Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia L.) is relatively difficult to establish in landscapes. One experiment tested the effect of container size on the water relations of pinebark substrate embedded in field soil. Two other experiments tested the effects of transplant season and container size on landscape establishment of nursery-produced mountain laurel. Experiment one compared volumetric water content of embedded substrate of five sizes (4-L to 100-L) to adjacent field soil at two depths with time domain reflectometry (TDR) during a dry down cycle. Available water was calculated by subtracting unavailable water (estimated with pressure plates) from volumetric water content (TDR measurements). Adjacent soil contained more available water than embedded substrate. The middle depth held more water than the top. Larger pinebark substrate volumes retained higher volumetric water content than smaller volumes. The second experiment consisted of 7.6- and 19-L containers of Kalmia latifolia L. ‘Olympic Wedding’, transplanted into field soil in October or May. Larger container plants generally had lower xylem potential than smaller plants, but better visual ratings. Root growth into surrounding soil was negligible for all treatments. Leaf area was higher for spring transplants than fall transplants. Experiment three was a rhizotron study with 19-L plants, transplanted in October or May. Canopy growth of spring transplants was greater than fall transplants, but fall transplants had longer roots into the backfill. Overall, our data suggest that fall transplanting will potentially allow faster plant establishment than spring transplanting. The effect of container size on plant establishment could not be determined. / Master of Science

The Saltville thrust sheet in the southwest Virginia portion of the Appalachian foreland fold and thrust belt generally has very little penetrative deformation. At the southern termination of Walker Mountain however, a continuous 10-15 km zone along strike is highly strained and polydeformed. In this area a NW-trending mesoscopic solution cleavage and associated buckle folds are obliquely superimposed on the regional northeast structural trend. Values of penetrative strain, determined from syntectonic fibrous mineral growths in pressure fringes, vary along strike and vertically within the thrust sheet and indicate up to 50% shortening approximately orthogonal to cleavage. Fibers are virtually straight and undeformed reflecting a nearly coaxial strain history associated with cross-structural evolution. The cross-structures deform the Saltville sheet as well as the leading edge of the Pulaski sheet and were not rotated into their present orientation, but were initiated and evolved oblique to the northwest direction of tectonic transport. Cross-structural development is best explained by the oblique propagation of a portion of the frontal-tip of the evolving Saltivlle thrust in response to varying degrees of detachment. The variable ease with which the decollement was able to migrate through the rocks created zones of differential movement in the overlying sheet and the generation of locally high strains in the tip region. Spatial variation in strain and in the orientation of structural elements may be used to delineate zones of differential thrust movement. / M.S. / Bibliography: leaves 57-65.

The Nitella which grows in Mountain Lake, Giles County, Virginia, was investigated and found to be Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) em. R.D.W. after N. furcata subsp. megacarpa and not N. flexilis (L.) Ag. as previously reported. Internodal cell length was found to increase with depth, pigment content changed with depth, biomass distribution had decreased since an earlier study, primary productivity was low and was associated with the depth of maximum biomass and pigment content, and the furcations of the branchlets increased in shallower water. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The sedimentary facies of the Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian Madrid, Carrabassett, and Seboomook Formations, exposed on the northwestern limb of the Kearsarge-Central Maine Synclinorium, belong the following facies categories: (1) sandstone-rich turbidites, (2) pelitic turbidites and related hemipelagites, and (3) disrupted facies. Lithofacies within each formation are organized into one or more descriptive facies associations--these are the: (1) massive sandstone, (2) thickbedded turbidite, (3) thin-bedded turbidite, (4} chaotic, (5) massive-pelite, and (6) laminated-pelite facies associations. Where strata are well exposed, and sedimentary structures and bed geometries are discernible, these descriptive facies can be discussed in terms of one or more interpretive associations (e .g. channel and channel-margin facies associations.) The Devonian Carrabassett Formation is the youngest widespread formation exposed in the Kearsarge - Central Maine Synclinorium. In the Jo-Mary Mountain quadrangle and surrounding area, the Carrabassett Formation is a complex facies assemblage dominated by fine-grained turbidite and chaotic facies. The underlying Upper Silurian Madrid Formation is composed largely of sandstone- and siltstone-rich turbidites. The younger Seboomook Formation is characterized by pelitic turbidite and related hemipelagic facies. A facies analysis of the Carrabassett and underlying Madrid Formations indicates that sediments were derived from eastern sources and deposited in northwesterly-migrating slope and foredeep environments during the Late Silurian and Early Devonian. Sedimentation is believed to have been partly diachronous, becoming progressively younger toward the northwest. Short term penecontemporaneous deposition probably occurred in different settings, such as along the axis of the foredeep basin (Madrid Fm.) and lower- to base-of-slope environment (Carrabassett Fm.). Olistostromes, shed from the lower slope, and thir bedded turbidites dominated later stages of basin sedimentation when the source of coarse clastics, supplied from the northeast, was shut off during the Early Devonian. These environments are interpreted in terms of an accretionary complex contemporaneous with initial stages of compression during the Acadian orogeny. / 2999-01-01

Located in Giles County, Virginia, Mountain Lake has a documented history of dramatic water level fluctuations. Previous water balance studies have documented that the main cause of water loss is outflow to groundwater. However, the flow paths of water exiting the lake are unknown. This study applied hydrologic, geophysical, and dye tracer methods to examine the pathways for water loss and the possible geologic controls on these flow paths. Continuous lake level monitoring data show seasonal trends of draining and filling over a three year period. Electrical resistivity profiles suggest the presence of a large low-resistivity zone beneath the northern end of the lake. A dye tracer study yielded limited positive results, but dye detection in one stream and within the lake suggest complex flow dynamics. The most likely reasons for the lack of dye recovery include dilution of the dye during lake recovery, seepage of water below monitoring site locations, or formation of a temporary seal in the depressions created by influx of sediment during periods of lake bed exposure. / Master of Science

no abstract provided by author / Master of Science

The United States plans to bury high level radioactive waste from commercial power reactors and from nuclear weapons manufacturing in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Yucca Mountain, located about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, consists of horizontally bedded tuff deposits. Although the region is very arid, enough water exists in the tuffs to create a vapor dominated geothermal system as the pore water evaporates, circulates and recondenses. This study examines how silica leaching might occur as a result of water-tuff interactions in Yucca Mountain after the emplacement of heat-producing nuclear waste canisters. A vertical thermal gradient experiment (VTGE) was designed and built in order to simulate the water cycling scenario where water in the tuff is vaporized by the heat from the canisters, moves to cooler regions along fractures and condenses as a liquid which flows downward toward the hot canisters. This experiment was used to measure the rate of silica leaching from Yucca Mountain tuff at various heat fluxes. The results show that under the experimental conditions silica is leached from the tuff sample very effectively (about 1.85 x 10 -8 g per Joule of heat transferred). With such a rate, significant amount of amorphous silica (135 kg per canister for the first 1,000 years after emplacement) could be leached, transported and deposited above the repository horizon; the resulting low permeability zone might change the geological and hydrological properties of the host rock. A significant amount of colloidal silica was formed in the solution soon after the water recycling began. Such colloidal silica could adsorb and transport radionuclides released from breached waste canisters more efficiently than that when radionuclides act alone. The results indicate that silica leaching is a potential problem for the current designs of the Yucca Mountain repository. / Master of Science

Mapping of a 190 square km area along the western flank of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium in central Virginia has defined three major rock groups: (1) the earlier Precambrian Virginia Blue Ridge Complex; (2) the Late Precambrian Catoctin Group; and (3) the Early Cambrian Chilhowee Group. The Virginia Blue Ridge Complex is subdivided from oldest to youngest into the Pedlar, Marshall and Levingston formations. The Pedlar and Marshall formations, partially of metasedimentary origin, were metamorphosed to the granulite facies, retrograded to as low as the greenschist facies, and deformed into a series of east-trending folds prior to Late Precambrian. The relationships between the two metamorphic events and structural deformation was not determined. An angular unconformity separates the Catoctin Group from the Virginia Blue Ridge Complex upon which 300 m of topographic relief was developed. The Catoctin Group is subdivided from oldest to youngest into the Swift Run, Catoctin and Loudoun formations which are subdivided into phyllitic units of both sedimentary and pyroclastic origin separated by sequences of greenstone flows. Early Catoctin Group volcanism, originating in situ from northeast-trending dike complexes, was accompanied by normal faulting along the northwest-trending Stony Creek fault. Swift Run and lower Catoctin Formation sediments were transported principally from the southeast quadrant or were derived in situ from saprolite and colluvial deposits. Loudoun and upper Catoctin Formation arkosic sediments were derived from localized sources, west of the Blue Ridge, and transported in a southwesterly direction parallel to the Appalachian structural trend. Pyroclastics of the Catoctin Group probably were derived from a northwest source. The upper Catoctin Formation is older than 700 my. Paleozoic metamorphism of the Catoctin Group altered the lava flows toward the following greenschist assemblages of high oxidation state: quartz and albite plus (1) epidote, penninite and magnetite; or (2) penninite, magnetite and calcite. Subsequently, metamorphism indicative of a lower oxidation state altered the lavas toward the greenschist assemblage of: quartz, albite, epidote and actinolite. Actinolite content increases with depth at the expense of relict pyroxene, penninite and magnetite. Metamorphosed pyroclastics are characterized by sericite, quartz, magnetite and/or hematite. The Chilhowee Group is subdivided, from oldest to youngest, into the Weverton, Harpers and Antietam formations. A thrust fault zone separates metamorphosed Weverton and Harpers elastics from unmetamorphosed Antietam elastics. Metamorphosed Chilhowee and Catoctin sediments are characterized by formation of the following metamorphic minerals: epidote, penninite, sericite, and microcrystalline quartz. Chilhowee detritus was derived from the west-northwest and transported eastward and/or parallel to the Appalachian structural grain. Post-Precambrian deformation includes folding about northeast and north-trending axes followed by development of southeast-dipping cleavage during Paleozoic metamorphism. Cleavage development preceded northwestward thrusting of metamorphosed rocks of the Blue Ridge over unmetamorphosed Paleozoic rocks of the Valley and Ridge. Subsequently the principal joint trends were established followed by normal and strike-slip movement along northeast-trending high-angle faults. Intrusion of Mesozoic dikes post-dates high-angle faulting. / Ph. D.

The site is the Northwest side of Paris Mountain overlooking the valley, flat fields and the winding road along the river. The monastery is thought of as a whole encompassing its various parts: the church, the monk's dormitory, the library, the winery, the bakery, the barns and the field chapel. Also in the enclosure are the elementary school with its classroom building, the administration/theatre building and the gymnasium. There is an imposition of a two-dimensional grid on the natural contour of the mountainside, thus resulting in a grid-like fabric which becomes the origin of a mathematical ordering throughout the site enclosure. The "Grid" is one of directional "force lines" which reflect and generate a relationship between the various buildings as well as their interrelationship to the site. This ordering is not one of predictable "constants" yet more one whose purpose is to be manipulated, eroded, extended and disassembled according to "aesthetic demands" which occur throughout the project. It is not one of a finite programming; however, there is a sense of rational consequences which result as part of this ordering. The "base grid" may eventually be eroded to such a level that what remains is more of a memory of this ordering than of anything clear and distinct in one's perception of it. The extension of this grid is meant to go beyond the confines of the monastic enclosure - as to give a sense of relationship between surrounding fields, roads to the monastery, landscaping and transitional spaces to that which lies within the walls. The solidity of these enclosing walls is one of historical reference to times past. An erosion of the walls also occurs so as to leave them more as skeleton-like markings or ruins, of a fortress which never was. The result being an architectural imposition with directional qualities interrelating site and structure. / Master of Architecture

The food habits, survival rates, and abundance of four predatory fish species (striped bass, walleye, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass) were determined and combined with information on energetics and growth to quantitatively assess predator-prey interactions in Smith Mountain Lake, a large hydroelectric reservoir in south-central Virginia. A total of 1871 stomachs of the four species was examined from fish collections between April 1983 and December 1984. Food habits of each predatory species were assessed and compared by season using Schoener's (1970) diet overlap index. Significant diet overlap occurred between the pelagic predators (striped bass and walleye) and between the littoral black basses (largemouth bass and smallmouth bass) in all seasons and locations where sufficient stomach samples were collected. Survival and abundance estimates for the four predators were derived from several data sets. First-year survival of striped bass fingerlings averaged 20.8% for an 11-year period (1973 to 1983) and ranged from 3.9% to 54.3%. Average survival of age-0 largemouth bass and smallmouth bass was 53% and 45%, respectively, for the period 1979 to 1983. Species-specific survival rates for predators age 2 and older ranged from 29% to 59%. Of the predators age 1 and older, largemouth bass were the most numerous at an estimated density of 61.2/ha, followed by striped bass at 16.3/ha. Age 1 and older smallmouth bass and walleye were less abundant, at densities of 8.2 and 2.0/ha, respectively. A bioenergetics model was developed for striped bass and, with models developed for walleye and largemouth bass, used to estimate annual consumption of alewives and gizzard shad by the four piscivorous species. Annually, striped bass consumed the greatest amount of adult and young-of-year alewives, whereas largemouth bass ate nearly 70% of the total shad biomass consumed by all predators. A comparison of predator demand to clupeid supply substantiated diet overlap data; namely, that native and introduced predators were compatible in Smith Mountain Lake. The striped bass bioenergetics model was used to make inferences about potential stocking strategies for striped bass based on availability of age-1 and older alewives. A stocking rate of 20-24 fingerlings/ha appears to maximize production of striped bass and minimize potential competitive interactions between striped bass and native black bass in Smith Mountain Lake. / Ph. D.