Geology Commons^™

Evaporite Karst And Hydrogeology Of The Castile Formation: Culberson County, Texas And Eddy County, New Mexico, Kevin W. Stafford

Faculty Publications

Karst development in Permian Castile evaporites has resulted in complex speleogenetic evolution with multiple phases of diagenetic overprinting. More than 10,000 surficial features, primarily sinkholes, occur throughout Culberson County, Texas, and Eddy County, New Mexico, based on GIS-analyses where laminated Castile sulfates crop out. Cave development is largely the result of hypogene processes, where ascending fluids from the underlying Bell Canyon Formation migrate near vertically through the Castile Formation, creating caves up to 100 meters deep and over 500 meters long, which have been breached through a combination of collapse and surface denudation. Numerous small and laterally limited epigene features …

Clastic Sinkhole And Pseudokarst Development In East Texas, Kevin W. Stafford, Melinda G. Shaw-Faulkner, Wesley A. Brown

Faculty Publications

Pseudokarst development in East Texas is controlled primarily by a combination of suffosion and preferential flow paths, often creating small ephemeral sinkholes but occasionally persistent features develop in more indurated facies. Pseudokarst occurs in Claiborne (Eocene) strata in Angelina, Cherokee, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, San Augustine and Shelby counties. Strata consist of interbedded fine- and coarse-grained clastics with variable cementation and associated permeabilities.

Caves And Karst Hydrology Of The Mariana Islands (Abstract), Kevin W. Stafford

Faculty Publications

Abstract Attached

Assessment Of Coal Geology, Resources, And Reserve Base In The Powder River Basin, Wyoming And Montana, James A. Luppens, David C. Scott, Lee M. Osmonson, Jon E. Haacke, Paul E. Pierce

United States Geological Survey: Publications

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated in-place resources of 1.07 trillion short tons of coal in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming and Montana. Of that total, with a maximum stripping ratio of 10:1, recoverable coal was 162 billion tons. The estimate of economically recoverable resources was 25 billion tons.

Modeling Rain-Fed Maize Vulnerability To Droughts Using The Standardized Precipitation Index From Satellite Estimated Rainfall-Southern Malawi Case Study, Harikishan Jayanthi, Gregory J. Husak, Chris Funk, Tamuka Magadzire, Adams Chavula, James P. Verdin

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

During 1990s, disaster risk reduction emerged as a novel, proactive approach to managing risks from natural hazards. The World Bank, USAlD, and other international donor agencies began making efforts to mainstream disaster risk reduction in countries whose population and economies were heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture. This approach has more significance in light of the increasing climatic hazard patterns and the climate scenarios projected for different hazard prone countries in the world. The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) has been monitoring the food security issues in the sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and in Haiti. FEWS NET monitors the rainfall …

Characterizing Ledaps Surface Reflectance Products By Comparisons With Aeronet, Field Spectrometer, And Modis Data, T.K. Maiersperger, P.L. Scaramuzza, L. Leigh, S. Shrestha, K.P. Gallo, C.B. Jenkerson, J.L. Dwyer

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

This study provides a baseline quality check on provisional Landsat Surface Reflectance (SR) products as generated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center using Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) software. Characterization of the Landsat SR products leveraged comparisons between aerosol optical thickness derived from LEDAPS and measured by Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), as well as reflectance correlations with field spectrometer and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. Results consistently indicated similarity between LEDAPS and alternative data products in longer wavelengths over vegetated areas with no adjacent water, while less reliable performance was …

Preliminary Summary Of Water Resource Investigations During 2012 At Timpanogos Cave National Monument, Utah, Lee J. Florea, Chelsie R. Dugan, Camille Mckinney

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

This manuscript considers the hydrology and geochemistry of water resources within Timpanogos Cave National Monument in American Fork, Utah. In particular, data are presented for five cave pools within the Monument and the American Fork River that flows through the Monument. Two independent dye trace attempts in this study have not established a connection between the surface near the canyon rim at the south border of the Monument and the cave pools or the river. Ion chemistry of the pools reveals elevated sulfate concentrations. Analysis of sulfate and other reaction products suggests the possibility of combined carbonic and sulfuric acids …

Modeling The Metamorphic History Of Ultrahigh Pressure Rocks: Western China, Jesse Walters

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In order to better understand metamorphism during continent-continent collision, the pressure-temperature history of a garnet-k:yanite paragniess from the Dulan region of the N. Qaidam high-pressure (HP)/ ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) belt is modeled. The gneiss contains the assemblage Bt + Pl + Kfs + Grt + Ky + Qtz + Rt + Ap. An equilibrium assemblage diagram constructed for the sample's pelitic bulk composition predicts the observed assemblage to form at ~ 11-15 kbar and ~810-870 °C. The diagram predicts predicts ~2-8 vol% melt in the observed assemblage. Predicted mineral abundances closely match observed values, with 8-18 vol % garnet and 0-10 …

Rock Glaciers In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Mark Weidenaar

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The eastern portion of Washington State's Cascade Range is a place not previously examined for rock glaciers, due to proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its associated marine­-influenced climate. The objectives of this study were to determine spatial, activity, and genesis patterns, and paleoclimatic implications of Eastern Cascade rock glaciers. Using Google Earth, I found l 03 rock glaciers in the study area. Rock glaciers are more common further east of the Cascade crest and more north in latitude, with the largest concentrations occurring east of Lake Chelan (22) and in the Pasayten Wilderness (28) in the North Cascades. None …

The Tilt Of The Boron Triangle In Tourmaline, Charles J. Badgerow

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The tourmaline mineral group has a highly complex chemical composition and provides a wealth of information on Earth's processes. Past research has revealed numerous mysteries regarding the structure of the boron triangle within tourmaline, especially as it bonds to the Z- and Z'- cation sites. Although the Z- and Z' - are nominally the same site, the Z'-site has a greater effect on the stereochemistry of the boron triangle. Further, the Z' -site has a shorter bond-length with the boron triangle than the Z-site. We hypothesize that this variation affects the stereochemistry of the boron triangle, and have analyzed a …

Predicting The Dynamic Behavior Of Coal Mine Tailings Using State-Of-Practice Geotechnical Field Methods, Ali Salehian

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This study is focused on developing a method to predict the dynamic behavior of mine tailings dams under earthquake loading. Tailings dams are a by-product of coal mining and processing activities. Mine tailings impoundments are prone to instability and failure under seismic loading as a result of the mechanical behavior of the tailings. Due to the existence of potential seismic sources in close proximity to the coal mining regions in the United States, it is necessary to assess the post-earthquake stability of these tailings dams.

To develop the aforementioned methodology, 34 cyclic triaxial tests along with vane shear tests were …

Geology Of The Gordon Natural Area: Making Mountains Out Of Molehills - A Service-Learning Investigation By Students In Ess 405/505 Petrology, Fall 2009–2012, Leeann Srogi, John Kost

Gordon Natural Area Geology Studies Documents

No abstract provided.

Tectonics Of The South Georgia Rift, David Michael Heffner

Theses and Dissertations

Triassic rifting of the supercontinent Pangea left behind numerous basins on what is now the eastern North American margin. The South Georgia Rift (SGR) was thought to be the best preserved of these basins having been capped by thick basalt flows of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and later buried beneath the Cretaceous and younger Coastal Plain. Because it is buried beneath the Coastal Plain, the SGR is only known through sparse drilling and geophysical methods. Despite this limited dataset, the SGR is the only one of the eastern North American Triassic basins known to overlie the ancient Alleghanian …

Depositional Setting And Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Lower Permian Lower Hueco Formation On The Western Margin Of The Orogrande Basin, South Central New Mexico, Jonathon Eric Stautberg

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

On the western margin of the Orogrande Basin in south-central New Mexico, eight outcrop datasets, in the form of measured stratigraphic sections from the lower interval of the Lower Permian Lower Hueco Formation were analyzed in regard to depositional facies distribution and sequence stratigraphy. Based on petrographic analysis of 247 samples and associated field relationships, 11 depositional facies are recognized: 1) quartz sandstone, 2) quartz siltstone and shale, 3) fenestral dolomudstone, 4) microbial intraclast packstone, 5) dolomudstone, 6) green-algal packstone to grainstone, 7) ostracode foram wackestone, 8) oolitic packstone, 9) fossiliferous packstone and grainstone, 10) fusulinid packstone and grainstone, 11) …

Geology And Geochemistry Of The Sierra Blanca Rare Earth Complex, Sierra Blanca, Texas, Nicole Kyger

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With an increasing standard of living comes an increase in demand for high tech goods, environmentally friendly (green) and military technologies, and the inherent need to procure the necessary raw materials. Demand for the rare earth elements (REE) is on the rise, and there is no foreseeable decline in the need for accessible deposits. Between 2010 and present, the United States Congress has heard numerous reports on the importance of REE, and in 2012 the Department of Defense(DoD)declared REE a critical resource, with implications for national security. The Sierra Blanca laccoliths, 150 kilometers southeast of El Paso, TX represent a …

Amplitude Vs. Offset Effects On Gas Hydrates At Woolsey Mound, Gulf Of Mexico, Walter R. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the estimated massive quantities of natural methane hydrates, they represent one of the largest sources of future alternative energy on Earth. Methane hydrates have been found in the shallow sub-seafloor of the Northern Gulf of Mexico where the water depth is in excess of ~900 m. Mississippi Canyon Block 118 has been chosen by the Gulf of Mexico Hydrates Research Consortium to be the site of a multi-sensor, multi-discipline sea-floor observatory for gas hydrate research. First evidence for gas hydrates at MC 118 was observed at Woolsey Mound. Subsurface evidence for gas hydrates has subsequently been substantiated by …

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 …

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 …

Topographic Signatures And A General Transport Law For Deep-Seated Landslides In A Landscape Evolution Model, Adam M. Booth, Joshua J. Roering, Alan W. Rempel

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A fundamental goal of studying earth surface processes is to disentangle the complex web of interactions among baselevel, tectonics, climate, and rock properties that generate characteristic landforms. Mechanistic geomorphic transport laws can quantitatively address this goal, but no widely accepted law for landslides exists. Here we propose a transport law for deep-seated landslides in weathered bedrock and demonstrate its utility using a two-dimensional numerical landscape evolution model informed by study areas in the Waipaoa catchment, New Zealand, and the Eel River catchment, California. We define a non-dimensional landslide number, which is the ratio of the horizontal landslide flux to the …

Strain Energy Release From The 2011 9.0 Mw Tōhoku Earthquake, Japan, Kenneth M. Cruikshank, Curt D. Peterson

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this paper is to compare the strain energy released due to elastic rebound of the crust from the tragic 2011 9.0 Mw Tōhoku earthquake in Japan with the observed radiated seismic energy. The strain energy was calculated by analyzing coseismic displacements of 1024 GPS stations of the Japanese GEONET network. The value of energy released from the analysis is 1.75 × 1017 J, which is of the same order of magnitude as the USGS-observed radiated seismic energy of 1.9 × 1017 Nm (J). The strain energy method is independent of seismic methods for determining the energy released …