This study examines the regional stratigraphic architecture, depositional systems, and petrographic characteristics of the South Texas Pearsall shale-gas system currently developed in the Indio Tanks (Pearsall) and Pena Creek (Pearsall) fields. The Pearsall Formation was deposited as a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic system on a distally steepened ramp over a period of 11.75 million years. It was deposited between maximum floods of two second-order sequences and contains at least five third-order cycles. Up to three Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAE 1-A, Late Aptian Regional Event, and OAE 1-B) figure prominently in the deposition of the Pearsall sediments, and during these intervals, depending on the location within the Maverick Basin, sedimentation rates were between 0.5 and 2 cm/ky. Facies in the Pearsall section arise from interactions between pre-existing topography, oxygenation regime, eustatic sea-level fluctuation, and depositional processes. In the Pearsall Formation, OAEs affected depositional environments and resulting facies patterns during several time periods. The OAEs occurred in association with transgressions but not necessarily in concert with them. Outer ramp OAE facies are siliciclastic-dominated, TOC-rich, and little-bioturbated. Conversely the outer ramp facies deposited under normally oxygenated paleoenvironmental conditions tend to be carbonate-rich, TOC-poor, and are more prominently bioturbated. / text

This study investigates, analyzes, and attempts to evaluate Robert Lucas Pearsall's (1795-1856) published articles and music as well as all available writings and music in manuscript form.

The Deliberate Speed of the Tar Heel State offers readers an examination of the efforts undertaken by North Carolina in hope of resisting public school desegregation between the Brown v. Board decisions of 1954, 1955, and 1966. It will examine the state’s use of a series of legal, legislative maneuvers, The Pupil Assignment Act of 1955 and the Pearsall Plan of 1956, which attempted to show definitive progress to the federal government while simultaneously ensuring the segregated public school system remained intact. By examining the efforts of individuals such as William Umstead, Luther Hodges, Terry Sanford, Thomas Pearsall, and others, this thesis will analyze how North Carolina attempted to use more “moderate” means of resisting federally mandated school desegregation and whether the state was successful in their efforts.

This thesis covers more than thirty years of the author's research into the Paleoamerican period of the Middle Atlantic Region of North America, including the last 19+ years of focused work on the Cactus Hill site (44SX202) and replication of the Paleoamerican occupation discovered there. Using a landform and geology based predictive model derived from the Paleoamerican occupation at Cactus Hill, the author directed preliminary archaeological testing in three other areas of the same Nottoway River Valley, where Cactus Hill is located. These areas were the Barr site, located 11 miles (18 km.) downriver from Cactus Hill; the Chub Sandhill Natural Resource Conservation Area, located 19 miles (30 km.) downriver from Cactus Hill; and the Blueberry Hill site (44SX327), located approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters) east of Cactus Hill. The latter two produced OSL dated, pre-Younger-Dryas landforms, as predicted. The Rubis-Pearsall site (44SX360), located in the Chub Sandhill preserve also produced a buried Paleoamerican, Clovis age cultural level confirming the model. In addition to the OSL dates, Blueberry Hill also produced a distinct and apparently discrete activity surface with a possible pre-Clovis age Cactus Hill point at the same depth as the Paleoamerican levels at Cactus Hill and Rubis-Pearsall.