Thesis (M.S.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-119).

Thesis--University of Colorado. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-304).

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-49). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). "August 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 289-292). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2007. Dept. of Earth and Environment. / Includes one CD-Rom appendix of 2005-2006 grain size data. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-129).

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Elizabeth C. Geiger, for the Master's degree in Geology, presented on August 28, 2008, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PALEOECOLOGY OF PLEISTOCENE GASTROPODS IN GLACIAL LAKE DEPOSITS IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS/MISSOURI MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Scott Ishman During the Pleistocene Epoch in the central Midwest United States multiple glaciations and interglaciations occurred in response to the advance and retreat of glaciers. This study focused on the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciations, which are separated by the Yarmouthian and Sangamonian interglacials. The advance of glaciers during glacial stages caused major rivers and their tributaries to aggrade creating slackwater lakes in many tributary valleys to the Mississippi River. Gastropod assemblages, found in glacial lake deposits, were used to interpret paleoecology during major glacial advances. Gastropods were collected from four sites in southern Illinois and Missouri to compare the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciations to one another, as well as to compare similar aged glacial lake deposits. This study identified forty-eight gastropod species, which were analyzed using statistical procedures. Hierarchical cluster analyses resulted in the identification of gastropod assemblages that were interpreted using habitat classifications. The results indicate specific similarities and differences between the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciations regarding environmental and climatic conditions.

Diatom analysis performed on sediment profiles from several localities provided information on past changes in the aquatic environment related to climatic and artificial shifts since the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition. The practicality of diatom analysis from fish guts of three European fish species in palaeolimnological studies was tested.

Ph.D. / Louis Agassiz first raised the concept of a global ice age followed by an intriguing history of both proponents and opponents of the idea simultaneously contributing towards the evolution of geological notions up to the present-day ‘Snowball Earth’ model. The causes of glaciation and the sedimentary, geochemical and stratigraphic feedbacks subsequently received renewed interest. Different deposits of possible Neoproterozoic glacial successions were thus selected for detailed provenance analyses in this study. The successions selected are the Puncoviscana Formation on the Pampia Terrane (Northwestern Argentina), the Sierra del Volcán diamictite of the Tandilia System on the Río de la Plata craton (Eastern Argentina), the Kaigas and Numees Formations of the Richtersveld and Gariep areas on the Kalahari craton (Northwest South Africa and Southern Namibia) and the Karoetjes Kop Formation and Swartleikrans Bed of the Bloupoort Formation of the Vanrhynsdorp region on the Kalahari craton (Western South Africa). Diagnostic physicochemical aspects are utilized to ascertain whether the deposits studied are firstly of glacial derivation and, secondly, to constrain the provenance of every deposit. The latter culminate with identification of a regionally or globally significant event. The Sierra del Volcán diamictite is a glacial diamictite with a depositional age younger than 485±2 Ma and is correlatable with the Upper Ordovician Pakhuis Formation (Table Mountain Group) in South Africa. The recognition of a glacial deposit of Upper Ordovician age in eastern Argentina suggests that the Hirnantian ice sheet cover extended from southwest South Africa to eastern Argentina, stretching from the central Paraná basin across into central and northwest Argentina and southern Bolivia. A proximal glacial marine depositional environment is inferred within a subaqueous outwash fan deposited by sediment gravity flow. Periglacial deposits occur in the Pakhuis Formation, suggesting that the ice sheet had retreated with deposition in glacial outwash plains by braided river systems and windblown loess.

Thesis advisor: Noah P. Snyder / Land cover and climate changes, attributed to natural and anthropogenic forcings, cause deviations in geomorphic processes that act to deliver sediment from watersheds to lakes. In New England, contradictory evidence exists as to the influence of deforestation associated with EuroAmerican settlement and major flood events on watershed erosion rates over the past ~250 years. Through combining sediment core analysis from Ossipee Lake, New Hampshire with geomorphic analysis of the Ossipee Lake watershed, this study quantifies Holocene through Anthropocene watershed erosion rates, and assesses variations in rates in relation to short-term historic events such as major storm events or deforestation, and long-term variations related to natural climate variability and post-glacial landscape evolution. An 8.63 m core was collected and spans the entire period from deglaciation to present. Bulk composition and age-depth modeling, utilizing both short-lived radioisotopes and radiocarbon dating, are used to quantify changes in deposition and inferred erosion rates over time. Additional insight on sedimentary processes is provided by measurements of magnetic susceptibility and bulk geochemistry. Lake-sediment data suggests clastic sediment mass accumulation rates vary between 0.0032 to 0.5870 g/cm2/yr, with deposits of increased terrestrially derived sediment focused between ~8500 to 7800, ~6500 to 2500, and 1600 cal yr BP to present. Geomorphic analysis is used to identify regions within the watershed that act to deliver sediment to Ossipee Lake. Potential sources of sediment supply include loose, unconsolidated proglacial deposits near Ossipee Lake that transition to primarily till in upland areas. Calculated bed shear stress along rivers highlights areas in the watershed capable of transporting sediment and areas that can serve as traps thus limiting sediment delivery to Ossipee Lake. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.