Stratigraphy Commons^™

Diffendal Receives Wisherd Award For University Service, Ronica Stromberg

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Even though he’s retired, Robert Diffendal seems to be working everywhere.

The professor emeritus in the School of Natural Resources retains offices in three buildings. He reports to work at the Center for Great Plains Studies five days a week for about four hours a day. His list of volunteer activities around the state goes on and on, affecting, by his count, 21,088 people since 2003, when he stepped away from full-time faculty work. He capped 2024 at Nebraska Innovation Campus, where he received the Wisherd Award for Outstanding Service to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Chosen by the Emeriti and …

Temporal Scales Of Sediment Accumulation, Mass Wasting, And Stratigraphy Across The Mississippi River Delta Front, Jeffrey E. Duxbury

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River Delta Front (MRDF) is a subaqueous apron of rapidly deposited, weakly

consolidated sediment extending from the subaerial portions of the Mississippi River’s Birdsfoot Delta, historically known for sediment transport via mass wasting. To better understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of processes influencing the MRDF, 29 cores ranging from 5.8 to 8.71 meters in length were collected from the South Pass (SP) and Southwest Passes (SWP). These cores targeted specific depositional environments, including the undisturbed topset apron, medial mudflow gully, mudflow lobe, and prodelta. The cores were analyzed along their full lengths for gamma density, grain size, …

Sedimentary Archives Of Late Quaternary Limnological, Ecological, And Environmental Change In The Eastern Sierra Nevada (California, Usa), Bailee Hodelka

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Sierra Nevada essentially serve as the headwaters of California, providing crucial freshwater to the state through seasonal snowmelt. This water supply is threatened by climate change in complex ways that are not fully understood. Geological records provide a valuable source of information on how the hydrology, limnology, and ecology of the Sierra Nevada region has responded to climate changes of the past. This dissertation presents new sedimentary and paleoecological research from Mono Lake and Convict Lake (Mono County, California) and aims to shed light on environmental changes in the eastern Sierra Nevada from ~16 ka to present.

At Mono …

Stratigraphy And Osl Chronology Of Lunette Deposits Indicates That Nebraska’S Rainwater Basins Formed By Aeolian Deflation Between 39 And 25 Ka, P.R. Hanson, Robert Matthew Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Early Holocene Interaction Of Aeolian, Alluvial, And Lacustrine Processes In A Dune-Dammed Valley In The Central Nebraska Sand Hills, Gpsia Mahoney, R. D. Mandel, P.R. Hanson, Sherilyn Fritz

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Geochemical And Sedimentological Signals Of Bottom Water Oxygen Dynamics From Lake Tanganyika (Zambia), Njahi Mwangala

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Lake Tanganyika is a large, ancient freshwater body with exceptional biodiversity that is located in the East African Rift System. Lake Tanganyika’s size and longevity make its sedimentary record useful for understanding environmental changes that cross spatial and temporal boundaries. Lake Tanganyika is known to be susceptible to global warming given its tropical location. Over 12 million people living within Lake Tanganyika’s watershed rely on fishing for their income and nutrition. Changes to limnological function driven by climate could therefore have serious implications for human health and biodiversity conservation. This study focuses on using geochemical properties of modern lake bottom …

Late Holocene Paleolimnology Of Lake Tanganyika (East Africa), Leandro Domingos Luz

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Understanding the long-term responses of ecosystems to climate variability is crucial for predicting and mitigating future changes in the Afrotropics, a region where a significant portion of the population is highly vulnerable to extreme climatic events. Lake Tanganyika, the largest rift lake in East Africa, offers a unique sedimentary archive that can be used to investigate the limnological changes, hydroclimatic shifts, and vegetation dynamics across various timescales. A multi-proxy approach was employed to assess the landscape responses to hydroclimatic fluctuations in the Late Holocene, integrating paleoenvironmental records from radiocarbon-dated sediment cores. This approach involved sedimentology, mineralogy, geochemistry, phytolith analysis, and …

Geochemical Assessment Of Sediment Flux In A Sediment Core From A Tidal Flat In A Tropical Estuary, Olumide Ajulo

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Sediment flux in estuaries is influenced by both natural processes and anthropogenic activities. Understanding the historical and current trends in sediment flux inputs and geochemical composition are essential for evaluating the estuary’s response to natural and human-induced changes and for developing effective environmental management strategies. The tropical Wouri Estuary in Cameroon receives water and sediment inputs from three main rivers draining urban, industrial, and agricultural areas, as well as different rock terrains. The complex inputs into the estuary can significantly affect sediment flux, consequently impacting the ecosystem. Thereby making an understanding of the temporal variations in sediment inputs in the …

Hydrogeochemical Characterization Of The Ahtanum Alluvial Fan For Managed Aquifer Recharge, Yakima Basin, Washington, Brook M. Bauer

All Master's Theses

Overallocation of water resources in the Yakima River Basin, central Washington, has prompted investigation into facilitated aquifer recharge to enhance water supply during drought as part of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (YBIP). This study evaluates and characterizes the recharge potential of the Ahtanum Creek alluvial fan within the lower Ahtanum Sub-Basin by integrating geologic, hydraulic, and geochemical data.

Four main hydrogeologic units (unconsolidated, semi-consolidated, consolidated basin-fill deposits, and Columbia River Basalt aquifers) were identified from stratigraphic analysis of well logs across seven transects spanning the active fan and abandoned alluvial terrace portions of the alluvial fan study area. Stable …

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 …

Conservation And Survey Division 2024 Annual Report, R.M. Joeckel, Michele Waszgis

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln is the agency designated by statute to investigate and interpret the geologically related natural resources of the State, to make available to the public the results of these investigations, and to assist in the development and conservation of these resources. It consists of program areas in geology, water, soils and remote sensing-geographic information systems.

Visualization Of Paleocurrents On A Web Application Using Gplates, Anjan Sapkota

MS in Computer Science Theses

Paleocurrents are flow directions derived from features of sedimentary rocks that reveal the direction of the current of wind or water that deposited the sediment. In 2015, Brand et al. created a global database of paleocurrents, which contains over 1,000,000 measurements worldwide: North America, South America, Australia, Great Britain, parts of Western Europe, China, Africa are fairly well represented; Antarctica, Eastern Europe, and Asia are modestly represented and Russia is poorly represented. The contribution of this thesis is a web application that uses the GPlates’ Application Programming Interface (API) to visualize global paleocurrents through time in an interactive way based …

New Constraints On The Stratigraphic Architecture And Evolution Of Mississippi River Delta Lobe Activity: Barataria Basin, Southeastern La, Wilke Coleman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Barataria Basin is a shallow water, interdistributary estuary that has evolved in response to dynamic depositional regimes governed by distributary avulsion and reworking of sediments by coastal processes. In the Mississippi River delta plain, the migratory nature of the River has produced an evolving landscape constructed through episodes of regressive and transgressive sedimentation. These processes produce unique depositional signatures in the stratigraphic record, however the transgressive component of the delta cycle often results in obliteration of the regressive phase. This study uses a modern suite of geophysical and sediment core data to construct a revised geologic framework in Barataria Basin, …

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 …

Glacial Erosion Rates From The Last Glacial Maximum To Present In Southern Patagonia (50°S), Anastasia Fedotova

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, the notion of exogenic processes (e.g. weathering, erosion) contributing to mountain building rather than destruction has become increasingly supported through both direct observations and modeling. As a result, the details of the link between erosion, and therefore climate, and the tectonic evolution of mountain ranges, have progressively become established. One of the key observations emerging from the climate-tectonic debate has been the role of glaciers as powerful landscape sculptors, sensitive to climate signals. The reconstruction of glacial environments evolution and the recovery of patterns of glacial erosion over time have proven key to understanding feedbacks …

Polygenetic Cave Sedimentation And Speleogenesis In The Mccloud Limestone Of Northern California, Niles Lathrop

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Caves in the Permian-aged, McCloud Limestone of the Klamath Mountains of Northern California preserve a diverse range of clastic sediments that represent broad-scale variations in paleo-hydrologic conditions and transport mechanisms that hint at varied modes of speleogenesis through local landscape development. Caves in the McCloud Limestone exhibit a range of cave passage geometries and arrangements that suggests periods of both hypogene and epigene cave development through temporal and spatial scales. This study evaluates the variability in the distribution, mineralogy, and transport mechanisms of clastic-cave sediments in seven hydrologically-distinct caves in the McCloud Limestone to establish relationships between clastic-cave sedimentation and …

Theory Of An Automatic Seepage Meter And Ramifications For Applications, V. A. Zlotnik, D. K. Solomon, D. P. Genereux, T. E. Gilmore, C. E. Humphrey, A. R. Mittelstet, A. V. Zlotnik

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

Investigating Gulf Coast Aquifer System: Stratigraphy Reconstruction, Inverse Modeling, And Groundwater Stress Assessment, Shuo Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi Embayment aquifer system (MEAS) and the Coastal Lowlands aquifer system (CLAS) provide substantial groundwater resources for human activities in the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain. However, the overexploitation has led to groundwater depletion in the MEAS and the CLAS, threatening sustainable groundwater use. Such concern highlights the crucial need for an advanced understanding of stratigraphy and groundwater in these aquifer systems, which is essential for effective regional groundwater management. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation of MEAS and CLAS in the Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi region, encompassing three fundamental dimensions: stratigraphy reconstruction, groundwater modeling, and groundwater stress assessments. A …

Lower Bound On Preserved Flood Duration In Fluvial Bedform Stratigraphy (Experimental Dataset), Robert C. Mahon, Vamsi Ganti, Madeline M. Kelley, Debsmita Das, Victoria Sanchez, Giancarlo Portocarrero, Mayson Fredricks

Lower Bound on Preserved Flood Duration in Fluvial Bedform Stratigraphy (experimental dataset)

This data is collected to assess the role of hydrograph timescale relative to dune migration on the preservation of cross sets in the stratigraphic record. The data presented here are of dune evolution under steady-state conditions, as well as three hydrographs of the same magnitude but varying timescales.

Methodology:

We collected data from four experiments tracking bedform evolution in a 22-m-long, 0.56-m-wide, 0.9-m-deep flume at the University of New Orleans Dynamics of Sedimentation laboratory. We conducted an equilibrium experiment (discharge value 0.027 m3/s) and three flood experiments, which were characterized by a symmetrical flood wave. In all flood experiments, the …

Stage And Discharge Prediction From Documentary Time-Lapse Imagery, Kenneth W. Chapman, Troy E. Gilmore, Mehrube Mehrubeoglu, Christian D. Chapman, Aaron R. Mittelstet, John E. Stranzl Jr.

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Imagery from fixed, ground-based cameras is rich in qualitative and quantitative information that can improve stream discharge monitoring. For instance, time-lapse imagery may be valuable for filling data gaps when sensors fail and/or during lapses in funding for monitoring programs. In this study, we used a large image archive (>40,000 images from 2012 to 2019) from a fixed, ground-based camera that is part of a documentary watershed imaging project (https://plattebasintimelapse.com/). Scalar image features were extracted from daylight images taken at one-hour intervals. The image features were fused with United States Geological Survey stage and discharge data as response variables …

Analysis Of Legacy Gravity Data Reveals Sediment-Filled Troughs Buried Under Flathead Valley, Montana, Usa, Ali Gebril, Mohamed A. Khalil, Robert Matthew Joeckel, James Rose

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Shallow, dominantly silt- and clay-filled erosional troughs in Quaternary sediments under the Flathead Valley (northwestern Montana, USA) are very likely to be hydraulic barriers limiting the horizontal flow of groundwater. Accurately mapping them is important because of increasing demand for groundwater.We used a legacy Bouguer gravity map measured in 1968. The directional derivatives of the map are computed, and the map was enhanced by implementing edge detection tools.We produced generalized derivative, maximum horizontal gradient, total gradient and tilt gradient maps through two-dimensional Fourier transform analysis. These maps were remarkably successful in locating buried troughs in the northern and northwestern parts …

Joint Interpretation Of Ert And Self-Potential Data To Characterize The Subsurface Geology And Hydrodynamics Along The Sutherland Supply Canal And Paxton Siphon Inlet, Paxton, Nebraska., M. K. Aboushanab, D. R. Hallum, R. M. Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Leveraging High Resolution Classifications And Random Forests For Hindcasting Decades Of Mesic Ecosystem Dynamics In The Landsat Time Series, N. E. Kolarik, Nawaraj Shrestha, T. Caughlin, J. S. Brandt

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2023, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Nawaraj Shrestha, Jeffrey Westrop

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

This report is a synthesis of groundwater-level monitoring programs in Nebraska. It is a continuation of the series of annual reports and maps produced by the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) of the University of Nebraska in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the 1950s. Groundwater-level monitoring began in Nebraska in 1930 to survey the state’s groundwater resources and observe changes in its availability on a regular basis. The CSD and USGS cooperatively developed, maintained, and operated an observation-well network throughout the state. These two agencies were responsible for collecting and archiving this information, and for making it …

Transient Electromagnetic (Tem) Survey For Targeted Drilling On The Kurtzhals Property, Cedar County, Nebraska, Jesse Korus, Katherine (Katie) Cameron, Michele Waszgis

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The Kurtzhals property is in Section 19, Township 30N, Range 3 in Cedar County, Nebraska. The present land use is agricultural row crop, but past use included hog production. Two active irrigation wells are located on adjacent properties to the west and southwest. An irrigation well was installed in the northwest corner of the property in 2022. Due to the low yield (300 gallons per minute) of this well, Mr. Kurtzhals seeks to install an additional irrigation well to supplement the first. Several unsuccessful test holes had been drilled prior to the present survey. The purpose of this survey was …

Zircon Luminescence Dating Re-Visited, C. Schmidt, T. Halter, P.R. Hanson, A. Ulianov, B. Putlitz, G. E. King, S. Kreutzer

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Age Dating Young Groundwater: How To Determine Groundwater Age From Environmental Tracer Data, D. K. Solomon, T. E. Gilmore

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Recent Paleolimnological History Of Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (Usa), Hillary Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

This study utilizes a recently acquired, high-resolution CHIRP seismic reflection dataset and a deepwater sediment core to analyze the recent stratigraphy of Jackson Lake (Wyoming, USA). The western shoreline of Jackson Lake is situated adjacent to the Teton fault, a down-to-the-east normal fault that produces the spectacular high topography of Grand Teton National Park. The sediments of Jackson Lake are underexplored and consequently, their value as indicators of hydroclimatic and tectonic changes is unknown. Here, the sedimentary fill of Jackson Lake is explored as a natural archive of environmental change, specifically in reference to the influence of human outlet engineering …

High Resolution Sedimentary Investigations Of Extant Lakes In North America, John Dilworth

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Investigation of past lake environments forms the discipline of paleolimnology. Paleolimnological studies seek to evaluate geophysical, geochemical, and ecological proxies and indicators contained within lake sediment archives. Using these potential stores of high-resolution environmental information, questions regarding climate, biological, and geochemical changes experienced by a lake and its watershed can be investigated. This dissertation research utilized lake sediment records from two lakes within North America to study different aspects of environmental change. This dissertation consists of three separate studies presented in three chapters.

Chapter Two presents a retrospective environmental assessment of Jackson Lake, Wyoming to investigate the impacts of dam …