Sedimentology Commons^™

Sedimentary Characteristics Of Flood Deposits In Coastal And Fluvial Environments: Examples From Washover Fans (North Carolina, Usa) And Floodplain Deposits (Mississippi, Usa), Shara Gremillion

Dissertations

Extreme flooding from severe and prolonged meteorological events and / or overbanking rivers are some of the most deadly and expensive disasters globally, impacting millions of lives, the environment, and property. People living in vulnerable areas, such as near coasts and rivers, are the first to be impacted with effects of these flood hazards. Scientific studies and their results can aid communities and officials in planning and preparing for those flood impacts. In this three-part study, flood impacts from coastal storms in North Carolina, and flooding along the Mississippi River (MSR) in the state of Mississippi, USA are assessed from …

Evidence For Subsidence Rate Variation In The Newark Basin And Its Influence On The Deposition Of Fluvial Sediments Of The Stockton Formation, Jane L. Alexander, Sean T. Thatcher, Jay Tobon, Victoria Rivelli

Publications and Research

The Stockton Formation of the Newark Basin represents an exciting time in Earth history during the early stages of rifting of the North Atlantic, with rapid subsidence and sediment deposition. Much of the previous work on this formation has been done using drill cores, with development limiting surface exposure. While this allows us to build a full stratigraphic sequence of deposition, it has the potential to miss smaller-scale variability and sedimentary structures. It is also difficult to understand the three-dimensional geometries, architecture and relationships between the depositional elements from drill core alone. An outcrop in North Bergen, NJ that was …

Comparison Of Soil Organic Matter Fractions In Non-Grazed And Prescribed Sheep-Grazed Managed Land In Southwest Michigan, Julia M. Shreve, Katelyn Smith, Lauren Burns

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

The impact of prescribed sheep grazing on soil organic carbon (SOC) was investigated by comparing a 2-acre grazed and a 2-acre non-grazed (control) portion of redeveloped land previously seeded with pasture mix in Southwest Michigan. This study aimed to measure changes in SOC resulting from prescribed sheep grazing by examining two key soil organic matter (SOM) fractions: particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) along with soil physical and chemical properties (e.g., bulk density, infiltration rate, moisture content, pH, conductivity). Soil cores were collected from 5 locations within each of the 2-acre plots using a diagonal random sampling …

Challenges Of Using More Precise Temporal And Spatial Resolution Of Remote Sensing Data For Surface Water Quality Monitoring, Ivan Rykin

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Monitoring river suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is critical for environmental challenges such as understanding the fate of thawed permafrost sediment and its impact on global carbon cycling. However, traditional SSC monitoring using Landsat imagery is limited by spatial and temporal constraints, particularly for narrow rivers in cloudy and/or snowy regions.

This study investigates the use of higher spatial (3 m) and temporal (daily) resolution satellite imagery from the PlanetScope constellation to estimate SSC in remote rivers such as those in the Arctic. I compare the performance of PlanetScope’s spectral resolution (4 and 8 bands) with Landsat 7. Merging data from …

Coastal Sedimentary Records Of Extreme Events And Human Activity: Examples From Hurricanes And Microplastics, Nicholas T. Culligan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coastal regions are uniquely vulnerable to a myriad of natural and anthropogenically caused stresses such as hurricane strikes and chronic microplastic pollution. Both hurricanes and microplastics have major negative effects on global coastlines and are forecast to become more damaging in the future. However, current model trends are based on limited modern data and may not provide an accurate or comprehensive view of the future. Therefore, this dissertation investigates coastal stratigraphic records to determine long-term past trends of these presses and pulses so that researchers, stakeholders, and policy makers can use them to enact strategies to mitigate damages from worsening …

Polygenetic Cave Sedimentation And Speleogenesis In The Mccloud Limestone Of Northern California, Niles Lathrop

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Caves in the Permian-aged, McCloud Limestone of the Klamath Mountains of Northern California preserve a diverse range of clastic sediments that represent broad-scale variations in paleo-hydrologic conditions and transport mechanisms that hint at varied modes of speleogenesis through local landscape development. Caves in the McCloud Limestone exhibit a range of cave passage geometries and arrangements that suggests periods of both hypogene and epigene cave development through temporal and spatial scales. This study evaluates the variability in the distribution, mineralogy, and transport mechanisms of clastic-cave sediments in seven hydrologically-distinct caves in the McCloud Limestone to establish relationships between clastic-cave sedimentation and …

Exploring Overbank Sediment Deposition Variation In Heavily Modified Floodplains Of The Lower Mississippi River: A Sedimentological And Geophysical Analysis, Seth Fradella

Master's Theses

Since the 1930s, the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) has experienced large-scale modifications to the channel profile and surrounding floodplains through dams, dikes, revetments, dredging, and channel cutoffs. Although these changes have improved navigation and reduced flood risk, unanticipated changes to the major flood return period, individual flood severity and duration, and sediment regime have become increasingly apparent and sometimes problematic, such as the 2011 and 2018-2020 floods. Flood control levees along the LMR have reduced the natural floodplain area by 70-90%, resulting in heavily restricted overbank storage capacity of water and sediment. For the same flood events in recent history, …

Transferred Benefits In Inter-Community Beach Nourishment: A Field Study On Efficiency, Owen Thomas

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

To combat the effects of relative sea level rise and the natural erosional processes affecting the sandy, diffusive beaches of New Jersey, most communities utilize beach nourishment to stabilize their beaches. Beach nourishment, the practice of artificially widening the beach berm with sand from other areas, not only stabilizes beaches but also protects oceanfront homes from storm surges, while adding recreational space and tourism value. These benefits are reflected in increased property values, most notably in oceanfront properties. The diffusive nature of these beaches, however, means that individual nourishment events are inherently shared with neighboring communities as sand is readily …

Paleohydraulic Analysis Of Megaripples From Outburst Floods In Omak, Washington, Jessica M. Lawrence

2024 Symposium

Located in Omak, Washington atop what is observed to be a gravel point bar are giant current ripples associated with outburst floods that took place during the Pleistocene (O’Connor et al. 2020 and Minard 1985). Thorough breakdown of these giant current ripples was conducted using their geomorphologies associated with stream flow mechanisms for gravel bedforms such as hydraulic radius of cross- sectional area and velocity using Manning’s equation to determine Froude’s Number (USDA 2007). Ripple index associated with ripple wavelength and height was then compared to additional megaripples located throughout Scablands of Washington that have been correlated to the Great …

Ecological Effects On Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Vegetated Estuarine Soils Of The Lower Laguna Madre, David R. De La Garza

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal wetlands are important ecosystems that provide numerous ecosystem services including erosion control, habitat for fauna, and carbon sequestration. Notably, coastal wetlands are producers of greenhouse gases (GHGs) but are able to store significant amounts of carbon relative to their surface area. Mangrove forests are amongst the most effective ecosystems for carbon sequestration. Soil emits (GHGs) containing carbon (such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4)), which are produced by organic matter decomposition and soil organic carbon mineralization, and both are an important component of the global carbon cycle. Soil emissions may be affected by a variety of factors including …

Exploring Microplastic Concentrations And The Sedimentology Of San Diego's Offshore Benthic Environments, Rachel Sarner

Theses

Marine pollution studies are showing infiltration of plastic debris in remote parts of oceans including the deep sea. Microplastics (MPs) are being discovered not only in the ocean’s water column but also benthic sediments reaching thousands of meters in depth. This is the first study to analyze MP concentrations in conjunction with sedimentary characteristics from varying deep-sea environments (coastal, deep ocean, offshore terrace) in the Southern California Continental Borderland (CCB). Our goal for this study was to observe how the concentration and type (morphology, color, size) of microplastics varied with distance from shore, with water depth, and between different submarine …

Theory Of An Automatic Seepage Meter And Ramifications For Applications, V. A. Zlotnik, D. K. Solomon, D. P. Genereux, T. E. Gilmore, C. E. Humphrey, A. R. Mittelstet, A. V. Zlotnik

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Depositional Facies Analysis Of The Cotton Valley Group Sandstones Of The Blackburn Field, Northern Louisiana Using Well Logs And Cores; Implications For Carbon Sequestration, Frederick Owusu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Cotton Valley Group (CVG) consists of tight sandstones with heterogeneous reservoir properties due to variations in depositional environments and diagenesis, spanning across eastern Texas through the Florida panhandle. It has served as a hydrocarbon target since the 1940s, and with recent technological advances, there is renewed exploration of the tight reservoirs within the group. Across northern Louisiana, the CVG has moderate to good reservoir properties, whereas those south extending westward across the Sabine uplift into east Texas decrease in porosity and permeability. With reservoir depletion coupled with its relatively simple mineralogy, these sandstone units may serve as good, localized …

Investigating The Effects Of Suspended Algal Content, Dissolved Oxygen, And Temperature On A High-Frequency Acoustic Attenuation System In A Controlled Laboratory Environment, Noah Watson

Honors Theses

The Single Frequency Acoustic Attenuation System (SFAAS) has been developed at the National Center for Physical Acoustics (NCPA). This system uses acoustic methods to monitor fine suspended sediment concentration in streams. Site-specific calibrations are necessary for this system, and previous research has indicated that algal concentration or dissolved oxygen concentration of water may affect collected data. Temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and fluorescence, used as a proxy for algal concentration, were monitored during this system’s use, and calibrations were derived to account for the effect of each of these variables on acoustic measurements. It has been shown that temperature has a …

Evaluating Reclaimed Mines And Heavy Metal Soil Contamination, Torin A. Matthews

ATU Scholars Symposium

Arkansas has a rich history of lead and zinc mining. While there are still some active mines, many historical mines have been abandoned and/or reclaimed. Although most reclamation procedures result in the burial and containment of target minerals, accessory minerals and elements can be leached out of waste materials/tailings piles and include heavy metals (i.e., Pb, As, Cd). We aim to evaluate the soil and watershed of a few abandoned/reclaimed mines in Pope County, AR, for the presence of heavy metals/source minerals. Soil and stream sediment geochemistry will be conducted using a portable x-ray fluorescence analyzer. Field work and sampling …

Applied Depositional Geosystems Of The Coos Bay Basin, Oregon: Organic Geochemistry, Maturation, Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction And Biostratigraphy Of The Coaledo Delta During The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (Meco), Allison K. Barbato

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Coos Bay Basin on the southwestern coast of Oregon is a forearc basin that contains exceptionally preserved Eocene to Miocene, tidal to wave-dominated, shallow deltaic to deep marine sediments of the Coaledo Delta. Coastal depositional environments are known to host source, reservoir, and seal rocks. Climate, topographic relief, and geographical position all play an important role in regional vegetation development and oceanic setting. This study assesses 84 outcrop and 12 core samples from Coos Bay for their organic geochemical characteristics and microfossil assemblage to provide source rock characterization information, organofacies descriptions, environmental reconstructions, and age control.

Results indicate the …

Lower Bound On Preserved Flood Duration In Fluvial Bedform Stratigraphy (Experimental Dataset), Robert C. Mahon, Vamsi Ganti, Madeline M. Kelley, Debsmita Das, Victoria Sanchez, Giancarlo Portocarrero, Mayson Fredricks

Lower Bound on Preserved Flood Duration in Fluvial Bedform Stratigraphy (experimental dataset)

This data is collected to assess the role of hydrograph timescale relative to dune migration on the preservation of cross sets in the stratigraphic record. The data presented here are of dune evolution under steady-state conditions, as well as three hydrographs of the same magnitude but varying timescales.

Methodology:

We collected data from four experiments tracking bedform evolution in a 22-m-long, 0.56-m-wide, 0.9-m-deep flume at the University of New Orleans Dynamics of Sedimentation laboratory. We conducted an equilibrium experiment (discharge value 0.027 m3/s) and three flood experiments, which were characterized by a symmetrical flood wave. In all flood experiments, the …

Stage And Discharge Prediction From Documentary Time-Lapse Imagery, Kenneth W. Chapman, Troy E. Gilmore, Mehrube Mehrubeoglu, Christian D. Chapman, Aaron R. Mittelstet, John E. Stranzl Jr.

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Imagery from fixed, ground-based cameras is rich in qualitative and quantitative information that can improve stream discharge monitoring. For instance, time-lapse imagery may be valuable for filling data gaps when sensors fail and/or during lapses in funding for monitoring programs. In this study, we used a large image archive (>40,000 images from 2012 to 2019) from a fixed, ground-based camera that is part of a documentary watershed imaging project (https://plattebasintimelapse.com/). Scalar image features were extracted from daylight images taken at one-hour intervals. The image features were fused with United States Geological Survey stage and discharge data as response variables …

Analysis Of Legacy Gravity Data Reveals Sediment-Filled Troughs Buried Under Flathead Valley, Montana, Usa, Ali Gebril, Mohamed A. Khalil, Robert Matthew Joeckel, James Rose

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Shallow, dominantly silt- and clay-filled erosional troughs in Quaternary sediments under the Flathead Valley (northwestern Montana, USA) are very likely to be hydraulic barriers limiting the horizontal flow of groundwater. Accurately mapping them is important because of increasing demand for groundwater.We used a legacy Bouguer gravity map measured in 1968. The directional derivatives of the map are computed, and the map was enhanced by implementing edge detection tools.We produced generalized derivative, maximum horizontal gradient, total gradient and tilt gradient maps through two-dimensional Fourier transform analysis. These maps were remarkably successful in locating buried troughs in the northern and northwestern parts …

Southern Maine, New Hampshire, And Northern Massachusetts Continental Shelf Geophysical Database: 2022 Field Campaign – Grain Size Data, Station Summaries, And Seafloor Photographs, Larry G. Ward, Rachel C. Morrison, Michael Bogonko

Data Catalog

Presented in this data report are the geophysical data collected during a major field campaign in 2022, with the purpose of obtaining ground truth for the expansion and improvement of high-resolution surficial geology maps of the western Gulf of Maine (WGOM) and for the description of reference sites developed for future evaluations of acoustic systems (Ward et al., 2021a; 2021b). Data from the UNH Ocean Engineering 972 Hydrographic Field Course classes in 2021 and 2022 are also included. This expansion of the geophysical database is being used to verify seafloor classifications in previously mapped areas that lack sufficient data, and …