Geology Commons^™

A Karst Feature Prediction Model For Prince Of Wales Island, Alaska Based On High Resolution Lidar Imagery, Alexander Lyles

Master's Theses

Investigation into surface karst formation is significant to hazard prediction, hydrogeologic drainage, and land management. Southeast Alaska contains over 600,000 acres of mapped carbonate bedrock, and some of the fastest recorded karst dissolution in the world. The objectives of this study are to develop and compare multiple semi-automated models to map and delineate karst features from bare-earth LiDAR imagery using ArcGIS Desktop 10.7, and to apply a preliminary geostatistical analysis of sinkhole morphometric parameters to highlight potential spatial patterns of karst evolution on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. A semi-automated approach of mapping karst features provides a dataset that minimizes …

Response Of Transient Base Level Signals To Erodibility Contrasts In Bedrock Streams, Joshua A. Wolpert

LSU Master's Theses

It has long been recognized that bedrock streams gradually adjust their slopes towards topographic steady state, an equilibrium state between rock uplift rate and erosion rate. Tectonic geomorphology studies often analyze stream profiles for clues of this adjustment, which can initiate from changes in tectonic and climatic forcings. The stream power incision model, the most widely utilized framework with which to interpret bedrock stream profiles, predicts that streams perturbed from topographic steady state by changes in bedrock erodibility or uplift rate adjust their slopes to return to topographic steady state through upstream propagating waves of incision, or knickpoints. Under the …

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 …

Structural Control Of Mesic Vegetation Communities Within The Owl And Bear Creek Watersheds, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas, Melinda S. Faulkner, Matthew Mcbroom, Kenneth W. Farrish, Kevin Stafford

Faculty Publications

The Fort Hood Military Installation is a karst landscape, dominated by Lower Cretaceous carbonates of the Trinity and Fredericksburg groups. The study area is the northeastern peninsula known as the Owl Mountain Province, utilized by the U.S. Army for troop maneuvers and training. The geomorphic evolution of the province has been controlled by the structural development of incised canyons in the Owl and Bear creek watersheds, following the deformational trend of the Balcones/Ouachita fault system and the transverse Belton High-Central Texas Reef Trend. These trends control cave development in the subsurface, karst manifestations at the surface, joints in outcrop, stream …

A Study Of Marine Terrace Formation Along The California Central Coast, Mary C. Devlin

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Marine terrace formation is in many instances attributed to wave action, and shore platforms are often called “wave-cut”. However, alternative models for marine terrace formation suggest that other types of physical and chemical weathering have a more central role in the formation of marine terraces than is widely acknowledged. Roering and Retallack (2012) concluded that the roles of subaerial physical and chemical weathering are significant, and played a major role in the formation of the terraces. In this study, weathering of beach cliffs and shore platforms associated with marine terraces at eight sites in two different locations along the central …

Birth And Evolution Of The Rio Grande Fluvial System In The Last 8 Ma:Progressive Downward Integration And Interplay Between Tectonics, Volcanism, Climate, And River Evolution, Marisa N. Repasch

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Rio Grande-Rio Chama (RG-RC) fluvial system has evolved dramatically over the last 8 Ma, undergoing channel migrations, drainage capture and integration events, volcanic damming, and carving and refilling of paleocanyons. Volcanism concurrent with the development of the river system provides a unique opportunity to apply multiple geochronometers to the study of its incision and drainage evolution. This paper reports 19 new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar basalt ages and 19 detrital mineral samples (zircon and sanidine) collected from RG-RC alluvium overlain by dated basalt flows in the context of a compilation of published ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar basalt ages. The …

Spatiotemporal Slip Rate Variations Along Surprise Valley Fault In Relation To Pleistocene Pluvial Lakes, Brian N. Marion

All Master's Theses

Using mapped paleoshoreline features with high-resolution topographic data and obtained radiocarbon dates on paleoshoreline tufas, I documented precise fault offsets of dated features over the last 25 ka along the Surprise Valley Fault (SVF). Fault offset measured in three lake sections within Surprise Valley ranged from 3.6 m in the southern section to 14.4 m in the central section. The offset paleoshorelines are dated to the late Pleistocene (<22 >ka) and were formed during the latest impoundment of pluvial Lake Surprise since the last glacial maximum. Slip rates vary along strike, assuming a fault dip of 68° with 0.25 ± …

Qualitative Comparison Of Offset Surfaces Between The Central And Eastern Garlock Fault, Thomas M. Crane

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Garlock Fault consists of three distinct segments, known as western, central, and eastern, together reaching approximately 260 km from the San Andreas Fault to the southern end of Death Valley. Although published slip rates are available along the western and central Garlock Fault segments, little is currently known of the Garlock Fault earthquake history or slip rate farther east. Using LiDAR and satellite imagery, the central and eastern Garlock Fault segments were analyzed for visibly offset, fault-adjacent, geomorphic surfaces that may potentially be used for estimating slip rate. Qualitative methods of assessing preserved alluvial surface maturity were adapted and …

Collisional Reactivation Of Rift Margin Fracture Zones, Taiwan And The Taconic Allochthon, David C. Mirakian

Master's Theses

Chapter I. Transverse Topographic Development due to the Reactivation of a Partially-Subducted Fracture Zone: The Southwest Hsüehshan Range, Central Taiwan

Abstract — The southwest flank of the Hsüehshan Range is defined by a topographic break which cuts across regionally mapped structures in central Taiwan. The mountain front trends ~345°, slightly oblique to the Sanyi-Puli seismic zone which has been previously interpreted as a reactivated continental margin fracture zone. Structural data collected along the length of the topographic break reveal two populations of cross-cutting faults with distinct fault-zone materials and a series of southwest-plunging folds. Paleostress axes were reconstructed using the …

Eolian Sand Deposits In Maine, Joshua Katz

Maine Collection

Eolian Sand Deposits in Maine

by Joshua Katz - Timson, Schepps & Peters, Inc., Hallowell, Maine

Planning Report No.91, August 1990.

"A report prepared for the Maine Critical Areas Program, State Planning Office."

Contents: List of Figures / List of Maps and Tables / Acknowledgements / Introduction / Inland Eolian Sand Deposits / Research Methods / Rating Methods / Significant Criteria / Summary of Results / Significant Eolian Deposits in Maine / Site Descriptions / Recommendations / Glossary / References Cited

Contributions To The Quaternary Geology Of Northern Maine And Adjacent Canada, J. Steven Kite (Ed.), Thomas V. Lowell (Ed.), Woodrow B. Thompson (Ed.)

Maine Collection

Contributions to the Quaternary Geology of Northern Maine and Adjacent Canada

Bulletin 37 - Maine Geological Survey, Department of Conservation,

Augusta, Maine 04333 (1988).

Contents: Introduction / A GEOMORPHIC METHOD FOR RECONSTRUCTING PALEO ICE SHEETS, Part I: GLACIAL GEOLOGY. - T. Hughes and J. Fastook / A GEOMORPHIC METHOD FOR RECONSTRUCTING PALEO ICE SHEETS, Part II: GLACIOLOGY. - J. Fastook and T. Hughes / TILL STRATIGRAPHY AT THE BALD MOUNTAIN MINE SITE, NORTHERN MAINE - W. R. Holland and F. F. Bragdon / GLACIAL DISPERSAL FROM THE PRIESTLY LAKE AND DEBOULLIE PLUTONS, NORTHERN MAINE - E. F. Halter / GLACIATION …

Important Geological Features And Localities Of Maine, Maine Geological Survey

Maine Collection

Important Geological Features and Localities of Maine

Executive Department, Maine Geological Survey : Maine State Planning Office

(December, 1982).

Contents: Introduction / Purpose of this Study / The Geology of Maine / Important Publications / Catalogue of the Critical Geologic Features of Maine / Recommendations for Further Research / Publications / Conclusions / Acknowledgements / References Cited / Critical Areas Program List of Geological Planning Reports