Geology Commons^™

Quantifying Tekeze River Canyon Incision On The Ethiopian Plateau From Low-Temperature Apatite Thermochronology, Jacob Thomas Grigsby

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Ethiopian Plateau in East Africa features dynamic topography, deep river incision (~1.5 km), active tectonics, continental rifting, volcanic terrain and ~2 km of plateau uplift. Situated on the northwestern part of the Ethiopian Plateau, the Tekeze River is one of the two major rivers associated with incising and documenting the recent geologic history of the uplifted plateau landscape. The consequential Tekeze River incision into the uplifted Ethiopian Plateau is associated with the arrival and impingement of the Afar mantle plume as evidenced by the presence of thick sheets of Cenozoic flood basalts (~30 Ma). However, the Cenozoic to present-day …

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 …

Controls On Speleogenesis In The Upper-Mississippian Pennington Formation On The Western Cumberland Plateau Escarpment, Hali Steinmann

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Much of the pioneering work on caves of the Cumberland Plateau (province spanning Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia) has been stratigraphically located within the Mississippian Bangor and Monteagle Limestones, wherein some of the region’s largest and most spectacular caves occur. Of interest to the understanding of this karst landscape, but severely underrepresented in the literature thereof, are caves and karst features in a heterogeneous sequence of clastics and carbonates known collectively as the Pennington Formation (Upper Mississippian). This work consisted of a regional study of Pennington caves on the western Cumberland Plateau escarpment (Alabama and Tennessee), and a case study …

Petrographic Controls On Weathering Of The Haney Limestone, Steven M. Devine

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Although karst processes in south central Kentucky have been studied extensively, the Haney Limestone Member of the Golconda Formation has not been studied in detail in contrast to limestones stratigraphically below it that are thicker. In addition, the relationship between petrographic features of the Haney Limestone and the formation of caves and karst features has not been studied extensively compared to lithographic, petrographic, or structural variables

Petrographic data were collected using core and surface exposures across the study area of south central Kentucky from northern Logan and Warren counties up toward the Rough Creek Graben region, and stratigraphic columns were …

Investigating Telogenetic Karst Aquifer Processes And Evolution In South-Central Kentucky, U.S., Using High-Resolution Storm Hydrology And Geochemistry Monitoring, Nicholas Lawhon

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Recent studies have investigated the hydrological and geochemical characteristics of karst aquifers in different settings; however, telogenetic karst aquifer processes remain poorly understood. In south-central Kentucky, the iconic Lost River Cave and Valley represents a large, complex telogenetic karst drainage basin with a series of discharge points along a collapsed section of the cave. Two Campbell Scientific® CR1000 automated dataloggers were installed at Blue Hole Four, a primary discharge point of the Lost River Karst Aquifer (LRKA). These dataloggers recorded spring discharge, water temperature, specific conductance (SpC), and pH at ten-minute intervals from January to November, 2013. During the year, …

Sources Of Co2 Controlling The Carbonate Chemistry Of The Logsdon River, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, Bruce Elliott Hatcher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Logsdon River is a major, base-level stream within the Turnhole Bend Drainage basin of the Mammoth Cave System. The Logsdon River system has provided a unique opportunity to examine the geochemical evolution of a stream flowing through a major karst conduit that can be traversed for 10 km. This study examines CO₂ inputs at the upstream portion of the river, which provide major control for the river’s hydrochemistry. Samples were collected from the upstream portion of Logsdon River at what is referred to as the S-188 sump and also nearby at Crowbar Dome over the course of 44 weeks …