No / The famous Celtic site of Entremont, well known for its head cult and warrior statues, is a heritage gem of southern France. This naturally inhibits further excavation there, but the authors show just how much can be achieved through an integrated package of remote mapping techniques. Their exemplary methodology produced more than a high resolution plan of the unexcavated part of the site; this type of integrated procedure generates ground-breaking research, without breaking any ground. Here the investigation mobilised arguments for pre-urban monuments, and the activities, enclosures, entrances and circulation of the oppidum.

Yes / Two seasons of geophysical prospection (magnetic, resistance and ground-penetrating radar) were conducted at the Iron Age oppidum of Le Castellan, Istres, Bouches-du-Rhône, in order to determine the utility of these techniques for sites in this region. The survey revealed numerous strong anomalies, of which many ran parallel or perpendicular to one another. These are the sorts of responses one might expect from the remains of buried stone wall foundations; this interpretation is supported by the presence, on the west side of the site, of exposed walls on the same alignment as certain of the geophysical anomalies. Overall, the evidence suggests a network of buried buildings and road-ways across the oppidum. One particularly substantial building was identified towards the centre of the site, through the presence of a strong resistance anomaly of distinctly rectilinear form. It appears to represent the remains of a buried stone building with three rooms. In conclusion, the results provide strong encouragement for the further application of geophysical survey in this region

An interpretation of gravity and magnetic anomalies of the Butte district, Montana, is based on the analysis of five gravity profiles constructed from Bouguer gravity data of the Butte district observed during the summer of 1974 and give concurrent magnetic profiles constructed from U.S. Geological Survey high-level aeromagnetic data of the district. Of primary concern in this analysis is the interpretation of the Bouguer gravity high and aeromagnetic low associated with the Butte orebody. Results of this interpretation yield a configuration for the Butte orebody characterized by vertical contacts extending from the surface or directly beneath Cenozoic basin fill to 4,500 feet below sea level, with a central core, elongate in the north -south direction, surrounded by a variable outer zone, which is more pronounced in the southern and western portions of the district. The central core is interpreted as a region of zero magnetic susceptibility with three density distributions, all of which are of higher densities than the surrounding host rock and are related to the varying degrees of mineralization and alteration present in this region. The laterally variable outer zone is interpreted as a zone of low magnetic susceptibility with a density equal to that of the host rock. This zone is related to the peripheral mineralization and alteration of the Butte orebody.

The depths to buried bodies, characterized by anomalous gravity and magnetic properties, are determined by a combination of two numerical techniques. An upward continuation integral is solved by a method by Paul and Nagy using elemental squares and low order polynomials to describe the behavior of the gravity or magnetic data between observed data points. Downward continuation of the magnetic or gravity data is done by a finite difference technique as described by Bullard and Cooper. The applicability of the techniques are determined by comparison to depths determined by other means over the same anomalies and by comparison to various rule-of-thumb methods prevalent in the geophysical literature. The relative speed and cost of the particular computer system used is also considered in the applicability. The results show that although the initial costs of the computer program are high, the combined technique is as good as and at times better than the rule-of-thumb methods in determining the depth to the anomaly-causing body and is useful when more than just an approximate depth is of interest.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur la recherche géophysique de la proche sub-surface appliquée aux objets et structures archéologiques. L'objectif est de définir une méthodologie d'étude géophysique de sites archéologiques dans un contexte Méditerranéen : en France et en Tunisie, ainsi que " l'empreinte géophysique " des principaux objets archéologiques. La méthode géophysique principale utilisée est la méthode magnétique. Les cartographies magnétiques obtenues sont couplées aux cartographies et mesures électromagnétiques et aux tomographies électriques (ERT) et sismiques. Ce volet de prospection sur le terrain est corrélé aux mesures magnétiques de laboratoire, permettant une meilleure contrainte des modélisations directes et synthétiques proposées pour les différents objets étudiés. Dans une première partie, la thèse se concentre sur les structures et objets archéologiques de combustion. Cette partie précise la signature magnétique de ces objets et souligne son rehaussement dû à l'effet du feu. Dans un second temps, la thèse fait porter l'analyse sur l'empreinte géophysiques des structures d'aménagement et sa variation reliée aux différents matériaux et techniques utilisés ainsi qu'aux propriétés du terrain encaissant. D'autres objets sont par la suite étudiés pour une meilleure compréhension des anomalies magnétiques potentiellement produites. La diminution de la qualité du signal magnétique et donc du rapport signal sur bruit est traité vers la fin. / This dissertation deals with the applied geophysics to archaeological objects and structures in the close subsurface. The aims are to define a geophysical methodology for the study of archeological sites in a Mediterranean context : in France and in Tunisia, and also the geophysical signature of the main archaeological features. The main geophysical method used is the magnetic method. The obtained magnetic mappings are coupled with the electromagnetic cartographies and measurements, and with the electrical tomographies (ERT) and the seismic surveys. This ground prospecting is correlated with the magnetic measurements of laboratory, allowing a better constraint of the forward and synthetic modelling, proposed for the various studied features. First, the thesis concentrates on the study of the archaeological structures of combustion. This part specifies the magnetic signature of these objects and underlines the raising owed to the effect of the fire. Secondly, this work analyzes the geophysical imprint of the building structures and its variation connected with the various materials and techniques used as well as the surrounding ground properties. Other objects are afterward studied for a better understanding of the potentially produced magnetic anomalies. Last but not least, the decrease of the quality of the magnetic signal and thus the signal-to-noise ratio, is handled.

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No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew Totten / The Petersilie oil field in Ness County, Kansas produces out of the Mississippian System, a reservoir composed mainly of shallow water carbonates, at depths of around 4375 ft (1334 m). The lithology of the field ranges from limestone to dolomite, to interlaminated limestone-dolomite beds. Chert is commonly found throughout. Petersilie field lies to the west of the Central Kansas Uplift, and to the east of the Hugoton Embayment. The field saw much drilling activity in the 1960’s, when it reached a production peak of nearly 378,000 barrels of oil per year. Production declined swiftly after that until the late 1990’s, when waterflooding was successfully employed. In this study, a reservoir model was produced for the Mississippian as it occurs in Petersilie field using the Department of Energy’s EdBOAST reservoir modeling software, with the intent of providing a reference for future drilling activity in the Mississippian and determining reservoir characteristics that may have contributed to the effectiveness of waterflooding in this area. The reservoir model was checked by simulation with a companion reservoir simulator program, BOAST 98. Subsequent comparison of simulated and actual oil production curves demonstrates the reliability of well log and drill stem test data for the field and proves the reservoir model to be a good fit for the Mississippian in Petersilie. Production curve analysis of Petersilie indicates the field was an ideal candidate for waterflooding because it has a solution-gas drive mechanism. As the field approached depletion from primary recovery, oil saturations remained high. Petersilie also exhibits high porosity and good permeability. The BOAST software was found to be an effective and inexpensive means for understanding the Mississippian reservoir in central to south-central Kansas. It was determined that BOAST has potential for practical use by smaller independent oil companies targeting the Mississippian in Kansas.

The need to construct optimal drape surfaces arises in airborne geophysical surveys where it is necessary to fly a safe distance above the ground and within the performance limits of the aircraft used, but as close as possible to the surface. The problem is formulated as an LP with constraints at every point of a grid covering the area concerned, yielding a very large problem. The objective of the LP is to create as "good" a surface as possible. This formulation is new, as previous methods did not aim to minimise an objective function. If the desired surface has only slope limitations, the resulting drape surface must be constrained in the first derivative. Such a drape surface is readily constructed using the Lifting Algoritlun. It is shown that the Litling Algorithm is both exact and has great speed advantages. Some numerical results confinning exacmcss and speed are presented, as is the algorithm's analogy to a flow network method. An enhanced lifting method with a better order of complexity is also proposed and tested numerically. In most practical situations a drape surface is required which has both first and second derivatives constrained. If only a cut through such a surface is considered, the problem can be solved with relative ease by exploiting its nctwork~Jike structure. This method fonns the basis of one of the preferred heuristics developed later. It was not possible to generalise this method to a full two~dimensional drape surface. A commercially available LP package fares better in finding the optimal solution. Several heuristic methods were examined. first a general heuristic method based on a lifting approach was developed. This was followed by a method using repeated application of the method used for sections (the Alternating One-dimensional Dual Algorithm ["AODA"]). Three heuristics based on thimbles were also designed. Thimbles are caps whose first and second derivatives are acceptable and which are placed over local infeasibilities in the topography The work ends with a chapter comparing the efficiency of various heuristics and comparing the results obtained using a number of test datasets. It was fOLmd that heuristic methods provide acceptable drape surfaces and that the choice lies between speed and accuracy, with a previously designed smoothing method being the fastesl and the AODA the most accurate and quick enough. / Operations Research / D.Phil.

Assessing long-term rock stability is an important aspect in the analysis of slopes, dam and bridge foundations, and other infrastructure. Rock behavior over tens to thousands of years must be anticipated when predicting the performance of, for example, an underground containment facility for nuclear waste. At such long time scales, the time dependence of rock failure, typically ignored in short time scale analyses, has a significant effect and must be included in the analysis. Since time-dependent rock behavior is thought to be caused by the subcritical growth of microcracks, a time-dependent analysis should incorporate a method of simulating subcritical crack growth. In this thesis, a rock bridge damage model was developed using the finite element program Abaqus to simulate subcritical crack growth for all three modes of crack tip displacement in three-dimensional rock masses. Since subcritical crack growth is not among the damage initiation and evolution criteria available in Abaqus, its effect was included in the model through the USDFLD user subroutine. Material properties for the damage model were obtained through laboratory fracture toughness testing of Escabrosa limestone from Kartchner Caverns. Tests included the grooved disk test for mode I, the punch-through shear with confining pressure test for mode II, and the circumferentially-notched cylindrical specimen test for mode III. The subcritical crack growth parameters n and A were calculated for all three modes using the constant stress-rate method. Fracture test results were compared with a previous study by Tae Young Ko at the University of Arizona, which tested Coconino sandstone and determined that the subcritical crack growth parameters were consistent among modes. This thesis expands upon Ko's work by adding the characterization of a second rock material in all three modes; results indicate that for Escabrosa limestone the subcritical crack growth parameters are not consistent among modes. Additionally, the Escabrosa limestone composing the caverns ranges from a more homogeneous, even-grained texture to a more heterogeneous texture consisting of coarse-grained veins and solution cavities set in a fine-grained matrix. To determine if the veined regions are more susceptible to fracturing and act as the nuclei of rock bridge failure, the fracture toughness tests were conducted separately for each texture. Results indicate that the more heterogeneous limestone has a higher fracture strength, fracture toughness, and subcritical crack growth index n than the more homogeneous limestone. This is in agreement with previous studies that determined that a more complex and heterogeneous microstructure produces a larger microcrack process zone and a more tortuous crack path, leading to higher fracture energies and larger values of n. Application of the rock bridge damage model to a simplified Kartchner cave room with a single roof block provided visualization of decreasing rock bridge size and produced time-to-failure estimates of 1,251 to 65,850 years. Multiple models were run to study the effect of (i) using material properties from each of the two textures identified in the Escabrosa limestone and (ii) varying the in-situ stress ratio, K. Both the value of K and the choice of Escabrosa texture had a large effect on the estimated time-to-failure, indicating that for future modeling of Kartchner accurate estimation of the in-situ stress ratio is as important as field identification of homogeneous vs. heterogeneous textures.