Geology Commons^™

Rapid Wetland Expansion During European Settlement And Its Implication For Marsh Survival Under Modern Sediment Delivery Rates, Matthew L. Kirwan, A. Brad Murray, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, D. Reide Corbett

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Fluctuations in sea-level rise rates are thought to dominate the formation and evolution of coastal wetlands. Here we demonstrate a contrasting scenario in which land-use–related changes in sediment delivery rates drive the formation of expansive marshland, and vegetation feedbacks maintain their morphology despite recent sediment supply reduction. Stratigraphic analysis and radiocarbon dating in the Plum Island Estuary (Massachusetts, United States) suggest that salt marshes expanded rapidly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries due to increased rates of sediment delivery following deforestation associated with European settlement. Numerical modeling coupled with the stratigraphic observations suggests that existing marshland could survive, but not …

Stratigraphic, Microfossil, And Geochemical Analysis Of The Neoproterozoic Uinta Mountain Group, Utah: Evidence For A Eutrophication Event?, Dawn Schmidli Hayes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Several previous Neoproterozoic microfossil diversity studies yield evidence for a relatively sudden biotic change prior to the first well‐constrained Sturtian glaciations. In an event interpreted as a mass extinction of eukaryotic phytoplankton followed by bacterial dominance, diverse assemblages of complex acritarchs are replaced by more uniform assemblages consisting of simple leiosphaerid acritarchs and bacteria. Recent data from the Chuar Group of the Grand Canyon (770‐742 Ma) suggest this biotic change was caused by eutrophication rather than the direct effects of Sturtian glaciation; evidence includes total organic carbon increases indicative of increasing primary productivity followed by iron speciation values that suggest …

Sedimentological Controls On Fracture Distribution And The Network Development Within Meseverde Group Lithofacies, Uinta Basin, Utah, Ryan Christopher Sonntag

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Mesaverde Group, within the Uinta Basin, Utah, is a source of current significant production and contains several trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas resources. Due to the low permeability of the matrix rock, understanding the geometry and properties of natural fractures is critical to the development of effective ways of finding and producing natural gas. In order to evaluate and model the potential connectivity of hydraulically induced fractures to natural fractures at depth, we examine the nature of the natural fracture network using scanline sampling, imagery analyses, core analyses, and microstructural analyses. Regional fracture sets identified include: N-S …

Evapotranspiration In The Riparian Zone Of The Lower Boise River With Implications For Groundwater Flow, Brady Allen Johnson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Riparian zones in semi-arid regions often exhibit high rates of evapotranspiration (ET) in spite of low soil moisture content due to vegetation that is able to withdraw water from shallow aquifers. This work better defines the relationship between ET and the saturated zone by comparing the observed water table drawdown to analytically modeled drawdown in fully penetrating wells of an unconfined aquifer in response to daily ET flux. ET at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site or BHRS (a riparian zone in a temperate, semi arid environment) is calculated following the approach of Batra et al. (2006) but uses site …

Memorial To Charles Alexander Baskerville (1928–2009), Allen W. Hatheway, Ajitkumar Shah, Joseph J. Lifrieri, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer

Publications and Research

Charles Alexander Baskerville captured our imagination, as a senior colleague in the practice of engineering geology in New York City. “Charlie” held the seat of master Big Apple Geologist during his matured career. He was the source, he knew the possibilities, he was aware of the pitfalls of this most geologically complex of American cities. His final work was his greatest reach—the four bedrock geologic quadrangles of the city. Baskerville mapped New York City for more than fifty years. He was sought and given access to sites of bedrock and bedrock/ overburden interface on the various capitol construction projects undertaken …

Spatial Analysis Of A Bioterrorist Attack On Four Major United States Cities Using An Aerosolized Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Kathryn Prinslow

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Before the attack on September 11,2001, the United States was very vulnerable to a biological attack. Since then, those responsible for the security of the United States Homeland Security have become more aware of the country's vulnerability. Biological agents have the potential to give small groups of people unprecedented power to terrorize, as indicate by the "Amerithrax" attack in 2001, and of all of these agents, none have more potential for destruction than Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF). This research uses one of the deadliest viruses that have not been eradicated to identify the number of fatalities in an outbreak affecting …

Geoenabling A Rural Community Through Web Gis: A Case Study Of The City Of Hays, Ellis County Kansas, Eamonn W. Coveney

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The objective of this study was to describe the internet GIS implementation in the City of Hays and Ellis County, Kansas, then compare it to examples of implementation from other similar communities. Geospatial resources were consolidated from both agencies and used to develop two web mapping applications for employee and public access. Both mapping applications were developed on the ArcGIS Server platform using the .NET Web Application Developer Framework. In addition, a HTML website was developed to accommodate common data requests and an online map repository. The implementation approach of the City of Hays and Ellis County is similar to …

The Mammals And Paleoindian Artifact From The Feaster Sand Pit, Late Pleistocene (Wisconsin)-Early Holocene, Of Cowley County (Southeastern), Kansas, Miranda L. Lucas

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Over 100 fossil remains of late Pleistocene (Wisconsin)-early Holocene mammals, including one modified by Paleoindians into an arrow shaft straightener were recovered from the Feaster sand pit in the southwestern part of Cowley County, Kansas. Taxa identified to species include Procyon lotor (Linnaeus), Mammut Americanum (Kerr), Mammuthus columbi (Falconer), Mammuthus jeffersonii (Osborn), Equus scotti (Gidley), Equus conversidens (Owen), Camelops hesternus (Leidy), Antilocapra americana (Ord), and Bison antiquus (Ledy). The Feaster sand pit is thought to be late Pleistocene (Wisconsin) to early Holocene in age due to the high co-occurrence of mammals that are similar to the taxa of known late …

An Allosaurus From The Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic) Of Converse County, Wyoming, Dennis D. Roth

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

I describe a partial skeleton of a theropod from the Later Jurassic Morrison Formation of Converse County, Wyoming. Collected material included 17 vertebrae, three ribs, two associated left metatarsals and an incomplete ilium of an Allosaurus in a gray silty-mudstone containing conchostraca. Several vertebrae are deformed with transverse processes broken and pressed against the neural spine, or twisted transverse processes from lateral or dorso-venteral compression. The material has evidence of erosion prior to deposition, as well as during postfossilization. I propose the deformation of the vertebrae is due to a demineralization of the bones. The flattened surfaces appear to have …

From Hillslopes To Canyons, Studies Of Erosion At Differing Time And Spatial Scales Within The Colorado River Drainage, Christopher Tressler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis includes two different studies in an attempt to investigate and better understand the key characteristics of landscape evolution. In the first study, the rate of surface particle creep was investigated through the use of Terrestrial lidar at an archaeological site in Grand Canyon National Park. The second study developed ways to quantify metrics of the Colorado River drainage and reports the role of bedrock strength in the irregular profile of the trunk Colorado River drainage.

Archaeological sites along the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon National Park are eroding due to a variety of surficial processes. The nature …

Vertebrate Taxonomic Composition, Species Diversity, And Paleoecology Of Two Pliocene Mid-Latitude, Inland-Basin Fossil Assemblages: Panaca Local Fauna (Lincoln County, Nevada) And Hagerman Local Fauna (Twin Falls County, Idaho), Vicki Lynn Meyers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

I studied the sedimentology, species diversity, relative abundance, paleoenvironment, and paleoecology of the vertebrate fauna of the early Pliocene (Blancan Land Mammal Age) Panaca Formation of southeastern Nevada, and I compared these data with the slightly younger Hagerman fauna of south-central Idaho. The purpose of this study is to characterize the paleoecology and species diversity of mid-latitude inland basins during the Blancan Land Mammal Age, a time of climate change and immigrating taxa from Asia and South America. This study involved surface collecting and screenwashing of the Panaca Formation sediment in Meadow Valley, as well as a compilation of data …

Extent Of Gully Erosion In An Agricultural Field In Northeastern Nebraska At Section 35 Township 29 North Range 1 West In Cedar County, Crystal Starkel

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

My thesis project examined a gully within Section 35 Township 29 North Range 1 West. This gully has been noticed for five years and has grown substantially in those five years. The extent and causes of gully erosion were examined by considering the soil, the climate, the land management history, by measuring the gully physically, by using GIS, and by using an economic support tool was estimate soil loss. Appropriate recommendations were developed to reduce gully erosion.

Geochemical Controls On Mercury Methylation In Backwaters Of A Gulf Coastal Plain River System, Implications For Water Column Processes, Liam N. Schenk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The abundance and distribution of mercury and methyl mercury were investigated at three sites in the lower Ouachita River in the summer of 2010 in an effort to provide the first characterization of the extent of mercury contamination in this river system, and to investigate the potential for mercury methylation in the water column of backwaters off of the main channel. Results showed that filtered methyl mercury was positively correlated to dissolved organic carbon (r2=0.76) for water samples taken from the bottom 1 ft of the water column at three sites, suggesting the importance of dissolved organic carbon in mercury …

Pleistocene Climate In Alaska From Stable Isotopes In An Ice Wedge, Corinne Y. Griffing

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The CRREL permafrost tunnel offers a unique opportunity to sample ice wedges in a climate-controlled environment, penetrating frozen silts which host massive ground ice that may record Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) and Heinrich Events. Ice wedges in the tunnel have been dated to approximately 36-22 ka (Hamilton et al., 1988), allowing the paleoclimate of the region to be reconstructed during MIS 3, when D-O and Heinrich events were documented in various other records. These climate cycles are rapid climate oscillations that have been recognized in records from the Arctic and subarctic, and suggest that climate can rapidly shift by 10°C over millennial …

Molecular Organic Geochemistry Of The Oil And Source Rocks In Railroad Valley, Eastern Great Basin, Nevada, United States, Laode Ahdyar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A comprehensive geochemical study of oils from Railroad Valley, Nevada and two candidate source rock intervals from the nearby Egan Range, was conducted in order to establish oil-oil and oil-source rock correlations. Analyses consisted of total organic carbon, Rock-Eval pyrolysis, and vitrinite reflectance for source rock samples, as well as biomarker, diamondoids, and stable carbon isotope analyses on source rock extracts and oil samples.

Total organic carbon analyses showed high organic content in the Mississippian Chainman Shale. However, outcrop samples of the Paleogene Sheep Pass Formation Member B are organically lean. Strata in both of these units are immature to …

Lateral Variability Of Facies And Cycles In The Furongian (Late Cambrian) Carbonate Platform: An Example From The Big Horse Member Of The Orr Formation In Western Utah, U.S.A., Ratna Widiarti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Carbonate depositional cycles and sequences have been proposed to be formed by glacioeustatic sea-level changes. This mechanism would be questionable during times of high atmospheric CO2 and negligible continental ice sheets such as the supergreenhouse time in the Furongian (late Cambrian), during which limited glacioeustatic sea-level changes would be expected. A detailed sedimentological study of the Furongian Orr Formation in western Utah is aimed at testing the hypothesis that, under supergreenhouse climate conditions, most meter-scale carbonate cycles may have been formed through autocyclic processes and thus they should be laterally variable. The research was conducted in a small area ( …

Mesozoic Burial, Mesozoic And Cenozoic Exhumation Of The Funeral Mountains Core Complex, Death Valley, Southeastern California, Mengesha Assefa Beyene

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Funeral Mountains of Death Valley National Park, CA, provide an opportunity to date metamorphism resulting from crustal shortening and subsequent episodic extensional events in the Sevier hinterland. It was not clear whether crustal shortening and thus peak temperature metamorphism in the hinterland of the Sevier-Laramide orogenic wedge have occurred whether in Late Jurassic, Early Cretaceous , Late Cretaceous or somewhere between. Particularly ambiguous is the timing of crustal shortening in the deep levels of the hinterland of the Sevier belt, now manifest in the metamorphic core complexes, and how and when these middle-to-lower crustal rocks were exhumed. A 6-point …

Salt Contamination Of Ground And Surface Water In Connecticut: A Compilation And Synthesis Of Historic Data And Local Scale Testing, James P. Cassanelli

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Geologic Mapping Of Exhumed, Mid-Cretaceous Paleochannel Complexes Near Castle Dale, Emery County, Utah: On The Correlative Relationship Between The Dakota Sandstone And The Mussentuchit Member Of The Cedar Mountain Formation, Amanda Elizabeth Mackay Sorensen

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous well-preserved, exhumed paleochannels in the Morrison, Cedar Mountain and Dakota Sandstone formations are exposed east of Castle Dale, Utah. These channels consist primarily of point bar complexes and scattered, low sinuosity channels. To determine the vertical and lateral relationships of these channels within the Cedar Mountain and Dakota Sandstone formations, a 1:24,000 scale geologic map covering ~140 km2 was created showing the fluvial sandstones. In the study area the Cedar Mountain Formation consists, from bottom to top, of 2.5-10 m of Buckhorn Conglomerate Member equivalent units, ~80 m of the Ruby Ranch Member, and ~30 m of the Mussentuchit …

Serpentinite Weathering And Implications For Mars, Valerie Tu, Julie Baumeister, Rodney Metcalf, A. Olsen, Elisabeth Hausrath

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

In the search for life on Mars near-surface soil environments may be important habitats for life accessible to future missions. Serpentinite rocks have been documented on Mars, as well as other clay minerals including smectite and kaolinites. Previous studies of soils formed on serpentinites on Earth have documented the formation of extensive clays. Serpentinites are additionally of interest as habitats for life such as methanogens. Here we examine weathering of serpentinites from bedrock to soil surface, as a potential route for the formation of clay minerals on Mars from abundant ultramafic minerals. We additionally test for the presence of Fe-oxidizing …