Geophysics and Seismology Commons^™

Ground Motion For The Maximum Credible Earthquake In Kentucky, Zhenming Wang

Report of Investigations--KGS

Although they are not frequent, earthquakes occur in and around Kentucky and pose certain hazards. Assessing seismic hazards is challenging, however, because of a lack of observations. The best estimates of ground motions that could be expected if the maximum credible earthquake occurs in or around Kentucky are depicted in maps showing peak ground acceleration and short-period (0.2 second) and long-period (1.0 second) response accelerations with 5 percent critical damping on hard rock. Another consideration for seismic safety is that the maximum credible earthquake has a long recurrenece interval, from 500 to 1,000 years in the New Madrid Seismic Zone …

Plains Co2 Reduction (Pcor) Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, Katherine K. Anagnost, Barry W. Botnen, Lisa S. Botnen, Daniel J. Daly, Charles D. Gorecki, Megan M. Grove, John A. Harju, Melanie D. Jensen, Michael L. Jones, Steven A. Smith, James A. Sorensen, Edward N. Steadman, Stephanie L. Wolfe, Andrea T. Mcnemar, John T. Litynski, Sean I. Plasynski

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) atlas, 3rd edition, introduces global climate change and provides a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential sinks across the PCOR Partnership region. Carbon storage offers a promising set of technologies through which CO₂ can be stored for long periods of time.

Understanding Paleoclimate And Human Evolution Through The Hominin Sites And Paleolakes Drilling Project, Andrew Cohen, Ramon Arrowsmith, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Christopher Campisano, Craig Feibel, Shimeles Fisseha, Roy Johnson, Zelalem Bedaso, Charles Lockwood, Emma Mbua, Daniel Olago, Richard Potts, Kaye Reed, Robin Renaut, Jean-Jacques Tiercelin, Mohammed Umer

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Understanding the evolution of humans and our close relatives is one of the enduring scientific issues of modern times. Since the time of Charles Darwin, scientists have speculated on how and when we evolved and what conditions drove this evolutionary story. The detective work required to address these questions is necessarily interdisciplinary, involving research in anthropology, archaeology, human genetics and genomics, and the earth sciences. In addition to the difficult tasks of finding, describing, and interpreting hominin fossils (the taxonomic tribe which includes Homo sapiens and our close fossil relatives from the last 6 Ma), much of modern geological research …

Role Of Forward Model In Surface-Wave Studies To Delineate A Buried High-Velocity Layer, Xiaohui Jin, Barbara Luke, Carlos Calderon-Macias

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Procedures are tested and compared for processing Rayleigh surface wave data to obtain one-dimensional shear wave velocity profiles for a hypothetical site that contains a buried high-velocity layer (HVL). The main purpose of such an investigation would be to discriminate and characterize the HVL. When target dispersion curves are derived from synthetic time histories, for the most part, the HVL is better identified when profiles are inverted using only the fundamental mode of Rayleigh wave propagation, rather than a more compatible but more complex forward model. The outcomes imply that in practice, a simple forward model might be more successful …

Geoelectrical Response Of Surfactant Solutions In A Quartzitic Sand Analog Aquifer, Meghan Therese Magill

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this project, the resistivity and phase shift of ten surfactant aqueous solutions in a sand matrix were measured using spectral induced polarization (SIP). In addition, specific conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and dielectric constant measurements of the solutions were also evaluated. The frequency range assessed was 0.091-12000Hz. The surfactants, which are typically used in the remediation of tetrachloroethylene, were Aerosol MA 80-I, Dowfax 8390, and Steol CS-330. The surfactants were mixed into solutions of both deionized and tap water at varying concentrations and injected into a closed system of silica sand. The surfactant treatments altered resistivity, specific conductivity, and pH …

Pcor Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, Barry W. Botnen, Lisa S. Botnen, Daniel J. Daly, John A. Harju, Melanie D. Jensen, Erin M. O'Leary, Steven A. Smith, James A. Sorensen, Edward N. Steadman, Stephanie L. Wolfe, Darin R. Damiani, John T. Litynski, David W. Fischer

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Atlas, revised 2nd edition, introduces global climate change and provides a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential sinks across the PCOR Partnership region. Carbon sequestration offers a promising set of technologies through which CO₂ can be stored for long periods of time.

Geology And Hydrology Of Karst In West-Central And North-Central Florida, Lee J. Florea

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

The state of Florida is blessed with the highest density of large springs in North America and hundreds of smaller springs where the water from limestone aquifers returns to the surface (Scott et al., 2004). Spectacular underwater caves supply water to these springs. Lesser known are the equally fantastic air-filled caves of Florida and South Georgia (Florea, 2006; Lane, 1986). This paper features these underwater and airfilled caves, explores the impact of changes in sea level on karst in this near-coastal environment, and establishes several geologic and hydrologic characteristics that distinguish karst in the limestones of the southeast from karst …

Visualization Of Groundwater Flow Within Touching-Vu And Matrix Porosity In An Eogenetic Karst Aquifer, Lee J. Florea, Kevin J. Cunningham, Stephen Altobelli

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

In this study, we use an innovative, non-invasive technology, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), to visualize the direction and magnitude of groundwater flow in field samples of late Pleistocene limestone of the Biscayne aquifer. Specific goals of the first set of NMRI experiments are to map the advective velocity of water flowing at two rates of specific discharge (0.00025 and 0.00013 m/s) through a 10-cm-diameter cylindrical, epoxy-resin model. The model interior accurately reproduces a well-connected maze of ichnologically influenced, centimeter-scale, touching-vug macroporosity common within preferred flow zones in parts of the Biscayne aquifer. A second set of NMRI experiments investigates …

Focus Group On Karst Hydrology - Conceptual Models, Aquifer Characterization, And Numerical Modeling, Martin Sauter, Lee J. Florea, Others

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Vertical Mixing In Estuaries, W. Rockwell Geyer, Malcolm E. Scully, David K. Ralston

CCPO Publications

Estuarine turbulence is notable in that both the dissipation rate and the buoyancy frequency extend to much higher values than in other natural environments. The high dissipation rates lead to a distinct inertial subrange in the velocity and scalar spectra, which can be exploited for quantifying the turbulence quantities. However, high buoyancy frequencies lead to small Ozmidov scales, which require high sampling rates and small spatial aperture to resolve the turbulent fluxes. A set of observations in a highly stratified estuary demonstrate the effectiveness of a vessel-mounted turbulence array for resolving turbulent processes, and for relating the turbulence to the …

The Global Stratotype Section And Point (Gssp) For The Base Of The Katian Stage Of The Upper Ordovician Series At Black Knob Ridge, Southeastern Oklahoma, Usa, Daniel Goldman, Stephen A. Leslie, Jaak Nõlvak, Seth Young, Stig M. Bergström, Warren D. Huff

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The International Subcomission on Ordovician Stratigraphy (ISOS) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) recently defined the base of the global Upper Ordovician Series to be at the first appearance datum (FAD) of the graptolite species Nemagraptus gracilis in the Fågelsång GSSP in southern Sweden. This designation recognized the tremendous utility for global correlation of the first appearance of a cosmopolitan taxon that occurs within a consistent succession of other first appearance datums (e.g., Finney and Bergström, 1986; Bergström et al., 2000). Current efforts by the ISOS have focused on subdividing the Upper Ordovician into three stages and choosing appropriate …

Pcor Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, Barry W. Botnen, Lisa S. Botnen, Daniel J. Daly, John A. Harju, Melanie D. Jensen, Erin M. O'Leary, Steven A. Smith, James A. Sorensen, Edward N. Steadman, Stephanie L. Wolfe, Darin R. Damiani, John T. Litynski, David W. Fischer

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Atlas, 2nd edition, introduces global climate change and provides a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential sinks across the PCOR Partnership region. Carbon sequestration offers a promising set of technologies through which CO₂ can be stored for long periods of time.

I Sinkholes Nella Letteratura Scientifica Internazionale: Una Breve Rassegna, Con Particulare Riferimento Agli Stati Uniti D'America, Lee J. Florea, Mario Parise

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Fenomeni di sinkholes sono diffusi in moltissimi paesi del mondo, in ambiti geologici e morfologici alquanto differenziati, e coinvolgono svariate litologie, sia nelle successioni di copertura che in quelle direttamente affioranti alla superficie. Il presente contributo intende fornire una breve rassegna, certamente non esaustiva, sullo stato dell’arte delle ricerche relative ai sinkholes in ambito internazionale. Esso consiste in una descrizione della più aggiornata e diffusa classificazione dei sinkholes e, a seguire, in descrizioni delle più tipiche casistiche di sinkholes nei vari paesi. Tra questi, viene dato particolare risalto agli Stati Uniti d’America (e, più in particolare, alla Florida), dove le …

International, Cooperative Research In The Apuseni Mountains Of Western Romania, Lee J. Florea, Bogdan P. Onac

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

In May of 2006, nine American scientists and cavers from the Karst Research Group at the University of South Florida traveled to western Romania to attend and present at an international conference on records of climate change in caves in the historic Roman town of Baile Hurculane. The conference, co-sponsored by the “Emil Racoviţă” Speleological Institute of Romania and the Karst Waters Institute, drew more than 100 experts in the field of climate change and karst, and was a wonderful time spent alongside the thermal springs and Austro-Hungarian bathhouses nestled within the massive limestone canyon of the Cerna River.

Following …

Sinkhole Distribution Based On Pre-Development Mapping In Urbanized Pinellas County, Florida, Usa, Robert Brinkmann, Kelly Wilson, Nichole Elko, Larry D. Seale, Lee J. Florea, H L. Vacher

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Locating sinkholes in Pinellas County, Florida, is confounded by the presence of a cover of Quaternary sediments that mute the surface appearance of these sinkholes. As a first step in addressing the sinkhole hazard in the county, we analysed aerial photographs from 1926 and 1995 that covered the entire county. We digitized all identifiable sinkholes in each set of photographs in a GIS (Geographical Information System) using a set of criteria established to differentiate between karst depressions and depressions resulting from other geological processes. The 1926 photographs, although of low quality, helped to establish a baseline prior to urbanization. The …

Pcor Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, John A. Harju, Erin M. O'Leary, Steven A. Smith, James A. Sorensen, Edward N. Steadman, Charles R. Nelson, Lynette L. De Silva, John T. Litynski, David W. Fischer

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Atlas introduces global climate change and provides a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential sinks across the PCOR Partnership region. Carbon sequestration offers a promising set of technologies through which CO₂ can be stored for long periods of time.

Prevailing Weather Conditions During Summer Seasons Around Gangotri Glacier, Pratap Singh, Umesh K. Haritashya, K. S. Ramasastri, Naresh Kumar

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Meteorological data collected near the snout of the Gangotri Glacier suggest that the study area receives less rainfall. The average seasonal rainfall is observed to be about 260 mm. The rainfall distribution does not show any monsoon impact. Amount of seasonal rainfall is highly variable (131.4-368.8 mm) from year to year, but, in general, August had the maximum rainfall. A verage daily maximum and minimum temperatures were 14.7 and 4.1°C respectively, whereas average mean temperature was 9.4°C. July was recorded as the warmest month. During daytime, wind speed was four times higher than that at night-time. The average daytime and …

Spatial Variation In The Response Of Tree Rings To Normal Faulting During The Hebgen Lake Earthquake, Southwestern Montana, Usa, Matthew F. Bekker

Wasatch Dendroclimatology Research

Tree rings have frequently been used to identify the effects of earthquakes on forests, but little is known about spatial variation in the response of trees to intraplate normal faulting. This paper documents and describes the effects of tree location (distance from and position above or below the fault scarp), size and age on the response of tree rings to the 1959 magnitude 7.5 Hebgen Lake earthquake, which occurred along a normal fault in the Gallatin National Forest in southwestern Montana. Core samples from 88 trees were collected along nine 100-m transects straddling the Hebgen scarp, and from 28 additional …

Transition From Contraction To Extension In The Northeastern Basin And Range: New Evidence From The Copper Mountains, Nevada, Jeffrey M. Rahl, Allen J. Mcgrew, Kenneth A. Foland

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

New mapping, structural analysis, and 40Ar/39Ar dating reveal an unusually well‐constrained history of Late Eocene extension in the Copper Mountains of the northern Basin and Range province. In this area, the northeast‐trending Copper Creek normal fault juxtaposes a distinctive sequence of metacarbonate and granitoid rocks against a footwall of Upper Precambrian to Lower Cambrian quartzite and phyllite. Correlation of the hanging wall with footwall rocks to the northwest provides an approximate piercing point that requires 8–12 km displacement in an ESE direction. This displaced fault slice is itself bounded above by another normal fault (the Meadow Fork Fault), which brings …

Detection Of Iapetan Rifting (Rome Trough Tectonism) By Quaternary Karstification: Pulaski County, Kentucky, Lee J. Florea

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Multibeam Sonar Backscatter Lineaments And Anthropogenic Organic Components In Lacustrine Silty Clay, Evidence Of Shipping In Western Lake Ontario, C F Michael Lewis, L A. Mayer, Prasanta K. Mukhopadhyay, Michael A. Kruge, John P. Coakley, M D. Smith

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A multibeam sonar survey (95 kHz) covering more than 500 km² of western Lake Ontario revealed anomalous lineaments of relatively high backscatter. The lineaments did not align with or parallel the most prominent structural zones beneath the lake as expected. Instead, the principal lineaments lay on lines between ports on opposite sides of the lake, especially between Toronto and Welland Canal, and Toronto and Niagara River mouth. As the lineaments underlie current and historical shipping routes used during the steamship era, they are interpreted as an acoustic response to shipping debris cumulated in the near-surface bottom sediment. An exploratory …

Quartzite Fabric Transition In A Cordilleran Metamorphic Core Complex, Allen J. Mcgrew, Martin Casey

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Photomicrographs 143A-143F record fabric variations in quartzite with increasing structural depth in a > 1 km thick, amphibolite-facies, normal-sense shear zone in the East Humboldt metamorphic core complex, Nevada (Figure 143.1). This shear zone and the overlying detachment system unroofed an infrastructure of high-grade, migmatitic gneiss during Oligocene to early Miocene extension (Dallmeyer and others, 1986; Wright and Snoke, 1993; McGrew and Snee, 1994). Thermobarometric constraints from near the base of the mylonitic zone record deformation conditions of 550°- 620°C and 300-400 MPa (Hurlow and others, 1991). Sample WBC6 (l43A and 143B) characterizes the mylonitic zone, whereas sample 8706-1 (143C and …

Grand Tour-Part 2: Petrogenesis And Thermal Evolution Of Deep Continental-Crust: The Record From The East Humboldt Range, Nevada, Allen J. Mcgrew, Mark T. Peters

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The northern part of the East Humboldt Range, Nevada, provides a rare opportunity to explore the petrogenetic environment of deep levels in the middle crust during both large-scale Mesozoic contraction and Cenozoic regional extension. On this segment of the field trip, we will explore evidence bearing on the character of the metamorphic and magmatic history of this terrane, and attempt to link these constraints to the rheology and tectonic evolution of the middle crust during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

The Grand Tour Of The Ruby-East Humboldt Metamorphic Core Complex, Northeastern Nevada: Part 1-Introduction & Road Log, Arthur W. Snoke, Keith A. Howard, Allen J. Mcgrew, Bradford R. Burton, Calvin G. Barnes, Mark T. Peters, James E. Wright

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The purpose of this geological excursion is to provide an overview of the multiphase developmental history of the Ruby Mountains and East Humboldt Range, northeastern Nevada. Although these mountain ranges are commonly cited as a classic example of a Cordilleran metamorphic core complex developed through large-magnitude, mid-Tertiary crustal extension, a preceding polyphase Mesozoic contractional history is also well preserved in the ranges. An early phase of this history involved Late Jurassic two-mica granitic magmatism, high-temperature but relatively low-pressure metamorphism, and polyphase deformation in the central Ruby Mountains. In the northern Ruby Mountains and East Humboldt Range, a Late Cretaceous history …

The Hydrology Of Shallow And Deep Aquifers In Relation To Secondary Soil Salinisation In Southwestern Australia, Richard J. George, Arthur J. Conacher

Natural Resources Research Articles

Results are reported from detailed research which has been carried out since 1984 on several Western Australian wheatbelt catchments, ranging in size from 12 ha to 1000 km2, in order to quantify the nature and roles of groundwater aquifers in relation to secondary salinisation. Secondary soil salinisation in the semi-arid wheatbelt has increased by 600% over the past 34 years to 440 000 ha, and is likely to increase by at least another 500% in the next 30-50 years. Changes in groundwater hydrology following the replacement of the native, woodland vegetation with agricultural crops and pastures during this century, have …

The Effects Of Composting Of Yard Wastes On The Ground-Water Quality: Wmu Farms Site, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Bryan Kirk Allen

Masters Theses

In the rush to find alternatives to landfilling of yard waste, federal and state agencies have identified composting as the main solution. There is therefore a need to address the possible environmental problems which could be associated with such composting operations. Compost may contain nutrients, organic acids, pesticides, and metals which could leach through soils to the ground water posing a potential contamination problem.

At the WMU Farms Site, two sites have been used for the composting of leaves by the City of Kalamazoo. The physical and chemical hydrogeology of these sites were characterized.

The results suggest that the presence …

The Origin And Evolution Of The Southern Snake Range Decollement, East Central Nevada, Allen J. Mcgrew

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Regional and local stratigraphic, metamorphic, and structural constraints permit reconstruction of the southern Snake Range extensional deformational system in east central Nevada. The dominant structure of the range, the southern Snake Range décollement (SSRD), operated during Oligocene and Miocene extensional deformation to exhume a footwall of multiply deformed metasedimentary and plutonic rocks. Intrusion of three plutons (∼160 Ma, 79.1 ± 0.5 Ma, and 36 ± 1 Ma, respectively) and development of two cleavages preceded the onset of extensional deformation. Plastic deformation of lower plate metasedimentary rocks accompanied the early phases of regional extension and produced bedding-parallel grain shape foliations and …

Considerations Of Variations In Ionospheric Field Effects In Mapping Equatorial Lithospheric Magsat Magnetic Anomalies, Dhananjay Ravat, W. J. Hinze

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Longitudinal, seasonal, and altitude‐dependent variability of magnetic fields is investigated in equatorial latitudes to determine their effect on the isolation of lithospheric Magsat magnetic anomalies. An estimate of ‘ionospheric effect’ was compiled by averaging the total intensity Magsat anomalies as a function of dip latitudes (called ‘dip‐latitude averages’) from dawn and dusk data sets grouped according to longitudes, time (months), and altitudes. Unanticipated seasonal variations were observed in dusk Magsat data over the Indian sector that may contribute to an improved understanding of the equatorial electrojet. The amplitudes of the dawn dip‐latitude averages are small in comparison to the dusk …

Statistical Prediction Of Satellite Magnetic Anomalies, H. K. Goyal, R. R. B. Von Frese, W. J. Hinze, D. N. Ravat

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

The geological utility of satellite magnetic observations is limited by orbital altitude variations which may be as large as a few hundred kilometres. This study investigates the use of fast and elegant statistical procedures for altitude normalization and gridding of magnetic anomaly data as an alternative to more commonly used equivalent source inversion procedures involving computationally extensive and complex least‐squares matrix methods. A standard statistical approach for gridding satellite magnetic anomalies is to recompute numerically averaged values from three‐dimensionally distributed observations which are within two standard deviations of an initially determined averaged anomaly estimate. the errors of this procedure for …

A Comparative Study Of Geologic Information Derived From Visually Interpreted Slar And Landsat Imagery, William Leo Barry

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geologists have used numerous tYPes of remote sensors for the interpretation of earth surface features. Two of the more recently developed remote sensors are SLAR (side-looking airborne radar) and LANDSAT (ERTS, Earth's Resources Technology Satellite, renamed L~~DSAT). The author undertook a straightforward qualitative research study to ascertain and compare the amount, types and reliability of the geologic information which can be derived separately from visually interpreted LANDSAT and SLAR imagery. The area selected for this study is located in north-central Arizona. The imagery analyzed consists of unenhanced black and white ... multispectral scanner (MSS) bands 5, 6 and 7 LANDSAT …