Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is limited by depth penetration and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), impacting the ability to resolve subsurface features. Stacking, a process of averaging multiple scans in the same location, improves SNR. Digital antennas are capable of stacking at much higher rates than analog antennas. Four sites were examined using a GSSI SIR-4000 GPR unit with a 400 MHz analog antenna and a 350 MHz digital “hyperstacking” (350 HS) antenna. Sites represent various soil conditions, with known features. Data were compared qualitatively and quantitatively for differences in antenna outputs. Visual inspection of radargrams indicate a reduction in noise in the 350 HS data compared to the 400 MHz data. Quantitative assessments identified significant differences in standard deviation of radar reflection amplitude occurring at depth with both antennas and a reduction in noise and marginal increases in depth of penetration in low-loss conditions with the 350 MHz HS antenna.

A fault-like linearity along the lower Clackamas River is evaluated by analysis of physiographic and structural alignments, geological relationships, and by gravity and magnetic data. The study has resulted in the verification of a structural feature extending along the Clackamas River and the eastern front of the Portland Hills. Physiographic alignments were examined in twelve 15 minute and two 7-1/2 minute quadrangle maps. A significant northeasterly morphologic trend, N. 20⁰ W. and N. 40° W., and other secondary trends, namely, the N-S, E-W, and N. 50-60° E., has developed in the Portland area. The consistent northwest trend is observed throughout the entire area studied which strongly suggests that the alignments are very good indicators of underlying structural features. Structural alignments show that approximately 60% of the known mapped faults and fold axes concur with the dominant northwest physiographic trend. Seismic first motion analysis supports the established morphologic trend. A series of regionally co-aligned morphologic and structural features striking S. 40 -50⁰ E. across the state of Oregon suggest the presence of a major structural fault system aligned with the Portland Hills-Clackamas River structural alignment. The geologic cross sections developed from map and well data generally lack any tangible evidence as to the nature of the physiographic alignment. An apparent offset of the lower Pliocene Sandy River mudstone suggests movement as recent as middle Pliocene. Geophysical information was obtained from six gravity traverses and three magnetic traverses. The consistency of the size and shape of the gravity anomaly, 2.18 milligals/O. 2 mile, downdropped to the east, across the physiographic alignment defines the zone of a fault or a steep fold developed in the Columbia River basalt. The magnetic anomalies show a consistent change in the magnetic gradient corresponding to the structural zone.

Many seismic hazard source parameters such as slip rate, total displacement, strain accommodation, geographic fault location, etc. are poorly constrained in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ). This is in large part due to the masking effect of the thick Mississippi embayment sediment package on seismogenic structures and features. Consequently, much of the subsurface geologic characterization needed for understanding seismic hazard sources requires geophysical imaging. Recent seismic reflection surveys 12 km NE of the Reelfoot Fault stepover arm of the NMSZ have suggested a northeast-oriented transpressional fault zone extending across the Reelfoot Fault stepover arm where its dextral displacement at seismogenic depth is unbalanced with the surface expression, the Reelfoot Scarp. New high-resolution seismic reflection surveys were acquired across the southwestern back projection of the hypothesized structure at a potential piercing point with the Reelfoot Fault near Proctor City, TN. The resultant images show steeply dipping northeast striking faults with uplifted and arched post-Paleozoic reflectors that extend into the Quaternary sediments, consistent with the findings of the previous surveys. The new imaged faults form a ~500-meter-wide positive flower structure, with vertical displacements of 16 m and 50 m at the top of the Eocene and top of the Paleozoic reflectors, respectively. Results corroborate the Axial Fault extending to the northeast, and provide geological evidence for Reelfoot Fault segmentation. Furthermore, the near-surface SH-wave seismic profiles show the through-going shear deformation has continued into the Quaternary, thus indicating seismogenic strain has not been completely transferred to the Reelfoot Fault, providing additional evidence for accommodating the strain imbalance.

Mars was assumed to be very similar to Earth in terms of topography, water, magnetic field, and even the existence of life. However, exploration of the planet in the 1960s by the Mariner missions showed us a very different planet, one very unlike our own. The later discovery by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) of the lack of a globally generated magnetic field proved just how different Mars is from Earth. The discovery of strong magnetic remanence (on the order of 20 – 30 A/m) on Mars implies that at some point in Mars’ history there was a magnetic field, and therefore a dynamo. Since a globally active magnetic field is not present, it can also be assumed that the dynamo ceased generation. Basaltic rocks on Earth typically have magnetic remanences between 1 to 4 A/m and do not usually hold on to those remanences for billions of years. In this study, I utilized the information available on the geochemistry, age, and magnetics of Martian rocks in an attempt to find appropriate terrestrial analogs. Seven Earth locations of basaltic rocks (Mauna Loa, Hawaii; Eldgja and Laki eruptions, Iceland; Springerville volcanic complex, Arizona; Taos Plateau volcanic complex, New Mexico; Lascar Volcano, Chile; Tatara-San Pedro volcanic complex, Chile; Patagonia slab window, Argentina) were selected with different tectonic environments, ages, and geochemistries and their rock magnetic properties including natural remanent magnetization (NRM), susceptibility, and hysteresis properties including coercivity were analyzed. Geochemical values were plotted as averages on a silica vs. alkali graph. There was some variation in NRM and susceptibility values for each of the terrestrial locations (such as Taos Plateau), but overall the averages are a good representation of average NRM and susceptibility. None of the samples studied displayed high remanence, high susceptibility, and high coercivity that would indicate stable single-domain magnetite. Although vastly different basalt origins were studied, an analog to the highly magnetized Martian crust was not found. There are three possibilities for this. 1) A basaltic terrestrial analog does exist, yet it was not included in this study. This is a very viable possibility since there are basalts all over the Earth each with a unique origin. 2) A basaltic terrestrial analog does not exist because although the rocks on Mars are basaltic, the global magnetic field that existed billions of years ago on Mars was unlike that of Earth. Recent work (Stanley et al, 2008) has shown that the Martian magnetic field might be completely different from Earth’s, and therefore a terrestrial analog would be impossible to find. 3) A basaltic terrestrial analog does not exist, but a terrestrial analog of a different rock type does exist. The assumption that the surface rocks on Mars – which are known to be mostly basaltic – are the carrier of the high magnetism. There is the possibility that the surface may be the origin of the magnetism, and in the areas of extremely high magnetism the rocks might locally be different. Also, it may not be the surface rocks that are exhibiting the magnetism. It may be buried highly magnetic rocks under a basalt lava flows. In addition to seeking out other basalts as terrestrial analogs for to the highly magnetized Martian rocks, it would also be worthwhile to investigate the possibility of a different magnetic field for Mars and what other terrestrial rocks could display such high magnetism billions of years after the termination of the Martian magnetic field.

This thesis contains several distinct studies aimed at better understanding fracturing in compressional fault-cored folds. At outcrops of growth strata in the Oliana anticline in the Spanish Pyrenees, the relationship of two joint sets may reflect changing mechanical properties (i.e. via diagenesis) during the folding process. Using a Schmidt hammer, I assess the rigidity contrast between the individual units and suggest that late-stage, throughgoing joints formed in strata with conditions similar to those of the present day and that early, bed-contained joints formed when the rigidity contrast between beds was significantly greater than the present day contrast. Modeling algorithms that are used for fracture prediction assume plane strain to construct, model and restore fault-cored folds. Using mechanical models that allow heterogeneous transport in three dimensions, I explore the distribution and magnitude of out-of-plane transport in plunging fault-cored anticlines and provide guidelines of where plane strain should and should not be applied. I show that out-of-plane transport is significant in the simplest non-cylindrical folds, and suggest that complex non-cylindrical structures should not be modeled using plane strain. I mapped five bed-orthogonal fracture sets associated with folding and faulting events at Sant Corneli anticline, a non-cylindrical, fault related anticline in the Spanish Pyrenees. Fold axis perpendicular, calcite healed joint sets associated with similarly oriented normal faulting both pre-date, and are cross cut by calcite healed, N-NW striking joints. Later bed strike oblique joint sets are distinguished by the presence of iron oxide mineralization that probably occurred during Paleocene-Oligocene time. This study directly links fold-related fracturing to fold evolution because fracture sets can be dated relative to the structural evolution of the anticline. I use three-dimensional restorations of Sant Corneli anticline in the Spanish Pyrenees to test the fracture prediction capability of a fully three-dimensional finite element geomechanical restoration algorithm. Reconstruction of the three-dimensional architecture of the syn-tectonic strata provides a template for incrementally unfolding the anticline. Strains predicted by the restorations are compared to the fracture sets that formed over the corresponding time intervals, which are consistent with the observed fracture patterns at Sant Corneli anticline.

Lakes sediments from the Lofoten Islands, Norway, can be used to generate well resolved records of past climate and environmental change. This dissertation presents three lacustrine paleoenvironmental reconstructions that show evidence for Holocene climate changes associated with North Atlantic climate dynamics and relative sea-level variations driven by glacio-isostatic adjustment. This study also uses distal tephra deposits (cryptotephra) from Icelandic volcanic eruptions to improve the chronologies of these reconstructions and explores new approaches to crypto-tephrochronology. Past and present conditions at Vikjordvatnet, Fiskebølvatnet, and Heimerdalsvatnet were studied during four field seasons conducted from 2007-2010. Initially, each lake was characterized by measuring water column chemistry, logging annual temperature fluctuations, and conducting bathymetric and seismic surveys. Sediment cores were then collected and analyzed using multiple techniques, including: sediment density, magnetic susceptibility, loss-on-ignition, total carbon and nitrogen, δ13C and δ15N of organic matter, and elemental compositions acquired by scanning X-ray fluorescence. Chronologies were established using radiocarbon dating and tephrochronology. A 13.8 cal ka BP record from Vikjordvatnet provides evidence for glacial activity during the Younger Dryas cold interval and exhibits trends in Ti, Fe, and organic content during the Holocene that correlate with regional millennial-scale climate trends and provide evidence for more rapid events. A 9.7 cal ka BP record from Fiskebølvatnet shows a strong signal of sediment inwashing likely driven by local geomorphic conditions, although there is evidence that increased inwashing at the onset of the Neoglacial could have been associated with increased precipitation. Heimerdalsvatnet provides a record of relative sea-level change. A 7.8 cal ka BP sedimentary record reflects changes in salinity and water column conditions as the lake was isolated and defines sea-level regression following the Tapes transgression. Cryptotephra horizons were identified in sediments of Heimerdalsvatnet, Vikjordvatnet, and Sverigedalsvatn. They were also found in a Viking-age boathouse excavated along the shore of Inner Borgpollen. These include the GA4-85, BIP-24a, SILK-N2, Askja, 860 Layer B, Hekla 1158, Hekla 1104, Vedde Ash, and Saksunarvatn tephra. This research project also explored the use of scanning XRF to locate cryptotephra in lacustrine sediments and presents experimental results of XRF scans of tephra-spiked synthetic sediment cores.

This dissertation traces the recovery of the landscape idea during the middle decades of the 20th century by a group of public intellectuals, scholars and designers responding to the everyday realities of the modern American built environment. That recovery served as a corrective to modernism's construction of landscape as either abstract utopian space or retrogressive historical tableau. The primary catalyst for this renewed interest in landscape as a representation of human cultures and their complex relationship with the natural world was the essayist and critic John Brinckerhoff Jackson (1909-1996) and his magazine Landscape. During the years of Jackson's editorship (1951-1968), the magazine became a locus for intellectual exchange, a gathering place for a community of scholars from different disciplines who were drawn to Jackson's unique voice. Jackson's essays in the magazine used the term landscape in a way that was not common outside of the field of human geography. Here landscape did not describe a picturesque or painterly scene, nor did it describe a process of beautification. Jackson wrote of landscapes that seemed somewhat prosaic: the everyday, ordinary environments of city streets, rural farms, individual dwellings, highways and the commercial strip. He insisted that understanding how to read these places for their social, cultural and ecological content was a necessary--though too rarely employed--prelude to imagining new prototypes for the design and management of human environments. The mid-century intellectual milieu fostered by J.B. Jackson ultimately nurtured a contemporary (and still evolving) understanding of landscape as a conceptual medium composed of a diversity of cultures, layers of visible history and hidden narratives and an interdependent human ecology that continues to shape landscape theory and practice today.

<p>Digital elevation models (DEM) can be used for a multitude of applications. Under ideal circumstances, calibration of a remotely acquired estimate of topographic elevation is calibrated through use of ground control points (GCP) which would be ubiquitous, seamlessly joining remotely sensed data and high accuracy check points. In reality there are many areas on the earth’s surface which are difficult, expensive, or dangerous to access. Under these circumstances, the acquisition of GCPs may not be realistic and relative DEMs must be used. Innovative methods must then be used to determine the relative error associated with a DEM in a given study area. The method presented in this paper compares three DEMs (ASTER, CDED, SRTM) derived from independent acquisition systems to determine their relative errors.</p> <p>The ASTER DEM data was chosen for a lineament analysis study in north central Ontario, Canada. This study used a quantitative digital approach to determine the density of lineaments mimicking the geometry of the northern Sudbury Igneous Complex contact (SIC). The study revealed a lineament density at ~25km north of the northern SIC contact, suggesting a ring structure from an ancient multi-ring impact basin. This argument is supported by findings of the pattern of plagioclase clouding intensities in Matachewan dykes in the vicinity of the ring structure. The orientation of the dykes may have some connection to the faulting and block rotation caused by crater wall collapse.</p> <p>Paleomagnetic data from the norite in the SIC and Foy Offset dyke combined with an unconstrained magnetic inversion of the Foy Offset dyke suggest that the Sudbury Structure has not been folded, but instead has been deformed by brittle deformation.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>The modern coastline provides few clues as to the ancient harbour configuration since Kalamianos has been partially submerged by > 6 m of relative sea-level rise since the Early Helladic. In 2009, a detailed marine geophysical survey and underwater diver search was conducted in the inshore waters to identify potential anchorage sites and to examine evidence for coastal subsidence. Single-beam bathymetry and magnetic gradiometer data were acquired and integrated within a detailed digital bathymetric model (DBM).</p> <p>The DBM revealed two submerged beachrock platforms (BR-1, BR-2) paralleling the modern shoreline and a submerged isthmus connecting the mainland with small island 200 m offshore. The BR-1 platform (3.5-3.7 m depth) contained abundant Late Helladic (LH; 1300-1190 BC) pottery sherds (30-50%) and wood charcoal fragments.¹⁴C dating of the extracted charcoal yielded an AMS ¹⁴C uncalibrated age of 3250±40 BP, consistent with the LH ceramics. The BR-2 platform (5.8-5.9 m depth) contained less pottery (<20%) and included well-preserved fragments of Early Helladic (EH) jars.</p> <p>The beachrock elevations and ¹⁴C and pottery ages were used to reconstruct a sea level curve and a series of paleogeographic maps of the EH to LH shorelines. The presence of abundant pottery and wood charcoal in the BR-1 beachrock indicates that shipping activity during the LH was focused at the south end of the site in a western harbour basin. This is supported by magnetic gradiometer results, which identified several magnetic anomalies in the western harbour basin. These were investigated by diver search and found to be concentrations of ship ballast stones (mainly andesite) and clay pottery.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) through seafloor sediments is gaining recognition as an important component of coastal water quality. Stratigraphic features creating geologic heterogeneity, such as incised paleochannels, may influence preferential pathways for SGD. The central Mississippi Sound is underlain by paleochannels that were incised into Pleistocene sediments while the area was subaerially exposed during the last glacial maximum and are now buried by transgressive Holocene deposits. In this thesis, newly collected chirp, previously published seismic reflection, and sediment core data are used to characterize the three-dimensional structure of the Holocene-Pleistocene contact. Results indicate that Pleistocene paleochannels cross-cut the study area, exhibiting depths from 7.3–23.4 m, widths from 0.2–2.5 km, infilling with higher acoustic impedance fluvial sediments, and burial by transgressive Holocene sediments. Results suggest that this shallow subsurface stratigraphy may mediate locations of SGD and aid in predicting SGD pathways and associated contaminant loading into the coastal ocean.