Sedimentology Commons^™

Antler Foreland Basin Evolution Recorded In Detrital Zircon U-Pb Geochronology, James Duncan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Antler orogeny was a Devonian-Mississippian (375-320 Ma) mountain building event that occurred along the western Laurentian margin. The initiation of the Antler orogeny is marked by the emplacement of the Roberts Mountain Allochthon (RMA) that thrust Cambrian-Devonian deep water marine siliciclastic rocks 100 km eastward onto the western Laurentian margin. Shortening related to the Antler orogeny deformed RMA strata and caused a flexural response in the continental crust that resulted in the formation of the adjacent Antler Foreland basin. The paleogeographic history of the RMA strata and tectonic drivers for the Antler orogeny are still debated. Proposed models suggest …

Coastal Geomorphic Response To Sea-Level Rise, Storms, And Antecedent Geology: Examples From The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Clayton Dike

Dissertations

Sea-level rise and tropical cyclone activity are threatening coastlines around the world. Past geologic coastal responses can be used to inform future scenarios. This three-part study examines the response of coastal systems to sea-level rise, storms, sediment supply, and antecedent geology over the past ~ 140 ka.

The first study is of the Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, coastal system along the northern Gulf of Mexico incorporating sediment supply, subsidence, and antecedent topography paired with an examination of geologic response to sea-level fall and rise. I used core and geophysical data that resolve incised valleys and other subsurface deposits from ~ …

Arkansas Corn And Grain Sorghum Research Studies 2021, Victor Ford, Jason Kelley, Nathan Mckinney Ii

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

The 2021 edition of the Arkansas Corn and Grain Sorghum Research Studies Series includes research results on topics pertaining to corn and grain sorghum production, including weed, disease, and insect management; economics; sustainability; irrigation; post-harvest drying; soil fertility; mycotoxins; cover crop management; and research verification program results. Our objective is to capture and broadly distribute the results of research projects funded by the Arkansas Corn and Grain Sorghum Board. The intended audience includes producers and their advisors, current investigators, and future researchers. The Series serves as a citable archive of research results.

Provenance, Composition And Transport Processes Of Pleistocene-Recent Turbidite Sediments Of The Se Nazca Plate, Odp Site 1232, Kimberly D. Beck

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A 300 meter sequence of Pleistocene turbidite deposits was recovered on the Nazca Plate at the subducting edge of the Peru-Chile Trench at ODP Site 1232. Analysis of the coarsest particles in the turbidite sequences implies sediment was supplied in some proportion by terrestrial erosion and originated in the coastal, central, and Andean volcanic/magmatic belt which parallels the Southern Chilean coast, and the predominant material type is volcanic. Petrographic and geochemical analyses show that samples from 3 - 140 mbsf contain >43% fresh, angular glass. New calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy brackets the sediment ages of the upper 288 m of cored …

Sedimentary Characteristics And Associated Carbon And Nutrients Of Overbank Sediments Deposited During The 2018, 2019, And 2020 Floods In Embanked Floodplains Along The Lower Mississippi River Near Natchez, Mississippi, Rachel Kelk

Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) experienced major floods in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Sediment deposition in the embanked floodplains during floods represent important storage and sequestration opportunities for carbon and nutrients from ~40% of the continental USA. This research aims to compare depositional thicknesses, organic matter (OM), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) concentrations, and grain sizes in floodplain sediments deposited by the combined 2018-19 floods to the 2020 flood along the LMR near Natchez, Mississippi. Greater depositional thicknesses in 2018-19 are best explained by their combined flood durations; the 2019 flood was the longest in recorded history. Slightly higher …

Sand Microtextures As Indicators Of Depositional Environment – A Comparison Of Fluvial, Marine And Aeolian Sediments, Brian Hanson, Diane M. Burns

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) has been used to examine sediment surfaces since the late 1960’s. More recently, results of SEM analyses of grains have been used to link depositional environments and modes of transport for sediments and sandstones (Krinsely and Trusty, 1986; Mahaney and Kalm 2000; Mahaney et al., 2001). This technique has been considered to be a viable, though time consuming, option for researchers interpreting depositional environments. V-pits are a microfeature which is claimed to indicate a littoral deposition environment (Krinsley and Trusty, 1986; Middleton and Kassera, 1987), while others claim it is a result of fluvial processes …

Echoed Sites And The Unknowable Object, Joseph Canizales

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis will discuss the expanded field of sculpture, simulacra, digital technology, and two terms I’ve devised: the unknowable object, and echoed sites. Within these two terms, I’m concerned with the complicated relationship between humans and geology and how we extract material from the ground without reflecting on the geologic history of the site. In echoed sites I create sculptures with and without a geologic site or object, by way of digital technology. These forms display two states paradoxically in balance, where what’s presented leaves more questions than answers. Thus, as part of echoed sites, exists the unknowable object. …

A New Model For Predicting The Drag And Lift Forces Of Turbulent Newtonian Flow On Arbitrarily Shaped Shells On The Seafloor, Carley R. Walker, James V. Lambers, Julian Simeonov

Dissertations

Currently, all forecasts of currents, waves, and seafloor evolution are limited by a lack of fundamental knowledge and the parameterization of small-scale processes at the seafloor-ocean interface. Commonly used Euler-Lagrange models for sediment transport require parameterizations of the drag and lift forces acting on the particles. However, current parameterizations for these forces only work for spherical particles. In this dissertation we propose a new method for predicting the drag and lift forces on arbitrarily shaped objects at arbitrary orientations with respect to the direction of flow that will ultimately provide models for predicting the sediment sorting processes that lead to …

Texture And Composition Of An Arid-Climate Weathering Profile And The Link Between Bedrock And Derived Sediment Composition, Kristan Leigh Watkins

Masters Theses

Multiple compositional aspects of Holocene, terrigenous-clastic sediment differ from its source, the underlying Cretaceous Stepladder granodiorite (Mojave Desert, California). Different processes can cause sediments to change in composition from source, including chemical weathering, hydrodynamic sorting during transport, and diagenesis. Sorting and physical processes have previously suggested. To assess the relative contributions of these processes to understand provenance reconstruction, the textures and compositions of an exposed Holocene saprolite weathering profile, grus, and granodiorite bedrock were studied. Fracture density in the weathering profile decreased from ~10% at the top to ~2% at the bottom of the profile in contact with the bedrock. …

Sediment Buffering And Recycling On An Annual To Centennial Scale Along The Mississippi River, Nikki E. Neubeck

LSU Master's Theses

Although the Mississippi River and its tributaries have been investigated for many years, the alteration of the river through dams, levees, and diversions has affected how sediment is transported from source to sink (>10³ y). Previous provenance research using detrital zircon U-Pb dating indicates a slow transport time from source-to-sink, but recent anthropogenic alterations of the river may potentially diminish the transportation time of heavy minerals due to an increase in flow efficiency. The objective of this study is to analyze the degree of buffering and recycling of Mississippi River sediment over a range of short time scales, …

Thickness Of Fluvial Deposits Records Climate Oscillations, Xiaoping Yuan, Laure Guerit, Jean Braun, Delphine Rouby, Charles Shobe

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Fluvial deposits offer Earth’s best-preserved geomorphic record of past climate change over geological timescales. However, quantitatively extracting this information remains challenging in part due to the complexity of erosion, sediment transport and deposition processes and how each of them responds to climate. Furthermore, sedimentary basins have the potential to temporarily store sediments, and rivers subsequently rework those sediments. This may introduce time lags into sedimentary signals and obscure any direct correlation with climate forcing. Here, using a numerical model that combines all three processes—and a new analytical solution—we show that the thickness of fluvial deposits at the outlet of a …

Groundwater Modeling Of The West Plains, Wa, Erin L. Toulou, Chad Pritchard Phd, Lauren Stachowiak Phd

2022 Symposium

Located in Eastern Washington in the West Plains Region sits a plateau of Columbia River Basalts between Deep Creek, Hangman Creek, and south of the Spokane River. Primarily in Airway Heights, the amount of drinking water as well as the quality of the water has affected residents in the area. The most recent issue is PFAS contamination, which is thought to negatively affect human health and is found in drinking water wells across the West Plains. We can interpret subsurface geology using new well logs from Fairchild Air Force Base and in the Palisades area. When using ArcGIS PRO, well …

New Hampshire Continental Shelf Geospatial Database: Surficial Geology Maps And Sediment Grain Size Data, Larry G. Ward, Zachary S. Mcavoy, Rachel C. Morrison

Data Catalog

The “New Hampshire Continental Shelf Geospatial Database: Surficial Geology Maps and Sediment Grain Size Data” consists of high-resolution surficial geology maps of the continental shelf off New Hampshire to Jeffreys Ledge in the Western Guff of Maine (WGOM) and supporting sediment grain size information. The surficial geology maps cover ~3,250 km² (Figure 1). The maps depict three different classifications based on the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standards (CMECS; FGDC, 2012): Geoforms (major morphologic or physiographic features; Figure 2; Table 1), Geologic Substrate Subclass (Figure 3; Table 2), and Geologic Substrate Group (Figure 4; Table 2). The maps are …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2021, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Leslie M. Howard, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division

This report is a synthesis of groundwater-level monitoring programs in Nebraska. It is a continuation of the series of annual reports and maps produced by the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) of the University of Nebraska in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the 1950s. Groundwater-level monitoring began in Nebraska in 1930 in an effort to survey the state’s groundwater resources and to observe changes in its availability on a continuing basis. The CSD and USGS cooperatively developed, maintained, and operated an observation-well network throughout the state. These two agencies were responsible for collecting and archiving this information, …

Pixe Analysis Of Heavy Metals In Soil Along The East River, Mia Villeneuve

Honors Theses

We collected samples of soil from along the East River in Queens, New York, near the Hell Gate Bridge, on the Astoria Park side of the bridge in 2019 and on the Randall’s Island Park side in 2021. We performed proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis on the samples and found that soil closer to the Hell Gate Bridge contained higher concentrations of heavy metals, specifically lead and zinc. Many of the soil samples contained lead concentrations greater than the EPA standard of 400 ppm. We also performed PIXE analysis on a sample of the paint used on the bridge and …

Baseflow And Water Resilience Variability In Two Water Management Units In Southeastern Brazil, Lucas Vituri Santarosa, Didier Gastmans, Troy E. Gilmore, Jan Boll, Sebastian Balbin Betancur, Vitor Fidelis Monteiro Gonçalves

Conservation and Survey Division

Changes in climate and water demand in densely populated regions increasingly affect hydrological systems, and, in turn, impact socioeconomic conditions. In this case study, we identify how the hydrogeological frameworks of two water resource management units, Tietê-Jacaré (TJ) and Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí (PCJ) in Sao Paulo state (Brazil), control the baseflow processes and resilience in the face of streamflow fluctuations in response to anthropogenic activities and climate variation. The results reveal between 40% and 75% contributions of baseflow to total streamflow in basins overlying crystalline and sedimentary aquifers. The basins in PCJ which mostly overly crystalline aquifers, have shorter water residence times …

Distribution Of Particulate Organic Carbon – Fluxes And Inventories – In Growth-Faulted Coastal Wetlands, Samuel Joel Whitehead

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Coastal wetlands along the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOMx) are critically important but threatened environments which provide significant and diverse economic, social, and environmental value. These environments are essential components to the global carbon cycle, serving as one of the most efficient terrestrial carbon sinks. Since onset of the Industrial Revolution increasing rates of coastal wetland loss have been documented due to a variety of anthropogenic activities, neotectonic processes, subsidence, and rising sea-levels. This research utilized an array of methods and sedimentological analyses to test the hypothesis that growth-fault induced changes at Earth’s surface affects the delivery to, and storage …

Regional Correlation And Depositional History Using Well Log And Core Data Of The Geneseo-Burket From The Poseidon 8m Well, Westmoreland County Pa, Usa, Spencer Leonard Williams Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Abstract

Regional Correlation and Depositional History using Well Log and Core Data of the Geneseo-Burket from the Poseidon 8M Well, Westmoreland County PA, USA

Spencer Williams

Natural gas producers have invested billions of dollars in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to establish significant gas production from the Devonian Marcellus Shale and the deeper Ordovician Utica-Point Pleasant interval. In addition, commercial gas production has been reported from several other Devonian shale units in the Appalachian region, including the Rhinestreet, Levanna, and Geneseo-Burket. The Marcellus Shale is the largest natural gas play in the United States. The Marcellus is located directly under the …

Strange Stones Of Skull Creek: Basalt Glacial Erratics And Omars In Eastern Nebraska, Robert M. Joeckel, Jesse T. Korus, Judith Turk, C. C. Arps, N. V. Arps, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division

We describe unusual stream- reworked glacially transported rocks (erratics) from a locality 50 km east of the limit of all pre- Illinoian (pre- 190 ka) Pleistocene glaciations in the central USA. Almost all these erratics consist of the igneous rock basalt, and of those, the vast majority have at least one fl at, smooth face. Some have two or more such faces that meet at obtuse angles along one or more well- defi ned, straight edges. We attribute these features, as well as laminations, plumose marks, and other features, to columnar jointing in ancient lava fl ows and shallow intrusions. …

The Impact Of Sampling Methodology On Soil Bulk Density Measurement By The Clod Method, Aldi J. Airori, Trinity Baker, Judith Turk

Conservation and Survey Division

The clod method is a widely used and accurate bulk density method. However, its use is limited to sampling from soil pits. This study was conducted to: 1) determine whether clods collected from cores provide similar bulk density measurements to those collected from soil pits and 2) evaluate the impact of various clod bulk density methods on carbon stock calculation. Clods were collected from soil pits, 5.1 cm soil cores, and 8.9 cm soil cores. Three-dimensional laser scanning was used to measure the volume of the soil clods before and after oven-drying and bulk density was calculated as the dry …