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At least 1,387 records · Page 77Linked to original sources

A neutron activation analysis procedure for the determination of uranium, thorium and potassium in geologic samples

A neutron activation analysis procedure was developed for the determination of uranium, thorium and potassium in basic and ultrabasic rocks. The three elements are determined in the same 0.5-g sample following a 30-min irradiation in a thermal neutron flux of 2·10 12 n·cm −2 ·sec −1 . Following radiochemical separation, the nuclides 239 U (T=23.5 m), 233 Th (T=22.2 m) and 42 K (T=12.36 h) are measured by β-counting. A computer program is used to resolve the decay curves which are complex owing to contamination and the growth of daughter activities. The method was used to determine uranium, throium and potassium in the U. S. Geological Survey standard rocks DTS-1, PCC-1 and BCR-1. For 0.5-g samples the limits of detection for uranium, throium and potassium are 0.7, 1.0 and 10 ppb, respectively.

Journal of Radioanalytical Chemistry↗

Mineralogy and stratigraphy of phyllosilicate-bearing and dark mantling units in the greater Mawrth Vallis/west Arabia Terra area: Constraints on geological origin

Analyses of MRO/CRISM images of the greater Mawrth Vallis region of Mars affirm the presence of two primary phyllosilicate assemblages throughout a region ∼1000 × 1000 km. These two units consist of an Fe/Mg-phyllosilicate assemblage overlain by an Al-phyllosilicate and hydrated silica assemblage. The lower unit contains Fe/Mg-smectites, sometimes combined with one or more of these other Fe/Mg-phyllosilicates: serpentine, chlorite, biotite, and/or vermiculite. It is more than 100 m thick and finely layered at meter scales. The upper unit includes Al-smectite, kaolin group minerals, and hydrated silica. It is tens of meters thick and finely layered as well. A common phyllosilicate stratigraphy and morphology is observed throughout the greater region wherever erosional windows are present. This suggests that the geologic processes forming these units must have occurred on at least a regional scale. Sinuous ridges (interpreted to be inverted channels) and narrow channels cut into the upper clay-bearing unit suggesting that aqueous processes were prevalent after, and possibly during, the deposition of the layered units. We propose that layered units may have been deposited at Mawrth Vallis and then subsequently altered to form the hydrated units. The Fe/Mg-phyllosilicate assemblage is consistent with hydrothermal alteration or pedogenesis of mafic to ultramafic rocks. The Al-phyllosilicate/hydrated silica unit may have formed through alteration of felsic material or via leaching of basaltic material through pedogenic alteration or a mildly acidic environment. These phyllosilicate-bearing units are overlain by a darker, relatively unaltered, and indurated material that has probably experienced a complex geological history.

Journal of Geophysical Research↗

Carbon and sediment accumulation in the Everglades (USA) during the past 4000 years: rates, drivers, and sources of error

Tropical and sub-tropical wetlands are considered to be globally important sources for greenhouse gases but their capacity to store carbon is presumably limited by warm soil temperatures and high rates of decomposition. Unfortunately, these assumptions can be difficult to test across long timescales because the chronology, cumulative mass, and completeness of a sedimentary profile are often difficult to establish. We therefore made a detailed analysis of a core from the principal drainage outlet of the Everglades of South Florida, to assess these problems and determine the factors that could govern carbon accumulation in this large sub-tropical wetland. Accelerator mass spectroscopy dating provided direct evidence for both hard-water and open-system sources of dating errors, whereas cumulative mass varied depending upon the type of method used. Radiocarbon dates of gastropod shells, nevertheless, seemed to provide a reliable chronology for this core once the hard-water error was quantified and subtracted. Long-term accumulation rates were then calculated to be 12.1 g m -2 yr -1 for carbon, which is less than half the average rate reported for northern and tropical peatlands. Moreover, accumulation rates remained slow and relatively steady for both organic and inorganic strata, and the slow rate of sediment accretion ( 0.2 mm yr -1 ) tracked the correspondingly slow rise in sea level (0.35 mm yr -1 ) reported for South Florida over the past 4000 years. These results suggest that sea level and the local geologic setting may impose long-term constraints on rates of sediment and carbon accumulation in the Everglades and other wetlands.

Florida↗

Geologic controls on regional and local erosion rates of three northern Gulf of Mexico barrier-island systems

The stratigraphy of sections of three barrier island systems in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico (Apalachicola, Mississippi, and Chandeleur) have been mapped using geophysical and coring techniques to assess the influence of geologic variations in barrier lithosomes and adjoining inner shelf deposits on long-term rates of shoreline change at regional and local scales. Regional scale was addressed by comparing average geologic characteristics of the three areas with mean shoreline-change rates for each area. Regionally, differences in sand volume contained within the part of the barrier lithosome above sea level, sand volume on the inner shelf, and to a lesser extent, sediment grain size correlate with shoreline change rates. Larger sand volumes and coarser grain sizes are found where erosion rates are lower. Local scale was addressed by comparing alongshore variations in barrier island and inner shelf geology with alongshore variations in shoreline change. Locally, long-term shoreline change rates are highest directly shoreward of paleovalleys exposed on the inner shelf. While geology is not the sole explanation for observed differences in shoreline change along these three coastal regions, it is a significant contributor to change variability.

Journal of Coastal Research↗

Preferential flow, diffuse flow, and perching in an interbedded fractured-rock unsaturated zone

Layers of strong geologic contrast within the unsaturated zone can control recharge and contaminant transport to underlying aquifers. Slow diffuse flow in certain geologic layers, and rapid preferential flow in others, complicates the prediction of vertical and lateral fluxes. A simple model is presented, designed to use limited geological site information to predict these critical subsurface processes in response to a sustained infiltration source. The model is developed and tested using site-specific information from the Idaho National Laboratory in the Eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP), USA, where there are natural and anthropogenic sources of high-volume infiltration from floods, spills, leaks, wastewater disposal, retention ponds, and hydrologic field experiments. The thick unsaturated zone overlying the ESRP aquifer is a good example of a sharply stratified unsaturated zone. Sedimentary interbeds are interspersed between massive and fractured basalt units. The combination of surficial sediments, basalts, and interbeds determines the water fluxes through the variably saturated subsurface. Interbeds are generally less conductive, sometimes causing perched water to collect above them. The model successfully predicts the volume and extent of perching and approximates vertical travel times during events that generate high fluxes from the land surface. These developments are applicable to sites having a thick, geologically complex unsaturated zone of substantial thickness in which preferential and diffuse flow, and perching of percolated water, are important to contaminant transport or aquifer recharge.

Idaho↗

Pumping tests in non-uniform aquifers - The linear strip case

Many pumping tests are performed in geologic settings that can be conceptualized as a linear infinite strip of one material embedded in a matrix of differing flow properties. A semi-analytical solution is presented to aid the analysis of drawdown data obtained from pumping tests performed in settings that can be represented by such a conceptual model. Integral transform techniques are employed to obtain a solution in transform space that can be numerically inverted to real space. Examination of the numerically transformed solution reveals several interesting features of flow in this configuration. If the transmissivity of the strip is much higher than that of the matrix, linear and bilinear flow are the primary flow regimes during a pumping test. If the contrast between matrix and strip properties is not as extreme, then radial flow should be the primary flow mechanism. Sensitivity analysis is employed to develop insight into the controls on drawdown in this conceptual model and to demonstrate the importance of temporal and spatial placement of observations. Changes in drawdown are sensitive to the transmissivity of the strip for a limited time duration. After that time, only the total drawdown remains a function of strip transmissivity. In the case of storativity, both the total drawdown and changes in drawdown are sensitive to the storativity of the strip for a time of quite limited duration. After that time, essentially no information can be gained about the storage properties of the strip from drawdown data. An example analysis is performed using data previously presented in the literature to demonstrate the viability of the semi-analytical solution and to illustrate a general procedure for analysis of drawdown data in complex geologic settings. This example reinforces the importance of observation well placement and the time of data collection in constraining parameter correlation, a major source of the uncertainty that arises in the parameter estimation procedure.

Journal of Hydrology↗

Organic geochemistry - A retrospective of its first 70 years

Organic geochemistry had its origin in the early part of the 20th century when organic chemists and geologists realized that detailed information on the organic materials in sediments and rocks was scientifically interesting and of practical importance. The generally acknowledged "father" of organic geochemistry is Alfred E. Treibs (1899-1983), who discovered and described, in 1936, porphyrin pigments in shale, coal, and crude oil, and traced the source of these molecules to their biological precursors. Thus, the year 1936 marks the beginning of organic geochemistry. However, formal organization of organic geochemistry dates from 1959 when the Organic Geochemistry Division (OGD) of The Geochemical Society was founded in the United States, followed 22 years later (1981) by the establishment of the European Association of Organic Geochemists (EAOG). Organic geochemistry (1) has its own journal, Organic Geochemistry (beginning in 1979) which, since 1988, is the official journal of the EAOG, (2) convenes two major conferences [International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry (IMOG), since 1962, and Gordon Research Conferences on Organic Geochemistry (GRC), since 1968] in alternate years, and (3) is the subject matter of several textbooks. Organic geochemistry is now a widely recognized geoscience in which organic chemistry has contributed significantly not only to geology (i.e., petroleum geochemistry, molecular stratigraphy) and biology (i.e., biogeochemistry), but also to other disciplines, such as chemical oceanography, environmental science, hydrology, biochemical ecology, archaeology, and cosmochemistry.

Conference Paper↗

Mitigation of human cognitive bias in volcanic eruption forecasting

Modern operational eruption forecasting methods rely heavily on human judgment in the face of uncertainty and are thus susceptible to myriad cognitive biases and errors by the scientist-forecasters. Recent developments in the behavioral sciences have elucidated cognitive biases across a wide spectrum of human behaviors and found ways to mitigate them. These insights have led to significant gains in human forecast accuracy across a range of disciplines. However, such gains have yet to widely penetrate volcanic eruption forecasting efforts. In this study, we review recent progress in these fields as relevant to improving current eruption forecasting methods as practiced by volcano observatories worldwide. We group cognitive biases into 1) information and selection biases, 2) group effects and social-emotional biases, and 3) framing and decision biases and highlight the numerous places in which these biases may permeate eruption forecasts. We present a framework for improving group discussion and forecasting processes at volcano observatories, considering recent gains from behavioral sciences along with a mitigation checklist to effectively reduce bias in operational eruption forecasts. Finally, we present an updated forecasting methodology for use in our own group, the US Geological Survey (USGS) Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, based on previous “multiple datasets” methods, that includes clear and deliberate efforts to minimize cognitive biases and thus improve eruption forecasting accuracy.

Journal of Applied Volcanology↗

Water resources publications of the U.S. Geological Survey for Tennessee, 1906-1987

A bibliography was compiled of the water-resources investigations published by the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division, in Tennessee. The bibliography includes an alphabetical listing by author, as well as listings by general and specific areas in Tennessee. The publications are classified also by discipline and type of report: open- file reports, water-supply papers, water-resources investigations, professional papers, circulars, hydrologic investigations atlases, miscellaneous investigations maps, journal and symposium articles, water-resources bulletin articles, and water-resources data reports.

Tennessee↗

Identifying dominant controls on hydrologic parameter transfer from gauged to ungauged catchments: a comparative hydrology approach

Daily streamflow information is critical for solving various hydrologic problems, though observations of continuous streamflow for model calibration are available at only a small fraction of the world’s rivers. One approach to estimate daily streamflow at an ungauged location is to transfer rainfall–runoff model parameters calibrated at a gauged (donor) catchment to an ungauged (receiver) catchment of interest. Central to this approach is the selection of a hydrologically similar donor. No single metric or set of metrics of hydrologic similarity have been demonstrated to consistently select a suitable donor catchment. We design an experiment to diagnose the dominant controls on successful hydrologic model parameter transfer. We calibrate a lumped rainfall–runoff model to 83 stream gauges across the United States. All locations are USGS reference gauges with minimal human influence. Parameter sets from the calibrated models are then transferred to each of the other catchments and the performance of the transferred parameters is assessed. This transfer experiment is carried out both at the scale of the entire US and then for six geographic regions. We use classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to determine the relationship between catchment similarity and performance of transferred parameters. Similarity is defined using physical/climatic catchment characteristics, as well as streamflow response characteristics (signatures such as baseflow index and runoff ratio). Across the entire US, successful parameter transfer is governed by similarity in elevation and climate, and high similarity in streamflow signatures. Controls vary for different geographic regions though. Geology followed by drainage, topography and climate constitute the dominant similarity metrics in forested eastern mountains and plateaus, whereas agricultural land use relates most strongly with successful parameter transfer in the humid plains.

Journal of Hydrology↗

Three-dimensional geophysical mapping of rock alteration and water content at Mount Adams, Washington: Implications for lahar hazards

[1] Hydrothermally altered rocks, particularly if water saturated, can weaken stratovolcanoes, thereby increasing the potential for catastrophic sector collapses that can lead to far-traveled, destructive debris flows. Evaluating the hazards associated with such alteration is difficult because alteration has been mapped on few active volcanoes and the distribution and intensity of subsurface alteration are largely unknown on any active volcano. At Mount Adams, some Holocene debris flows contain abundant hydrothermal minerals derived from collapse of the altered edifice. Intense hydrothermal alteration significantly reduces the resistivity and magnetization of volcanic rock, and therefore hydrothermally altered rocks can be identified with helicopter electromagnetic and magnetic measurements. Electromagnetic and magnetic data, combined with geological mapping and rock property measurements, indicate the presence of appreciable thicknesses of hydrothermally altered rock in the central core of Mount Adams north of the summit. We identify steep cliffs at the western edge of this zone as the likely source for future large debris flows. In addition, the electromagnetic data identified water in the brecciated core of the upper 100–200 m of the volcano. Water helps alter the rocks, reduces the effective stress, thereby increasing the potential for slope failure, and acts, with entrained melting ice, as a lubricant to transform debris avalanches into lahars. Therefore knowing the distribution of water is also important for hazard assessments. Our results demonstrate that high-resolution geophysical and geological observations can yield unprecedented views of the three-dimensional distribution of altered rock and shallow pore water aiding evaluation of the debris avalanche hazard.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

Subsurface structure across the Tacoma Basin, Washington State, using trans-dimensional Bayesian inversion of fundamental mode spatial autocorrelation data

Spatial autocorrelation (SPAC), the azimuthal average of the normalized cross-correlation between equidistant station pairs deployed in a 2-D array, is widely used to image the subsurface structure. However, the rigorous estimate of subsurface structure and its uncertainties as a function of depth using SPAC data is challenging due to the nonlinear relation between the SPAC data and Earth structure as well as the trade-off between depth and velocity. Additionally, data noise is strongly correlated due to data processing (e.g. filtering, stacking from multiple time segments and azimuthal averaging). Most studies do not account for the correlated noise and fix the ratio of compressional-wave velocity ( V P ) to shear-wave velocity ( V s ) (i.e. V P / V s ratio) and the number of layers, both of which are typically unknown. To address these challenges, we develop a hierarchical trans-dimensional Bayesian inversion of fundamental mode of SPAC data that properly accounts for the correlated data noise, samples the V P / V s ratio and relaxes the number of layers (i.e. model parametrization) to be unknown in the inversion. We further examine the limitation of using only fundamental modes in the inversion. Our synthetic experiments show that the inversion recovers an incorrect model unless we sample the correlated noise and V P / V s ratio in the inversion. The inversion is then applied to SPAC data acquired at 19 sites across the Tacoma basin in Washington State to characterize the V s and the time-averaged V s over 30-m depth ( V s 30 ). Our results show that the V s 30 varies from ∼200 to 800 m s −1 . The V s 30 within the basin is higher in the middle and lower on the east and west sides. We find that these V s 30 values vary with geologic unit. The uncertainties for V s 30 are within 20 m s −1 in average except for the most eastern site TB28. Additionally, the uncertainties are greater for deeper depths beneath most of the sites as the sensitivity decreases as a function of depth. The Vs structure as a function of depth is also complex beneath some sites, possibly because the SPAC curves are affected by higher order Rayleigh modes that are not considered in the inversion. To better constrain the deeper V s structure, V s 30 and/or other average measures of V s over depth, additional constraints from complementary data, such as ellipticity or geologic data are needed. Moreover, our synthetic experiments show that higher order modes can have significant effect in the inversion results, particularly when there is a low-velocity layer.

Washington↗

Sands at Gusev Crater, Mars

Processes, environments, and the energy associated with the transport and deposition of sand at Gusev Crater are characterized at the microscopic scale through the comparison of statistical moments for particle size and shape distributions. Bivariate and factor analyses define distinct textural groups at 51 sites along the traverse completed by the Spirit rover as it crossed the plains and went into the Columbia Hills. Fine-to-medium sand is ubiquitous in ripples and wind drifts. Most distributions show excess fine material, consistent with a predominance of wind erosion over the last 3.8 billion years. Negative skewness at West Valley is explained by the removal of fine sand during active erosion, or alternatively, by excess accumulation of coarse sand from a local source. The coarse to very coarse sand particles of ripple armors in the basaltic plains have a unique combination of size and shape. Their distribution display significant changes in their statistical moments within the ~400 m that separate the Columbia Memorial Station from Bonneville Crater. Results are consistent with aeolian and/or impact deposition, while the elongated and rounded shape of the grains forming the ripples, as well as their direction of origin, could point to Ma'adim Vallis as a possible source. For smaller particles on the traverse, our findings confirm that aeolian processes have dominated over impact and other processes to produce sands with the observed size and shape patterns across a spectrum of geologic (e.g., ripples and plains soils) and aerographic settings (e.g., wind shadows).

Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets↗

Seismological and geodetic constraints on the 2011 M w 5.3 Trinidad, Colorado earthquake and induced deformation in the Raton Basin

The Raton Basin of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico is an actively produced hydrocarbon basin that has experienced increased seismicity since 2001, including the August 2011 M w 5.3 Trinidad normal faulting event. Following the 2011 earthquake, regional seismic observations were used to relocate 21 events, including the 2011 main shock, two foreshocks, and 13 aftershocks. Additionally, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations of both the 2011 event and preevent basin deformation place constraint on the spatial kinematics of the 2011 event and localized basin subsidence due to ground water or gas withdrawal. We find that the 2011 earthquake ruptured an 8–10 km long segment of a normal fault at depths of 1.5–6.0 km within the crystalline Precambrian basement underlying the Raton Basin sedimentary rocks. The earthquake also nucleated within the crystalline basement in the vicinity of an active wastewater disposal site. The ensuing aftershock sequence demonstrated statistical properties expected for intraplate earthquakes, though the length of the 2011 earthquake is unexpectedly long for an M w 5.3 event, suggesting that wastewater disposal may have triggered a low stress drop, otherwise natural earthquake. Additionally, preevent and postevent seismicity in the Raton Basin spatially correlates to regions of subsidence observed in InSAR time series analysis. While these observations cannot discern a causal link between hydrocarbon production and seismicity, they constrain spatial relationships between active basin deformation and geological and anthropogenic features. Furthermore, the InSAR observations highlight the utility of space-based geodetic observations for monitoring and assessing anthropogenically induced and triggered deformation.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗

Designs and test results for three new rotational sensors

We discuss the designs and testing of three rotational seismometer prototypes developed at the Institute of Geophysics, Academy of Sciences (Prague, Czech Republic). Two of these designs consist of a liquid-filled toroidal tube with the liquid as the proof mass and providing damping; we tested the piezoelectric and pressure transduction versions of this torus. The third design is a wheel-shaped solid metal inertial sensor with capacitive sensing and magnetic damping. Our results from testing in Prague and at the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory of the US Geological Survey of transfer function and cross-axis sensitivities are good enough to justify the refinement and subsequent testing of advanced prototypes. These refinements and new testing are well along.

Journal of Seismology↗

Estimating the net costs of brine production and disposal to expand pressure-limited dynamic capacity for basin-scale CO2 storage in a saline formation

If carbon capture and storage (CCS) needs to be deployed at basin- or larger-scale, it is likely that multiple sites will be injecting carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the same geologic formation. This could lead to excessive pressure buildup, overlapping induced pressure fronts, and pressure interference with neighboring uses of the subsurface. Extracting the in situ brine from the storage formation could be necessary to relieve pressure constraints; control migration of the CO 2 plume, displaced brine, and the induced pressure front; and sequester more CO 2 while reducing potential risks. Such active pressure management could be very costly, and it could present a formidable economic constraint on the feasible scale of deployment of CCS. Alternatively, there may be high-injectivity zones (“storage sweet spots”) where a significant volume of CO 2 could be stored without producing brine. For simulated deployment of CO 2 storage sites across the Illinois Basin, the results of this study suggest that brine production could be required to sequester 20 % or more of the regional CO 2 emissions of major stationary sources in the Mount Simon Sandstone saline formation. In some cases, brine production could expand pressure-limited CO 2 storage capacity enough to more than compensate for the additional costs of pressure management, but only if produced brine could be cheaply reinjected onsite for disposal in an overlying geologic formation. With or without brine production, this study found that the lowest-cost deployment option was to inject CO 2 only into a potential storage sweet spot of the Mount Simon Sandstone.

Illinois, Indiana↗

Controls on mineralisation in the Sierra Foothills gold province, central California, USA: A GIS-based reconnaissance prospectivity analysis

The assessment of spatial relationships between the location, abundance and size of orogenic-gold deposits in the highly endowed Sierra Foothills gold province in California, via the combination of field studies and a GIS-based analysis, illustrates the power of such an approach to the characterisation of important parameters of mineral systems, and the prediction of districts likely to host economic mineralisation. Regional- to deposit-scale reconnaissance mapping suggests that deposition of gold-bearing quartz veins occurred in second- and third-order, east-over-west thrusts during regional east - west compression and right-lateral transpression. At the district-scale, significant zones of mineralisation correspond with such transpressional reactivation zones and dilational jogs that developed during the Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous along the misaligned segments of first-order faults throughout the Sierra Nevada Foothills Metamorphic Belt. Field-based observations and interpretation of GIS data (including solid geology, structural elements, deposit locations, magnetics, gravity) also highlight the importance of structural permeability contrasts, rheological gradients, and variations in fault orientation for localising mineralisation. Although this approach confirms empirical findings and produces promising results at the province scale, enhanced geological, structural, geophysical and geochronological data density is required to generate regionally consistent, high-quality input layers that improve predictive targeting at the goldfield to deposit-scale.

Australian Journal of Earth Sciences↗

Where ice gave way to fire: Deglacial volcanic activity at the edge of the Coast Mountains in Milbanke Sound, BC

Kitasu Hill and MacGregor Cone formed along the Principe Laredo Fault on British Columbia’s central coast as the Wisconsinan ice sheet withdrew from the Coast Mountains. These small-volume Milbanke Sound Volcanoes (MSV) provide remarkable evidence for the intimate relationship between volcanic and glacial facies. The lavas are within-plate, differentiated (low MgO < 7%) Ocean Island Basalts, hawaiites, and mugearites that formed from ∼1% decompression melting of asthenosphere with residual garnet. Kitasu Hill, on glaciated bedrock, formed between 18 and 15 cal ka BP. Dipping, poorly stratified, admixed hyaloclastite, and glacial diamicton with large plutonic clasts and pillow breccia comprise its basal tuya platform (0–43 masl). Subaerial nested cinder cones, with smaller capping lava flows, sit atop the tuya. New marine samples show McGregor Cone formed subaerially but now sits submerged at 43–200 mbsl on an eroded moraine at the mouth of Finlayson Channel. Seismic data and cores reveal glaciomarine sediments draping the cone’s lower slopes and show beach terraces. Cores contain glaciomarine diamictons, ice-rafted debris, delicate glassy air fall tephra, and shallow, sublittoral, and deeper benthic foraminifera. Dates of 14.1–11.2 cal ka BP show volcanism spanned ∼2000 years during floating ice shelf conditions. The MSV have similar proximal positions to the retreating ice sheet, display mixed volcano-glacial facies, and experienced similar unloading stresses during deglaciation. The MSV may represent deglacially triggered volcanism. The dates, geomorphic and geological evidence, constrain a local relative sea level curve for Milbanke Sound and show how ice gave way to fire.

Milbanke Sound↗