Geology Commons^™

Evaluation Of The Geothermal Potential Of The Snake River Plain, Idaho, Based On Three Exploration Holes, Thomas G. Freeman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work in this thesis was based on analyzing water samples collected from three exploratory boreholes drilled during Project Hotspot. The water samples were analyzed for their chemical properties. The chemical properties of the water samples were used as a basis for further analysis.

Geophysical logs, mainly temperature logs, were also analyzed for this project. Temperature logs measure temperature in relation to depth within a borehole.

All the analyses were made in order to estimate the geothermal potential of the project areas. The exploratory boreholes were all drilled in different areas and each had unique characteristics. The Mountain Home borehole …

Earthquake Petrology: Linking Fault-Related Deformation To The Earthquake Cycle, Mitchell R. Prante

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Faults have a controlling influence on a variety of geologic processes including fluid flow, the mechanical behavior of the crust, and seismicity. The geologic sciences have long recognized that faults generate earthquakes; however, few indicators of ancient earthquakes exist in fault-zones. This dissertation documents several indicators for the preservation of ancient earthquakes in fault-zones including frictional melt (pseudotachylyte), highly-polished fault slip surfaces, and hydrothermal alteration.

These deformation products result from rapid generation of frictional heat during earthquakes. This dissertation also focuses on the seismic potential of continental low-angle normal faults (LANF). We document the preservation of voluminous pseudotachylyte along a …

Dendrochronology In Northern Utah: Modeling Sensitivity And Reconstructing Logan River Flows, Eric B. Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The population centers in northern Utah are highly dependent upon snowpack for drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower. When the snowpack melts in the spring and early summer, it feeds streams draining the Wasatch, Bear River, and Uinta Mountains. The rivers are diverted and dammed to deliver water to the greater Salt Lake metropolitan area. In order to properly allocate this water, managers need to know how much water normally flows in the rivers and the frequency and magnitude of wet and dry periods to expect. However, climate patterns in the region are not well understood and records of streamflows are …

Fault Seal Analysis For Co2 Storage: Fault Zone Architecture, Fault Permeability, And Fluid Migration Pathways In Exposed Analogs In Southeastern Utah, David J. Richey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) primarily resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels can be captured and stored by injection into underground porous sandstone reservoirs. This process has been proposed as a method for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Two of the major risks associated with this technology include: 1) upwards migration and leakage of injected fluids along natural fault and fracture networks, and 2) possible induced seismicity (earthquakes) resulting from increasing the pressure in reservoirs and along existing faults.

We use geologic field mapping, petrographic analysis, characterization of the fault zone, analysis of altered …

A Middle To Late Holocene Record Of Arroyo Cut-Fill Events In Kitchen Corral Wash, Southern Utah, William M. Huff

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arroyos are steeply entrenched channels that form by incision into weakly consolidated valley-fill alluvium. This study attempts to offers clues into the processes behind their formation by dating arroyo sediments using luminescence and radiocarbon techniques. The importance of understanding arroyo formation is due to a possible linkage with decadal to centennial-scale climate fluctuations. In the 1800s and early 1900s, many of the shallow, perennial streams throughout southern Utah that used for a variety of agricultural and domestic uses were incised up to ~30 m into their alluvium by frequent and high-magnitude flood events. The economical and ecological effects of these …

Constraining Ice Advance And Linkages To Paleoclimate Of Two Glacial Systems In The Olympic Mountains, Washington And The Southern Alps, New Zealand, Cianna E. Wyshnytzky

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis investigates glacial sediments in the South Fork Hoh River Valley, Washington and the Lake Hawea Valley, New Zealand that were deposited during the last glacial period. Research objectives were to reconstruct the style and timing of glacier advance and retreat in both areas and to assess the viability of luminescence dating of sediments in glacial environments.

Glaciers are influenced primarily by temperature and precipitation. Valley glaciers, like those in the Olympics Mountains and Southern Alps, are thought to respond relatively rapidly to climate fluctuations in comparison to continental ice sheets. Understanding how these glacial systems responded to past …

Understanding The Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum: Evaluation Of Deuterium Values (Δd) Related To Precipitation And Temperature, Colin Gannon

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The Middle Miocene Climate Optimum was a unique warming period in the Earth’s geologic history, when a high global mean annual temperature was accompanied by a relatively low global CO2 concentration. Hydrogen isotopic signals (specifically molecular δD, the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen) from lipids of fossils and sediments offer intrinsic insights into precipitation of ancient climates. Using samples collected from known Middle Miocene deposits, we measured δD of n-alkanes extracted from well-preserved plant and sediment samples from varying latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere, and then analyzed the data through a zonally averaged precipitation and evaporation climate model. The reduced …

A Combined Radio- And Stable-Isotopic Study Of A California Coastal Aquifer System, Peter W. Swarzenski, Mark Baskaran, Robert J. Rosenbauer, Brian D. Edwards, Michael Land

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Stable and radioactive tracers were utilized in concert to characterize geochemical processes in a complex coastal groundwater system and to provide constraints on the kinetics of rock/water interactions. Groundwater samples from wells within the Dominguez Gap region of Los Angeles County, California were analyzed for a suite of major cations (Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) and anions (Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻), silica, alkalinity, select trace elements (Ba, B, Sr), dissolved oxygen, stable isotopes of hydrogen (δD), oxygen (δ¹⁸O), dissolved inorganic carbon (δ¹³C_DIC), and radioactive …

Co And Cr Adsorption On Maghemite, Quartz, And Maghemite-Quartz Mixtures, Amy Troy

Honors Theses

In aquifers and other natural systems, single mineral systems are rare. Solids are commonly heterogeneous, containing multiple minerals, and mineral interactions are expected. Mineral interactions such as formation of coatings and physical blocking of adsorption sites have the potential to significantly change the adsorption of ions onto solids. To investigate such interactions, batch experiments using Co(II) or Cr(VI) were conducted to compare adsorption edges of these sorbates on pure and mixed mineral systems. Specifically, sorption of 10^-5 or 10^-6 M Co(II) and Cr(VI) was measured as a function of pH, with a background electrolyte concentration of 0.01 M …

Facies And Reservoir Characterization Of The Permian White Rim Sandstone, Black Box Dolomite, And Black Dragon Member Of The Triassic Moenkopi Formation For Co2 Storage And Sequestration At Woodside Field, East-Central Utah, Walter Andrew Harston

Theses and Dissertations

Geologic sequestration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emissions is an engineering solution that potentially reduces CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere thereby limiting their effect on climate change. This study focuses on Woodside field as a potential storage and sequestration site for CO2 emissions. The Woodside field is positioned on a doubly plunging, asymmetrical anticline on the northeast flank of the San Rafael Swell. Particular focus will be placed on the Permian White Rim Sandstone, Black Box Dolomite and Black Dragon Member of the Triassic Moenkopi Formation as the reservoir/seal system to store and sequester CO2 at Woodside …

Paleoecology Of Nebraska’S Ungulates During The Eocene–Oligocene Climate Transition, Grant S. Boardman

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

The White River Group (WRG) preserves the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition (EOCT), an interval of global cooling and drying during the onset of Antarctic glaciation. In the Great Plains, a shift from forested conditions to drier woodland-savanna biomes is hypothesized to have occurred at this time. I test this hypothesis through the analyses of several paleoenvironmental proxies on the teeth of 12 WRG ungulate species: stable carbon and oxygen isotopes from tooth enamel, and mesowear and microwear texture. The EOCT shift toward more open habitats and lower vegetation density under drying climates should have resulted in an increase in mean carbon …

Towards A Better Understanding Of Modern And Paleo-Hydrologic Settings In Arid Lands, Lamees Mohamed, Abotalib Zaki

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

No abstract provided.

Sorption Of Cr(Vi) On Mineral Assemblages Of Goethite With Clays And Oxides, Ann M. Gilchrist

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

No abstract provided.

Cave Taphonomy, Amberly Rounds

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper.

Savrda and Lewis Gastaldo define taphonomy as the paleontological subdiscipline which is concerned with the process responsible for any organism becoming part of the fossil record, and how these processes influence information in the fossil record (Gastaldo 1996, 1). Lee Lyman goes on to state that even more so it is the science dealing with the laws of burial or embedding (Lyman l). In this paper taphonomy will be discussed along with its use in cave settings mainly during the Pleistocene era. Mary C. Steiner makes it …

K-12 Geoscience Workshops And Freshman Field Camp: Txkorp Outreach [Abstract], Kevin W. Stafford, Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Wesley A. Brown

Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Geoanalytical Analysis Of Speleogenetic Development In The Owl Mountain And Nolan Creek Provinces: Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas (Abstract], Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Kevin W. Stafford, Aaron W. Bryant

Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Climate Data Manipulation And The Use Of Water To Build Political Power In The Southwest United States, Conrad Moore, Professor Emeritus

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Models utilized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicate a striking trend toward increasing aridity in the Southwest United States. Two landmark articles published in Science magazine have emphasized the critical future consequences of this trend. Data from 59 National Weather Service stations distributed across the region west of the continental divide and south of the 41^stparallel (the northern border of Colorado and northeastern Utah), including 36 stations in the Upper Colorado River Basin and lower Southwest, show that annual and winter precipitation increased over the 60-year period 1950-2010, although the record is impoverished by the deletion …

Late Mississippian (Chesterian) Through Early Pennsylvanian (Atokan) Strata, Michigan Basin, U.S.A., Shannon M. Towne

Masters Theses

Over 2,000 linear feet of core material was analyzed to evaluate the stratigraphy and basin evolution of Carboniferous strata in the Michigan basin. Rock units were evaluated on the basis of lithofacies type, contact relationships, and existing regional geologic interpretations. The recovery of three distinct pollen and spore assemblages from core confirms the timing of deposition during the Late Mississippian Chesterian and Early-Middle Pennsylvanian Morrowan and Atokan regional stages within the Michigan basin.

The deposition of a marine carbonate succession with significant interstratified quartz sandstone occurred during the Chesterian regional stage. The Bayport interval (Bayport Limestone) is composed of seven …

Drilling Active Tectonics And Magmatism (Volcanics, Geoprisms, Fault Zones Post-Safod) Proceedings Of A Workshop, John W. Shervais, James P. Evans, Virginia Toy, John Eichelberger, James Kirkpatrick, Amanda Clarke

Geosciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fluorescent Chrysotile From Sterling Hill, New Jersey, James A. Van Fleet, Earl R. Verbeek

Faculty Journal Articles

Minerals of the serpentine group, notably chrysotile and to a lesser extent lizardite, are widely present at both Franklin and Sterling Hill. They are late-stage hydrous magnesium silicate minerals that formed by hydrothermal alteration of earlier species, among them willemite and tephroite, and are also common components of hydrothermal veins cutting the ore bodies and the enclosing marble (Dunn, 1995). Although long recognized in the area (Fowler, 1825), local serpentine was not documented as a fluorescent mineral until 2004, when a brief description of a fluorescent serpentine from Franklin appeared in The Picking Table (Cianciulli, 2004). In the present paper, …

Preliminary Groundwater Level Changes At Selected Sites In Nebraska Following The Drought Of 2012, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Depositional Facies And Geological Controls On Reservoir Quality In Lower-Middle Devonian Sylvania Sandstone, Midland County, Michigan, Katherine A. Pollard

Masters Theses

The early-Middle Devonian Sylvania “Sandstone” is considered a target for potential CO₂ geosequestration. In order to develop geostatic models for CO₂ injection simulations, controls on reservoir properties must be addressed. The three objectives of this study involve: 1) develop an overview of depositional lithofacies and their vertical stacking relationships, 2) determine fluid sources and controls of diagenesis (dolomitization and silicification), and 3) examine geological controls on the distribution and character of reservoir facies.

The grossly transgressive Sylvania-Bois Blanc interval is a complex lithologic assemblage. Sylvania “Sandstone” strata transition from high energy, subtidal to lower-intertidal mixed carbonate-siliciclastic facies to …

Integrating Depositional Facies And Sequence Stratigraphy In Characterizing Unconventional Reservoirs: Eagle Ford Shale, South Texas, Seth Jordan Workman

Masters Theses

The Mid-to-Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas is a mixed siliciclastic/carbonate, unconventional resource play with considerable oil and natural gas. Characterization of Eagle Ford reservoir quality and potential is made difficult by complex, small-scale heterogeneities.

The limited availability of subsurface data constrains previous subsurface Eagle Ford investigations. As a result, the internal variability of depositional facies and reservoir attributes remain poorly understood for these Eagle Ford rocks.

This investigation incorporates a representative group of four Eagle Ford cores, and core data, from within the current play area in order to: 1) determine facies successions, 2) establish a hierarchal …

Reinterpreting The Stratigraphy Of The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Through Correlation By Magnetic Susceptibility And Geochemical Comparison, Lindsay Prothro

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Alluvial Sediment Or Playas: What Is The Dominant Source Of Sand And Silt In Desert Soil Vesicular A Horizons, Southwest Usa, Mark R. Sweeney, Eric V. Mcdonald, Christohper E. Markley

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Vesicular A (Av) soil horizons form beneath desert pavements from the accretion of aeolian sediment (dust) commonly thought to be derived primarily from desiccating pluvial lakes and playas, with contributions from ephemeral washes and alluvial fans. Particle size distributions of Av horizons are typically bimodal with primary modes of very fine silt and fine sand, suggesting that the horizon matrix is derived from multiple sources. Here we conduct detailed chemical and physical analysis of both Av horizon soil samples and potential sources of aeolian sediment to better constrain the relative contributions of dust associated with the development of Av horizons. …

Evolution Of Dike Opening During The March 2011 Kamoamoa Fissure Eruption, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, Paul Lundgren, Michael Poland, Asta Miklius, Tim Orr, Sang-Ho Yun, Eric Fielding, Zhen Liu, Scott Hensley, Susan Owen, Akiko Tanaka, Walter Szeliga

Faculty Scholarship for the Cascadia Hazards Institute

The 5–9 March 2011 Kamoamoa fissure eruption along the east rift zone of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai`i, followed months of pronounced inflation at Kīlauea summit. We examine dike opening during and after the eruption using a comprehensive interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data set in combination with continuous GPS data. We solve for distributed dike displacements using a whole Kīlauea model with dilating rift zones and possibly a deep décollement. Modeled surface dike opening increased from nearly 1.5 m to over 2.8 m from the first day to the end of the eruption, in agreement with field observations of surface fracturing. …

Toward A Better Understanding Of Recent Warming Of The Central West Antarctic Ice Sheet From Shallow Firn Cores, Jessica Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have shown significant warming through the 1990s in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS); but the records used in those studies end in early 2000, preventing trend analysis into the latest decade. Fourteen new snowpits and firn cores were collected in 2010 and 2011, which have been combined with previous cores to extend the isotopic records over WAIS. Significance of these isotopic patterns across WAIS was determined and is used to re-evaluate the warming of the West Antarctic interior over recent decades. We find that isotopic records longer than 50 years are needed to assess climate trends due …

Map-Based Probabilistic Infinite Slope Analysis Of The Stephens Creek Watershed, Portland, Oregon, Ryan Andrew Cole

Dissertations and Theses

The Stephens Creek Watershed in southwest Portland, Oregon was chosen by the city as a pilot project for urban stream restoration efforts, and the infiltration of stormwater was identified as a potential restoration strategy. The Stephens Creek Watershed has historically been known to be unstable during high precipitation events (Burns, 1996), and the need to address the response of slope stability to anthropogenically-driven changing groundwater conditions is the focus of this study. Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and geotechnical data from the City of Portland were employed to create a high resolution (0.84 m2) physics-based probabilistic slope stability model …

A Characterization Of Lake Abert Tufa Mounds Lake Abert, Oregon, Anthony Lynn Bartruff

Dissertations and Theses

A series of tufa mounds is found within the northern basin of Lake Abert, located within southeastern Oregon. The mounds have been divided into 3 main groups and 1 sub-group (A1, A2, B, and C) based upon spatial and textural considerations. Mound groups appear at two different elevations: the 1310 meter elevation (Groups A2, B, and C), and the 1318 meter elevation (Group A1). Published carbon age dating of the Lake Abert 1325 meter strandline and the 1310 meter strandline indicates that the mounds were formed during the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene. Facies analysis and mineralogical analysis of the mounds indicates …

Geology Of The Western Llano Uplift, Fredericksburg To Mason, Texas, R. Larell Nielson, Chris Barker

Faculty Publications

This year's Texas Academy of Science Geology Field Trip will visit six interesting locations in the Texas Hill Country (Figure 01). At Bear Mountain quarry, former location of Balanced Rock, the contact between the Precambrian Bear Mountain Pluton and surrounding Cretaceous Edwards Group will be examined. Along Crab Apple Creek, south of Enchanted Rock, excellent exposures of the Hickory Sandstone provide the opportunity to study sedimentary structures and cross-bedding that represent the Sauk sequence deposited during the Cambrian Period (Figure 02). Next we will look at a Gypsum Mine and deposits of evaporites from the Cretaceous Kirschberg Lagoon (Figure 03 …