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Wayne L. Newell

Publications and source records attributed to Wayne L. Newell.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Holocene alluvium around Lefkosia (Nicosia), Cyprus: An archive of land-use, tectonic processes, and climate change

Holocene alluvium of the Pedhicos River around Lefkosia (Nicosia), Cyprus, was studied. Alluvial stratigraphy was found to present serial flood deposits underlying river terraces and an extensive alluvial fan. It was found that the stratigraphy and geomorphology of the alluvium can be interpreted to distinguish not only the effects of climate change, but also land-use change, and the impact of particular engineering works. It was suggested that details of the physical properties of the flood deposit sequences and paleosols can contribute to modeling various geophysical and engineering properties and in predicting response to vertical acceleration during earthquakes.

Conference Paper↗

Bog iron formation in the Nassawango Creek watershed, Maryland, USA

The Nassawango bog ores in the modern environment for surficial geochemical processes were studied. The formation of Nassawango bog ores was suggested to be due to inorganic oxidation when groundwater rich in ferrous iron emerges into the oxic, surficial environment. It was suggested that the process, providing a phosphorus sink, may be an unrecognized benefit for mitigating nutrient loading from agricultural lands. It is found that without the effect of iron fixing bacteria, bog deposites could not form at significant rates.

Conference Paper↗

Bog iron formation in the Nassawango Watershed, Maryland

Introduction Bog iron deposits occur at a number of localities in the Pocomoke River basin. The most extensive deposits are situated along Nassawango Creek northwest of Snow Hill, a town on the Pocomoke River. After the discovery of these deposits an iron furnace was built in 1830 on the west side of Nassawango Creek, five miles northwest of Snow Hill, at a location known as the Furnace. The furnace exclusively smelted bog iron obtained along Nassawango Creek for a mile or so north of the furnace site; iron was produced from 1830 to 1850 at a rate of approximately 700 tons per year. Smelting technology of that period used mollusc shells for lime flux and locally burned charcoal for fuel; they were unable to remove phosphorous and the iron was rendered brittle when cold ("cold short") because of the high phosphorous content inherited from the ore. For that reason, and because of the limited size of the deposits and the discovery of the much larger and higher quality ore deposits in other parts of the country, production ceased about 1850. The bog iron deposits have been forming throughout the Holocene and are still forming today. Singewald (1911) stated, that their chief interest today lies in the fact that the deposits are now forming and at such a rate as to be observable. "Deposits which were once exhausted are again workable after an interval of a few years" (for more on rate of formation of bog ore at different locations see Starkey, 1962 and Moore, 1910). In general, bog ores consist primarily of iron oxyhydroxides, commonly goethite (FeO(OH)). The ores in the Nassawango, in addition to goethite and other ferric oxyhydroxides, contain a significant amount of magnetite.

Maryland↗

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Chesapeake Bay – The role of science in environmental restoration

The Chesapeake Bay is the Nation's largest estuary and historically supported one of the most productive fisheries in the world. In addition to supporting aquatic communities and wildlife, the bay's watershed serves the economic and recreational needs of 15 million people. The fertile soils of the watershed support significant agricultural production. Unfortunately, the commercial, economic, and recreational value of the bay and its watershed has been degraded by poor water quality, loss of habitat, and overharvesting of living resources. Since the early 1980's, the Chesapeake Bay Program, which is a partnership among Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, the Federal Government, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission, has been formulating and implementing restoration goals to restore living resources, minimize habitat loss, and reduce the amount of nutrients, sediment, and toxic substances entering the bay. The U.S. Geological Survey has the critical role of providing unbiased scientific information to be used in helping to formulate, implement, and assess the effectiveness of restoration goals in the bay and its watershed.

Chesapeake Bay watershed↗

Understanding natural systems; a perspective for land-use planning in Appalachian Kentucky

An eight-county area at the headwaters of the Kentucky River has been designated the Kentucky River Area Development District (KRADD) by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The objective of the project described in this report has been to provide materials to KRADD planners in a format and containing terminology usable by local people untrained in earth science. Experimental maps (not included in this report) have been prepared largely from preexisting data. Time and cost limitations required a regional analysis as well as somewhat more detailed examples of selected localities. Most of the maps produced to meet these needs show the abundance and distribution of naturally occurring materials and the areas affected by various geomorphic processes. Three types of maps, showing current land use, slope, and flood-prone areas, present both basic and derived data directly applicable to specific land-use decisions. Basic map information on quality and quantity of surface and ground water, bedrock and surficial geology, and mineral fuels can be interpreted for a wide variety of current and potential uses. Texts accompanying the maps explain bedrock control of geomorphic processes, distribution and significance of surficial deposits, and hydrologic characteristics of the intricately dissected eastern Kentucky terrain. Within this conceptual framework, geomorphic processes and the landscape may be evaluated in humanly significant terms of low to high potential risk, thereby indicating both opportunities and limitations for land use.

Kentucky↗

Structural control of the Cumberland River and its ancestral channels at Flat Lick, Kentucky

Remnants of old alluvium on bedrock benches, as much as 76 in (250 ft) above the present course of the Cumberland River near Flat Lick, Ky., are associated with meander scars and broad valleys now occupied by underflt streams. The distribution of old alluvium and associated topographic features define two ancestral channels of the Cumberland River. The ancestral channels and the present river channel are superimposed on the crest and flanks of the Flat Lick anticline. All three channels trend westward, roughly parallel to the axis of the anticline. The oldest channel is on the north flank, the second oldest channel is superimposed on the crest, and the modern channel is entrenched in the south-dipping limb of the fold. The sequential pattern of channel downcutting and migration across the crest of the anticline can be explained in terms of structural and lithologic constraints upon fluvial processes without recourse to contemporaneous tectonism. The Flat Lick area apparently has not experienced major deformation during the erosional history interpreted from the surficial geology. Direct evidence for the age of the old alluvium has not been found. However, an estimate based on erosion rates suggests that the ancestral channels could have been established and abandoned as recently as one-half million years ago.

Kentucky↗