Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Spyros G. Pavlostathis; Committee Member: Ching-Hua Huang; Committee Member: John A. Pierson.

Ostracods were obtained from two cores in the southern North Sea area: the Sand Hole and Swarte Bank Formations of Tappin (1991) in BGS borehole 81/52A, cored from the Inner Silver Pit, southern North Sea, and a core from Shoeburyness in Essex, borehole S 1. The faunal assemblages in 131-181/52A were dominated by Sarsicytheridea punctillata, Elo/sonella concinna and Acanthocvthereis clunelmnensis. The assemblages recovered reflect a transition from glacio-marine conditions in the Swarte Bank Formation up into a cold-temperate marine environment in the Sand Hole Formation with deteriorating temperatures indicated at the top of the interval studied. In BHSI a freshwater to brackish transition occurred in the core, the freshwater section being dominated by Darwinula slevensoni and llyocypris spp., and the brackish section by Cyprideis torosa and C ytheromor pha fiiscata. The palaeoecology of the ostracod assemblages recovered is compared to other palaeoecological data from the same sections in each core and to ostracod data from other Hoxnian/l lolsteinian sites in north western Europe. These data are also discussed in the light of evidence indicating that there was a barrier across the southern North Sea when the sediments examined were deposited. Sarsicytheridea spp. and (yprideis terosa were used for trace element (Mg: Ca, Sr: Ca) and stable isotope (cS'"O, ö'3C) analyses. A calibration equation for the calculation of temperature from Mg: Ca ratio was successfully established from analysis of modern Sarsicytheridea. Modern Sr: Ca data could not be used to establish a calibration for salinity since there was too much scatter in the data. (' prideis torosa has been used for trace element and stable isotope work by other authors who have published relationships between ('yprideis and the water chemistry. Ostracods were also analysed down core to examine the changing ratios of Mg and Sr as a proxy for temperature and salinity changes in the I-loxnian of the southern North Sea. In BH81/52A, Mg: Ca data indicated a deterioration in temperature from 36.20 m to the top of the section studied of 9°C. Oxygen stable isotopic analyses from the same species, measured through the same core intervals, did not exhibit a trend, but their values were indicative of normal marine salinities. Carbon stable isotope analyses, performed at the same time as the oxygen analyses, indicate that there may have been high productivity in the region of deposition of the Sand Hole Formation, implying deposition in a region of freshwater influence. However, C/N analyses indicated that the sediments in the Inner Silver Pit were deposited under fully marine conditions. In III ISI, both the Mg: Ca and Sr: Ca data suggested that salinity had increased upcore. Ilowever, there was a lot of scatter in the data, indicating that the estuarine environment, under which the palaeoecology suggests the sediments were deposited, was a highly fluctuating one. These data compare favourably with previously published records. Published partition coefficients were used to compare the trace element data obtained to mean river and seawater values.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2003-03-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:43:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rubin_jcr_dr_rcla.pdf: 4630871 bytes, checksum: 96fe85a6245b1ad1d35eb945e7aee923 (MD5) / O propósito desta tese foi o de estudar o alto curso do rio Meia Ponte através da integração dos processos de sedimentação quaternária, da caracterização paleoambiental e da interação antrópica, nesta que é a área mais densamente povoada do Estado de Goiás, visando a contribuir com o conhecimento técnico-científico da região. São apresentadas algumas propostas visando ao uso planejado dos recursos naturais da bacia hidrográfica do rio Meia Ponte, principalmente a criação de Áreas de Preservação Ambiental e estabelecimento de um programa de monitoramento hidrossedimentológico nas estações já existentes. / The purpose of this thesis was of studying Meia Ponte river's high course through the integration of the processes of quaternary sedimentation of the palaeoenvironmental characterization, and of the anthropic interaction in that that is the area more densely populated of Goiás state, seeking to contribute with the technician-scientific knowledge of the area. Some proposed are presented seeking the planned use of the natural resources of the hidrographic basin of the Meia Ponte river, mainly creation of Environmental Preservation Areas and the establishment of a program of hydrosedimentalogical monitoring in the stations already existent.

The eastern Mediterranean area is a region of high archaeological importance, it is also a region where climate has been a force interacting with humans in shaping the landscape and vegetation history. Variations in pollen content and composition in various climate archives (e.g. lake sediments and peat sections) are widely used to reconstruct vegetation changes and human impact in the Quaternary environments. Pollen sampling has been conducted throughout the Peloponnese peninsula but there is a lack of regional synthesis of these locally based studies. The aims of the thesis are partly to show how pollen data may be used in a regional analysis on Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation changes, partly to assemble all published pollen data from Peloponnese peninsula in a database. The question formulations are; i) how may a database with pollen dataserve as a basis for interpretations of regional vegetation changes on Peloponnese?, ii) what are the possibilities of using classification of pollen and distinguish between driving factors behind the historic vegetation changes? The constructed database facilitates further research regarding pollen records at Peloponnese. Pollen recordsmay show important patterns in landscape changes during Late Pleistocene and Holocene but using pollen records at a regional scale need comparisons between coring sites which may be troublesome due to different approaches, different species investigated and varied calculation of pollen sum. In order to distinguish between driving forces and actors affecting the vegetation, pollen data may be used both in detail but also in using groups and classifications of the pollen included.

Pollen and microscopic charcoal fragments from seven sites (East Sooke Fen and Pixie, Whyac, Porphyry, Walker, Enos, and Boomerang lakes) were used to reconstruct the post-glacial vegetation, climate, and fire disturbance history on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. A non-arboreal pollen and spore zone occurs in the basal clays at Porphyry Lake and likely represents a tundra or tundra-steppe ecosystem. This zone precedes the Pimis contorta (lodgepole pine) biogeochron that is generally considered to have colonised deglaciated landscapes and may represent a late Wisconsinan glacial refugium. An open Pinus contorta woodland characterised the landscape in the late-glacial interval. Fires were rare or absent and a cool and dry climate influenced by “continental-scale katabatic” easterly winds dominated. Closed lowland forests consisting of Picea (spruce), Abies (fir), Tsuga heterophylla (western hemlock), and Tsuga mertensiana (mountain hemlock) with P. contorta and Alnus (alder) and subalpine forests containing Picea, Abies, and T. mertensiana with P. contorta replaced the P. contorta biogeochron in the late Pleistocene. Fires became more common during this interval even though climate seems to have been cool and moist. Open Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir) forests with Pteridium (bracken fern) in the understory and Alnus in moist and disturbed sites expanded westward during the warm dry early Holocene. At this time closed Picea, T. heterophylla, and possibly Alnus forests grew in the wettest part of southern Vancouver Island at Whyac Lake. At high elevations, forests consisting of T. heterophylla and Pseudotsuga coupled with Alnus expanded during the early Holocene. Fires occurred frequently in lowland forested ecosystems during this interval, although East Sooke Fen in a dry, open region experienced less fire. At high elevations, charcoal increased somewhat from the late Pleistocene, indicating slightly more fires and reflecting continued moist conditions at high elevations. The mid and late Holocene was characterized by increasing precipitation and decreasing temperature respectively. Mid Holocene lowland forests were dominated by Pseudotsuga with T. heterophylla and Alnus in southeastern regions, T. heterophylla and Thuja plicata (western red-cedar) in southern regions, and T. heterophylla and Picea in southwestern regions. An overall decrease in charcoal influx suggests a decrease in lowland fires, although locally isolated fire events are evident in most sites. Quercus garryana (Garry oak) stands spread westward during the mid Holocene, attaining maximum extent between East Sooke Fen and Pixie Lake, approximately 50 km beyond their modem limit. Lowland sites record a general decrease in fires at this time. At high elevation, mid Holocene forests were dominated by T. heterophylla, Picea, and Abies with Alnus. An overall increase in charcoal influx at high elevations may reflect an increase in the number of charcoal fragments entering the basins by overland flow as opposed to an increase in fire incidence because climate was moister. In the late Holocene, closed T. heterophylla and T. plicata forests became established in wetter western regions, Pseudotsuga forests occupied drier eastern portions, and T. mertensiana and Cupressaceae, likely Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (Alaska yellow cedar), forests were established in sub-alpine sites. Lowland fires were infrequent in wet western regions but frequent in drier eastern regions. A slight reduction in charcoal influx generally occurs at high elevations, implying fewer fires. A recent increase in charcoal influx at East Sooke Fen and Whyac, Walker, Enos, and Boomerang lakes may reflect anthropogenic burning. Holocene paleoclimates were reconstructed at 1,000 year intervals through a geographic information system (GIS) using contemporary climate data and surface and fossil pollen assemblages by establishing empirical regression equations that calibrated contemporary precipitation and temperatures to present day Douglas-fir-western hemlock (DWHI) and T. heterophylla-T. mertensiana (THMl) pollen ratios. / Graduate

The Thompson Valley between Spences Bridge and Lytton, where it joins the Fraser, merits attention because of the abundance of clear sections of late glacial and postglacial deposits in road and rail cuts, and its position as an important transition zone between the glacial lake deposition of the southern Interior and the dominantly fluvial aggradation of the Fraser. Most attention was paid to the stratigraphy of road and rail cuts, as the only morphological features preserved in the steep and narrow valley are terraces, fans, landslides and talus slopes. Quaternary deposits yield little evidence of the depositional environment prior to the last major advance of ice, but there is a good record of conditions during and following deglaciation. The last ice sheet, which wasted away by down-melting, left a thin mantle of till over the uplands and till deposits up to 50 ft. thick in the valley. The Lower Thompson Valley, close to the glacier sources of the Coast Mountains, was one of the last areas to be free of ice. Consequently major lakes developed in the Thompson and Nicola Valleys and were forced to drain into the Okanagan Valley. When the ice plug south of Spences Bridge failed, some time before 9,000 B.P., drainage was resumed down the Thompson Valley to the Fraser. During deglaciation, up to 300 ft, of silts and deltaic gravels were deposited in the l,230 ft. stage of Lake Deadman, which was dammed by ice south of Spences Bridge. Between Skoonka Creek and Seddall, respectively 4 and 7 miles south of Spences Bridge, are deposits of collapsed silt and flow till and it is suggested that an ice plug remained here separating lacustrine deposition north of Skoonka Creeks from fluvial aggradation south of Seddall, where the valley was by then largely ice-free. Aggradation, which was due to the large supply of material from lateral sources resulting from recent glaciation and weathering, was extremely rapid; more than 500 ft. of cross-bedded and horizontal gravel and sand were deposited in probably little more than 1,000 years. Aggradation ceased well before 7,530 B.P. With amelioration of the climate and stabilization of the slopes, the load of the river was considerably reduced and it degraded its former valley fill creating a series of terraces, with a veneer of imbricate cobbles, from 500 ft. down to 30 ft. above present river level. Most terraces are non-cyclic, but paired terraces, approximately l4O ft. above the river, mark a period of relative stability prior to 7,530 B.P. The river was probably within 50 ft. of its present level by 6,600 B.P., and since then downcutting appears to have proceeded relatively slowly. At least three phases of alluvial fan formation occurred during this period of dominant degradation, the terraces acting as temporary base levels for the mudflows. Mazama ash, deposited on the terraces and fans approximately 6,600 years ago, provides a useful marker horizon. Apart from slow down-cutting by the river and some alluvial fan formation, the dominant processes affecting the topography since 6,600 B.P have been landsliding and slumping. The largest slide, the Drynoch Earthflow, has been active for at least 3,175 years and slumping due to seepage and river erosion has occurred intermittently along the river banks. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Here we present teiid lizard fossils from Gruta do Urso, Aurora do Tocantins, Tocantins State, northern Brazil. We describe a left lower jaw of a "Cnemidophorinae" indet. and a right dentary attributed to Tupinambis sp. These materials share with extant Teiidae a heterodont dentition with subpleurodont tooth implantation, and are assigned to Teiinae and Tupinambinae based on dental characteristics. The paleofaunal assemblage from Gruta do Urso suggests a late Pleistocene/early Holocene age. These records add to our knowledge of the Quaternary fauna of northern Brazil.

We present the first fossil record of Procyon cancrivorus (Cuvier, 1798) for Argentina. Specimen PVE-F 44 (first lower molar) was exhumed from levels assignable to the Late Pleistocene (Lujanian) in the coastal cliffs of the Bermejo river in the vicinity of Villa Escolar, Formosa (26°36'S, 58°40 W). This is also the first South American record of Procyon with accurate stratigraphic provenance, since previous records from Brazil lack stratigraphic context. Procyonids are represented in South America by five living genera (Bassaricyon Allen, Nasuella Hollister, Potos Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, Procyon Storr and Nasua Storr). Of these, only Procyon and Nasua have paleontological records (Late Pleistocene-Holocene) in Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia. The results of geometric and traditional morphometric analyses comparing specimen PVE-F 44 with the two known Procyon species (P. cancrivorus and P. lotor) indicates the specimen belongs to the South American species P. cancrivorus. In addition, the associated palaeofauna is composed by intertropical (e.g., Holmesina paulacoutoi) and pampean-patagonian elements (e.g., Megatherium, Toxodon, Glyptodon, Pampatherium typum).

The Kelton, Utah, area has numerous, isolated basaltic outcrops of probable Tertiary age mostly in the form of cuestas with steep faces displaying columnar joints. One ash-flow tuff is located in the southeastern part of the study area. Basaltic fragments in the tuff indicate that pyroclastic activity was preceded by extrusion of basalt. Effects of Lake Bonneville on the basaltic outcrops include wave­cut terraces, scarps, and other wave-built forms in low lying areas. Massive carbonate deposits formed at levels of former shorelines of Lake Bonneville. Tertiary and Quaternary deposits cover the low- lying areas between basaltic flows, and consist of materials primarily derived from the Raft River Mountains to the northwest. The study area lies in a transitional zone between the Great Basin and the Snake River Plain to the north where the crustal thickness increases from 25 to 30 km. The basaltic lavas range from aphanitic to hypocrystalline with su bophitic, intergranular, and pilotaxitic textures. Glass shards, axiolites, and pumice fragments are present in the ash-flow tuffs. Petrographic, mineralogic, and chemical studies were completed on selected samples of both basaltic and pyroclastic rocks to determine genetic relationships. Tholeiitic basalt, BV81-24, is distinguished from other basalts in the area by the presence of three pyroxenes in the groundmass and distinctive chemistry: high Si02, Al203, and Mg0; and low Ti02 and total iron. The remaining basaltic rocks may be related to a common parent, BV81-11, by a process of crystal fractionation. The parental magma, in turn, may be derived by partial melting of a hypothetical mantle material, such as pyrolite or garnet peridotite. The intrusion of basaltic magma into the crust is thought to cause partial melting of crustal material, generating magma of rhyolitic composition. Violent extrusion of rhyolitic magma has produced ash-flow tuffs, represented by BV81-17 and BV81-18. Thus these basalts and ash­flow tuffs are considered to be members of a bimodal suite as is common in the Basin and Range Province.