Stratigraphy Commons^™

The Petm: A Window Into Earth's Future Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is not just an event that occurred in Earth’s distant past (~55 million years ago) but is a crucial lesson for today’s meteoric climate change. The PETM offers a historical parallel of rapid flux of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that caused global warming, ocean acidification, dramatic changes in weather, and extinctions. This global warming event was the result of 20,000 years of “rapid” warming (in geological terms) however, we are experiencing rates of warming that are 5-10x higher than PETM levels. We are not experiencing rapid warming today, in comparison to the past, we …

Evaluation Of Practical Methods To Determine If A Karst Creek Is Gaining Or Losing: Case Study Of Leith Creek, Elizabeth Jones

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Karst landscapes are abundant in Missouri, with features such as caves, springs, and sinkholes that form through the dissolution of limestone. Leith Creek is a small stream in Polk County, Missouri fed by two springs and the shallow unconfined Springfield Plateau aquifer, a highly karstified aquifer which is made up of limestone and minor interbedded shale-mudstone units. To determine if Leith Creek is gaining or losing, stream flow, water chemistry and temperature sensors were monitored. Stream flow results required multiple visits to take measurements while temperature sensors required two visits, one to install the dataloggers and another to remove the …

Sedimentary Characteristics Of Flood Deposits In Coastal And Fluvial Environments: Examples From Washover Fans (North Carolina, Usa) And Floodplain Deposits (Mississippi, Usa), Shara Gremillion

Dissertations

Extreme flooding from severe and prolonged meteorological events and / or overbanking rivers are some of the most deadly and expensive disasters globally, impacting millions of lives, the environment, and property. People living in vulnerable areas, such as near coasts and rivers, are the first to be impacted with effects of these flood hazards. Scientific studies and their results can aid communities and officials in planning and preparing for those flood impacts. In this three-part study, flood impacts from coastal storms in North Carolina, and flooding along the Mississippi River (MSR) in the state of Mississippi, USA are assessed from …

Applied Depositional Geosystems Of The Coos Bay Basin, Oregon: Organic Geochemistry, Maturation, Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction And Biostratigraphy Of The Coaledo Delta During The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (Meco), Allison K. Barbato

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Coos Bay Basin on the southwestern coast of Oregon is a forearc basin that contains exceptionally preserved Eocene to Miocene, tidal to wave-dominated, shallow deltaic to deep marine sediments of the Coaledo Delta. Coastal depositional environments are known to host source, reservoir, and seal rocks. Climate, topographic relief, and geographical position all play an important role in regional vegetation development and oceanic setting. This study assesses 84 outcrop and 12 core samples from Coos Bay for their organic geochemical characteristics and microfossil assemblage to provide source rock characterization information, organofacies descriptions, environmental reconstructions, and age control.

Results indicate the …

Diversity – Independent Factors Predict Elevated Extinction Rates, Dustin Perriguey, Corinne Myers, Jason Moore, Louis Scuderi

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Multiple linear regression was used to determine the relationships between diversity-independent factors (i.e., abiotic, climatic) 2, 5, and 10 Myrs-prior to the most elevated Phanerozoic extinctions. We constructed five abiotic variables from Phanerozoic proxy records1–5 to compare to extinction rates: mean temperature, temperature instability, carbon cycle instability, continental weathering rates, and habitat instability. All three models were statistically significant (P < 0.05) and explained > 70% of the variation in Alroy’s6 three-timer generic extinction rates. However, the 2 Myr-prior model explained the most variance in extinction rates and had the most predictive power, based on adjusted and predictive R2 (~ 72% and 41%, respectively). Carbon …

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Of Quaternary Saltville, Virginia, Using Ostracode Autecology, Austin Gause

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Saltville valley in southwestern Virginia is home to Quaternary localities containing paleontological and archaeological remains. Historically the valley has been mined for salt and the small lakes, ponds and springs along the valley floor have a brackish signature. A preliminary report on the site’s ostracode fauna suggested that the site’s water was not always saline. This study analyzed modern and Quaternary ostracodes to understand the valley’s hydrologic and chemical evolution. Sediments contained primarily freshwater species, including the environmentally sensitive Candona crogmaniana. The presence of Pelocypris tuberculatum and a new Fabaeformiscandona species throughout a vertical section spanning the latest Pleistocene …

Rockhounding, Seafaring, And Other Material Tales For The End Of The World, Noemie Fortin

The Goose

In the face of accelerated environmental degradation and climate instability, the future of the Earth and of all life on earth is difficult to visualize. Therefore, the different mediums through which we consider environmental issues are just as important as the actions we take to address them. Focusing on three projects combining art, science, and activism, this article suggests a compilation of material tales. They tell stories of plastic rocks and aluminum nuggets where the protagonists are partly finely crafted objects, partly waste materials, and sometimes both at once. Artists Kelly Jazvac, Yesenia Thibeault-Picazo, and the collective Studio Swine collaborate …

Regional Stratigraphy And Distribution Of The Coastal Group, St. Elizabeth Parish, Southwestern Jamaica, Brett M. Kenning

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This contribution examines the characteristics and ages of sedimentary units in the Coastal Group located along the southwestern Jamaica coast between Great Pedro Bluff and Fort Charles Bay in southwestern St. Elizabeth Parish. The coastline is characterized by laterally discontinuous low cliff exposures, separated by modern beach deposits and tectonically raised shore platforms composed of the White Limestone Group (mid-Eocene to mid-Miocene) and coral rudstone to floatstone and calcareous sandstone of the Coastal Group (late Pleistocene). Electron-Spin Resonance spectroscopy conducted on corals collected from a coral rudstone to floatstone facies yielded an estimated age of 120 ka. The coral facies …

Determining The Viability Of Recent Storms As Modern Analogues For North-Central Gulf Of Mexico Paleotempestology Through Sedimentary Analysis And Storm Surge Reconstruction, Joshua Caleb Bregy

Master's Theses

The northern Gulf of Mexico has been devastated by recent intense storms. Camille (1969) and Katrina (2005) are two notable hurricanes that made landfall in virtually the same location in Mississippi. However, fully understanding the risks and processes associated with hurricane impacts is impeded by a short and fragmented instrumental record. Paleotempestology could potentially use modern analogues from intense storms in this region to extend the hurricane record back to pre-observational time. Existing empirically based models can back-calculate surge heights over coastal systems as a function of transport distance, particle settling velocity, and gravitational acceleration. We collected cores in a …

Testing Of The Late-Ordovician Pre-Gice Warm Water Carbonate Hypothesis In Alabama, Brandon Euker, Stacey Law

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The Guttenberg Carbon Isotope Excursion (GICE) (uppermost Sandbian-lower Katian, Late Ordovician) has been suggested to represent the transition from a Cambrian-Ordovician greenhouse world to Late Ordovician icehouse world. This transition is thought to coincide with a proposed shift from deposition of warm water carbonate rocks to cool water carbonate rocks in the North American midcontinent. We used oxygen isotopes (d¹⁸O) of conodonts to test the idea that the rocks below the GICE interval represent a consistently warm environment. Conodonts were isolated from samples of the Chickamauga Group collected at the Tidwell Hollow section in Blount County, AL, from …

Origin And Paleoclimatic Significance Of Late Quaternary Loess In Nebraska: Evidence From Stratigraphy, Chronology, Sedimentology, And Geochemistry, Daniel R. Muhs, E. Arthur Bettis Iii, John N. Aleinikoff, John P. Mcgeehin, Jossh Beann, Gary Skipp, Brian D. Marshall, Helen M. Roberts, William C. Johnson, Rachel Benton

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess is one of the most extensive surficial geologic deposits in mid-continental North America, particularly in the central Great Plains region of Nebraska. Last-glacial-age loess (Peoria Loess) reaches its greatest known thickness in the world in this area. New stratigraphic, geochronologic, mineralogic, and geochemical data yield information about the age and provenance of Peoria Loess, as well as evaluation of recent climate models.

Probable Glacial Climatic Conditions In Source Areas During Deposition Of Parts Of The Ash Hollow Formation, Ogallala Group (Late Tertiary), Of Western Nebraska, Patricia E. Helland, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Evidence of the climatic conditions in the mountain sediment source areas for the late Tertiary Ash Hollow Formation of the Ogallala Group in western Nebraska has been sought in an SEM (scanning electron microscope) study of surface features on detrital quartz grains from these deposits. The following lines of indirect evidence raised the possibility of glacial conditions: uplift of up to 3500 m in the source areas, paleohydrologic parameters indicative of a transport system analogous to the modern North Saskatchewan River, and possible cold climate surface features on cobbles from the deposits. SEM analysis shows that five of the nine …

Ua94/6/2/14 Physiography Notebook, Annie Reis

Student/Alumni Personal Papers

Physiography notebook kept by student Annie Reis in 1910. Notebook includes notes and drawings related to physical geography such as solar systems, rivers, faults, weather and glaciers.