Theses and Dissertations - Department of Geosciences
Recent Submissions
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Hydrogeophysical investigation of unconfined aquifer drainage behavior using temporal microgravity and water level data
Unconfined aquifers are commonly characterized by an analysis of water level changes in response to groundwater pumping during an aquifer test. Traditional analytical models predict the rate and extent of water level changes ... -
Spatiotemporal variations in liquid water content in a seasonal snowpack: implications for radar remote sensing
Mountain snowpacks act as seasonal reservoirs, providing a critical water resource to ~1.2 billion people globally. Regions with persistent snowpacks (e.g., mountain and polar environments) are responding quickly to climate ... -
Tidally induced seismicity at the grounded margins of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Repeating swarms of local icequakes were recorded by broadband seismograpghs deployed near the grounding line of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica from late 2014 to early 2017. Swarms commonly persist for over six hours and ... -
Fabric of wood: patterns and processes of river and floodplain large wood on the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, The
This research on the Merced River above Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park quantifies large wood loads (m3 wood/ha) and the spatial distribution of wood in the bankfull channel, the floodplain, and the adjacent valley ... -
Logjam attenuation of annual sediment waves in eolian-fluvial environments, North Park, Colorado
Sediment waves, a term that describes the fluvial transport of a discrete sediment influx, have long been studied in regard to channel response to infrequent, catastrophic events, such as mass movements or dam removal. ... -
Magmatism, deformation, and mineralization along the intra-arc Atacama fault system, northern Chile
Oblique plate motion is nearly universal across subduction margins, and the lateral component of motion produced by oblique subduction may be accommodated through distributed strain and/or along crustal-scale strike-slip ... -
Ambient and teleseismic elastic wavefields of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, and their application to crustal scale seismic imaging
Laterally extensive floating tabular ice, such as the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, is mechanically equivalent to a floating elastic plate and thus supports a variety of vibrational modes, including short-period (< 20 s) ... -
Hypothesis-based machine learning for deep-water channel systems
Machine learning algorithms are readily being incorporated into petroleum industry workflows for use in well-log correlation, prediction of rock properties, and seismic data interpretation. However, there is a clear ... -
Prioritization of beaver (Castor canadensis) reintroduction sites within semi-arid grassland rivers in the Great Plains
River restoration has become more of a concern with human influence on natural systems on the rise. Beaver provide a relatively inexpensive and natural opportunity to restore rivers to a pre-settlement state. Quantitative ... -
Understanding carbon nanoparticle transport in saturated porous media: the influence of dissolved organic matter
Nanoparticles (NPs), or objects with all dimensions between 1 nanometer (nm) and 100 nm, are ubiquitous in atmospheric, aquatic, and terrestrial settings. The ability to engineer NPs and utilize their unique size-dependent ... -
Detection and relocation of earthquakes in the sparsely instrumented Mackenzie Mountains region, Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada
The Mackenzie Mountains are an actively uplifting and seismogenic arcuate thrust belt lying within the Northwest Territories and Yukon, Canada. Seismic activity in the region is poorly constrained due to a historically ... -
'False Bakken' interval- sediment patterns and depositional architecture at the facies boundary between siliciclastic mudstones and carbonates, Lodgepole Formation, Mississippian in the Williston Basin, ND
The lateral facies transition on deep shelves between carbonates and siliciclastic mudstones is largely enigmatic. Based on detailed facies descriptions and interpretations, this study explores which processes have shaped ... -
Geology, hydrothermal alteration, paragenetic sequence and fluid inclusion analysis of La Maruja level, Marmato district, Caldas Department, Colombia
The Marmato goldfield is located in the Department of Caldas in the western Cordillera of Colombia. The area is topographically characterized by steep hills of abrupt relief. Rocks that range in age from the Cretaceous to ... -
Frequency, magnitude and connectivity of post-wildfire rainfall-runoff and sediment transport, The
Wildfire increases the likelihood of runoff, erosion, and downstream sedimentation in many of the watersheds that supply water for communities across the western U.S. The goal of this research was to examine the complex ... -
Mantle velocity variations under the northern Canadian Cordillera through body wave tomography
The Mackenzie Mountains (MM) in the northern Canadian Cordillera (NCC) are an actively uplifting mountain range and an excellent location to investigate the causes of intra-plate orogeny. The orogen is situated almost ~750 ... -
Analysis of flexural evolution of the lithosphere over the past 4.6 Ma around Ross Island, West Antarctica
Ross Island is in the southern Victoria Land Basin along the western margin of the West Antarctic Rift System. Episodic volcanism since ca. 4.6 Ma produced a discontinuous sedimentary moat around the island coeval with ... -
Paleozoic facies architecture in low-inclined mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sedimentary systems: depositional and tectonic signatures
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document. -
Structural evolution of the Potosí uplift, Sierra Madre Oriental, northeastern Mexico
The Jurassic Minas Viejas Formation is host to a Late Cretaceous to early Paleogene-aged décollement in the Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico. The Minas Viejas Formation is dominated by rheologically-weak evaporite that ... -
Rivers and beaver-related restoration in Colorado
Reintroducing North American beaver (Castor canadensis) to streams within their historic range can restore aquatic and riparian habitat where historic beaver loss has initiated degradation. Determining where beavers can ... -
Relative influences of valley geometry and wood on sediment distribution in Biscuit Brook, NY
Sediment storage in mountain streams is commonly associated with level of valley confinement. In unconfined channels, sediment is stored in the floodplain and active channel in a network of secondary channels with abundant ...