Theses/Dissertations - Geosciences
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The quantification and characterization of soil carbon pools in biofuel agriculture.
(2019-04-18)The shift toward renewable energy resources through agricultural biofuel production provides an opportunity to study and implement sustainable land management practices that improve soil health and a deeper understanding ... -
Climate and landscape reconstruction of the Arroyo Chijuillita Member of the Nacimiento Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico : providing environmental context to early Paleocene mammal evolution.
(2019-04-18)Sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and paleopedologic attributes of an outcrop of the lower Paleocene Arroyo Chijuillita Member (Nacimiento Formation) in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area (San Juan Basin, New Mexico) are ... -
Plant community change across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the Gulf Coastal Plain, Central Texas.
(2019-04-16)During the early Paleogene (~58-53 million years ago), the earth experienced long-term global warming punctuated by several short-term ‘hyperthermal’ events, the largest of which is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ... -
Compartmentalization in the northern segment of the Brazos River Alluvium aquifer.
(2019-04-05)Alluvial aquifers such as the Brazos River Alluvium aquifer in central Texas can contain locally significant amounts of groundwater that may be used for irrigation, domestic supply, or to mitigate stress applied to other ... -
Reconstructing land surface processes of the 1930s Dust Bowl drought, U.S. Great Plains.
(2018-10-26)Mineral dust aerosols are a key component of the Earth system and a growing public health concern under climate change as levels of dustiness increase. The U.S. Great Plains is particularly vulnerable to dust episodes, but ... -
Late quaternary Alaskan paleoclimate : geoarchaeological insights into the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
(2018-11-26)Eastern Beringia is a region which has undergone dramatic changes since the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, environmentally and climatically. These changing conditions likely contributed to the changes in human behavior ... -
Taphonomic and mass-extinction research from an ichnological perspective.
(2018-05-31)The assemblage of Pleistocene megafauna at Waco Mammoth National Monument (WMNM) and the terrestrial Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary at Big Bend National Park are just two examples that demonstrate the peril effects ... -
Paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstruction of early Miocene Tinderet sites in western Kenya, and its implications for hominoid evolution.
(2018-07-27)Early Miocene Tinderet sites in western Kenya preserve some the earliest occurrences of large bodied hominoids like Proconsul. The sites preserve different catarrhine fossil assemblages, with some species found in all sites ... -
High-resolution age constraints and fluvial sedimentology of Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene terrestrial deposits of the southwestern USA.
(2018-03-26)A well-constrained age model is a critical piece of information in geologic studies. This dissertation focuses on two successions of fossiliferous fluvial strata within the southwestern US that prior to this work were ... -
A hydrologic assessment of water chemistry and aquifer properties in the Middle Trinity Aquifer in Bell and McLennan Counties in Texas.
(2018-05-02)The Middle Trinity Aquifer is part of a freshwater aquifer spanning southern Oklahoma and Central Texas. Increasing demand from population growth has promoted a need to better understand productivity and associated aquifer ... -
Organic matter structural changes during catagenesis : implications of kerogen chemical structure on petroleum yield and composition.
(2018-04-16)This work describes the machining of cost-efficient hydrous pyrolysis reactors and furnaces used to simulate natural oil forming (catagenesis) processes. These reactors were used to generate petroleum products from both ... -
Reconstruction of the paleo-redox conditions of reservoir facies using chemostratigraphy and core descriptions of the Devonian Marcellus Formation, Pennsylvania.
(2017-11-08)The Marcellus Formation near Clinton County Pennsylvania has of average TOC of 2.8 wt%. TOC values found near the bottom of the Union Spring Member are >5 wt% and were created by high organic production which allowed for ... -
Miocene paleoenvironments and paleosol pH proxies.
(2017-10-27)Paleoenvironmental analysis is an interdisciplinary endeavor that draws on sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, and geostatistics. This dissertation includes two paleoenvironmental case studies and the development ... -
Characterizing the reservoir quality of Marcellus Formation Mudrocks through a comparison of chemostratigraphic character and petrophysical response in north-central Pennsylvania.
(2017-11-02)This study combines robust geochemical data with core descriptions and wireline logs to gain new insight into the paleoceanographic conditions during Marcellus deposition and the resulting quality and distribution of ... -
Factor influencing headcut migration within a cohesive Texas Black-Land gully.
(2017-12-01)Gully erosion degrades the Black-Land Prairies (BLP) (Texas), affecting agricultural productivity. It is initiated by rill and inter-rill erosive processes and exacerbated by storm frequency and duration. Few studies have ... -
Numerical simulation of a single fracture with various parameters.
(2017-06-15)Hydraulic fracturing is the process of enhancing host rock permeability through injection of pressurized fluid in order to obtain oil and natural gas. Typically, microseismicity is used during the fracturing process to ... -
Sedimentary organic matter diagenesis : oxidative transformations and dynamics upon pyrolysis.
(2017-07-07)The organic matter fraction preserved in ancient sediments is the largest carbon pool on earth, and holds immense importance in the context of global biogeochemical cycling and as petroleum source rock. This dissertation ... -
Reservoir characterization and prediction of the Lower Cretaceous Glauconite Member at Jenner-Suffield Field, Alberta, Canada.
(2017-06-09)Significant hydrocarbon reserves at Jenner and Suffield fields of southern Alberta, Canada, occur within the Lower Cretaceous Glauconitic Member of the Upper Mannville Formation. The Glauconitic Member accumulated within ... -
Spatial correlation of selected earthquakes with the Dog Valley Fault in northern California using LiDAR and GPS data.
(2017-07-28)The 1966 M6.0 Truckee earthquake has a reported location of 39.438°N 120.160°W at ~10 km depth (Ryall et al., 1968), ~5 km southwest of the Stampede Dam, an earth-fill structure built in 1970 to impound 226,500 acre-feet ... -
The stratigraphic controls on development potential within the Lower Cretaceous glauconitic member sandstone, Jenner Field area, Southern Alberta, Canada.
(2017-08-02)The Glauconitic Member of the Lower Cretaceous Upper Mannville Group consists of incised valley filling multi-story fluvial quartzose sandstone deposits that accumulated during a marine transgression. This study delineates ...
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