Geophysics and Seismology Commons^™

Tidal And Structural Controls On Seismic Events Near The Grounding Line At Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica, Jade Cooley

All Master's Theses

Here I report seismic events occurring over a three-week period during the 2013-2014 austral summer near the grounding line of Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica. The ~24000 events over this time frame had a noticeable temporal pattern that correlates well with the principally diurnal tides of Antarctica. Falling and rising tide each accounted for nearly equal occurrence of events, and most (~42%) events occurred in the last third of any tidal cycle. Event epicenters were located using beamforming, and display a spatial pattern of two distinct clusters. Appearance of event location clusters differ on rising and falling tide. I theorize that, due …

Geophysical Interpretation And Static Reservoir Modeling Of Structurally Complex Reservoir, Rg Oil Field Area, Sirte Basin, Libya, Abdalla A. Abdelnabi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Cambrian-Ordovician and Upper Cretaceous reservoir formations are found in the central western Sirte Basin, the main oil producing region in the Sirte Basin, Libya. As a result of changes in sedimentary environments and structural activities, a number of irregularities in reservoir continuity have developed, which negatively affected the overall performance of the reservoir. Effective simulation of such complex reservoirs can be achieved by integrating geophysical, geological, and petrophysical data to construct a reliable full-field static model, which has the potential to simulate the vertical and lateral variations in the reservoir formations. In this study, 2D and 3D seismic data acquired …

Dissolution-Enlarged Fractures Imaging Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (Ert), Elnaz Siami-Irdemoosa

Doctoral Dissertations

"In recent years the electrical imaging techniques have been largely applied to geotechnical and environmental investigations. These techniques have proven to be the best geophysical methods for site investigations in karst terrain, particularly when the overburden soil is clay-dominated. Karst is terrain with a special landscape and distinctive hydrological system developed by dissolution of rocks, particularly carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite, made by enlarging fractures into underground conduits that can enlarge into caverns, and in some cases collapse to form sinkholes.

Bedding planes, joints, and faults are the principal structural guides for underground flow and dissolution in almost …

Deformation Processes At The Leading Edge Of The Sevier Fold And Thrust Belt, Southwest Utah, William Joseph Michael Chandonia

Masters Theses

"Deformation processes leading to formation and abandonment of 'triangle zones' along the leading edge of the Sevier fold and thrust belt are investigated near Kanarraville, Utah through construction of a detailed geologic map and cross-section along Spring Creek. Here the eastern limb of the Kanarra fold, a Sevier structure, is well exposed along the Hurricane Cliffs due to uplift and erosion of the footwall of the Hurricane Fault. The east-verging Kanarra fold changes from upright to overturned within Spring Creek. Within the fold limb, parasitic folds, minor thrust faults, and duplex structures result in local tectonic overthickening of units and …

Provenance And Depositional Environments Of Fluvial-Lacustrine Deposits In A Non-Marine Rift Basin, Lower-Triassic Jiucaiyuan And Shaofanggou Low-Order Cycles Bogda Shan, Nw China, Jaimeson Grigaitis Fredericks

Masters Theses

"The uppermost Carboniferous to Lower Triassic eolian-fluvial-lacustrine deposits of Turpan-Junggar Basin, NW China, record the non-marine sediment-filling processes in a continental rift basin in mid-latitude NE Pangea. This study focuses on the fluvial-lacustrine strata of the Lower Triassic Jiucaiyuan (JCY) and Shaofanggou (SFG) low-order cycles (LCs) in multiple half grabens at the southern and northern foothills of Bogda Shan. Outcrop, paleocurrent, and petrographic analyses indicate a southern provenance. Intermediate to felsic volcanic lithics and metamorphic lithics are interpreted as being derived from Tian Shan to the south while the sedimentary lithics originate from the local rift shoulders. The basaltic lithics …

Imaging In Karst Terrain Using The Electrical Resistivity And Multichannel Analyses Of Surface Wave Methods, Ragab W. Jaafar

Masters Theses

"Electrical resistivity tomography and multi-channel analyses of surface waves data were acquired at a study area in Phelps County in the south-central part of Missouri. The objectives of the investigation were fourfold: 1) to image the subsurface in the study area to a depth of 70 feet; 2) to compare the ERT images generated using both the dipole-dipole and Wenner-Schlumberger arrays; and 3) to assess how variations in the MASW array configuration affected MASW data quality; and 4) to compare the ERT-estimated depth to top-of-rock and the MASW-generated depth to top-of-rock.

The subsurface in the study area was imaged to …

Crustal Thickness And Vp/Vs Ratio Of Yellowstone, Eastern Snake River Plain, Wyoming Province, And The Northern Basin And Range Province Through Receiver Function Analysis, Avikant Dayma

Masters Theses

"For decades, numerous studies have been conducted and contradictory results were achieved about the origin and evolution of the Yellowstone supervolcano and the Eastern Snake River Plain. Whether the 640 km long time-progressive chain of rhyolitic calderas was formed due to mantle-plume or a result of lithospheric extension allowing the emergence of melt on the surface is still a debate. Using receiver function analyses, this study determines the crustal thickness and the Vp/Vs ratio below the Yellowstone Plateau, Wyoming Province (WP), Idaho Batholith (IB), Eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP), and the northern Basin and Range Province (BRP). The thickness is …

Investigation Of Earthquake And Geyser Activity From Short-Term Nodal Array Deployment Centered At Old Faithful Geyser, Susana I. Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Yellowstone National Park is home to an active caldera, centrally located on the North American continent. Several studies have concluded the existence of a hotspot that fuels the hydrothermal, geothermal and earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region. The geologic record of Yellowstone contains multiple layers of volcanic deposits that indicate the region experienced three previous massive volcanic eruptions dating back 2.05Mya, 1.2Mya and the most recent 640,000 years ago. Yellowstone is also home to one of the largest geothermal areas in the world. With this study, an in-depth look at seismicity and geyser events recorded within an active geothermal region, …

Using Underground Radon To Detect Inactive Geological Faults, Germán Rodríguez Ortiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis presents the results of an investigation of the concentration of radon in soil around a fault in the East Franklin Mountains in the El Paso area in West Texas. The connection between underground radon exhalations near active faults has been known for decades, but possible similar increases of underground radon levels around inactive faults have not been studied as thoroughly. Arguing that the dilatancy-diffusion model used to explain the phenomenon near active faults does not apply to the case of inactive faults, a hypoThesis is formulated under which increased levels of underground radon must be present near inactive …

Seismic Investigation Of The Kunlun Fault: Analysis Of The Indepth Iv 2-D Active-Source Seismic Dataset, William Seelig

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Tibetan Plateau has experienced significant crustal thickening and deformation since the continental subduction and collision of the Asian and Indian plates in the Eocene. Deformation of the northern Tibetan Plateau is largely accommodated by strike-slip faulting. The Kunlun Fault is a 1000-km long strike-slip fault near the northern boundary of the Plateau that has experienced five magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes in the past 100 years and represents a major rheological boundary. Active-source, 2-D seismic reflection/ refraction data, collected as part of project INDEPTH IV (International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya, phase IV) in 2007, was used …

Near-Surface And High Resolution Seismic Imaging Of The Bennett Thrust Fault In The Indio Mountains Of West Texas, Alan Thomas Vennemann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My research investigates the structure of the Indio Mountains in southwest Texas, 34 kilometers southwest of Van Horn, at the UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) Field Station using newly acquired active-source seismic data. The area is underlain by deformed Cretaceous sedimentary rocks that represent a transgressive sequence nearly 2 km in total stratigraphic thickness. The rocks were deposited in mid Cretaceous extensional basins and later contracted into fold-thrust structures during Laramide orogenesis. The stratigraphic sequence is an analog for similar areas that are ideal for pre-salt petroleum reservoirs, such as reservoirs off the coasts of Brazil and Angola …

Introducing Global Peat-Specific Temperature And Ph Calibrations Based On Brgdgt Bacterial Lipids, B.D.A. Naafs, G. N. Imglis, Y. Zheng, M. J. Amesbury, H. Biester, R. Bindler, J. Blewett, M. A. Burrows, D. Del Castillo Torres, F. M. Chambers, P. G. Hatcher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are membrane-spanning lipids from Bacteria and Archaea that are ubiquitous in a range of natural archives and especially abundant in peat. Previous work demonstrated that the distribution of bacterial branched GDGTs (brGDGTs) in mineral soils is correlated to environmental factors such as mean annual air temperature (MAAT) and soil pH. However, the influence of these parameters on brGDGT distributions in peat is largely unknown. Here we investigate the distribution of brGDGTs in 470 samples from 96 peatlands around the world with a broad mean annual air temperature (−8 to 27 °C) and pH (3–8) range …

Detecting Overpressure Zones By Using Model Based Inversion In Kupe Field, New Zealand, Timucin Cakir

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Overpressure is a significant parameter during a drilling process in oil exploration. This phenomenon happens when pore pressure exceeds the limit of hydrostatic pressure in a formation and causes drastic hazards such as blow outs while drilling. This thesis focuses on the determination of possible overpressure areas and studies at three wells in Kupe Field, which is considered to be a natural-gas field in Taranaki Basin. In an effort to identify potential overpressure zones at the Kupe Field, acoustic impedance responses of 3D seismic data for three wells, along with their well log responses were evaluated.

Seismic inversion plays an …

Magnetic Petrophysics Of The Vulcan Iron Formation (Michigan, Usa), Matthew Laird

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A detailed investigation of magnetic properties of the iron-bearing Traders and Curry members of the ~1.88 Ga Vulcan Iron Formation (Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula) was conducted using natural remanent magnetization, low-field magnetic susceptibility, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility, thermomagnetic and magnetic hysteresis, and first-order reversal curve analyses. A set of samples were also investigated using electron scanning microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry. Contrary to previously accepted views, our results indicate that the Traders and Curry members have substantially different properties. The older Traders member is a typical banded iron formation characterized by a higher relative amount of magnetite and stronger magnetic …

Mapping The Nonstationary Internal Tide With Satellite Altimetry, Edward Zaron

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

t Temporal variability of the internal tide has been inferred from the 23 year long combined records of the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Jason-2 satellite altimeters by combining harmonic analysis with an analysis of along-track wavenumber spectra of sea-surface height (SSH). Conventional harmonic analysis is first applied to estimate and remove the stationary components of the tide at each point along the reference ground tracks. The wavenumber spectrum of the residual SSH is then computed, and the variance in a neighborhood around the wavenumber of the mode-1 baroclinic M2 tide is interpreted as the sum of noise, broadband nontidal processes, and …

In-Situ Assessment Of Concrete Bridge Decks And Pavements Using Stress-Wave Based Methods, Mengxing Li

Doctoral Dissertations

"Concrete infrastructure of United States is aging and deteriorating. Accurate assessment the condition of concrete infrastructure is critical for its maintenance and rehabilitation. Stress-wave based methods, including ultrasonic surface wave (USW) and impact echo (IE), are becoming popular for characterizing defects and mechanical properties of concrete infrastructures. In this dissertation, a comprehensive literature review of seismic wave theory and common types of defects identified in concrete infrastructures, as well as stress-wave based methods used for concrete infrastructure monitoring and characterizing on a selected concrete bridge deck and two concrete pavement segments are present. The utility and reliability of both methods …

The Use Of Geophysical Methods For Dam Seepage Investigations And Dredged Oyster Deposit Characterization, Stanley Chinedu Nwokebuihe

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation is made up of three papers, which discuss the utility of geophysical tools in earthfill dam investigations and dredged oyster bed characterization.

In the first paper, an earthfill dam in Warren County, Missouri was effectively investigated for seepage through the dam and its outlet works using an integration of the electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization and spontaneous potential geophysical tools. Recommendations were subsequently made based on the results of the study on grout locations to prevent further seepage. In the second paper, a similar study of earthfill dam seepage was conducted on a different dam in Southern Missouri. …

Layered Crustal And Mantle Structure And Anisotropy Beneath The Afar Depression And Malawi Rift Zone, Cory Alexander Reed

Doctoral Dissertations

"Although a wealth of geophysical data sets have been acquired within the vicinity of continental rift zones, the mechanisms responsible for the breakup of stable continental lithosphere are ambiguous. Eastern Africa is host to the largest contemporary rift zone on Earth, and is thus the most prominent site with which to investigate the processes which govern the rupture of continental lithosphere. The studies herein represent teleseismic analyses of the velocity and thermomechanical structure of the crust and mantle beneath the Afar Depression and Malawi Rift Zone (MRZ) of the East African Rift System. Within the Afar Depression, the first densely-spaced …

Receiver Function Imaging Of Mantle Transition Zone Discontinuities Beneath Alaska, Haider Hassan Faraj Dahm

Doctoral Dissertations

"Subduction of tectonic plates is one of the most important tectonic processes, yet many aspects of subduction zone geodynamics remain unsolved and poorly understood, such as the depth extent of the subducted slab and its geometry. The Alaska subduction zone, which is associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North America plate, has a complex tectonic setting and carries a series of subduction episodes, and represents an excellent target to study such plate tectonic processes. Previous seismological studies in Alaska have proposed different depth estimations and geometry for the subducted slab. The Mantle transition zone discontinuities of …

Acquisition Of Active Multichannel Analysis Of Surface Waves (Masw) Data In Karst Terrain, Ghassan Salem Alsulaimani

Doctoral Dissertations

"This study was designed to verify the effects and data reproducibility when the length of receiver array, receiver spacing, source offset and array orientation parameters are changed for data acquired using multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), at intended target depth of 30ft (9m), and to compare the results with electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data obtained for the same study site.

The MASW data acquired for 34 sites, along four profiles for each site using variable source offsets of 10ft (3m) and 30ft (9.1m), and variable receiver spacings of 2.5ft (0.76m) and 5.0ft (0.76m), concurrently. Out of the 272 profiles …