Geophysics and Seismology Commons^™

Mapping Lower Austin Chalk Secondary Porosity Using Modern 3-D Seismic And Well Log Methods In Zavala County, Texas, David Kilcoyne

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Establishing fracture distribution and porosity trends is key to successful well design in a majority of unconventional plays. The Austin Chalk has historically been referred to as an unpredictable producer due to high fracture concentration and lateral variation in stratigraphy, however recent drilling activity targeting the lower Austin Chalk has been very successful. The Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk (AC) and underlying Eagle Ford (EF) units are considered by many to act as a single hydrocarbon system, with communication between these two units largely through expulsion or dewatering fractures, extensional faults or along the AC/EF unconformity. Total porosity for the Eagle …

Seismic Facies Mapping For Source Rock Distribution Of The Rakopi Formation In Deep-Water Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Sidney W. Mahanay

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Taranaki Basin is located off the coast of the north island of New Zealand and is currently the only producing basin in New Zealand. Hydrocarbon accumulation in the Tui, Maari, and Maui fields is sourced to the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene units. Exploration of these units has extended from the continental shelf of the Taranaki Basin into the deep-water to the northwest. The Romney 3D survey and Romney–1 well are some the first public exploration projects to supply data from this area. The objective of this study is to estimate source rock quality and distribution of the Rakopi Formation …

Hardbottom Characterization And Relationship To The Geologic Framework In Long Bay, South Carolina, Cathryn J. Wheaton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hardbottom seafloor is a common element among sediment-starved portions of the inner continental shelf along the U.S. Atlantic margin. These areas are characterized by indurated sediment surfaces that are heavily altered by biological and physical processes. Long Bay, in northeastern South Carolina, offers ideal environmental conditions for hardbottom exposure with only patchy Holocene sand deposits, interspersed with extensive hardbottom areas. Here we use high-resolution multibeam bathymetry, CHIRP subbottom profiling and electrical resistivity data, along with surficial sediment samples, hardbottom thin sections, and water column radioisotope (radon-222) analysis to investigate the origin and geologic framework of a region of hardbottom seafloor …

Tephra From The 3 March 2015 Sustained Column Related To Explosive Lava Fountain Activity At Volcán Villarrica (Chile), Jeffrey B. Johnson

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Exceptionally intense lava fountains at open conduit volcanoes are infrequent, hazardous and little-warned events. Studying their tephra falls may reveal conduit dynamics, eruption source parameters and fragmentation mechanisms. Villarrica Volcano (Southern Andes of Chile) has sustained persistent open conduit activity, associated with a dynamic lava lake since at least 1984–85. Increased seismicity and degassing in August 2014 were followed by Strombolian activity starting in February 2015 and culminated with a 1.5 km-high lava fountain on 3 March 2015. This eruption produced tephra fallout, spatter agglutination, clastogenic lavas and mixed avalanche deposits. Here we characterized for first time Villarrica's 3 March …

Dense-Array Teleseismic Imaging Of The Southern Albuquerque Basin, Tori S. Finlay

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The southern Albuquerque basin is a complex area of high extension, multiple orogenies, and ongoing uplift from a midcrustal magma body in which geophysical coverage is sparse. In this thesis, I capitalize on recent innovations in dense-array processing techniques to create virtual source reflection profiles from five teleseismic events during the deployment of the Sevilleta array. The Sevilleta array consisted of ~800 vertical component nodes with ~300 m spacing deployed for 10 days in February of 2015. Virtual source reflection profiles are created by using the free surface of the earth as a virtual seismic source, yielding profiles that mimic …

Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World, Kira H. Hamman

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

In Curbing Catastrophe, Timothy H. Dixon explores commonalities among natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the meltdown at Fukushima. He identifies communication failure between scientists and policy makers as a major culprit in the devastation that results from such events and offers strategies for improving that communication. He includes optional in-depth scientific and quantitative examinations of the events and the resulting devastation, making the book appropriate for use …

Identification Of Erosional Terraces On Seamounts: Implications For Interisland Connectivity And Subsidence In The Galápagos Archipelago, Darin M. Schwartz, S. Adam Soule, V. Dorsey Wanless, Meghan R. Jones

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Shallow seamounts at ocean island hotspots and in other settings may record emergence histories in the form of submarine erosional terraces. Exposure histories are valuable for constraining paleo-elevations and sea levels in the absence of more traditional markers, such as drowned coral reefs. However, similar features can also be produced through primary volcanic processes, which complicate the use of terraced seamounts as an indicator of paleo-shorelines. In the western Galápagos Archipelago, we utilize newly collected bathymetry along with seafloor observations from human-occupied submersibles to document the location and depth of erosional terraces on seamounts near the islands of Santiago, Santa …

Eleven Years Of Mountain Weather, Snow, Soil Moisture And Streamflow Data From The Rain–Snow Transition Zone – The Johnston Draw Catchment, Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed And Critical Zone Observatory, Usa, James P. Mcnamara

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Detailed hydrometeorological data from the rain-to-snow transition zone in mountain regions are limited. As the climate warms, the transition from rain to snow is moving to higher elevations, and these changes are altering the timing of downslope water delivery. To understand how these changes impact hydrological and biological processes in this climatologically sensitive region, detailed observations from the rain-to-snow transition zone are required. We present a complete hydrometeorological dataset for water years 2004 through 2014 for a watershed that spans the rain-to-snow transition zone (https://doi.org/10.15482/usda.adc/1402076). The Johnston Draw watershed (1.8km²), ranging from 1497 to 1869m in elevation, is …

Theory And Application Of Geophysical Geodesy For Studying Earth Surface Deformation, Makan A. Karegar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An interdisciplinary approach at the interface between geodesy and geophysics has recently resolved several Earth science problems at regional and global scales. I use the term “geophysical geodesy” to distinguish the technical and theoretical aspect of geodesy from geophysical applications of geodetic techniques. Using a wide range of Earth observation data, I study the spatio-temporal characteristics of Earth surface deformation in the United States associated with several geophysical processes, including natural and anthropogenic subsidence and uplift, regional relative sea-level rise, and continental hydrological loading. The theoretical portion of this dissertation applies loading theory and develops a new hybrid method to …

Hyporheic Source And Sink Of Nitrous Oxide, W. Jeffery Reeder, Annika M. Quick, Tiffany B. Farrell, Shawn G. Benner, Kevin P. Feris, Alessandra Marzadri, Daniele Tonina

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a potent greenhouse gas with an estimated 10% of anthropogenic N₂O coming from the hyporheic zone of streams and rivers. However, difficulty in making accurate fine-scale field measurements has prevented detailed understanding of the processes of N₂O production and emission at the bedform and flowline scales. Using large-scale, replicated flume experiments that employed high-density chemical concentration measurements, we have been able to refine the current conceptualization of N₂O production, consumption, and emission from the hyporheic zone. We present a predictive model based on a Damköhler-type transformation (τ̃) in …

Integrated Geophysical Analysis In The Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico, Mei Liu

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The formation of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) relates to the breakup of Pangea and opening of the central Atlantic Ocean. The tectonic history of the basin is still being debated due to lack of geological constraints. This project addresses the crustal architecture in the northeastern GoM from integrative analysis of multiple geophysical datasets to provide constraints for the tectonic reconstruction.

The objectives of this study are: 1) to delineate various tectonic zones (continental and oceanic domains) and map the boundary between them, 2) to derive physical properties of the subsurface rocks, 3) to map the major tectonic structures in …

Integrated Geophysical Methods To Characterize Subsidence In Butte, Montana, U.S.A., Kristen Prudhomme

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Geophysical investigations, designed to characterize unique subsidence features of unknown natural origin, provide imaging analysis of potential causes of subsidence. Recent subsidence in the alluvial plain in Butte, Montana is unrelated to historic mining in the area. This study aims to utilize a combined application of shallow electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), self-potential (SP), and frequency-domain electromagnetic (FDEM) methods in order to develop a better understanding of the particular set of hydrogeological and environmental conditions that contribute to this unique phenomena. Geophysical measurements provide lateral and vertical variations of electrical resistivity in the subsurface to a depth of 10 m while …

Single-Station Seismo-Acoustic Monitoring Of Nyiragongo's Lava Lake Activity (D.R. Congo), Jeffrey B. Johnson

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since its last effusive eruption in 2002, Nyiragongo has been an open-vent volcano characterized by the world's largest persistent lava lake. This lava lake provides a unique opportunity to detect pressure change in the magmatic system by analyzing its level fluctuations. We demonstrate that this information is contained in the seismic and infrasound signals generated by the lava lake's activity. The continuous seismo-acoustic monitoring permits quantification of lava lake dynamics, which is analyzed retrospectively to identify periods of volcanic unrest. Synchronous, high-resolution satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images are used to constrain lava lake level by measuring the length of …

Infrasound Tornillos Produced By Volcán Cotopaxi’S Deep Crater, J. B. Johnson, M. C. Ruiz, H. D. Ortiz, L. M. Watson, G. Viracucha, P. Ramon, M. Almeida

CGISS Publications and Presentations

We characterize and interpret a new type of infrasound signal originating from the summit of Volcán Cotopaxi (Ecuador) that was primarily observed between September 2015 and March 2016, following the 2015 eruptive period. This infrasound waveform is a slowly decaying sinusoid with exceptional low-frequency (f_p = 0.2 Hz) and high quality factor (Q = ~10) and resembles the shape of tornillo seismic waveforms. The repeating events, occurring about once per day in early 2016, are stable in frequency content, and we attribute them to excitation of a vertical-walled crater, with radius of about 125mand length of 300 …

Seismic Imaging Of The Main Frontal Thrust In Nepal Reveals A Shallow Décollement And Blind Thrusting, Rafael V. Almeida, Judith Hubbard, Lee Liberty, Anna Foster, Soma Nath Sapkota

CGISS Publications and Presentations

Because great earthquakes in the Himalaya have an average recurrence interval exceeding 500 yr, most of what we know about past earthquakes comes from paleoseismology and tectonic geomorphology studies of the youngest fault system there, the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT). However, these data are sparse relative to fault segmentation and length, and interpretations are often hard to validate in the absence of information about fault geometry. Here, we image the upper two km of strata in the vicinity of the fault tip of the MFT in central Nepal (around the town of Bardibas) applying a pre-stack migration approach to two …

Shergottite Northwest Africa 6963: A Pyroxene‐Cumulate Martian Gabbro, Justin Filiberto, Juliane Gross, Arya Udry, Jarek Trela, Axel Wittmann, Kevin M. Cannon, Sarah Penniston-Dorland, Richard Ash, Victoria E. Hamilton, Andrea L. Meado, Paul Carpenter, Brad Jolliff, Eric C. Ferré

Geoscience Faculty Research

Northwest Africa (NWA) 6963 was found in Guelmim‐Es‐Semara, Morocco, and based on its bulk chemistry and oxygen isotopes, it was classified as a Martian meteorite. On the basis of a preliminary study of the textures and crystal sizes, it was resubclassified as a gabbroic shergottite because of the similarity with terrestrial and lunar gabbros. However, the previous work was not a quantitative investigation of NWA 6963; to supplement the original resubclassification and enable full comparison between this and other Martian samples; here we investigate the mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, quantitative textural analyses, and spectral properties of gabbroic shergottite NWA 6963 to …

Joint Geodetic And Seismic Analysis Of Englacial And Subglacial Hydraulic Effects On Surface Crevassing Near A Seasonal, Glacier-Dammed Lake On Gornergletscher, Switzerland, Louis Stephen Garcia

LSU Master's Theses

Glacial outburst floods are difficult to predict and threaten human life. These events are characterized by rapid draining of glacier-dammed lakes via the sub/englacial hydraulic network to the proglacial stream. The glacier-dammed lake on Gornergletscher in Switzerland, which fills and drains each summer, provides an opportunity to study this hazard. For three drainages (2004, 2006, and 2007), icequakes (IQ) are tracked as well as on-ice GPS movement. The seasonal seismic networks had 8 – 24 three-component stations and apertures of about 300 – 400 m on the glacier surface. The seasonal GPS arrays contained 4 – 8 GPS antennae on …

Detection Of Bedrock Fractures And Joints Beneath Cover: Geophysical Approaches To An Engineering Geology Problem, Muthanna Yousif Yaqoob Aldiney

Dissertations

This research used geophysical methods to detect the presence of sub-vertical failure planes, their direction(s), and their frequency in bedrock beneath soil or glacial drift overburden. Azimuthal measurements using the seismic, electrical resistivity (ER), and electromagnetic conductivity were made to evaluate which techniques might provide the best indication of the bedrock joints, faults, or shear zones. Measurements were made at multiple sites near each of three locations: Jackson, Alpena, and Grand Ledge, Michigan. The first two are former limestone quarries and the third is underlain by sandstone. Seismic measurements began with one or two linear refraction spreads, used to establish …

3-D Reconstructions And Numerical Simulations Of Precarious Rocks In Southern California, Christine E. Wittich, Tara C. Hutchinson, J. Desanto, D. Sandwell

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Reliable estimates of seismic hazard are essential for the development of resilient communities; however, estimates of rare, yet high intensity earthquakes are highly uncertain due to a lack of observations and recordings. Lacking this data, seismic hazard analyses may be based on extrapolations from earthquakes with more moderate return periods, which can lead to physically unrealistic earthquake scenarios. However, the existence of certain precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) has been identified as an indicator of an upper bound ground motion, which precludes toppling of the balanced rock, over its lifetime. To this end, a survey of PBRs was conducted in proximity …

Landscape Analysis Of Soil Methane Flux Across Complex Terrain, Kendra E. Kaiser, Brian L. Mcglynn, John E. Dore

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Relationships between methane (CH₄) fluxes and environmental conditions have been extensively explored in saturated soils, while research has been less prevalent in aerated soils because of the relatively small magnitudes of CH₄ fluxes that occur in dry soils. Our study builds on previous carbon cycle research at Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest, Montana, to identify how environmental conditions reflected by topographic metrics can be leveraged to estimate watershed scale CH₄ fluxes from point scale measurements. Here, we measured soil CH₄ concentrations and fluxes across a range of landscape positions (7 riparian, 25 upland), utilizing topographic and …