Geophysics and Seismology Commons^™

Regional Sensitivities Of Seasonal Snowpack To Elevation, Aspect, And Vegetation Cover In Western North America, Nancy F. Glenn

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In mountains with seasonal snow cover, the effects of climate change on snowpack will be constrained by landscape-vegetation interactions with the atmosphere. Airborne lidar surveys used to estimate snow depth, topography, and vegetation were coupled with reanalysis climate products to quantify these interactions and to highlight potential snowpack sensitivities to climate and vegetation change across the western U.S. at Rocky Mountain (RM), Northern Basin and Range (NBR), and Sierra Nevada (SNV) sites. In forest and shrub areas, elevation captured the greatest amount of variability in snow depth (16–79%) but aspect explained more variability (11–40%) in alpine areas. Aspect was most …

Geophysical Investigations Of Pyroclastic Density Current Processes And Deposit Properties At Mount St. Helens, Washington (Usa), Andrew Cleveland Gase

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Geophysical imaging has the potential to significantly improve investigations in pyroclastic deposits, either as a means of in situ property estimation or to provide geologic context where exposures do not exist. I perform two geophysical studies set in the deposits of the 1980 eruption at Mount St. Helens, Washington (USA); the aim is to investigate the physical properties and geology of pyroclastic deposits.

Joint petrophysical modeling reveals the dependence of seismic and electromagnetic velocities in pyroclastic deposits on two-phase porosity (vesicularity and inter- granular porosity) and water-saturation. Seismic first arrival travel-time tomography, multi-channel analysis of surface waves, and multi-offset GPR …

Earthquake Segment Boundaries And Tsunamigenic Faults Of The Kodiak Segment, Alaska-Aleutian Subduction Zone, Marlon D. Ramos

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The most recent megathrust earthquake to impact the Alaska subduction zone was the M9.2 Great Alaska earthquake of 1964. This multi-segment rupture spanned over 700 km of the plate boundary and engendered both local and trans-Pacific tsunamis. The Kodiak Islands region served as the southwestern limit to rupture. The nature of past megathrust segmentation for the Alaska subduction zone has been largely hypothesized through paleoseismological methods and the Kodiak region in particular has not received a comprehensive geophysical characterization of its inferred segment boundaries.

I analyze multiple geophysical datasets (e.g. seismic reflection, earthquake, potential fields) to understand the spatiotemporal relationships …

Near Surface Geophysics For Lithostratigraphic Interpretation At Pedro, Benton County, Arkansas, Matthew David Ruggeri

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The roadcut on highway 412 near Pedro, Benton County, Arkansas (MArkUP site L15), has been of geological interest since its excavation in the 1980s. The roadcut is located within the Springfield Plateau and displays formations of Lower Mississippian age. The roadcut contains three mound-like features believed to be olistoliths. This thesis research work adds geophysical evidence to the geological exposure at the site. The purpose of this research is to answer the question of whether near surface seismic methods can be used to extend information at the Pedro outcrop below the ground surface. Specifically, can the top of the Middle …

Coupling Biophysical Processes And Water Rights To Simulate Spatially Distributed Water Use In An Intensively Managed Hydrologic System, Bangshuai Han, Shawn G. Benner, John P. Bolte, Kellie B. Vache, Alejandro N. Flores

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Humans have significantly altered the redistribution of water in intensively managed hydrologic systems, shifting the spatiotemporal patterns of surface water. Evaluating water availability requires integration of hydrologic processes and associated human influences. In this study, we summarize the development and evaluation of an extensible hydrologic model that explicitly integrates water rights to spatially distribute irrigation waters in a semi-arid agricultural region in the western US, using the Envision integrated modeling platform. The model captures both human and biophysical systems, particularly the diversion of water from the Boise River, which is the main water source that supports irrigated agriculture in this …

Highly Variable Recurrence Of Tsunamis In The 7,400 Years Before The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Charles M. Rubin, Benjamin P. Horton, Kerry Sieh, Jessica E. Pilarczyk, Patrick Daly, Nazli Ismail, Andrew C. Parnell

Faculty Publications

The devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caught millions of coastal residents and the scientific community off-guard. Subsequent research in the Indian Ocean basin has identified prehistoric tsunamis, but the timing and recurrence intervals of such events are uncertain. Here we present an extraordinary 7,400 year stratigraphic sequence of prehistoric tsunami deposits from a coastal cave in Aceh, Indonesia. This record demonstrates that at least 11 prehistoric tsunamis struck the Aceh coast between 7,400 and 2,900 years ago. The average time period between tsunamis is about 450 years with intervals ranging from a long, dormant period of over 2,000 years, to …

Volcanic Initiation Of The Eocene Heart Mountain Slide, Wyoming, Usa, Mark D. Schmitz

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Eocene Heart Mountain slide of northwest Wyoming covers an area of as much as 5000 km² and includes allochthonous Paleozoic carbonate and Eocene volcanic rocks with a run-out distance of as much as 85 km. Recent geochronologic data indicated that the emplacement of the slide event occurred at ∼48.9 Ma, using laser ablation inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) extracted fromU-Pb zircon ages frombasal layer and injectite carbonate ultracataclasite (CUC). We now refine that age with U-Pb results from a lamprophyre diatreme that is temporally and spatially related to the CUC injectites. The ages for the lamprophyre zircons are …

Comparing Distributed Acoustic Sensing To Three-Component Geophones In An Underground Mine, Nikolas Nesladek

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Geophones have become the industry standard for seismic data collection. However, a relatively new method is gaining popularity called Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS). DAS uses changes in backscattered light of a fiber-optic cable to detect strain from acoustic energy. The purpose of this project was to make a direct comparison between DAS and three component geophones, specifically in a mining setting. Experiments were done in the Underground Education Mining Center on the campus of Montana Tech. The sources used for this project were vertical sledgehammer shots, oriented shear sledgehammer shots, and blasting caps set off in both unstemmed and stemmed …

Evidence For Late Pliocene Deglacial Megafloods From Giant Sediment Waves In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Zexuan Wang

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Laurentide Ice Sheet outburst floods to the Gulf of Mexico have been mainly documented based on deep-sea cores, especially the megafloods, only during the last several interglacial episodes in the late Pleistocene. The paleoclimatic significance of giant sedimentary structures developed under unconfined Froude-supercritical turbidity currents in subaqueous settings is considerably under-examined. This research extensively documents >20-km-wide and 200-m-thick Plio-Pleistocene giant sediment waves for the first time on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope using 3D seismic data, which show waveform morphology in unprecedented detail. The results suggest that such large-scale bedforms were formed under sheet-like unconfined Froudesupercritical turbidity currents …

Modeling The Isotopic Evolution Of Snowpack And Snowmelt: Testing A Spatially Distributed Parsimonious Approach, Pertti Ala-Aho, Doerthe Tetzlaff, James P. Mcnamara, Hjalmar Laudon

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Use of stable water isotopes has become increasingly popular in quantifying water flow paths and travel times in hydrological systems using tracer-aided modeling. In snow-influenced catchments, snowmelt produces a traceable isotopic signal, which differs from original snowfall isotopic composition because of isotopic fractionation in the snowpack. These fractionation processes in snow are relatively well understood, but representing their spatiotemporal variability in tracer-aided studies remains a challenge. We present a novel, parsimonious modeling method to account for the snowpack isotope fractionation and estimate isotope ratios in snowmelt water in a fully spatially distributed manner. Our model introduces two calibration parameters that …

Satellite Observation Of Ch4 And Co Anomalies Associated With The Wenchuan Ms 8.0 And Lushan Ms 7.0 Earthquakes In China, Y. Cui, Dimitar Ouzounov, N. Hatzopoulos, K. Sun, Z. Zou, J. Du

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Spatial and temporal variations of total column of CH4 and CO (TotCH4 and TotCO) associated with the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan and 20 April 2013 Lushan earthquakes in western Sichuan, China were investigated using satellite data from AQUA AIRS in order to understand the lithospheric and atmospheric interactions during the seismic activity. The Wenchuan MS 8.0 and Lushan MS7.0 earthquakes occurred in the Longmenshan fault zone. It was observed that large amounts of gases emitted from the earth's crust into the atmosphere before, during and after the earthquakes. The anomalies of TotCH4 and TotCO occurred along the …

Integrated Approach For Sinkhole Evaluation And Evolution Prediction In The Central Ebro Basin (Ne Spain), Oscar Pueyo Anchuela, Andrés Pocoví Juan, Antonio M. Casas Sainz, Javier Gracia Abadias, Carlos L. Liesa Carrera

International Journal of Speleology

Evaluation of karst hazards benefits from the integration of different techniques, methodologies and approaches. Each one presents a different signature and is sensitive to certain indicators related to karst hazards. In some cases, detailed analysis permits the evaluation of representativeness either from isolated approaches or by means of integrated analyses. In this study, we present the evaluation of an area with high density of karstic collapses at different evolutionary stages through the integration of surficial, historical, geomorphological and geophysical data in order to finally define the evolutionary model for karst activity development. The obtained dataset permits to identify different steps …

Aerodynamic Roughness Length Estimation With Lidar And Imaging Spectroscopy In A Shrub-Dominated Dryland, Aihua Li, Wenguang Zhao, Jessica J. Mitchell, Nancy F. Glenn, Matthew J. Germino, Joel B. Sankey, Richard G. Allen

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The aerodynamic roughness length (Z_0m) serves an important role in the flux exchange between the land surface and atmosphere. In this study, airborne lidar (ALS), terrestrial lidar (TLS), and imaging spectroscopy data were integrated to develop and test two approaches to estimate Z_0m over a shrub dominated dryland study area in south-central Idaho, USA. Sensitivity of the two parameterization methods to estimate Z_0m was analyzed. The comparison of eddy covariance-derived Z_0m and remote sensing-derived Z_0m showed that the accuracy of the estimated Z_0m heavily depends on the estimation model and the representation of …

Identifying Irrigated Areas In The Snake River Plain, Idaho: Evaluating Performance Across Composting Algorithms, Spectral Indices, And Sensors, Eric W. Chance, Kelly M. Cobourn, Valerie A. Thomas, Blaine C. Dawson, Alejandro N. Flores

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are pressing concerns about the interplay between agricultural productivity, water demand, and water availability in semi-arid to arid regions of the world. Currently, irrigated agriculture is the dominant water user in these regions and is estimated to consume approximately 80% of the world’s diverted freshwater resources. We develop an improved irrigated land-use mapping algorithm that uses the seasonal maximum value of a spectral index to distinguish between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels in Idaho’s Snake River Plain. We compare this approach to two alternative algorithms that differentiate between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels using spectral index values at a single date …

Recirculation Over Complex Terrain, Eric Kutter, Chuixiang Yi, George Hendrey, Heping Liu, Timothy Eaton, Wenge Ni-Meister

Publications and Research

This study generated eddy covariance data to investigate atmospheric dynamics leeward of a small, forested hillside in upstate New York. The causes and effects of recirculation eddies were examined to support the larger goal of improving measurement of the exchange of energy, moisture, and trace gases between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere over complex terrain. Sensors operated at five different altitudes on two separate towers—one at the top of the hill and one down the slope to the east—for approximately 8 weeks in the spring of 2013. During the experiment, the vertical potential temperature gradient was found to be …

A Decade Of Induced Slip On The Causative Fault Of The 2015 Mw 4.0 Venus Earthquake, Northeast Johnson County, Texas, Monique Maria Scales

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

On 7 May 2015, a M_W 4.0 earthquake occurred near Venus, northeast Johnson County, Texas, in an area of the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin that reports long-term, high-volume wastewater disposal and has hosted felt earthquakes since 2009. Scientists at SMU deployed a local seismic network and purchased nearby seismic reflection data to capture additional events, identify and image the causative fault, and explore potential links between ongoing industry activity and seismicity. Double-difference derived hypocenter relocations of the local earthquake catalog indicate a fault striking ~230^oN, dipping to the west, consistent with a nodal plane of the M …

Gravitational Study Of The Hastings Salt Dome And Associated Faults In Brazoria And Galveston Counties,Texas, Francis C. Okocha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Salt domes are important geological structures because they are potential major hydrocarbon traps and have a profound effect on overlying strata in the subsurface. Over five hundred salt domes have been located on the United States Gulf Coast region, including the Hastings Salt Dome. Hastings Oil Field is located about 40.2 km (25 miles) southeast of Houston, Texas. The Hasting oil field was discovered in 1934 and it was considered the largest oil reserve on the Gulf Coast. Its peak production of 75,000 BOPD (barrels of oil per day) was recorded in 1977 and it had a cumulative production of …

Structural And Stratigraphic Reconstruction Of The Whiting Dome Salt Structure In Viosca Knoll-Mississippi Canyon, Gom, Using 3d Seismic Data, Matthew R. Worrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the complexities of salt tectonics is one of the most important factors regarding seismic interpretation of stratigraphy, structure, and geomorphology in the Gulf of Mexico. Evaluating the processes affecting recent mobilization of salt in the shallow, well-imaged section can help provide analogues for older, similar occurrences in the deeper section, thereby providing structural models for the autochthonous salt and its effect on stratigraphy and even potential timing and migration issues of hydrocarbons.

Progradation of delta front and shelf to slope transitional sediments has expulsed and emplaced an allochthonous salt structure (Whiting Dome) in the Viosca Knoll and Mississippi Canyon …

Characterizing Subsurface Void Spaces And Water Distribution And Flow Patterns In Cave Hill Karst Using Resistivity, Jacob A. Gochenour

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Describing the distribution of groundwater is essential in understanding the evolution of geomorphologic features in karst topography. Electrical resistivity allows us to find a model of subsurface distribution of resistivity that enables the visual recognition of groundwater and void spaces. The purpose of this research is to implement electrical resistivity to describe the spatial relationship of groundwater and karstic features at Grand Caverns National Natural Landmark, Grottoes, Virginia. Two locations of interest, a karstic swale and sinkhole area, were identified for the deployment of electrical resistivity. Both, dipole-dipole and Schlumberger arrays were collected for each deployment. A total of ten …

Bridging The Gap Between The Foreland And Hinterland Ii: Geochronology And Tectonic Setting Of Ordovician Magmatism And Basin Formation On The Laurentian Margin Of New England And Newfoundland, Francis A. Macdonald, Paul M. Karabinos, James L. Crowley, Eben B. Hodgin, Peter W. Crockford, John W. Delano

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ordovician strata of the Mohawk Valley and Taconic allochthon of New York and the Humber margin of Newfoundland record multiple magmatic and basin-forming episodes associated with the Taconic orogeny. Here we present new U-Pb zircon geochronology and whole rock geochemistry and neodymium isotopes from Early Paleozoic volcanic ashes and siliciclastic units on the northern Appalachian margin of Laurentia. Volcanic ashes in the Table Point Formation of Newfoundland and the Indian River Formation of the Taconic allochthon in New York yield dates between 466.16 ± 0.12 and 464.20 ± 0.13 Ma. Red, bioturbated slate of the Indian River Formation record a …

Bridging The Gap Between The Foreland And Hinterland I: Geochronology And Plate Tectonic Geometry Of Ordovician Magmatism And Terrane Accretion On The Laurentian Margin Of New England, Paul M. Karabinos, Francis A. Macdonald, James L. Crowley

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

U-Pb dates on magmatic and detrital zircon from samples in the hinterland of the Taconic orogen place new constraints on the timing and plate tectonic geometry of terrane accretion and magmatic arc activity. The Moretown terrane, a Gondwanan-derived exotic block, extends from the Rowe Schist-Moretown Formation contact in the west to the Bronson Hill arc in the east. Arc-related plutonic and volcanic rocks formed above an east-dipping subduction zone under the western leading edge of the Moretown terrane from approximately 500 to 475 Ma, until collision with hyperextended distal fragments of Laurentia, represented by the Rowe Schist, at 475 Ma. …

Lithospheric Evaluation Of The Mid-Continental Rift System In Iowa From A Gravity And Magnetic Analysis, Moamen Mohamed Almaz

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The Proterozoic Midcontinent Rift System (MCRS) is considered one of the most important tectonic features in North America and was formed during a continental breakup event at 1.1 Ga (billion years). The MCRS is totally covered by Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks except in the Lake Superior region. Consequently, the geological characteristics of the MCRS are primarily inferred from extrapolations from the outcrop areas, drill holes, and from a variety of geophysical investigations. Iowa has a large segment of the MCRS which to date has only been partially investigated geophysically with little information regarding the lower crustal and upper mantle structure under …

Spatio-Temporal History Of Fluid-Rock Interaction In The Hurricane Fault Zone, Jace Michael Koger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Hurricane Fault is a 250-km long, west dipping, active Basin and Range-bounding normal fault in southwest Utah and northwest Arizona. There are multiple known hot springs along its 250-km length and multiple late Tertiary-Quaternary basaltic centers that broadly parallel the fault. Possible sources of hot spring fluids include deeply circulated meteoric water that experienced water-rock exchange at high temperatures (>100 °C) and deep-seated crustal fluids. Abundant damage zone veins, cements, and host rock alteration are present along strike, indicative of past fluid flow. Carbonate veins and cements are key features of the Hurricane Fault zone, and the primary …

Classifying Microseismicty At Mount St. Helens Using A Large-N Array, Margaret E. Glasgow

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

A dense array of ~1,000 continuously recording, short-period geophones was deployed in the summer of 2014 within ~15 km of Mount St. Helens. Two earthquake catalogs created using reverse time imaging and template detection techniques, increase the detection rate and completeness of the earthquake catalog when compared to the permanent network, Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, catalog. An investigation into event type for ~200 of the earthquake detections leads to the discrimination of two major classification groups, volcano-tectonic and long period. Previous to this study, long period earthquakes had not been identified in the upper crust during a volcanically inactive period …

Inference Of Soil Hydrologic Parameters From Electronic Soil Moisture Records, David G. Chandler, Mark S. Seyfried, James P. Mcnamara, Kyotaek Hwang

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soil moisture is an important control on hydrologic function, as it governs vertical fluxes from and to the atmosphere, groundwater recharge, and lateral fluxes through the soil. Historically, the traditional model parameters of saturation, field capacity, and permanent wilting point have been determined by laboratory methods. This approach is challenged by issues of scale, boundary conditions, and soil disturbance. We develop and compare four methods to determine values of field saturation, field capacity, plant extraction limit (PEL), and initiation of plant water stress from long term in-situ monitoring records of TDR-measured volumetric water content (Θ). The monitoring sites represent a …

Quantitative River Profile Analysis To Investigate Exhumation Of The Siwalik Foreland Basin, Nepalese Himalaya, Indu Bhattarai

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Nepalese Himalaya, one of the most active regions within the Himalayan Mountain belt, is characterized by a thick succession of Miocene age Siwalik sedimentary rocks deposited at its foreland basin. To date, much of its tectonic evolution, including exhumation in the Nepalese Siwalik, is poorly understood. This study of a quantitative analysis of the bedrock river parameters should provide crucial information regarding tectonic activities in the area. The study investigated geomorphic parameters of river longitudinal profiles from 54 watersheds within the Siwalik section of the Nepalese Himalaya, for the first time. A total of 140 bedrock rivers from these …

Assessing Seasonal And Spatial Variability In The Hydrogeochemistry Of Glacial Meltwater In Iceland, Anisha Tuladhar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A detailed comparative geochemical characterization of three different types of Iceland glacial systems was conducted during June, August, and October, 2016. The study was carried out at a total of 11 outlet glacier rivers flowing from the icecaps Vatnajökull, Eyjafjallajökull, and Mýrdalsjökull. A total of 75 grab samples were collected (25 for each sampling period). The hydrogeochemical variations of Icelandic glacial meltwater are influenced by volcanic activity, temporal changes, and geographical location, which differed between the sampling sites within the glaciers and icecaps. Lower pH range, and comparatively higher and variable specific conductivity, SO4, S and F is linked to …

Synoptic Atmospheric Conditions, Land Cover, And Equivalent Temperature Variations In Kentucky, Dorothy Yemaa Na-Yemeh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has demonstrated that equivalent temperature (T_E), which incorporates both the surface air temperature (T) and moist heat content associated with atmospheric moisture, is a better indicator of overall heat content. This thesis follows up on a study that used T_E to determine the impacts of land use/land cover and air masses on the atmospheric heat content over Kentucky during the growing season (April-September). The study, which used data from the Kentucky Mesonet, reveals that moist weather types dominate the growing season and, as expected, differences between T and T_E are smaller under dry atmospheric conditions …

Gravity And Passive Seismic Methods Used Jointly For Understanding The Subsurface In A Glaciated Terrain: Dowling And Maple Grove Quadrangles, Barry County, Michigan, Scott A. Feldpausch

Masters Theses

The Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) passive, single sensor seismic technique has been used together with gravimetry to study the topography hidden below the glacial drift of two 7.5’ quadrangles in Barry Co., MI. 265 stations were observed with both instruments along roads at nominal spacings of about 0.4 to 0.8 km. Occasional water wells and oil wells with documented penetrations of the base of glacial were used to calibrate the local power law regression calibration. This was also compared with the statewide calibration curve previously established. Results are presented as maps of Simple Bouguer Anomaly, Residual Bouguer Anomaly, …

Controls On Fracture Network Characteristics Of The Middle Member Of The Bakken Formation, Elm Coulee Field, Williston Basin, Usa, Shashank Khatri

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

The Bakken formation in the Elm Coulee Field of the Williston Basin consists of three members: 1) upper shale member, 2) middle silty dolostone member, and 3) lower shale member. The upper and lower members act as excellent source rocks and the main reservoir is the middle member with an average porosity of 3 to 9% and average permeability of 0.04md. The Bakken oil play in this area is a stratigraphic trap with a pinch-out to the southwest and a diagenetic facies change in the northeast. The main production is interpreted to come from matrix permeability in the field area. …