Browsing GEOL Honors Theses by Issue Date
Now showing items 1-20 of 22
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Sensing fluid pressure during plucking events in a natural bedrock channel: Cowpasture River, VA (thesis)
Bedrock river erosion by plucking -- the wholesale removal of bedrock blocks -- is likely the dominant non-glacial driver of incision into topography over both short- and long-term timescales. Engineering and physical/numerical ... -
Kink-Band and velocity-boundary interference (thesis)
The established techniques for constructing and restoring balanced cross sections using flexural slip work well for modeling simple faults and folds, but these methods show weaknesses when applied to more complicated ... -
Sequence Stratigraphic and Structural Interpretation, Modeling and Restoration in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) (thesis)
This thesis examines Mesozoic progradational clinoform sequences, as well as deformation associated with the Brooks Range orogeny in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA). Brookian, Beaufortian and upper Ellesmerian ... -
Approximating meteoric (10)Be using the concentration of acid-extractable grain coatings: a case study tracing erosion depth on Dominica, Lesser Antilles (thesis)
Surface process studies on Dominica have emphasized landslide research in order to improve hazard mitigation, but a deficit exists in understanding the general geomorphic processes. The goal of this study is to characterize ... -
Terrestrial mercury cycling in Northern Michigan: Honeysuckle Creek watershed and Burt Lake (thesis)
Mercury (Hg), a potent environmental toxicant, affects the cognition and health of both human and aquatic ecosystem populations. Despite regulation-driven decreases in atmospheric mercury levels, Burt Lake is among the ... -
δ13C and δ18O Analyses of Carbonate Concretions and Nodules and the Evidence for a Cretaceous Greenhouse (thesis)
The Aptian-Albian Torok Formation and Nanushuk Formation rocks of Slope Mountain, also known as the Marmot Syncline, have been interpreted to represent shallow marine, deltaic, and fluvial depositional environments. ... -
GeoEye-1 multispectral satellite imagery classification: An accurate method for identifying populations of Acropora spp. corals prior to a field study (thesis)
In recent decades Caribbean coral reefs have experienced drastic decline in live coral cover. Some of the main framework-building coral species Acropora cervicornis, Acropora palmata, and the new hybrid species Acropora ... -
Chronological Persistence of Acropora cervicornis at Coral Gardens, Belize (thesis)
Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral) is an important framework-building scleractinian coral that dominated many Caribbean reefs throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Acropora spp. suffered collapse throughout the ... -
Can changes in the Larval Developmental Modes of Olivella in the Caribbean Neogene be used as a reliable productivity proxy? (thesis)
The Closure of the Isthmus of Panama functions as an excellent natural experiment because of our knowledge of the geologic record and the changing environment that influence the temperature, salinity, nutrients, and ... -
Estimating soil carbon content of grazing lands in Rockbridge County, Virginia using statistical and machine learning techniques (thesis)
In recent years, organizations have explored various methods of quantifying soil carbon to document carbon flux or provide economic incentive to farmers utilizing management practices that sequester carbon in their soil. ... -
Late paleocene-eocene syn-orogenic fluvial sedimentation and detrital fission track thermochronology of laramide syn-orogenic sediments, Denver Basin, CO (thesis)
This study investigates the Laramide foreland syn-orogenic sediments preserved in the Denver Basin, CO and interprets the Late Cretaceous-Eocene tectonic and climate history of Central Colorado. This thesis is divided into ... -
Tectonic Evolution of the Chugach-Prince William Terrane: U/Pb Detrital Zircon Age and Provenance of Cover Strata to the Paleocene Resurrection Peninsula Ophiolite in Seward, Alaska (thesis)
The southern margin of Alaska is defined by a late Mesozoic to Cenozoic accretionary complex that comprises the Upper Cretaceous to Eocene Chugach-Prince William (CPW) terrane. The Contact Fault serves as the current ... -
Influence of the Kingak formation ultimate shelf margin on frontal structures of the Brooks Range in National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska (thesis)
Well and seismic data in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA) demonstrate that the Jurassic—Lower Cretaceous Kingak Shale is present throughout NPRA. Several southward progradational depositional sequences within ... -
Influence of Late Jurassic Inversion Structures on Sedimentary Basin Uplift, Chukchi Shelf, Offshore Alaska (thesis)
This thesis examines the existence of a reactivated fault interpreted to be an inversion structure associated with a Jurassic tectonic event in the Chukchi Shelf off the NW coast of Alaska. Brookian, Jurassic, Ellesmerian, ... -
Aptian/Albian sediment volume and accumulation rates, Alaska North Slope and Beaufort shelf, from sequence stratigraphic interpretation and modeling (thesis)
We present a regional sequence-stratigraphic interpretation of the Torok-Nanushuk clinothem in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPRA), Alaskan state lands and Beaufort shelf using 2-D seismic reflection data, ... -
Geochemical Variability of Obsidian in Western New Mexico with Laboratory- Based pXRF (thesis)
Mule Creek and Mt. Taylor, located in southwestern and western New Mexico respectively, are obsidian source regions for archaeological lithic artifacts. Trace element concentrations can be used to distinguish obsidian from ... -
New constraints on the timing, rate, and style of exhumation of the Wood Hills and Pequop Mountains, Elko County, Nevada (thesis)
In this study, zircon (U-Th)/He analysis is used to documents the timing, rate, and style of exhumation of the Wood Hills and Pequop Mountains, which are part of the Ruby Mountains-East Humboldt Range metamorphic core ... -
Hf and Pb isotope data for mafic lava flows from the Three Sisters and Newberry regions of the Central Oregon Cascades (thesis)
The Cascade arc is an end member convergent margin in which the young and slowly subducting slab is hotter than in most subduction zones. Consequently, the timing and location of slab contribution, namely dehydration, is ... -
Impacts of Low-Head Dam Construction and Removal with Little Channel Sediment Storage: Case Study from the Maury River, Virginia
Dam removal projects are becoming more frequent as awareness of the negative ecological consequences increases and dams begin to fail. However, due to the potential threats of post-removal channel migration, bank erosion, ... -
The effect of Amazon and Orinoco rivers on the sea surface temperature and salinity cycles off Barbados : a record from Montastrea sp. and Siderastrea sp. corals (thesis)
Four Mantastrea sp. coral cores and four Siderastrea sp. coral cores were collected from the west coast of Barbados in June-July 2009. Samples were cut [at] Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and x-rayed ...