Sedimentology Commons^™

Examining Denitrification In Agricultural Ditch Sediments Vegetated With Rice Cutgrass (Leersia Oryzoides): Modeling Seasonal Variation Across Increasing Levels Of Nitrate Loading And Model Application To Pre-Existing Datasets, Shannon Lee Speir

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen (N) derived from fertilizer application in agricultural systems may contribute to significant environmental impacts, including eutrophication of fresh and coastal waters. Rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides) can significantly enhance denitrification potential in agricultural ditch sediments, but relationships with known drivers are not well understood. To address this, I examined effects of nitrate (NO3-) availability on dinitrogen gas (N2) and NO3- fluxes seasonally in Chapter 2. Denitrification rates were measured as N2 flux from intact vegetated sediment cores using Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS). Michaelis-Menten models were developed from observations to mathematically describe N2 fluxes across the spring, summer, and fall …

Modern Fair-Weather And Storm Sediment Transport Around Ship Island, Mississippi: Implications For Coastal Habitats And Restoration Efforts, Eve Rettew Eisemann

Master's Theses

The Mississippi – Alabama barrier island chain is experiencing accelerated sea level rise, decreased sediment supply, and frequent hurricane impacts. These three factors drive unprecedented rates of morphology change and ecosystem reduction. All islands in the chain have experienced land loss on the order of hectares per year since records began in the 1840s. In 1969, Hurricane Camille impacted as a Category 5, breaching Ship Island, and significantly reduced viable seagrass habitat. Hurricane Katrina impacted as a Category 3 in 2005, further widening Camille Cut. To better understand the sustainability of these important islands and the ecosystems they support, sediment …

Growth Of Methanogens In The Presence Of Perchlorate Salts: A Study For Possible Life On Mars, John Cale

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Phoenix Lander collected soil samples from Mars, and it detected perchlorate salts in its analysis [1]. As oxidizing agents, perchlorates pose a threat to the hypothesis that there may be microbial life on Mars. Since Mars is very dry, perchlorate may continue to accumulate in the soil. If anaerobic methanogens inhabit Mars, then they must be able to grow in the presence of perchlorate salts. There were four species of methanogens tested in this project. The methanogens were first exposed to small concentrations of calcium perchlorate, and then they were gradually tested at higher concentrations. Growth was measured by …

Cryogenic Viscous Liquids On Icy Moons, Danielle Neighbour

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The study of cryogenically viscous liquids such as methane and ethane offers critical insight into the behavior of fluids on icy moons such as Saturn’s moon Titan. Shrouded by a hazy hydrocarbon shield, Titan’s significant nitrogen atmosphere of 1.5 bar, methane-driven hydrological cycle, and lakes and rivers are vaguely similar to our Earthly home. The European-created Huygens probe, carried by the Cassini spacecraft, arrived on Titan’s surface in January 2005 [1]. Upon landing, Huygens photographed its landing site, as seen in Figure 1. The photo depicts rock like objects, thought to be comprised of water ice sitting in a dry …

Characterization And Delineation Of Karst Geohazards Along Rm652 Using Electrical Resistivity Tomography, Culberson County, Texas, Adam F. Majzoub

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Delaware Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico is the major western subdivision of the Permian Basin and a northern extension of the Chihuahuan Desert. The major evaporite unit within the Delaware Basin is the Castile Formation, which consists of gypsum/anhydrite and is highly susceptible to dissolution and karsting. Manifestations of karst within the Castile outcrop are abundant and include sinkholes, subsidence features and caves, both epigene and hypogene in origin.

Land reconnaissance surveys conducted during the summer of 2015 documented abundant karst landforms in close proximity to a major thoroughfare, RM 652, in Culberson County, Texas. 2D …

The Development And Evaluation Of Lecture Tutorials For Introductory Soil Science, Judith K. Turk

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The wide-array of concepts from the natural sciences that must be mastered to succeed in an introductory soil science course presents a significant challenge to students. This study was conducted to determine if students’ conceptual development regarding topics in introductory soil science could be improved by using lecture tutorials. Lecture tutorials are activities that students complete following a lecture. They guide the students to critically analyze their understanding of a concept presented in the lecture. Eight lecture tutorials were written and evaluated using pre/post quizzes and surveys in two courses (an environmental science program course and a general studies course). …

Sedimentary Petrology Of The Hartshorne Formation, Southeastern Arkoma Basin, Arkansas, Ruizhe Yin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Pennsylvanian Hartshorne Sandstone crops out in an east trending belt across central Arkansas immediately north of the Ouachita orogenic belt and south of the Boston Mountains. The unit, composed of massive to cross bedded sandstone ranging to 150m in thickness, was deposited by a west-flowing river system that extended from central Arkansas to southeastern Oklahoma. The source of the sediment has been extensively discussed but not completely established. The object of this thesis is to constrain the source area and terrain based on thin section mineralogy and texture. Thin sections were prepared from outcrops in the Arkoma Basin and …

Channel Sediment And Mining-Lead Storage In Flat River Creek, Old Lead Belt, Missouri, Ralph Joseph Hill

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Historical mining for lead (Pb) in the Old Lead Belt District introduced large volumes of tailings into nearby streams resulting in the large-scale contamination of channel bed and bar deposits in Big River which drains the southeastern Missouri Ozarks. Tailings pile sites have been remediated so that present contamination sources to the river are primarily from the remobilization of Pb stored in channel and floodplain deposits. This study examined the channel geomorphology and sediment geochemistry of Flat River Creek (FRC), a major tributary to the Big River which drains an area that includes three of the six major mines in …

Cyclically-Forced Hyperpycnites Of The Ancient Colorado River Proximal Prodelta, Sandra R. Waresak

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Prodeltaic deposits record a distal, minimally reworked archive of dominant processes active at the fluvial-marine interface. The Fish Creek-Vallecito Basin (CA, US) preserves an ~3 km-thick, lower Pliocene, progradational deltaic succession formed when the ancestral Colorado River infiltrated the early Gulf of California. The interpreted prodeltaic unit in this succession (Mud Hills Member of the Deguynos Formation) contains an ~40 m-thick interval of rhythmic bedding with consistently alternating silt- to fine sand-dominated and clay-dominated beds forming couplets with an average thickness of 12 cm. Sedimentological analysis of the rhythmites reveals the couplets are laterally persistent with gradational to sharp, flat …

Miocene Contourite Deposition (Along-Slope) Near Desoto Canyon, Gulf Of Mexico: A Product Of An Enhanced Paleo-Loop Current, Shane Christopher Dunn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A Neogene contourite depositional system was identified and mapped along the DeSoto Slope in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, U.S.A. A series of drift deposits comprising the larger contourite depositional system were interpreted from a 2-D industry seismic data set. The now subsurface drift deposits are adjacent to the anomalous seabed feature, the DeSoto Canyon, and these data suggest contourite deposition and ocean currents are in integral part of the canyon’s depositional history. The contourite depositional system is underlain by an extensive, middle Miocene aged, erosional unconformity formed by ocean currents. The timing of this erosional surface is in alignment …

Sedimentation Risk Assessment Using Satellite And Geospatial Data In Lagoa Feia, Brazil, Ualas B. Rohrer, Buddhika D. Madurapperuma

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Past: Unfolding The Dynamics Among Climate, Balkan Landscapes, And Humans Over The Past Millennium, Charuta J. Kulkarni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The primary objective of this doctoral dissertation is to reconstruct the environmental history of the Central Balkans (Serbia) over the past millennium utilizing biological proxies (pollen, spores, and charcoal), geochemical signals through X-ray fluorescence (XRF), statistical analyses, and atomic mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C chronology. This dissertation establishes the first chronological framework for vegetation-landscape changes in Serbia and discusses the role of humans and climate as underlying processes.

Chapter 1 discusses the background and the nature of the research problem followed by the extensive literature review on the topic of the Holocene climate and paleoecology. The state of Holocene paleoecology …

Montauk Point, An Essential Field Experience For Students In The New York City Area, Stanley Schleifer, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Keshaw Narine

Publications and Research

Except for a thin strip of Proterozoic and Paleozoic metamorphic and igneous rock along its very western edge and an outcropping of coastal plain deposits along its northwestern edge, the surface of Long Island is immediately underlain by unconsolidated deposits consisting of moraines of glacial till, outwash plains of stratified drift, and beach and dune complex formed by wave action. Two very prominent features of the island are the Harbor Hill Moraine, which marks the southernmost extent of the last major advance of continental glacier ice in the New York area during the Pleistocene and the Ronkonkoma Moraine, which marks …

Surficial Geology Of York College Campus (Queens) And Montauk Point (Long Island): An Open Access To Geoscience Education, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Krishna Mahabir, Erik Menjivar, Ality Aghedo, Dennis Baidoo, Tenzin Choeying, Vanessa Erwin, Jonathan Xavier, Laboni Molla, Akeed Alrubay

Publications and Research

To evaluate compositional and textural differences among the samples collected from York College (YC) campus (Queens), Montauk Point (MP) and Hither Hills (HH), Long Island, emphasis is given to the general geologic setting, overall grain size distribution, and relative abundances of light and heavy mineral assemblages. Geologic setting encompasses outwash plains (York College), fluvioglacial and glacial (Montauk Point) and beach and dune complex (Hither Hills). YC samples were collected from depth ranging 40 cm to 250 cm and are mostly an assortment of medium to coarse sand, granule to cobble sized, minor silt, and clay. Presence of low angle cross …

Birth And Evolution Of The Rio Grande Fluvial System In The Last 8 Ma:Progressive Downward Integration And Interplay Between Tectonics, Volcanism, Climate, And River Evolution, Marisa N. Repasch

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Rio Grande-Rio Chama (RG-RC) fluvial system has evolved dramatically over the last 8 Ma, undergoing channel migrations, drainage capture and integration events, volcanic damming, and carving and refilling of paleocanyons. Volcanism concurrent with the development of the river system provides a unique opportunity to apply multiple geochronometers to the study of its incision and drainage evolution. This paper reports 19 new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar basalt ages and 19 detrital mineral samples (zircon and sanidine) collected from RG-RC alluvium overlain by dated basalt flows in the context of a compilation of published ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar basalt ages. The …

Using Rare Earth Elements To Constrain Particulate Organic Carbon Flux In The East China Sea, Chin-Chang Hung, Ya-Feng Chen, Shih-Chieh Hsu, Kui Wang, Jianfang Chen, David J. Burdige

OES Faculty Publications

Fluxes of particulate organic carbon (POC) in the East China Sea (ECS) have been reported to decrease from the inner continental shelf towards the outer continental shelf. Recent research has shown that POC fluxes in the ECS may be overestimated due to active sediment resuspension. To better characterize the effect of sediment resuspension on particle fluxes in the ECS, rare earth elements (REEs) and organic carbon (OC) were used in separate two-member mixing models to evaluate trap-collected POC fluxes. The ratio of resuspended particles from sediments to total trap-collected particles in the ECS ranged from 82-94% using the OC mixing …

Validation Of N-Star Nitrogen Rate Recommendations And Evaluation Of N-Star Soil Sampling Procedures For Clay Soils In Arkansas, Jarom Thane Davidson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two methods for determining N-fertilizer recommendations for rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Arkansas are the standard N recommendation (SR) based on soil texture, previous crop, and rice cultivar, and the Nitrogen-Soil Test for Rice (N-STaR) which quantifies the potentially mineralizable-N of the soil and provides a site-specific N recommendation. The N-STaR program has recently been developed, and the validation of N-STaR for clay soils is an important step in ensuring that N-STaR predicts correct N-fertilizer rates for rice under a delayed-flood production system. Small-plot trials located across Arkansas compared the N-STaR 95 and 100% relative grain yield (RGY) N …

Early And Middle Atokan Lithostratigraphy And Reservoir Development, Northern Arkoma Basin, Northwestern Arkansas, Matthew Alan Blaylock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Arkoma Basin is a peripheral foreland arc basin associated with the Ouachita orogenic belt. In Arkansas, the basin is bounded by the Ouachita belt to the south and the Ozark Dome to the north. Sedimentary rocks of early to middle Atokan age are present in the shallow subsurface at the northern margin of the Arkoma Basin in northwestern Arkansas. Sedimentary units of this time interval reflect basinal subsidence, and the transition of the Arkoma Basin from a passive margin shelf to a rapidly evolving foreland arc basin. Sediment sources from the north and east produced a thickened Lower and …

Pore Characterizations And Distributions Within Niagaran – Lower Salina Reef Complex Reservoirs In The Silurian Northern Niagaran Pinnacle Reef Trend, Michigan Basin, Agam Arief Suhaimi

Masters Theses

The Northern Niagaran Pinnacle Reef Trend (NNPRT) has generated significant oil and gas production in Michigan. The best reservoir rock in the Reef Trend reservoirs are from porous and permeable dolomite of the Guelph Dolomite. Low-to-non reservoir limestone occurs interstratified with reservoir dolomite in many locations. This study utilizes available cores data, thin section Petrographic Image Analysis (PIA), Mercury Injection Capillary Pressure (MICP) and a newly developed Niagaran Reef depositional model (Rine, 2015) to characterize the distribution of pore geometry within each dolomitized Niagaran Reef Complex (Brown Niagaran – Lower Salina Group) reservoir facies and lithofacies. This study shows that …

Determining The Viability Of Recent Storms As Modern Analogues For North-Central Gulf Of Mexico Paleotempestology Through Sedimentary Analysis And Storm Surge Reconstruction, Joshua Caleb Bregy

Master's Theses

The northern Gulf of Mexico has been devastated by recent intense storms. Camille (1969) and Katrina (2005) are two notable hurricanes that made landfall in virtually the same location in Mississippi. However, fully understanding the risks and processes associated with hurricane impacts is impeded by a short and fragmented instrumental record. Paleotempestology could potentially use modern analogues from intense storms in this region to extend the hurricane record back to pre-observational time. Existing empirically based models can back-calculate surge heights over coastal systems as a function of transport distance, particle settling velocity, and gravitational acceleration. We collected cores in a …