Geology Commons^™

Geochemical Characterization Of The Bone Spring Formation, Delaware Basin, Using Chemostratigraphy And Integrated Petrophysics, David Tonner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Delaware Basin forms part of West Texas's and New Mexico’s famous petroleum-generating Permian Basin. The Bone Spring Formation is a prolific hydrocarbon producer within this basin, creating one of the world’s richest oil shales. This formation has lithological sequences that are characterized by repeating carbonate and siliciclastic intervals of a third-order cycle which can largely be correlated to highstand and lowstand systems tracts, respectively. Lithological complexity and facies change are manifested by debris flows, turbidites, and slumps. In addition to glacio-eustasy, both tectonism and broader Milankovitch cycles have influenced the depositional history. Previous investigations have utilized cores and wireline …

Post-Fire Erosional And Hydrological Processes Promoting Debris Flow Initiation In A Douglas Fir And Western Hemlock Forest In The Riverside Burn Area, Oregon, Morena Nicole Hammer

Dissertations and Theses

Post-fire debris flows initiated by overland flow in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) are largely undocumented. Instead, debris flows are typically initiated by shallow landslides that result in a mud slurry of water and sediments traveling downhill under the force of gravity. However, because of the Fall 2020 fires in Oregon, the typical initiation style and erosional patterns in burned catchments may have changed because of unusually high burn severity. Due to the intensity of these fires, we set out to determine how hydrologic processes and erosion occurred, when they occurred, and what process was primarily responsible for the erosion that …

Investigations Of The Potential For Irrigated Agriculture On The Bonaparte Plains: Hydrogeology, Aquifer Properties And Groundwater Chemistry, Don Bennett, Paul Raper, Robert Paul, Tim Pope, Richard J. George Dr

Resource management technical reports

‘Cockatoo Sands’ is a common name for the Cockatoo Sands family of soils (comprising red to yellowish-red sands, sandy earths, and loamy earths) that have formed from quartz sandstone colluviums in relatively isolated patches throughout the East Kimberley region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Cockatoo Sands are recognised as potentially suitable for irrigated agriculture because they are generally well drained and not subject to waterlogging or inundation. These characteristics allow them to be cultivated and prepared for planting various crops during the wet and dry seasons of northern Australia.

Expanding agricultural production onto the Cockatoo Sands around Kununurra …

Application Of A 14c-Assay To Assess Methanotrophic Biodegradation Of Tce In Low Ph Groundwater, Evan Groome

All Theses

Current biological strategies for remediating trichloroethylene (TCE) in low pH aquifers (i.e., pH14C-TCE assay was developed to determine pseudo first-order rate constants for the degradation of TCE in microcosms containing soil and groundwater from the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (BOMARC) superfund site, where the pH ranges from 4.1 to 4.9. The ¹⁴C-TCE assay was also adapted to calculate soil-normalized rate constants for data from this site, as well as data that Szwast²¹ collected from the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). In addition to natural attenuation, biostimulation through amendments of methane and nutrients were also assessed. This treatment …

Hydroclimate Variability In Central America During The Holocene Inferred From Lacustrine Sediments In Lake Izabal, Eastern Guatemala, Edward Fernando Duarte

Doctoral Dissertations

"Holocene hydroclimate reconstructions have contributed to our understanding of the mechanisms controlling precipitation in Central America. Recent hydroclimate proxy records from the region, however, have revealed considerable spatiotemporal complexity in precipitation variability. This complexity is hypothesized to result from the interaction between multiple oceanic-atmospheric processes that converge in the region. This project analyzed three sediment cores from Lake Izabal, eastern lowland Guatemala, with the goal of understanding changes in precipitation, lake productivity, and lake water chemistry during the Holocene. Our proxy results indicate that precipitation in the region increased from the early to the middle Holocene, when Lake Izabal became …

The Curacautín Eruption Of Llaima Volcano, Chile, Aaron Asdale Marshall

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Mafic magmas are the most common magmas erupted on Earth and on rocky bodies in the Solar System. The low viscosity of mafic magmas results in eruptions that are primarily effusive to mildly explosive. Rarely, mafic magmas erupt as more violent, explosive events, and the causes of this transition in eruptive style are hotly debated. In this dissertation, I investigated the conditions in the conduit and shallow subsurface that generated the unusually explosive mafic, Curacautín eruption of Llaima volcano, Chile. The Curacautín ignimbrite (Ci) is a basaltic andesite ignimbrite consisting of four flow units of variable thicknesses. New ¹⁴C …

Machine-Learning Reveals Aftershock Locations For Three Idaho Earthquake Sequences, Spencer F. Wilbur

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

I explore spatial and temporal aftershock patterns related to three instrumentally recorded earthquakes in Idaho -- the Sulphur Peak, the Challis, and the Stanley earthquakes. These three M > 5 earthquakes border the eastern Snake River Plain and lie within the Intermountain Seismic Belt and Centennial Tectonic Belt. Using machine learning for event detection and phase picking from local and regional seismic networks, I generate new aftershock catalogs. I locate more aftershocks than in the USGS catalog due to lower signal-to-noise detections. Using my phase picks, I locate aftershocks using a range of velocity models and select a catalog that represents …

A Faunal Composition Of The Late Cretaceous Blue Springs Site In Northeastern Mississippi And Evidence For Potential Paleoenvironmental Differences Between Beds, Ginger Trochesset

Honors Theses

The Maastrichtian-age Blue Springs locality of the Coon Creek Member of the Ripley Formation is known for abundant, well-preserved marine fossils, including many genera of microfossils, bivalves, gastropods, decapods, cephalopods, actinopterygians, and other vertebrate organisms. This research contributes to the understanding of the paleontology of the site, as well as the changing paleoenvironmental conditions of the beds throughout deposition.

This project analyzed bulk material collected in 2021 from three fossiliferous beds at Blue Springs: the Lower Corbula Bed (Bed C), the Pebble Bed (Bed G), and the Exogyra-Pycnodonte Bed (Bed J). Unconsolidated material from Beds C and J was processed …

Faunal Comparison And Analysis Of The Blufftown Formation-Cusseta Sand Contact At Hannahatchee Creek, Georgia, Seth Fradella

Honors Theses

The origin of fossil material in the highly fossiliferous bed above the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Blufftown Formation-Cusseta Sand contact at Hannahatchee Creek, Georgia, has long been a subject of scientific curiosity; however, no research has yet been conducted to specifically investigate discrepancies between the fossil assemblages of the upper Blufftown Formation and the basal Cusseta Sand, which overlies it unconformably. In the most recent published hypothesis, Case and Schwimmer (1988) propose that the basal Cusseta Sand contains a mixture of original fauna as well as material reworked and redeposited from the underlying Blufftown Formation, resulting in a lag deposit above …

Water Sourcing Strategies Of Desert Vegetation In Varying Soil Textures With Vegetation Competition: A Stable Isotope Analysis, Martha Elizabeth Gardea

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent studies have suggested an ecohydrological separation of water exists in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, where vegetation types, rainfall regimes, and location in the terrain seem to determine the type of water (e.g. isotopically depleted or enriched in 18O and 2H) plants are able to source and use throughout their growing cycle. That work found evidence of creosote (Larrea tridentata) and mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) using tightly bound soil water at both a site on an ephemeral channel and a site in higher elevated flat area because the isotopic signature of plant water at the beginning of the study did not …

Coastal Geomorphic Response To Sea-Level Rise, Storms, And Antecedent Geology: Examples From The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Clayton Dike

Dissertations

Sea-level rise and tropical cyclone activity are threatening coastlines around the world. Past geologic coastal responses can be used to inform future scenarios. This three-part study examines the response of coastal systems to sea-level rise, storms, sediment supply, and antecedent geology over the past ~ 140 ka.

The first study is of the Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, coastal system along the northern Gulf of Mexico incorporating sediment supply, subsidence, and antecedent topography paired with an examination of geologic response to sea-level fall and rise. I used core and geophysical data that resolve incised valleys and other subsurface deposits from ~ …

Understanding Martian Salts And Their Implications For Liquid Water, Rachel Slank

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water is one of the key components for life as we know it. The existence of salts on Mars has been a large contributing factor to the possibility of habitability, due to their ability to allow liquid water to remain stable at colder temperatures. Salts, including perchlorates, chlorates, and chlorides, have been detected by multiple landers, rovers, and orbiters, and are now believed to be ubiquitous on Mars. One of the pathways to liquid brine solutions is through deliquescence. Deliquescence is the transition from a solid salt crystal into an aqueous solution when exposed to a humid atmosphere. This research …

Evidence For An Early Saginaw Lobe Ice Retreat And Drainage Adjustments Across Southern Michigan, Usa, Nathan Erber

Dissertations

The Saginaw lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), flowed out of Saginaw Bay, across Lower Michigan and into northern Indiana. As it retreated, the Saginaw lobe deposited the Sturgis moraine, a recessional moraine of the lobe in southern Michigan. Positioned to the west and east of the Saginaw lobe were the Lake Michigan and Huron-Erie lobes, respectively. These lobes retreated across the region asynchronously, with the Saginaw lobe retreating first. The asynchronous behavior of the lobes allowed for the Lake Michigan and Huron-Erie lobes to overprint and alter landscapes once occupied by the Saginaw lobe ice.

The Kalamazoo moraine, …

Source And Parental Melts Of Poikilitic Shergottites: Implications For Martian Magmatism, Evan W. O'Neal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Martian poikilitic shergottite meteorites are cumulate rocks that can be used to understand melt evolution on Mars from the bottom of the crust (~10 kbar) all the way up to near-surface shallow depths (~1 kbar). There is a general lack of knowledge regarding shergottites including, parental magma compositions, crystallization ages, and the location of the enriched geochemical source of the shergottites in the martian mantle. Through a comprehensive petrographic and geochemical study, we have attempted to better understand poikilitic shergottite formation and the evolution of the martian interior during the Amazonian period (~3 Ga – present day). We studied a …

The Application Of Detrital Zircon Geochronology, Pressure-Temperature Modeling, Monazite Petrochronology, And Quartz-In-Garnet Elastic Geobarometry To The Tectonic Evolution Of The Funeral Mountains And Related Metamorphic Core Complexes, Suzanne Renae Mulligan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigates and applies different techniques for studying mid-crustal metamorphic rocks including detrital zircon geochronology, monazite petrochronology, thermodynamic pressure-temperature modeling, and elastic geobarometry. The first chapter reconstructs stratigraphy in deformed metamorphic rocks from the Funeral Mountains metamorphic core complex in Death Valley, California, and the Bullfrog Hills, Nevada, using U-Pb detrital zircon (DZ) geochronology. This study documents another successful application of stratigraphic techniques applied to metamorphic rocks and migmatites. DZ geochronology identified Pahrump Group metasediments in rocks that were previously interpreted to be Paleoproterozoic basement gneisses, providing insights into the distribution of Rodinia rift basins. This analysis has shown …

Evaluation Of The Geothermal Potential Of The Camas Prairie, South-Central Idaho, Connor J. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The area studied in this thesis was assessed based on the analysis of a water sample collected from the exploratory well USU Camas-1. The water sample was characterized and compared to other water samples collected and analyzed during a previous phase of this project according to its water chemistry.

Lithologic, geophysical, and temperature logs were also used to assess the study area. The depth sensitive data was analyzed to determine the characteristics of the formation as they relate to the favorable parameters of a geothermal resource, those being permeability of the subsurface, heat, and the presence of a clay seal. …

Natural And Experimental Slow Slip Observed Along Shallow Hematite Faults, Alexandra A. Dimonte

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fault slip relieves stress in the shallow crust by slipping suddenly during earthquakes, but some faults also slip slowly in between earthquakes. Exhumed faults, brought up to the Earth’s surface from depth, preserve a record of fault processes and slip rates informed by fault rock structures, textures, and chemistry. Hematite, a common iron oxide mineral that precipitates on fault surfaces, exhibits crystal textures that potentially indicate past slip rate. Hematite can be dated using the radioisotopic system of (U-Th)/He thermochronometry, which constrains the time when He is trapped within a crystal, a process that is a function of temperature. Exhumed …

Examining The Expression Patterns Of Desulfotalea Psychrophila Dsrab Operon And Pit At Subfreezing Temperatures And Different Concentrations Of Sulfate Salts As A Model For Mars And Icy Worlds Survival And Colonization, Sergio Luis Mosquera Mora

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since ancient times, Humanity has been fascinated with the idea of what lies beyond the borders of our planet. Fortunately, the combined efforts of many nations have made it possible to send unmanned spacecraft to orbit planets located close to Earth. These missions have the principal goal to collect data that could help us understand the basic environmental conditions that persist on those planets, or for evidence of past or present life. Equally important, landers and rovers have been successfully deployed to start the in-situ exploration of many planets of the Solar System. Among them, Mars has been extensively studied …

Evaluation Of Carbon Isotopic Chemostratigraphy Of The Cedar Mountain Formation Of Utah, Clayton Forster

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Lower Cretaceous rocks of Utah preserve the origin of a multitude of dinosaur taxa, spread of angiosperms on the North American continent, and evolution of marsupial and eutherian mammals. However, the timing of deposition of these rocks is not well understood and must be determined to understand climatic controls on these biological events. Estimates of the age of the Cedar Mountain Formation and its constituent members range from Late Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. Understanding the timing of deposition of the Cedar Mountain Formation is critical to dinosaurian and associated taxa studies as well as paleoclimate reconstructions from within …

Structural Interpretation Of An Alkaline-Carbonatite Complex Using Gravity And Magnetic Methods At Magnet Cove, Arkansas, Chelsea Morgan Amaral

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Magnet Cove alkaline-carbonatite complex in the Ouachita Mountains of south-central Arkansas could be a valuable resource for rare earth elements, though it has not yet been thoroughly studied using geophysical methods, and existing geophysical models simplify its diverse nature. Prior to this study, the subsurface structure and extent of the Magnet Cove complex was poorly understood and, in general, the process of emplacement of alkaline carbonatite complexes worldwide is also not fully understood. The Magnet Cove complex hosts an extensive variety of rare rock types and mineral resources that contrast significantly to the sedimentary rocks into which they have …

The Diatom Dark Ages: Identification Of Mid-Cretaceous Arctic Platform Diatoms From The Basal Transgression Of The Kanguk Formation, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada, Megan Heins

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The lower part of the mid-Cretaceous Kanguk Formation (Lower Turonian interval) contains an important paleontological record crucial to the characterization of a poorly known interval of fossil marine diatoms history. Kanguk Formation mudstones are exposed in a ~200 m-thick section on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canadian High Arctic. Diatoms at this location are well-preserved due to shallow burial on this Arctic Platform site. The rock sequence was protected from glacial erosion that removed much of the Cretaceous record by being down-faulted in a linear graben. Study of these well-preserved fossil diatoms allows for a documentation of the assemblage, identification of potentially …

Spatial Stream Modeling Of Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia Motacilla) Foraging Substrate And Aquatic Prey In A Watershed Undergoing Shale Gas Development, Mack W. Frantz, Petra B. Wood, Steven C. Latta

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We demonstrate the use of spatial stream network models (SSNMs) to explore relationships between a semiaquatic bioindicator songbird, Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), and stream monitoring and benthic macroinvertebrate data in an area undergoing shale gas development. SSNMs allowed us to account for spatial autocorrelation inherent to these environmental data types and stream properties that traditional modeling approaches cannot capture to elucidate factors that affect waterthrush foraging locations. We monitored waterthrush along 58.1 km of 1st- and 2nd-order headwater stream tributaries (n = 14) in northwestern West Virginia over a two year period (2013–2014), sampled benthic macroinvertebrates in waterthrush …

Functional Morphology And Taphonomy Of Ordovician–Silurian Diploporan Echinoderms, Stephen Ashley Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diploporan echinoderms were one of the most speciose groups of stemmed echinoderms during the Ordovician. Despite this widespread abundance, the fossil record of diploporan fauna consists primarily of incomplete specimens, with complete specimens being rare. While the theca, or body, is more commonly preserved, the feeding appendages and the attachment structures (i.e. stems or holdfasts) are seldomly preserved. Insight into these features is highly valuable to the understanding the paleoecology, like the feeding and respiratory strategies, of these enigmatic creatures.

One group of diploporan echinoderms which does have an extensive fossil record, is the Holocystites Fauna, primarily known from the …

Single-Crystal Elasticity Of Clinopyroxenes And The Viscosity Of Kimberlite Magma Under High Pressure-Temperature Conditions, Ming Hao

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Clinopyroxene is not only an important mineral phase in the pyrolitic upper mantle, but also one of the dominated mineral phases in the subducted or delaminated eclogitic materials in the deep Earth. Identifying and locating these eclogitic materials requires the knowledge of the thermoelastic properties of clinopyroxene under high pressure-temperature conditions. In this dissertation, we have measured the single-crystal elastic properties of jadeite and omphacite, which are major clinopyroxene phases in the eclogitic materials, up to 18 GPa 700 K by Brillouin spectroscopy and utilized these data to identify the eclogitic heterogeneities in the mantle.

We also measured the viscosity …

Sulfuric Acid Speleogenesis And Surface Landform Evolution Along The Vienna Basin Transfer Fault: Plavecký Karst, Slovakia, Pavel Bella, Helena Hercman, Šimon Kdýr, Petr Mikysek, Petr Pruner, Juraj Littva, Jozef Minár, Michal Gradzinski, Wojciech Wróblewski, Marek Velšmid, Pavel Bosak

International Journal of Speleology

Hypogene caves in the Plavecký hradný vrch Hill (Western Slovakia, Central Europe) were formed by waters ascending along faults in fractured Triassic carbonates related to the horst-graben structure at the contact of the Malé Karpaty Mountains and the NE part of the Vienna Basin. The Plavecká jaskyňa and Pec caves mostly contain horizontal passages and chambers with flat corrosion bedrock floors, fissure discharge feeders, wall water-table notches, replacement pockets, as well as a few other speleogens associated with sulfuric acid speleogenesis. The low-temperature sulfuric acid development phases of the Plavecká Jaskyňa are also indicated by the presence of sulfate minerals …

Science Of The Total Environment, Benjamin Linhoff

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Recently, the subsoils of ephemeral stream(arroyos) floodplains in the northern Chihuahuan Desert were discovered to contain large naturally occurring NO₃⁻ reservoirs (floodplain:~38,000 kg NO₃-N/ha; background:~60 kg NO₃-N/ha). These reservoirs may be mobilized through land use change or natural stream channel migration which makes differentiating between anthropogenic and natural groundwaterNO₃⁻sources challenging. In this study, the fate and sources of NO₃⁻ were investigated in an area with multiple NO₃⁻ sources such as accidental sewer line releases and sewage lagoons aswell as natural reservoirs of subsoil NO₃⁻. …

Titaniferous-Vanadiferous, Magnetite-Ilmenite Mineralization In A Mafic Suite Within The Chhotanagpur Gneissic Complex, Bihar, India, Ashmeer Mohammad, Anup K. Prasad, Kehe-U Wetsah, Mohammad Azad, Vivek Aryan, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Titanium or vanadium metals or their alloys are important industrial metals/alloys. Because these resources are in short supply, the investigation of potential titaniferous-vanadiferous deposits needs special attention to bridge the supply-demand gap. The study integrates geological, geochemical, remote sensing, and geophysical data for assessing the potentiality of titaniferous-vanadiferous, magnetite-ilmenite mineralization in and around the Sudamakund and Paharpur areas, Gaya and Jehanabad districts, Bihar, India, and delineation of specific targets for detailed exploration. Field visits for large scale mapping on (1:12,500 scale) were used to conduct a reconnaissance survey for magnetite-ilmenite mineralization in parts of toposheet number 72G/04 in the Gaya …

Spatial Variations In The Stress Field Near The Wilmington Blind-Thrust, An Earthquake Source Beneath Los Angeles, California, Justin Kain

LSU Master's Theses

A newly identified blind-thrust fault in the southern Los Angeles basin may have substantial implications for earthquakes in the region. A previous study suggests that the Wilmington blind-thrust may link up with nearby faults to produce a multisegment (M_w 6.6–7.4) earthquake rupture. These estimates are based on the joint rupturing of the Wilmington blind-thrust, Compton, Newport Inglewood, and the Huntington Beach fault segments (~85 km total length). However, stress heterogeneity near these faults may limit the size and intensity of earthquakes when incorporated into earthquake hazard modeling. This study presents a detailed model of the stress field in this …

Assessing Impact Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Development On Groundwater Quality In The Northern Appalachian Region With Mixed Land Uses, Favour C. Epuna

Theses - ALL

Over the past decade, the rapid growth of unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) has raised public concerns about its potential impact on groundwater quality. High methane and salt levels in groundwater have been the most widely cited UOGD-related impairments. The attribution of these contaminants to UOGD is usually complex, especially in regions with mixed land uses. Here, we compiled a large hydrogeochemistry dataset containing 13 geochemical analytes for 17,794 groundwater samples from the rural northern Appalachia, i.e., 19 counties located on the boundary between Pennsylvania (PA; UOGD is permitted) and New York (NY; UOGD is banned). With this dataset, …

Differentiating Pleistocene Alloformations In The South Carolina Coastal Plain Through Lithologic, Textural, Mineralogical, And Cluster Analyses, Charles Andrew Wykel

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, there is no textural or mineralogic basis for identifying and differentiating Pleistocene strand deposits in the South Carolina (SC) Lower Coastal Plain (LCP). Historically, geologic mapping of the SC coastal plain uses geomorphologic and biostratigraphic techniques for identifying and mapping LCP surficial strand deposits. While useful, both approaches have problems. The aim of this study is to develop a cost-effective approach to differentiate and identify strand deposits of different Pleistocene alloformations occurring in the SC LCP. To accomplish this task, four strand samples were taken from the Ten Mile Hill, the Ladson, and Wicomico alloformations in Horry County, SC. …