Physical experiments are used to investigate the influence of the Coriolis forces on flow structures in channelized turbidity currents, and their implication for the evolution of straight and sinuous submarine channels. Initial tests were used to determine whether or not saline density currents are a good surrogate for particle-laden currents. Results imply that this assumption is valid when turbidity currents are weakly-depositional and have similar velocity and turbulence structures to saline density currents. Second, the controls of Coriolis forces on flow structures in straight channel sections are compared with two mathematical models: Ekman boundary layer dynamics and the theory of Komar [1969]. Ekman boundary layer dynamics prove to be a more suitable description of flow structures in rotating turbidity currents and should be used to derive flow parameters from submarine channels systems that are subjected to Coriolis forces. The significance of Coriolis forces for submarine channel systems were determined by evaluating the dimensionless Rossby number RoW. The Rossby number is defined as the ratio of the flow velocity, U, of a turbidity current to the channel width, W, and the rotation rate of the Earth represented by the Coriolis parameter, f. Coriolis forces are very significant for channel systems with RoW ≤ O(1). Third, the effect of Coriolis forces on the internal flow structure in sinuous submarine channels is considered. Since previous studies have only considered pressure gradient and centrifugal forces, the Coriolis force provides a crucial contribution to the lateral momentum balance in channel bends. In a curved channel, both the Rossby number RoW and the ratio of the channel curvature radius R to the channel width W, determine whether Coriolis forces affect the internal flow structure. The results demonstrate that Coriolis forces can cause a significant shift of the density interface and the downstream velocity core of channelized turbidity currents. The sediment transport regime in high-latitude channel systems, which have RoW << R/W, is therefore strongly influenced by Coriolis forces. Finally, these findings are incorporated into a conceptual model describing the evolution of submarine channels at different latitudes. For instance, the Northern Hemisphere channels have a distinctly higher right levee system and migrate predominantly to the left side and generally exhibit a low sinuosity. In contrast, low latitude channel systems have RoW >> R/W so that centrifugal forces are more dominant. This results in more sinuous submarine channel systems with varying levee asymmetries in subsequent channel bends. In conclusion, Coriolis forces are negligible around the equator but should be considered in high latitude systems, particularly when RoW ~ O(1) and RoW << R/W.

North Range low-sulfide mineralization is dominantly hosted by Sudbury breccia, with amphibole-plagioclase equilibrium metamorphic temperatures of 440 to 533 ± 75oC, produced by the SICs thermal aureole. Mineralization led to increases in the bulk halogen content of the host Sudbury breccia and the formation of Ni-enriched ferromagnesian silicates. South Range low-sulfide mineralization is typically hosted by metabasalts of the Huronian Supergroup. Garnet-biotite-plagioclase-quartz geothermobarometry produced equilibrium metamorphic conditions of 513 to 645 ± 50oC and 2.0 to 7.7 ± 1.0 kbar, probably corresponding to a late-Penokean overprint of peak Blezardian/Penokean metamorphism. Silicates associated with South Range mineralization are compositionally similar to the host rock equivalents and no alteration selvage is commonly observed due to subsequent recrystallization. Platinum-group minerals (PGM) from the North Range comprise platinum and palladium tellurides and bismuth-tellurides, with Sb-bearing palladium bismuth-tellurides and sperrylite from the South Range. Kotulskite-sobolevskite from the North Range shows a previously unreported Ag-Pd substitution, with michenerite from irregular veinlet style mineralization showing the substitution of Se and Sb for Bi. Two unknown PGMs were identified from the South Range, along with kotulskite-sobolevskite-sudburyite crystals displaying extensive Te-Bi-Sb solid-solution not noted before at Sudbury. A new Se-bearing variant of pilsenite was identified at McKim. Polyphase aggregates from both Ranges indicate that Bi-Te melts may have been widespread at some stage postdating the emplacement of the main magmatic sulfides. Normalized plots for low-sulfide mineralization show enrichments in the precious and semimetals relative to contact and sharp-walled vein mineralization. This enrichment has resulted in elevated concentrations of Ag and Se in chalcopyrite and Pd+Ag and Se in pentlandite from the North Range. The mass balance for North Range samples found that a significant fraction of Ag and Se occurs in sulfides with all other elements preferring discrete phases. A substantial fraction of Pd is hosted by pentlandite on the South Range, with gersdorffite also a major host despite its low abundance. The enrichments observed reflect the formation of low-sulfide mineralization from a fractionated sulfide liquid and hydrothermal fluids that have interacted with a fractionated sulfide source, and suggest that the precious and semimetals behave incompatibly with crystallizing sulfide.

North Range low-sulfide mineralization is dominantly hosted by Sudbury breccia, with amphibole-plagioclase equilibrium metamorphic temperatures of 440 to 533 ± 75oC, produced by the SICs thermal aureole. Mineralization led to increases in the bulk halogen content of the host Sudbury breccia and the formation of Ni-enriched ferromagnesian silicates. South Range low-sulfide mineralization is typically hosted by metabasalts of the Huronian Supergroup. Garnet-biotite-plagioclase-quartz geothermobarometry produced equilibrium metamorphic conditions of 513 to 645 ± 50oC and 2.0 to 7.7 ± 1.0 kbar, probably corresponding to a late-Penokean overprint of peak Blezardian/Penokean metamorphism. Silicates associated with South Range mineralization are compositionally similar to the host rock equivalents and no alteration selvage is commonly observed due to subsequent recrystallization. Platinum-group minerals (PGM) from the North Range comprise platinum and palladium tellurides and bismuth-tellurides, with Sb-bearing palladium bismuth-tellurides and sperrylite from the South Range. Kotulskite-sobolevskite from the North Range shows a previously unreported Ag-Pd substitution, with michenerite from irregular veinlet style mineralization showing the substitution of Se and Sb for Bi. Two unknown PGMs were identified from the South Range, along with kotulskite-sobolevskite-sudburyite crystals displaying extensive Te-Bi-Sb solid-solution not noted before at Sudbury. A new Se-bearing variant of pilsenite was identified at McKim. Polyphase aggregates from both Ranges indicate that Bi-Te melts may have been widespread at some stage postdating the emplacement of the main magmatic sulfides. Normalized plots for low-sulfide mineralization show enrichments in the precious and semimetals relative to contact and sharp-walled vein mineralization. This enrichment has resulted in elevated concentrations of Ag and Se in chalcopyrite and Pd+Ag and Se in pentlandite from the North Range. The mass balance for North Range samples found that a significant fraction of Ag and Se occurs in sulfides with all other elements preferring discrete phases. A substantial fraction of Pd is hosted by pentlandite on the South Range, with gersdorffite also a major host despite its low abundance. The enrichments observed reflect the formation of low-sulfide mineralization from a fractionated sulfide liquid and hydrothermal fluids that have interacted with a fractionated sulfide source, and suggest that the precious and semimetals behave incompatibly with crystallizing sulfide.

Understanding Earth&rsquo;s accretion and primary differentiation is a long-standing goal of geology. The segregation of FeNi metal from molten silicate to form Earth&rsquo;s core is expected to deplete and fractionate the highly siderophile elements (HSEs). Estimates of the primitive upper mantle (PUM) composition however, reveal only modest HSE depletions and chondritic element ratios. Past experiments to determine if the mantle composition is set by high-temperature metal-silicate equilibrium have involved measuring the solubility of HSEs in silicate melt at conditions more reducing than the iron-wustite (IW) buffer. Accurate determination of solubilities at such conditions has been hindered by the formation of dispersed metal inclusions; this work describes methods to circumvent the problem. Results of three separate studies are presented which document the solubility of Re, Pt and Au in molten silicate which is demonstrably nugget-free. Data obtained from experiments done at 0.1 MPa&ndash;2 GPa, 1573&ndash;2573 K and ~ IW -1.5 to +3 reveal: 1) Re, Pt and Au solubility increases with increasing temperature, 2) Re solubility increases with increasing oxygen fugacity (fO2), consistent with dissolution as oxide species, 3) Below ~ IW +3, Pt and Au solubility increases with decreasing fO2, consistent with dissolution as neutral or silicide species, and 4) that Au is amongst the most soluble HSE in molten silicate, with values increasing with temperature, but insensitive to changes in P, fO2 and melt composition, making it well suited as a geothermometer for core formation. Partition coefficients calculated from these and previous solubility measurements indicate that metal-silicate equilibrium is unable to reproduce the Re/Os and Pt/Os ratios required by PUM Os isotope systematics if simultaneously accounting for the observed absolute element abundances. Instead, results support late accretion of material following core formation, elevating element abundances and endowing chondritic inter-element ratios. Experimental results are incorporated into a terrestrial accretion model, which differs from the standard approach by explicitly accounting for the distribution of oxygen. Model results show siderophile element abundances in PUM are best reproduced if the mantle undergoes oxidation during accretion and metal-silicate equilibrium occurs near the peridotite solidus.

Understanding Earth&rsquo;s accretion and primary differentiation is a long-standing goal of geology. The segregation of FeNi metal from molten silicate to form Earth&rsquo;s core is expected to deplete and fractionate the highly siderophile elements (HSEs). Estimates of the primitive upper mantle (PUM) composition however, reveal only modest HSE depletions and chondritic element ratios. Past experiments to determine if the mantle composition is set by high-temperature metal-silicate equilibrium have involved measuring the solubility of HSEs in silicate melt at conditions more reducing than the iron-wustite (IW) buffer. Accurate determination of solubilities at such conditions has been hindered by the formation of dispersed metal inclusions; this work describes methods to circumvent the problem. Results of three separate studies are presented which document the solubility of Re, Pt and Au in molten silicate which is demonstrably nugget-free. Data obtained from experiments done at 0.1 MPa&ndash;2 GPa, 1573&ndash;2573 K and ~ IW -1.5 to +3 reveal: 1) Re, Pt and Au solubility increases with increasing temperature, 2) Re solubility increases with increasing oxygen fugacity (fO2), consistent with dissolution as oxide species, 3) Below ~ IW +3, Pt and Au solubility increases with decreasing fO2, consistent with dissolution as neutral or silicide species, and 4) that Au is amongst the most soluble HSE in molten silicate, with values increasing with temperature, but insensitive to changes in P, fO2 and melt composition, making it well suited as a geothermometer for core formation. Partition coefficients calculated from these and previous solubility measurements indicate that metal-silicate equilibrium is unable to reproduce the Re/Os and Pt/Os ratios required by PUM Os isotope systematics if simultaneously accounting for the observed absolute element abundances. Instead, results support late accretion of material following core formation, elevating element abundances and endowing chondritic inter-element ratios. Experimental results are incorporated into a terrestrial accretion model, which differs from the standard approach by explicitly accounting for the distribution of oxygen. Model results show siderophile element abundances in PUM are best reproduced if the mantle undergoes oxidation during accretion and metal-silicate equilibrium occurs near the peridotite solidus.

The Distinct Element Method (DEM) and Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) are the two most commonly used discrete element methods in rock mechanics. Discrete element approaches are computationally expensive as they involve the interaction of multiple discrete bodies with continuously changing contacts. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the method selected for the analysis is computationally efficient. In this research, a general assessment of DDA and DEM is performed from a computational efficiency perspective, and relevant enhancements to DDA are developed. The computational speed of DDA is observed to be considerably slower than DEM. In order to identify reasons affecting the computational efficiency of DDA, fundamental aspects of DDA and DEM are compared which suggests that they mainly differ in the contact mechanics, and the time integration scheme used. An in-depth evaluation of these aspects revealed that the openclose iterative procedure used in DDA which exhibits highly nonlinear behavior is one of the main reasons causing DDA to slow down. In order to improve the computational efficiency of DDA, an alternative approach based on a more realistic rock joint behavior is developed in this research. In this approach, contacts are assumed to be deformable, i.e., interpenetrations of the blocks in contact are permitted. This eliminated the computationally expensive open-close iterative procedure adopted in DDA-Shi and enhanced its speed up to four times. In order to consider deformability of the blocks in DDA, several approaches are reported. The hybrid DDA-FEM approach is one of them, although this approach captures the block deformability quite effectively, it becomes computationally expensive for large-scale problems. An alternative simplified uncoupled DDA-FEM approach is developed in this research. The main idea of this approach is to model rigid body movement and the block internal deformation separately. Efficiency and simplicity of this approach lie in keeping the DDA and the FEM algorithms separate and solving FEM equations individually for each block. Based on a number of numerical examples presented in this dissertation, it is concluded that from a computational efficiency standpoint, the implicit solution scheme may not be appropriate for discrete element modelling. Although for quasi-static problems where inertia effects are insignificant, implicit schemes have been successfully used for linear analyses, they do not prove to be advantageous for contact-type problems even in quasi-static mode due to the highly nonlinear behavior of contacts.

The goal of this research was to devise a new analytical technique, using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), to measure Platinum Group Element (PGE) concentrations to the sup-ppb levels in natural, insulating, samples. The challenges were threefold. First, a method of sputtering an insulating sample to successfully produce a stable beam of anions needed to be devised. Second, a suitable standard of known PGE concentrations had to be found and third, spectral analysis of the beam had to verify any claims of PGE abundance. The first challenge was met by employing a modified high intensity negative ion source flooded with neutral caesium that successfully sputtered insulators to produce a beam of negative ions. The second challenge, that of finding a suitable standard, was fraught with difficulties, as no synthesized standards available were found to be appropriate for this work. As a result, direction is provided for future production of standards by ion implantation. The third challenge, successful spectral analysis, was accomplished using a newly designed gas ionization detector which allowed for resolution of the interfering molecular fragment from the PGE ions. Coupled with the use of the SRIM computer programme, positive identification of all peaks in the spectra of the analyzed samples was accomplished. The success of the first and third challenges lead to the qualitative analyses of geological samples for sub-ppb levels of PGE by AMS. Quantitative analyses await only for the appropriate standards and with those will come a whole new range of research possibilities for measuring sub-ppb levels of PGE in insulating samples by AMS.

The Giant and Con deposits, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, represent a classic Archean lode-gold deposit now offset by a major Proterozoic fault (West Bay Fault). The link between the Giant and Con deposits is supported by their similarities. However, there are distinct differences between the two deposits in terms of the offset of stratigraphy, response to D2 deformation, geometry, gold mineralization styles, and depth of gold mineralization. Gold mineralization in the Giant-Con system formed over a protracted history of deformation and hydrothermal activity. Early D1 extension resulted in offset and excision of stratigraphy and the formation of refractory gold mineralization within strongly deformed schistose zones and quartz-carbonate veins. The main D2 deformation in the district resulted in the strong overprint of D1 refractory gold mineralization and was associated with the northwest-southeast flattening of the Giant deposit and progressive reverse-dextral shear of the Con deposit. Free-milling gold mineralization is associated with the D2 event, forming deeper in the Giant-Con system, creating a vertical zonation of free-milling quartz-carbonate veins overprinting earlier refractory gold mineralization that formed higher in the system. Ore plunge in the Giant deposit is controlled by the interaction of the original geometry of D1 deformation zones with the effects of D2 flattening. Ore plunge in the Con deposit is controlled by the orientation of F2 fold and B2 boudin axes in auriferous quartz-carbonate veins. D3 reactivation of the deformation zones (probably related to the end of the D2 compressive event) caused local reactivation of structures and is not associated with gold mineralization. D4 Proterozoic faulting offset and segmented the two deposits, including the major offset by the West Bay Fault. A new reconstruction of the West Bay Fault shows that the Con deformation zone is the down dip extension of the Giant deposit and not the Campbell deformation zone as previously thought.

Master of Science / Geology / Matthew E. Brueseke / Previous K-Ar dating and petrography (Obradovich, 1978) have identified Pilot Knob as an ~3.4 (±0.06) Ma alkaline intrusive body. Bulk rock geochemistry obtained via XRF from four samples of Pilot Knob verifies the transitionally alkaline composition of the body, and new REE data also show enriched La, Ce, and Nd concentrations, consistent with rare earth element (REE) enrichment. Given the increased demand for REEs over the past ~30 years and China accounting for > 90% of global REE production (Kynicky, et al. 2012), it is important to evaluate new domestic REE sources. This includes those associated with alkaline intrusive complexes, because they are demonstrated to host high REE concentrations (Verplanck and Van Gosen, 2011). Such alkaline igneous occurrences show complex mineralization and consist of many minerals containing substitutional REEs (Mariano and Mariano, 2012). This study evaluates the petrogenesis and mineralogy of Pilot Knob (and a secondary field site, Wildcat Hill) and determines whether the intrusive body is consistent with an economically viable REE deposit. Additionally, given its geographic location and Pliocene faulting and magmatism (e.g., predating the earliest volcanism at Yellowstone), Pilot Knob may represent one of the earliest structural manifestations of the “arrival” of the Yellowstone hotspot at its current location under the North American lithosphere or magmatism associated with lithospheric extension to the south at the Leucite Hills, WY. Inspection of satellite imagery, which has been verified with field data, shows that other intrusive igneous bodies (e.g. - Wildcat Hill) exist, along an apparent normal fault zone along strike with a major extensionally related fault zone documented ~10 km northwest of Pilot Knob. Clinopyroxene geobarometry, coupled with Nd isotope data (εNd[subscript 3.5Ma] = -21.9), indicates that Pilot Knob formed via a multi-stage development history that initiated with melting of ancient lithospheric mantle, where crystallization occurred at a variety of depths. As an alkaline intrusive complex, Pilot Knob has been identified, based on mineral and chemical compositions, as a kersantite, and has been found to contain approximately 600 ppm total light-rare earth element ore lode with ~150 ppm Nd, ~175 ppm La, and ~338 ppm Ce enrichment. Apatite was found to be the primary REE-bearing mineral via petrography and electron microprobe analyses. Based on current technology and processing methods, REE concentrations were not found to be significant enough to denote an economically viable REE ore deposit at Pilot Knob.

Master of Science / Geology / Matthew W. Totten / The Mississippian-aged St. Louis Limestone of Western Kansas is a carbonate resource play that has been producing oil, gas, and natural gas liquids (NGL) for over 50 years. The Mississippian Limestone is made up of heterogeneous limestones with interbedded layers of porous and non-porous units, abrupt facies changes, and diagenetic alterations. These factors combine to characterize the St. Louis Limestone's internal complexity, which complicates hydrocarbon exploration. This study focuses on improving the understanding of the geometry, distribution, and continuity of depositional facies within Kearny County, Kansas. Petrophysical analysis of a suite of geophysical logs integrated with core provided the basis for establishing facies successions, determining vertical stacking patterns within a sequence stratigraphic framework, and correlating areas of high porosity with a respective facies. The following depositional facies were identified; 1) porous ooid grainstone, 2) highly-cemented ooid grainstone, 3) quartz-carbonate grainstone, 4) peloidal grainstone, 5) micritic mudstone, and the 6) skeletal wackestone/packstone. The porous ooid grainstone is the chief reservoir facies, with log-derived porosity measurements between four and eighteen percent. In areas without available core, depositional facies were predicted and modeled using a neural network analysis tool (Kipling2.xla). Values derived from the evaluated core intervals and their respective geophysical logs served as the framework for the neural network model. This study illustrates the advantages of correlating depositional facies with reservoir quality and correlating those specific facies to geophysical logs, ultimately to create a greater understanding of the reservoir quality and potential within the St. Louis Limestone of western Kansas.