolith, creating a spatially heterogeneous CZ architecture. This study aims to investigate the relationships between regolith thickness, seismic velocities, and chemical profiles as a function of slope position and it is hypothesized bedrock composition, fracture density, and foliation are the key factors controlling the physical heterogeneity in the top 1-2 meters of the CZ. To …

Petrological And Geochemical Evaluation Of Rare-Earth Element Potential In The Sparta Granite Complex, Max J. Eshbaugh

Honors College Theses

Rare earth elements (REEs) are important resources with applications in the electronics, renewable energy, and automotive industries. REEs may be concentrated in the residual weathered portion of igneous parent rocks, typically granites. These residual deposits are mined in southeast Asia, but analogous climatic and geologic conditions suggest the existence of economically viable REE residual deposits in the southeastern United States (U.S.). The Sparta Granite Complex in east-central Georgia is a granitoid complex emplaced at the end of the Alleghanian orogeny, forming a suture between the Savannah River and Milledgeville terranes. Petrologic and geochemical assessments of the Sparta Granite and overlying …

Petrogenesis And Tectonic Implications Of Cordierite-Orthoamphibole Gneisses (Cog) In The Nw Wyoming Province, Brianna K. Crenshaw Ms

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studying cordierite orthoamphibole gneisses (COG) from five different mountain ranges across the Montana Metasedimentary Terrane (MMT) of the Wyoming Province offers a unique opportunity to elucidate the enigmatic origins and petrogenesis of the lithology in addition to gaining a further understanding of Precambrian crustal assembly processes. Geochemical analyses suggest that COG originates from a basalt that underwent metasomatic alteration, likely via seawater, prior to metamorphism. Moreover, COG is considered to represent oceanic crust that was part of the epicontinental sea adjacent to the Wyoming Province before collision with the Medicine Hat Block. Field observations of associated lithologies such as marbles, …

Analysis Of Water Concentration Formed Within Deformed Synthetic Quartz Crystals, Andrew Steward

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Analyzing the strength of synthetic quartz is essential to understanding the strength of natural milky quartz, which likely controls the strength of Earth’s continental crust. Synthetic quartz is sometimes used for deformation experiments because it has a homogenous water distribution unlike natural milky quartz. The purpose of this study is to determine if annealing synthetic quartz at T = 600°C will convert the water in synthetic quartz to free water, like milky quartz, but with little water loss. Following two annealing experiments at Texas A&M University, I performed four annealing experiments to measure the water content of five synthetic quartz …

Pumice Compositions And Mineral Chemistry From Lascar Volcano, Chile, Madelaine M. Stearn

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Lascar volcano is one the most active volcano in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andean Cordillera, with 36 Holocene eruptions including a VEI 4 eruption in April 1993. Activity has not been consistent throughout time, and therefore, the processes behind it are poorly understood. Lascar volcano has cyclic behavior and has had four stages of activity, each of which had a unique eruptive style and product composition. Stage I (<43 >ka) had primarily mafic andesite lavas erupted effusively from a stratocone. Stage II initiated with dome building events ESE of the original vent and culminated in the 26.45 ka …

Geochemical Analysis And Heat-Treatment Of Natural Sapphires From Madagascar And Tanzania In Oxidizing And Reducing Conditions, Lukas Karuza, Dr. Michael B. Wolf, Brian Konecke Phd

Geology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Natural or synthetic sapphires can be heat-treated to improve the clarity by removing “silk” (inclusions) and to change color by introducing color-inducing elements (i.e., chromophores) into the lattice structure or changing their valency. Due to these reasons, sapphires can be heat-treated to increase their monetary value. Twenty natural blue (C1), 20 green (C2), and 20 clear (C3) sapphires from Madagascar and Tanzania were heat-treated in a muffle furnace in oxidizing and reducing conditions, from 1200 to 1600℃, for 10-hour soak time. In total, 5 experiments were conducted in which soak time remained constant: experiment 1 was performed at 1200℃, exp. …

Geochemical Flux Analysis Of Glacial River Runoff For Sólheimajökull, Iceland, Jessica Garrison

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Geochemical fluxes in aqueous studies are an essential component of research to understand weathering and changes in a hydrologic system. These data can indicate any discrepancies, outliers, or gradual changes in a water environment to gain information on pollutants, carbon cycles, biological input, etc. Glacial melt is the majority of the surface water present throughout the country. The melting amount is increasing with the temperatures, which can be monitored by the changes in geochemical flux during increased discharge in glacial rivers. A high-resolution data set of Sόlheimajökull Glacier in Iceland was used to determine how changing climatic conditions for the …

Development Of A Synthesis Method For O2-Releasing Compound For Microbiological Experiments, Danae Greco

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Many celestial bodies within our solar system may have habitable environments due to the presence of liquid water. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, may be habitable because of its liquid ocean and other potentially biologically favorable conditions. The ocean on Europa is hypothesized to contain large amounts of oxidants and low pH due to the radiolytically processed icy ocean shell. This suspected environment on Europa is similar to the composition of acid mine drainage on Earth, which can house microbial communities in environments of extreme acidity. Similar chemical reactions in Europa’s ocean may occur to produce the appropriate reduction-oxidation gradients …

Geochemical Analysis Of The Chinchín Formation In Southern Ecuador, Katherine Ludwig

Celebration of Learning

The subduction of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate has led to the uplift of the majority of the Andes Mountains, but in Ecuador, the Nazca Plate subducts underneath the North Andes Plate, which then collides with the South American Plate. This tectonic setting has formed two parallel mountain chains as well as a complex series of basins between them. However, the formations that make up these basins are poorly understood. This study focuses on the Chinchín Formation, an ~3.5 km thick, volcanic formation that serves as the bedrock of the Quingeo Basin in southern Ecuador. This study …

Biodiversity And Distribution Of Benthic Foraminifera In Harrington Sound, Bermuda: The Effects Of Physical And Geochemical Factors On Dominant Taxa, Nam Le

Honors Theses

Harrington Sound, Bermuda, is a nearly enclosed lagoon acting as a subtropical/tropical, carbonate-rich basin in which carbonate sediments, reef patches, and carbonate-producing organisms accumulate. Here, one of the most important calcareous groups is the Foraminifera. Analyses of common benthic orders, including miliolids (Quinqueloculina and Triloculina spp.) and rotaliids (Homotrema rubrum, Elphidium spp., and Ammonia beccarii), are essential in understanding past and present environmental conditions affecting the island's coastal environment. These taxa have been studied previously; however, factors explaining their individual patterns of abundance in the Sound are not well detailed. The goal of this study is …

The Origin Of An Archean Batholith In Michigan’S Upper Peninsula, Brandi Petryk

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Southern Complex is part of the Archean Superior Province in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and includes a batholithic sized body of Archean high-K megacrystic granitoid rocks informally called the Bell Creek granite. U-Pb zircon ages of the granitoid from previous studies suggest an emplacement age of ~2.6 Ga (Tinkham, 1997). Based on those ages the Bell Creek granite formed around the Archean-Proterozoic transition. This transition is a crucial time period in Earth’s history for crustal growth because of the onset of subduction and increased sedimentary environments at the end of the Archean (Taylor and McLennan, 1995). In this …

Late Devonian Sedimentary Record Of Appalachian Tectonics And Erosion: Geochronology And Geochemistry Of Detrital Muscovite And Zircon From Central Pennsylvania Strata, Cole T. Gardner

Honors Theses

Foreland basin sediment deposition in North-Central Pennsylvania during Late Devonian time records erosion of hinterland source terranes exhumed during regional plate convergence, including the collisional Acadian orogeny. The Catskill clastic wedge preserves a coarsening-upwards stratigraphic succession from marine to fluvial environments associated with sediment progradation and sea-level regression, yet depositional timescales and quantitative provenance data are largely unconstrained.

Detailed facies analysis of eight outcrops spanning >2 km of stratigraphy in Lycoming Co., Pennsylvania documents distinct upsection changes, interpreted to reflect changes in depositional environments consistent with previous sedimentology of the Catskill clastic wedge. Stratigraphy displays a transition from nearshore marine …

Exploration For Alteration Halos Around The Ag-W Deposits In Southeastern Missouri, Usa, Daniel Joseph Warbritton

Masters Theses

"The St. Francois Mountains in SE Missouri are an extensive terrane of granitic ring complexes and associated rhyolites. They were an important source of Ag, W, and Sn and mined intermittently from the 1800s until the 1950s. The Ag-W ores occur in the Silvermine Granite and rhyolite roof rocks. The deposits are classified as a xenothermal ore system with mineralization occurring in quartz veins and surrounding greisen (up to 2.5 m). Exploration for hydrothermal ore deposits often focuses on the identification of alteration halos in the surrounding host rocks. In the vast majority of xenothermal ore deposits, such as in …

The Medicine Hat Block And The Assembly Of Laurentia: New Interpretations From Single-Grain Zircon Analyses, Blake Oswell Ladouceur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Medicine Hat Block (MHB) is one of the core cratonic elements that amalgamated in the Paleoproterozoic to form Laurentia. However the role of the MHB in the formation of Laurentia is poorly constrained due to virtually all of the MHB being concealed by Proterozoic and younger supracrustal sequences limiting availability of data. The primary sources of samples from the MHB are 1) xenoliths of variable metamorphic grade including gneisses amphibolites and meta-plutonic rocks collected from Eocene volcanic rock; and 2) similar lithologies recovered from boreholes that penetrate to the MHB basement. Previous work on samples from the MHB yielded …

Groundwater Hydrogeolgy And Hydrochemistry Of Karst Springs In The Eastern Peninsula Of Fort Hood Military Installation, William Scribner Welles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The eastern peninsula of Fort Hood Military Installation is underlain by a complex karst spring network. These springs are a primary water source in a protected habitat for endangered songbirds, which has only recently begun to be fully investigated. These Fredericksburg Group springs express both epigenetic and hypogenetic karst signatures. The study area is part of a paleo reef trend, a hydraulically disconnected segment of the northern section of the Edwards Aquifer. This study utilized standard ion index values, repeated measures, and principal component analyses on the chemical profiles of six perennial springs to classify spring water sources and their …

Crustal Seismic Anisotropy Of The Ruby Mountains Core Complex And Surrounding Northern Basin And Range, Justin T. Wilgus

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Metamorphic core complexes (MCC) are distinctive uplifts that expose deeply exhumed and deformed crustal rocks due to localized extensional deformation. Consequently, their detailed structure provide a window into deep crustal mechanics. The North American Cordillera contains numerous MCC, one of which is the Ruby Mountains core complex (RMCC) located in the highly extended northern Basin and Range. To constrain the extent to which anisotropy below the RMCC deviates from the regional Basin and Range average and test the depth dependence of crustal anisotropy we conduct a radial anisotropy investigation below the RMCC and surrounding northern Basin and Range. Data from …

Unroofing History Of The Northwestern Ethiopian Plateau: Insights From Low-Temperature Apatite Thermochronology, Shelby Bowden

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The geology of Ethiopia is dominated by the Ethiopian Plateau that is similar in elevation to, but aerially larger than, the Colorado Plateau. Several rivers have incised through the plateau, creating gorges that reach up to 1.5 km in depth. The plateau uplifted to its current elevation and was subsequently incised sometime after the Oligocene flood basalt event that signaled the arrival of the African Superplume below Kenya and Ethiopia. Due to its size and extent, published climate modeling has indicated that Late Cenozoic plateau formation could have been a driving force in the East African Cenozoic climate changes. Although …

Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World, Kira H. Hamman

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

In Curbing Catastrophe, Timothy H. Dixon explores commonalities among natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the meltdown at Fukushima. He identifies communication failure between scientists and policy makers as a major culprit in the devastation that results from such events and offers strategies for improving that communication. He includes optional in-depth scientific and quantitative examinations of the events and the resulting devastation, making the book appropriate for use …

Geochemical And Petrological Investigation Of The Prospective Ni-Cu-Pge Mineralization At The Echo Lake Intrusion In The Upper Peninsula Of Michigan, Usa, Alexander J. Koerber

Masters Theses

The Echo Lake Intrusion is located in Houghton and Ontonagon counties in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. The intrusion is approximately 200 m below the surface and covers approximately 18 km2 in lateral extent. It is associated with the magmatic activities of a 1.1 Ga geologic event called the Midcontinent Rift. The rift is responsible for the formation of Ni-Cu ± PGE deposits in the Lake Superior Region. Based on its association with the Midcontinent Rift and a Cu and PGE enriched layer, the Echo Lake intrusion is identified as a prospect for an economic magmatic sulfide deposit.

The …

Evolution Of A Flood Basalt Crustal Magmatic System: In Situ Mineral Data And Computational Modeling Of The Steens Basalt, Megan Graubard

All Master's Theses

Flood basalts are gigantic basaltic eruptions that modify the mass of the crust via intrusion of mantle-derived magma, and change its composition through interaction between magma and crust. The Steens Basalt, located in southeast Oregon, erupted approximately 16.8 million years ago, and is the oldest member of the Columbia River Basalt Group, the youngest and best-exposed flood basalt province on Earth. The Steens Basalt has an eruption volume of approximately 31,800 km³ and the duration of eruption is estimated to be between ~50,000 and 300,000 years. Major- and trace element whole rock data from 111 stratigraphically controlled samples from …