Geology Commons^™

Temperature And Pressure Sensing In Three Flooded Underground Mine Workings In Butte, Montana, Usa, Tyler Hagan

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Temperature and pressure were measured in several flooded underground mine shafts in order to assess the potential for the development of additional mine-based geothermal heating in Butte, Montana, USA. Temperature was sensed using both optical fibers, functioning as a distributed sensor, and thermistors, functioning as point sensors; while pressure was sensed using a piezoresistive strain gauge. Upon observing good agreement between the continuous and discrete temperature sensors, we found no significant change in temperature with increasing depth within the water column. This suggests the thorough transfer of heat throughout the mine shaft via convection. Moreover, we found water temperature (T) …

Development And Application Of A Method For Unwrapping Single Images Of Cylindrical Objects, Aaron Zosel

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The goal of this project was to create a software tool to unwrap digital images of cylindrical rock cores and also to create a tool to measure the accuracy of the unwrapping transform.

Measurements of an object can be taken directly from an image if the object is planar and the image plane of the camera is perpendicular to the object. If these conditions are met then picture scale allows a user to relate measurements in the image to a real world coordinate system after correcting for radial distortion. But if the object in the image is not planar or …

Origin Of Enigmatic Rocks Located North Of The Stillwater Complex, Montana, M. Christopher Jenkins, Jennifer A. Thomson, Michael L. Zientek

Geology Student Works

The Stillwater Complex is an Archean layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion located in southwestern

Montana. The complex hosts a platinum-group element ore deposit — the J-M Reef. Recent geophysical data collected by the USGS from an area to the north of the Stillwater complex suggests that the complex continues at depth under cover. The northern exposure of Precambrian rock is not the complex but some enigmatic amphibolites. During the 2013 and 2014 field seasons, eight samples were collected from this Precambrian (?) lower-amphibolite to greenschist-facies metamorphic rock unit located approximately 2 kilometers north of the complex. Vail (1955) described the unit as …

The Origin Of Xenoliths With Cumulus Textures Found Above The Subsurface Extension Of The Stillwater Complex, Montana, Cassandra K. Hennings, Jennifer A. Thomson, Michael L. Zientek

Geology Student Works

The Archean Stillwater Complex is a large layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion (LMI) exposed in the

Beartooth Mountains of south-central Montana. Gravity measurements suggest that the north-dipping complex extends under cover at depth. Some of the exposures located above the subsurface Stillwater Complex are younger Cretaceous stocks (Susie Peak and Sliderock Mountain stocks), diorite sills and andesite dikes, exposed north of the complex, passed through area of the gravity anomaly that may be the Stillwater Complex. In the summer of 2013, samples of the stocks and their included xenoliths (foreign rock fragments; commonly metamorphosed to greenschist facies conditions) were collected for study. …

Active Salt Deformation And Rapid, Transient Incision Along The Colorado River Near Moab, Utah, Andrew P. Jochems, Joel L. Pederson

Geosciences Faculty Publications

In certain settings, erosion is driven by and balanced with tectonic uplift, but the evolution of many landscapes is dominated by other factors such as geologic substrate, drainage history, and transient incision. The Colorado Plateau is an example where these controls are debated and where salt deformation is hypothesized to be locally active and driven by differential unloading, although this is unconfirmed and unquantified in most places. We use luminescence-dated Colorado River terraces upstream of Moab, Utah, to quantify rates of salt-driven subsidence and uplift at the local scale. Active deformation in the study area is also supported by patterns …

Chitinozoan Biodiversity In The Ordovician Of Gondwana: An Interval-Free Approach Using The Quantitative Stratigraphic Correlation Program Conop9, Rachel Sales

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the biodiversity patterns of a group of fossil organisms called chitinozoans. Chitinozoans are organic-walled, planktonic microfossils that first appear in the Early Ordovician Period (488 million years ago) and diversify rapidly through the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician Period was a time of great global climate change, and by studying this group of fossil plankton, we hope to better understand how modern plankton, which are the base of the marine food chain, might respond to climate change. We used a method called constrained optimization (CONOP9) to construct a composite range chart of 152 …

Peralkaline Felsic Magmatism At The Nemrut Volcano, Turkey: Impact Of Volcanism On The Evolution Of Lake Van (Anatolia), Ray Macdonald, Mari Sumita, Hans-Ulrich Schmincke, Boguslaw Baginski, John C. White, Slawomir S. Ilnicki

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Nemrut volcano, adjacent to Lake Van (Turkey), is one of the most important peralkaline silicic centres in the world, where magmatism for ~570,000 years has been dominated by peralkaline trachytes and rhyolites. Using onshore and Lake Van drill site tephra samples, we document the phenocryst and glass matrix compositions, confirming a complete spectrum from very rare mafic to dominantly silicic magmas. Magma mixing has been common and, along with the multi-lineage nature of the magmas, indicates that Nemrut has been a very open system where, nevertheless, compositionally zoned caps developed during periods of relative eruptive quiescence. Geothermometry suggests that the …

Azimuthal Anisotropy Beneath North Central Africa From Shear Wave Splitting Analyses, Awad A. Lemnifi, Kelly H. Liu, Stephen S. Gao, Cory A. Reed, Ahmed A. Elsheikh, Youqiang Yu, Abdala A. Elmelade

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study represents the first multistation investigation of azimuthal anisotropy beneath the interior of north central Africa, including Libya and adjacent regions, using shear wave splitting (SWS) analysis. Data used in the study include recently available broadband seismic data obtained from 15 stations managed by the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science, and those from five other stations at which data are publicly accessible. A total of 583 pairs of high-quality SWS measurements utilizing the PKS, SKKS, and SKS phases demonstrate primarily N-S fast orientations with an average splitting delay time of approximately 1.2 s. An absence of …

Temporal Variations Of Atmospheric Depositional Fluxes Of 7be And 210pb Over 8 Years (2006–2013) At Shanghai, China, And Synthesis Of Global Fallout Data, Juan Du, Jinzhou Du, Mark Baskaran, Qianqian Bi, Dekun Huang, Yifei Jiang

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

7Be and 210Pb, two atmospherically delivered radionuclides, have been broadly applied to study the processes including air mass transport, soil erosion, and particle cycling in aqueous systems. These studies require temporal variations of their depositional fluxes. In the present work, monthly atmospheric bulk depositional fluxes of 7Be and 210Pb were measured over 8 years (December 2005 to December 2013) at Shanghai, China. The bulk depositional fluxes of 7Be and 210Pb varied from 17.9 to 421 Bq m−2 month−1 and 6.8 to 82.1 Bq m−2 month−1, respectively. The volume‐weighted activities ranged from 0.20 to 8.06 Bq L−1 for 7Be and 0.05 …

Geomorphology: Changing The Scholarly Sources Landscape With Geology Students, Heidi Blackburn, Ashlee L. Dere

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Find out how we changed the landscape for geology students from a popular sources wasteland to a lush garden of scholarly sources through a library instruction intervention. Data from before and after the library instruction will be shared, showing student growth from Wikipedia in first drafts to meeting ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Science through the use of scholarly sources in the final paper. The library instruction activity, learning outcomes, and assessment components are included.

Morphodynamics Of Mullet Key, West-Central Florida, Emeli Sandoval

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mullet Key is a right angle barrier island located at the mouth of Tampa Bay, west-central Florida. Based on historical shoreline data from 1873, the Gulf (west)-facing section of the beach has been dynamic illustrating large beach advances and retreats of up to 500 m on a decadal scale, while the south (channel)-facing section of the beach has shown to maintain a stable shoreline. This study focuses on the morphodynamics of the Gulf-facing beach. Since the 1920s, most of the Gulf-facing beach has been accreting except at the southern end near the Tampa Bay main channel. However, over the past …

The Speleogenesis Of Vallgornera Cave (Mallorca, Spain): A Mineralogical And Morphological Study, Jacqueline Amelia Diehl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cova des Pas de Vallgornera (CPV) is morphologically and scientifically, the most prominent karst feature of Mallorca Island (Spain). It consists of over 74 km of passages developed within two carbonate lithologies (reef front and back reef facies) of Upper Miocene age. Two distinct cave patterns are recognized, both tightly controlled by the type of facies; spongework mazes and collapse chambers are characteristic for the reef front unit, whereas linear, fracture-guided galleries develop in the back reef carbonates. CPV is abundantly decorated with a variety of speleothems.

The overarching goal of this study is to provide evidence towards the cave's …

Natural And Anthropogenic Processes Contributing To Metal Enrichment In Surface Soils Of Central Pennsylvania, A. M.L. Kraepiel, Ashlee L.D. Dere, E. M. Herndon, Susan L. Brantley

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

Metals in soils may positively or negatively affect plants as well as soil micro-organisms and mesofauna, depending on their abundance and bioavailability. Atmospheric deposition and biological uplift commonly result in metal enrichment in surface soils, but the relative importance of these processes is not always resolved. Here, we used an integrated approach to study the cycling of phosphorus and a suite of metals from the soil to the canopy (and back) in a temperate watershed. The behavior of elements in these surface soils fell into three categories. First, Al, Fe, V, Co, and Cr showed little to no enrichment in …

Fossils Of Putative Marine Algae From The Cryogenian Glacial Interlude Of Mongolia, Phoebe A. Cohen, Francis A. Macdonald, Sara Pruss, Emily Matys, Tanja Bosak

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Neoproterozoic carbonate successions provide a new taphonomic window into the diversification of eukaryotes. We report recently discovered macroscopic organic warty sheets (MOWS) in macerates of limestone from the ca. 662-635 Ma Taishir Formation (Tsagaan Olom Group, Mongolia). Sheets are applanate. One surface contains raised ridges and conspicuous, ∼ 100-μm-tall warty protuberances with depressed tops that enclose internal cavities containing cellular structures. The Taishir MOWS may be the remains of unusual bacterial, protistan, or fungal biofilms, or a previously undocumented, extinct taxon. However, multiple lines of evidence including the morphology of warty protuberances and the presence of cellular architecture within protuberances …

Dissolved Fe And Al In The Upper 1000 M Of The Eastern Indian Ocean: A High‐Resolution Transect Along 95°E From The Antarctic Margin To The Bay Of Bengal, Maxime Grand, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, William Landing, Peter Morton, Clifton Buck, Pamela Barrett, Joseph Resing

Faculty Publications

A high‐resolution section of dissolved iron (dFe) and aluminum (dAl) was obtained along ~95°E in the upper 1000 m of the eastern Indian Ocean from the Antarctic margin (66°S) to the Bay of Bengal (18°N) during the U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) CO2 Repeat Hydrography I08S and I09N sections (February–April 2007). In the Southern Ocean, low concentrations of dAl (<1 n M) reflect the negligible dust inputs impacting the water masses subducted in the circumpolar domain. The low dAl concentrations characterizing the Southern Ocean terminate near 45°S, probably because of the advection of subtropical water masses that received dust and sedimentary inputs in their formation region. Our subsurface dFe data near the southern Kerguelen Plateau were significantly higher than historical observations in other Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean. We surmise that the offshore advection of dFe‐rich waters along the western flank of the southern Kerguelen plateau and enhanced vertical mixing could contribute to this elevated subsurface dFe inventory. Elevated subsurface particulate and dFe levels downstream of the northern Kerguelen Plateau may reflect long‐range lateral transport from the plateau's sediments and/or remineralization inputs. At the northern edge of the south Indian subtropical gyre, the deposition of Australian dust, possibly combined with the advection of dAl‐enriched waters from the Indonesian Throughflow, creates a region of elevated dAl in the upper 400 m but without a corresponding enrichment in dFe. In the northern Indian Ocean, the South Equatorial Current constitutes a remarkable biogeochemical front separating the oxygen‐rich and dFe‐poor subtropical gyre waters from the dFe‐rich and oxygen‐depleted waters of the northern Indian Ocean. By tracing the accumulation of macronutrients and dFe along the advective pathway of Indian Central Water, we show that the central waters of the northern Indian Ocean receive excess dFe in addition to that produced by remineralization inputs. The resuspension of shelf sediments and release of pore waters probably contribute to the elevated dFe and dAl levels observed below the highly stratified upper layers of the Bay of Bengal.

Dust Deposition In The Eastern Indian Ocean: The Ocean Perspective From Antarctica To The Bay Of Bengal, Maxime Grand, Christopher Measures, Mariko Hatta, William Hiscock, Clifton Buck, William Landing

Faculty Publications

Atmospheric deposition is an important but still poorly constrained source of trace micronutrients to the open ocean because of the dearth of in situ measurements of total deposition (i.e., wet + dry deposition) in remote regions. In this work, we discuss the upper ocean distribution of dissolved Fe and Al in the eastern Indian Ocean along a 95°E meridional transect spanning the Antarctic margin to the Bay of Bengal. We use the mixed layer concentration of dissolved Al in conjunction with empirical data in a simple steady state model to produce 75 estimates of total dust deposition that we compare …

Core Evolution Driven By Mantle Global Circulation, Peter Olson, Renaud Deguen, Maxwell L. Rudolph, Shijie Zhong

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstructions of the Phanerozoic history of mantle global circulation that include past plate motions are used to constrain the thermochemical evolution of the core. According to our mantle global circulation models, the present-day global average heat flux at the core-mantle boundary lies in the range 80-90 mW.m^-2, with peak-to-peak, long wavelength lateral variations up to 100 mW.m^-2 associated with compositional and thermal heterogeneity in the D”-layer. For core thermal conductivity in the range k=100-130 W.m^-1.K^-1 we infer that the present-day outer core is thermally unstable beneath the high seismic velocity regions in the …

Strain Accomodation In The Footwall Of The Rubys Inn Thrust Fault, Hillsdale Canyon, Southern Utah, Claire Cleveland, Rhiannon M. Garrard, Devin M. Mclemore, Jeff C.E. Yon, Genevieve Kidman, John S. Maclean

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Rubys Inn thrust fault in southern Utah has produced several styles of deformation in its footwall. This project describes four exceptionally well exposed examples of strain accommodation, including a mountain-scale, ductile footwall drag fold, cataclastic flexural slip between bedding surfaces of differing competencies, plastically deformed petrified wood within the zone of flexural slip, and cataclastic shear expressed as deformation bands. Such examples show how various lithologies can be deformed into a wide array of structures during a single deformation event. Furthermore, some of these structures result in changes in permeability, which are important for those interested in subsurface fluid …

Karst Porosity Estimations From Archive Cave Surveys - Studies In The Buda Thermal Karst System (Hungary), Gáspár Albert, Magdolna Virág, Anita Erőss

International Journal of Speleology

The Buda Thermal Karst System is located under the densely populated hills of Budapest. One of its caves (Pál-völgy Cave System) is the longest cave of Hungary with 30.1 km. The research was done in this area as a methodological study to estimate karst porosity parameters of aquifers or hydrocarbon reservoirs. In this study two modeling methods are demonstrated. The volumetric modeling method was primarily aimed to determine the macro-scale (>0.5 m) conduit porosity (referred as macroporosity) of the study area as percentage of the incorporating limestone and marl. This method is based on archive survey data (maps and …

Beyond The Angle Of Repose: A Review And Synthesis Of Landslide Processes In Response To Rapid Uplift, Eel River, Northern Eel River, Northern California, Joshua J. Roering, Benjamin H. Mackey, Alexander L. Handwerger, Adam M. Booth, David A. Schmidt, Georgina L. Bennett, Corina Cerovski-Darriau

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In mountainous settings, increases in rock uplift are often followed by a commensurate uptick in denudation as rivers incise and steepen hillslopes, making them increasingly prone to landsliding as slope angles approach a limiting value. For decades, the threshold slope model has been invoked to account for landslide-driven increases in sediment flux that limit topographic relief, but the manner by which slope failures organize themselves spatially and temporally in order for erosion to keep pace with rock uplift has not been well documented. Here, we review past work and present new findings from remote sensing, cosmogenic adionuclides, suspended sediment records, …