Geology Commons^™

Effects Of Chiloquin Dam On Spawning Distribution And Larval Emigration Of Lost River, Shortnose, And Klamath Largescale Suckers In The Williamson And Sprague Rivers, Oregon, Barbara A. Martin, David A. Hewitt, Craig M. Ellsworth

United States Geological Survey: Publications

Chiloquin Dam was constructed in 1914 on the Sprague River near the town of Chiloquin, Oregon. The dam was identified as a barrier that potentially inhibited or prevented the upstream spawning migrations and other movements of endangered Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose (Chasmistes brevirostris) suckers, as well as other fish species. In 2002, the Bureau of Reclamation led a working group that examined several alternatives to improve fish passage at Chiloquin Dam. Ultimately it was decided that dam removal was the best alternative and the dam was removed in the summer of 2008. The U.S. …

The Mineral Industry Of Nebraska

United States Geological Survey: Publications

In 2013, the value of the nonfuel mineral production1 in the State of Nebraska was $166 million,2 0.2% of the total U.S. nonfuel mineral production, ranking it 39th in the country. In 2012, the corresponding value was $160 million,2 0.2% of the Nation’s total nonfuel mineral production, ranking it 36th among the 50 States. In 2013, on a per capita basis, nonfuel mineral production in Nebraska in 2013 had a value of $89 compared with the national average of $238. In 2012, the per capita value was $86 compared with the national average of $241. The value of nonfuel mineral …

Impacts Of Migratory Sandhill Cranes (Grus Canadensis) On Microbial Water Quality In The Central Platte River, Nebraska, Usa, Jason R. Vogel, Dale W. Griffin, Hon S. Ip, Nicholas J. Ashbolt, Matthew T. Moser, Jingrang Lu, Mary K. Beitz, Hodon Ryu, Jorge W. Santo Domingo

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Wild birds have been shown to be significant sources of numerous types of pathogens that are relevant to humans and agriculture. The presence of large numbers of migratory birds in such a sensitive and important ecosystem as the Platte River in central Nebraska, USA, could potentially serve a significant source of birdderived pathogens in the water/sediment and riverine environment. In 2009 and 2010, a study was completed to investigate the potential water-quality impacts of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese on the microbial water quality of the central Platte River during their spring migration period. Fecal material, river-bottom sediment, and water …

Controls On Recent Alaskan Lake Changes Identified From Water Isotopes And Remote Sensing, Lesleigh Anderson, Jennifer Rover, Nikki Gaulager, Jean Birks

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

High-latitude lakes are important for terrestrial carbon dynamics and waterfowl habitat driving a need to better understand controls on lake area changes. To identify the existence and cause of recent lake area changes in the Yukon Flats, a region of discontinuous permafrost in north central Alaska, we evaluate remotely sensed imagery with lake water isotope compositions and hydroclimatic parameters. Isotope compositions indicate that mixtures of precipitation, river water, and groundwater source ~95% of the studied lakes. The remaining minority are more dominantly sourced by snowmelt and/or permafrost thaw. Isotope-based water balance estimates indicate 58% of lakes lose more than half …

Ice-Age Megafauna In Arctic Alaska: Extinction, Invasion, Survival, Daniel H. Mann, Pamela Groves, Michael L. Kunz, Richard E. Reanier, Benjamin V. Gaglioti

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Radical restructuring of the terrestrial, large mammal fauna living in arctic Alaska occurred between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Steppe bison, horse, and woolly mammoth became extinct, moose and humans invaded, while muskox and caribou persisted. The ice age mega fauna was more diverse in species and possibly contained 6x more individual animals than live in the region today. Mega faunal biomass during the last ice age may have been 30x greater than present. Horse was the dominant species in terms of number of individuals. Lions, short-faced bears, wolves, and possibly grizzly …

Loess And Its Geomorphic, Stratigraphic, And Paleoclimatic Significance In The Quaternary, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess is aeolian silt visible in the field as a sedimentary body. It covers a significant portion of the land surface of the Earth. Loess thickness, particle size, and carbonate content decrease downwind from sources, useful trends for paleowinds. Many loess sections consist of relatively thick deposits of mostly unaltered sediment with intercalated paleosols. Paleosols represent periods of landscape stability when loess deposition slowed significantly. Loess in most regions was deposited during glacial periods and paleosols formed during interglacial periods. Loess has the potential to record the timing and environment of glacial–interglacial cycles of the Quaternary on many continents.

Lithogeochemical And Stable Isotope Characteristics Of Bristol And Northern Thorneloe Townships And Its Correlation With Gold Mineralization, Zachary Grant Stevison

Wayne State University Theses

The Porcupine Mining Camp located in the southwestend of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt has been mined extensively for its prolific precious and base metal enrichment. This study targeted Bristol and Northern Thorneloe, fifteen kilometers southwest of Timmins, ON, an area that is of economic interest for its gold mineralization. Rock samples were collected (drill- core and outcrop) throughout both townships and analyzed for their major and trace element composition, These were used to determine hydrothermal alteration signatures as well as specific elemental enrichment that relate to gold mineralization in Bristol-Thorneloe Township. Quartz-carbonate and quartz-carbonate-tourmaline vein samples were also collected near …

Class I Waste-Disposal Wells And Class Ii Brine-Injection Wells In Kentucky, Thomas N. Sparks, David C. Harris, J. Richard Bowersox

Map and Chart--KGS

This map shows locations of disposal wells permitted and regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under parts of their Underground Injection Control program. Only UIC Class I and Class II disposal wells are illustrated and described. EPA defines Class I as industrial and municipal waste-disposal wells and Class II as oil- and gas-related injection wells (EPA, 2012a). Disposal wells are designed to protect underground sources of drinking water. The primary function of this map is to provide general information about type, name, location, geology, and depth of injection zone for these disposal wells on a statewide basis.

Joint Orientations In The Red River Gorge Geological Area, East-Central Kentucky, Steven L. Martin

Information Circular--KGS

The Red River Gorge Geological Area and Clifty Wilderness Area of Daniel Boone National Forest and Natural Bridge State Park in east-central Kentucky provide an excellent opportunity to observe and study differential weathering and erosion, mass wasting, and jointing in the development of cliffs, rock shelters, and natural arches. Joints in the study area have varying orientations, but dominant northeast- and northwest-striking orientations are prevalent. Jointing in the study area is related to unloading of overburden and regional tectonic stresses. Unloading joints result from removal of overburden from a rock mass, and orientations of joints are controlled by either residual …

Determining The Sediment Source Area Through Petrographic Analysis Of The Hermosa Formation, Silverton, Southwestern Co, Kristina P. Pourtabib

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Pennsylvanian/Permian Hermosa Formation in southwestern Colorado is composed of arkosic sandstone, marine limestone, and shale that formed at a time when the region consisted of open-marine carbonate shelves and coastal plains. During the time of deposition, there were many tectonically active highlands in the region, including the Ancestral Rocky Mountains, San Luis Highlands, and the Uncompahgre, Emery, Zuni-Defiance-Kaibab Uplifts. Previous studies have attributed the source of the main sediment supply of the Hermosa Formation to the Uncompahgre branch of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains with smaller amounts of elastics from the Defiance-Zuni uplifts (Wengerd and Matheny, 1958; Wengerd and Strickland, …

Evolution Of High Tooth Replacement Rates In Sauropod Dinosaurs, Michael D. D'Emic, John A. Whitlock, Kathlyn M. Smith, Daniel C. Fisher, Jeffrey A. Wilson

Earth, Environment & Sustainability: Faculty Publications

Background: Tooth replacement rate can be calculated in extinct animals by counting incremental lines of deposition in tooth dentin. Calculating this rate in several taxa allows for the study of the evolution of tooth replacement rate. Sauropod dinosaurs, the largest terrestrial animals that ever evolved, exhibited a diversity of tooth sizes and shapes, but little is known about their tooth replacement rates.

Methodology/Principal Findings: We present tooth replacement rate, formation time, crown volume, total dentition volume, and enamel thickness for two coexisting but distantly related and morphologically disparate sauropod dinosaurs Camarasaurus and Diplodocus. Individual tooth formation time was determined …

Three-Dimensional Hydrostratigraphy Of The Firth, Nebraska Area: Results From Helicopter Electromagnetic (Hem) Mapping In The Eastern Nebraska Water Resources Assessment (Enwra), Jesse T. Korus, R. Matthew Joeckel, Dana Divine

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Integrated Geological And Geophysical Studies Of The Indio Mountains And Hueco Bolson, West Texas, Pawan Budhathoki

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation consists of two different projects. The first project describes the results of an outcrop based sequence stratigraphic study of the Albian Cox Sandstone in the Indio Mountains of west Texas. The depositional environment of the Cox Sandstone ranges from shallow marine to the coastal plain deposited in four sequences where sequence 1 and sequence 2 consists of transgressive system tracts (TST) followed by highstand system tracts (HST). The highstand system tract (HST) is missing in sequence 3 and the transgressive systems tract is missing in sequence 4. The Cox changes in thickness from 320 m in the northern …

Application Of Various Remote Sensing And Aerial Photography Data Sets To Resolve Surface Structure In Areas Of Poor Exposure: Examples From Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia And Katalla Area, Alaska Usa, Sarah Natalie Heinlein

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For many years now remote sensing data sets and application techniques of these various data have been routinely used in geological studies. Some of these studies are as basic as using Google Earth applications for general reconnaissance to more sophisticated methods for energy exploration or development of active tectonic models for a region. This dissertation presents data from two study areas within the northern pacific region utilizing a number of remote sensing and aerial photography data: 1) Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, and 2) Katalla area of southern Alaska, USA. The Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia study evaluates surface geomorphology which includes the morphology …

Three-Dimensional Hydrostratigrapy Of The Swedeburg, Nebraska Area: Results From Helicopter Electromagnetic (Hem) Mapping For The Eastern Nebraska Water Resources Assessment (Enwra), Dana Divine, Jesse T. Korus

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Predicted Global Sea-Level Rise On Oregon Beaches And Tidelands, Curt D. Peterson

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forward by:

Phillip Johnson, Executive Director Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition

The Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition’s "Coastal Climate Change Adaptation Project" is under development as an experiment in grassroots organizing for adaptive planning for expected climate change impacts. Oregon Shores is a regional conservation group with a 40-year history of working to protect marine, shoreline, estuarine and other coastal habitats. The organization’s board and staff came to recognize that the likely effects of climate change—rising sea levels, more intensive storm surges, increased erosion, lower-river flooding, among others—would affect every aspect of the group’s work. Consequently, a new program, the Climate Action …

Thermobarometry Of Metamorphosed Pseudotachylyte And Determination Of Seismic Rupture Depth During Devonian Caledonian Extension, North Norway, Susan E. Leib

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Crustal faulting has long been known as the source of shallow seismicity, and the seismogenic zone is the depth (3-15 km) within the crust that is capable of co-seismic slip, largely under brittle conditions. However, some continental seismicity occurs at depths >> 15 km. I performed thermobarometry of mylonitic pseudotachylyte to determine the P-T of a seismogenic extensional fault in the Caledonian Norwegian margin. Two shear zones (Eidsfjord and Fiskfjord) located in northern Norway exhibit brittle extension propagating into the ductile regime of the lower crust as evidenced by the presence of pseudotachylyte. Averages from Eidsfjord (653 ± 38°C and 570 …

Spatio-Temporal Variability In Groundwater Discharge And Contaminant Fluxes Along A Channelized Stream In Western Kentucky, Ganesh N. Tripathi

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Spatio-temporal variability in groundwater discharge and contaminant fluxes along a channelized stream in western Kentucky

Surface and groundwater discharges and contaminant fluxes can vary with time and space depending upon the hydrogeological processes and geological setting of the area of interest. This study examined a ~300-m-long, channelized reach of a first-order perennial stream, Little Bayou Creek, in the Coastal Plain of far western Kentucky during the period October 2010–February 2012. Along the study reach, springs discharge groundwater contaminated by the chlorinated organic compound trichloroethene (TCE) and radionuclide technetium-99 (⁹⁹Tc) released as a result of past activities at the …

Pliocene Sinistral Slip Across The Adobe Hills, Eastern California-Western Nevada: Kinematics Of Fault Slip Transfer Across The Mina Deflection, Sarah Nagorsen-Rinke, Jeffrey Lee, Andrew Calvert

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

The Adobe Hills region (California and Nevada, USA) is a faulted volcanic field located within the western Mina deflection, a right-stepping zone of faults that connects the northern Eastern California shear zone (ECSZ) to the south with the Walker Lane belt (WLB) to the north. New detailed geologic mapping, structural studies, and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology in the Adobe Hills allow us to calculate fault slip rates and test predictions for the kinematics of fault slip transfer into the Mina deflection. The Adobe Hills are dominated by Pliocene tuffaceous sandstone, basaltic lavas that yield ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages …

Tidal Flux Of Trace Metals And Rare Earth Elements In A Barrier Island Salt Marsh, Ryan Antle

Theses and Dissertations

Barrier island salt marshes are known as sources of nutrients to the coastal ocean but it is unclear whether they are also sources or sinks of trace metals in regards to coastal waters. Salt marshes are characterized by steep redox and biogeochemical gradients, which constantly fluctuate as a result of tidal pumping. While several studies have examined metal budgets between terrestrial fresh water, estuarine subterranean fluids, and coastal saline waters, there is little data regarding fluid chemistry for metals in salt water estuaries in the absence of fresh water input. This study investigated a back barrier salt marsh on Cabretta …