Geology Commons^™

Science And Public Policy Of Earthquake Hazard Mitigation In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Alice M. Orton

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

In the central United States, undefined earthquake sources, long earthquake recurrence intervals and uncertain ground motion attenuation models have contributed to an overstatement of regional seismic hazard for the New Madrid Seismic Zone on the National Seismic Hazard Maps. This study examined concerns regarding scientific uncertainties, overly stringent seismic mitigation policies and depressed local economy in western Kentucky through a series of informal interviews with local businessmen, public officials, and other professionals in occupations associated with seismic mitigation. Scientific and relative economic analyses were then performed using scenario earthquake models developed with FEMA’s Hazus-MH software. Effects of the 2008 Wenchuan …

Why Ricker Wavelets Are Successful In Processing Seismic Data: Towards A Theoretical Explanation, Afshin Gholamy Salehabady

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In many engineering applications ranging from engineering seismology to petroleum engineering and civil engineering, processing seismic data plays a key role. In processing seismic data, it turns out to be very efficient to describe the signal's spectrum as a linear combination of Ricker wavelet spectra.

In this Thesis, we provide a possible theoretical explanation for this empirical efficiency. Specifically, signal propagation through several layers is discussed, and it is shown that the Ricker wavelet is the simplest non-trivial solution for the corresponding data processing problem, under the condition that the described properties of the approximation family are satisfied.

Lithostratigraphic Investigation Of A Late Devonian Carbonate-Evaporite Sequence; The Duperow Formation, Williston Basin, North Dakota, Zachary P. Alcorn

Theses and Dissertations

The Duperow Formation of northwestern North Dakota is a cyclical carbonate evaporite unit deposited on a shallow marine shelf during the early part of the Late Devonian (Frasnian). The formation forms the lower part of the Jefferson Group and lithostratigraphic review permits three informal members to be recognized: lower, middle, and upper. Petrographic, lithologic, and well log examination of drill cores and thin sections allows the identification of seven lithofacies within the three members. Lithofacies include; bioclastic wackestone/packstone (LF1), stromatoporoid boundstone/floatstone (LF2), Amphipora boundstone/floatstone (LF3), peloidal wackestone (LF4), dolomitic mudstone (LF5), microbially laminated dolowackestone (LF6), and anhydrite (Lf7). Lithofacies are …

Quantifying Nutrient Cycling And Fate Within An Abandoned Feedlot And Adjacent Wetlands, Prosper Prosper Gbolo

Theses and Dissertations

Feedlot operations over the years have increased revenue and boosted economies of states and countries, but these operations have resulted in elevated concentrations of nutrients in soils, surface water, and groundwater. Feedlot operations generate large quantities of manure and other waste, which when not managed properly can result in environmental problems.

It is hypothesized that nitrogen can cause a short-term contamination of soils and groundwater beneath abandoned feedlots, but phosphorus can cause both short- and long term contamination, especially in well-drained carbonate and iron-rich soils associated with Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. It is also hypothesized that a spectral vegetation index …

Adverse Outcome Pathway And Risks Of Anticoagulant Rodenticides To Predatory Wildlife, Barnett A. Rattner, Rebecca S. Lazarus, John E. Elliott, Richard F. Shore, Nico Van Den Brink

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Despite a long history of successful use, routine application of some anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) may be at a crossroad due to new regulatory guidelines intended to mitigate risk. An adverse outcome pathway for ARs was developed to identify information gaps and end points to assess the effectiveness of regulations. This framework describes chemical properties of ARs, established macromolecular interactions by inhibition of vitamin K epoxide reductase, cellular responses including altered clotting factor processing and coagulopathy, organ level effects such as hemorrhage, organism responses with linkages to reduced fitness and mortality, and potential consequences to predator populations. Risk assessments have led …

Emplacement Of Pleistocene Basalt Flows Near Mccoy, Colorado, Andrea Bowen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Deformation Mechanisms In Mylonites At Fletcher Peak, Washington County, Me, Ariana S. Boyd

Honors Theses

Mylonite formation and development is dependent on a number of factors including temperature, strain rate, and fluid fugacity. All three factors affect flow stress and viscosity; thus, a variance in each will affect the development of mylonites. This study focuses on factors leading to the formation of mylonite surrounded by ultramylonite of the same protolith, along-strike to one another at the center of a fault zone. The rocks in question are from the Deblois granite cut by the Kellyland fault zone, a ductile strike-slip fault zone within the larger Norumbega fault system in eastern Maine. The Deblois granite as a …

Fluctuations In Resistivity In The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Southwest Mississippi And Southeast Louisiana, Thomas Hetherington Story

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in southwest Mississippi and Southeast Louisiana's Florida Parishes has become an unconventional target for the exploration and production of oil. Spurred by early estimates of over 7 billion barrels of oil in place, the target region for this production is the basal portion of the shale where a continuous increase in resistivity greater than 5 Ohmm can be observed. This increase was originally attributed solely to the generation of hydrocarbons from the organic matter contained within the shale, with the presence of the oil and gas impeding the flow of electrons through what would normally be …

Radon Loss From Zircon: Effects Of Microstructure On Radon Emanation And Diffusion, Marty Eakin

Wayne State University Theses

Radon emanation from rocks and minerals is ubiquitous, but the mechanisms of radon loss are not well understood. Quantification of radon emanation rates from zircon has potential bearing on the reliability of U-Pb ages of zircon bearing rocks. The 238U decay chain includes 222Rn, a noble gas, which has a half-life of 3.82 days and can escape from the crystal structure of zircon if sufficient pathways exist, or by recoil if the parent 238U was very near the outer edge of the crystal. Loss of 222Rn ultimately leads to a deficiency of 206Pb, resulting in discordance between 238U-206Pb, 235U-207Pb, and …

Evaluating Spatial Outliers And Integrating Temporal Data In Air Pollution Models For The Detroit-Windsor Airshed, Brendan Francis O'Leary

Wayne State University Theses

The heterogeneous nature of urban air complicates human exposure estimates and creates a need for accurate, highly detailed spatiotemporal air contaminant models. The study expands on previous investigations by the Geospatial Determinants of Health Outcomes Consortium that examined relationships between air pollutant distributions and asthma exacerbations. Two approaches, the removal of spatial data outliers and the integration of spatial and temporal data, were used to refine air quality models in the Detroit and Windsor international airshed. The evaluation of associations between the resulting air quality models and asthma exacerbations in Detroit and Windsor revealed weaker correlations with spatial outliers removed …

Investigating The Anisotropy Of Magnetic Susceptibility And Other Rock Magnetic Properties Of The Beaver River Diabase In Northeastern Minnesota, Samer H. Hariri

Wayne State University Theses

The Beaver River Diabase (BRD) is a series of mafic dikes and sills within the Beaver Bay Complex (BBC) of northern Minnesota, which formed during the development of the ~1.1 Ga Midcontinent Rift (MCR). The BRD is one of the youngest and most extensive intrusive phases of the BBC. The BRD dikes and sills were emplaced into the medial levels of the 6-10 kilometer-thick North Shore Volcanic Group and occur over an arcuate area extending 120 by 20 kilometers. The BRD is composed of fine- to medium-grained ophitic olivine gabbro and does not display obvious foliation or lineation features and …

Shallow Groundwater Monitoring Associated With The Deep Saline Reservoir Co2 Storage Test In Hancock County, Kentucky, E. Glynn Beck

Report of Investigations--KGS

A carbon dioxide injection test well was drilled in 2009 to a depth of 8,126 ft below ground surface in Hancock County, Kentucky. Six hundred ninety tons of CO₂ was successfully injected into Knox Group saline aquifers. Two domestic wells (MB and GB) and two domestic springs (CA and RC) were sampled to monitor any potential changes in groundwater quality associated with possible migration of CO₂ from deeper saline aquifers into shallow freshwater aquifers. The four sites were sampled for pH, bicarbonate, total dissolved solids, turbidity, anions, total dissolved metals, dissolved inorganic carbon, total CO₂, and …

Using Time-Lapse Three Dimensional Vertical Seismic Profiling To Monitor Injected Fluids During Geologic Carbon Sequestration, John B. Hickman

Report of Investigations--KGS

Two three-dimensional vertical seismic profiles (3D-VSP) were acquired at the KGS Marvin Blan No. 1 CO₂ sequestration research well outside of Cloverport in Hancock County, Ky. The initial (preinjection) survey was performed September 15-16, 2010, and was followed by the injection of 361.2 metric tons of supercritical CO₂ and then 584 m³ of 2 percent potassium chloride water (to displace the remaining CO₂ in the wellbore) on September 22, 2010. After injection, the well was shut in with a downhole pressure of 17.5 MPa at the injected reservoir depth of 1,545.3 m. A second 3D-VSP was …

Geotechnical Engineering: Optimum Moisture Content For Compaction Of In Situ Soil At A Residential Construction Site On Five Mile Prairie, Wa., Natasha Garland Clark, Carly Sorensen, Camie Bearup

2014 Symposium

The residential construction site is located at 9117 Scarlet Sky Drive on the southwest margin of Five Mile Prairie, WA. The footprint of the proposed structure overlaps two soils. Near the road is fill material brought in to form the extended roadbed. Further from the access road is the extant soil that formed in place on the prairie. This site is approximately 2,400 feet in elevation, atop basalt. Over time loess and the Glacial Lake Missoula floods shaped the landscape. Grassy, small rolling hills cover the in-situ soil. There is a natural drainage basin below the site that features basalt …

Structural And Geochronologic History Of Southern Alaskan Blueschists, Erik M. Day

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Detrital zircon data are presented from the Liberty Creek blueschist in the central Chugach Mountains which indicate two distinct periods of the preservation of blueschist facies metamorphism along the southern Alaskan margin. A maximum depositional age of ~136 Ma demonstrates that the Liberty Creek schist was deposited long after the Jurassic cooling ages (196-185 Ma; Lopez-Carmona et al., 2011) recorded in western Alaskan blueschist bodies, revealing two blueschist preservation events. This Early Cretaceous depositional age also indicates that there have been major reorganizations within this subduction complex because the Potter Creek assemblage, directly south of the Liberty Creek schist, is …

Analysis Of Vesicular Porosity In Soils Using High-Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomograpy, Judith K. Turk, Robert C. Graham

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Vesicular horizons are common at the surface of arid and semiarid soils and play a critical role in regulating infiltration. Most methods for examining pore morphology in the vesicular horizon involve physical sectioning of the sample and individual measurement of pores, which is time-consuming and provides an incomplete view of the pores. The objectives of this study were to (i) develop methods for the classification and characterization of pores in the vesicular horizon using high resolution X-ray computed tomography (HRXCT) and (ii) use these methods to examine the distribution of pores within vesic-ular peds. Three intact peds were scanned by …

The Groundwater Atlas Of Lancaster County, Dana Divine

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Examining Student Severe Weather Behavior During A Hypothetical Tornado Scenario, C Martin Leavitt

Theses

No abstract provided.

Brownfield Action: Dissemination Of A Sencer Model Curriculum And The Creation Of A Collaborative Stem Education Network, Peter Bower, Ryan Kelsey, Joseph Liddicoat, Doug M. Thompson, Angelo Lampousis, Bret Bennington, Bess Greenbaum Seewald, Arthur D. Kney, Saugata Datta, Lawrence D. Lemke, Briane Sorice Miccio, Tamara Graham

Publications and Research

Brownfield Action (BA) is a web-based environmental site assessment (ESA) simulation in which students form geotechnical consulting companies and work together to solve problems in environmental forensics. Developed at Barnard College with the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, BA has been disseminated to ten colleges, universities, and high schools, resulting in a collaborative network of educators. The experiences of current users are presented describing how they have incorporated the BA curriculum into their courses, as well as how BA affected teaching and learning. The experiences demonstrate that BA can be used in whole or in part, is …

Determining Hillslope Diffusion Rates In A Boreal Forest: Quaternary Fluvial Terraces In The Nenana River Valley, Central Alaska Range, Laurel Anne Walker

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The subarctic boreal forest biome is predicted to experience higher magnitudes of warming than other biomes due to climate change. The effects of this warming will be pronounced in areas underlain by discontinuous permafrost where melting permafrost and distinct changes in vegetation patterns are expected. To better understand rates of hillslope diffusion in the boreal forest I have used a geomorphic process modeling approach, using data from a sequence of Quaternary fluvial terraces located in the Nenana River valley of central Alaska. I hypothesized that diffusion rates here would be slower when compared to the mid-latitudes, and faster on north …