This study uses a 1375 km2 3D seismic dataset located in the late Miocene to Pliocene Mississippi River Delta in order to investigate the external characteristics, lithology, and evolution of channelized deposits within the seismic survey. Fluvial thicknesses range from about 11 m to 90 m and widths range from about 100 m to 31 km. Channel fill can be generalized as sandy with low impedance and high porosity (~ 35%), though heterogeneity can be high. Three distinct fluvial styles were recognized: incised valleys, channel-belts, and distributive channel networks. Fluvial styles were interpreted as a result of changes in sea-level and a speculative late Miocene to Pliocene Mississippi River Delta sea-level curve constructed using these relationships. Additionally, a characteristic interval between the major changes in fluvial style was found. These fluvial systems interact with and are affected by other elements in the landscape. Growth faults in particular are common within the survey area; however, the dynamic between fluvial systems and growth fault related subsidence has been poorly understood and so was also a focus of this project. Previous work as well as this study found little evidence that growth faults are able to affect the course or geometry of the majority of small (with most < 500 m in width and < 20 m in depth) channels. However, the relationship between growth faults and larger scale channel-belt systems (between 1 km and 5 km in width and > 25 m in depth) has not been previously evaluated in this area. In contrast to the majority of small distributary channels found within the survey, channel-belts appear to be steered by growth faults. Fluvial response or insensitivity to fault induced subsidence is related to the relative timescales of avulsion and faulting. Channel-belts are longer lived features than more ephemeral small distributary channels. Channel-belts, due to their relatively low mobility compared to small channels, are more likely to experience punctuated faulting events which results in greater apparent sensitivity to faulting than seen in small channels. / text

The Mississippi River is considered the ultimate single channel meandering river. Five hundred km upstream from its mouth, about 25% of the river’s discharge is diverted into the Atchafalaya River. This diversion is controlled by the Old River Control structure, built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in stages since 1963, to stop the avulsion of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya. The study area is a 119 km sandy bedded reach near Old River Control that is highly impacted by engineering measures. Channel dimensions average 1,000 m wide with average thalweg depths of 23 m. The mean annual discharge is 15,000 m3s-1 with a water surface slope of 0.06 m per river mile. In a sandy bedded river, the effective discharge is the discharge which cumulatively transports the most sand. This study evaluates how the Old River Control structure has influenced an adjusting effective discharge between 1978 and 2011. The bed load component of sand transport is included by employing a novel, automated, cross-correlation technique. It was found that the upper limit for discharges that cumulatively transport 85% of the total sand load has decreased from 34,000 m3s-1 to 28,000 m3s-1 between 1978 and 2011. Sand transport from 1982 to 2011 occurred during progressively greater ratios of water discharge to the Atchafalaya River and corresponded to an aggradational trend in the nearby Mississippi River at Red River Landing stream gage. The combination of this sand transport trend and nearby channel aggradation is some indication that the diversion may not be stable and that the avulsion of the lower Mississippi River is ongoing. However, sand was transported at similar discharge ratios in the 1978 to 1982 and 2002 to 2011 periods. Future trends will reveal definitively if these findings indicate that the lower Mississippi River avulsion is continuing. Two aims are pursued by placing the effective discharge approach into the geomorphologic context of the study area. Ten zones are categorized by four distinct geomorphologic classes: meander, no islands; meander, geologic control; meander, islands and divided flow; and straight zones. One, these classes have merit for future research and are shown to be geomorphologically distinct in several ways: natural levee height and channel planform adjustment relationships, sinuosity and width to depth ratios, and bedform depth to height scaling. Two, this approach allows the comparison of the effective discharge to the study area’s geomorphology. Process-form linkages can be made between sediment transporting events and the three levels in a fluvial hierarchy: fluvial bedforms and channels, bars, and levees. Median grain size and channel position of sediment samples from these three levels were plotted on combined LiDAR and bathymetric derived cross- sections from specific geomorphologic zones. This analysis indicates that the fluvial hierarchy coincides with the stages of effective discharge but seems to scale to the elevation of natural levees. This study interjects a geomorphologic approach into the lower Mississippi River discourse and raises a number of interesting questions for further research. / text

Palynological, lithological, loss-on-ignition, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy data were collected from a modified Livingstone core retrieved from Bay Jimmy, Louisiana. This data indicates a slow, general regression of the marsh due to sea level rise. This trend was punctuated by several catastrophic events including floods from around ca. 600 Yr BP and ca. 360 Yr BP, a fire around ca. 950 Yr BP, and still more flooding caused by the landfall of Hurricane Audrey in AD 1957, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in AD 2005. In more recent years (220 Yr BP to present) the marsh appears to have thinned out. This may be due to anthropogenic barriers, which have inhibited the marsh’s natural retreat as witnessed over the past 1200 years recorded by this core.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2009. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed May. 5, 2009). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--La Crosse, 1972. / Digitized and made available by the University of Wisconsin--La Crosse, Murphy Library. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-41). Online version of print edition.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Published also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1906. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-160).

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Jack Boozer, committee chair; Shirlene Holmes, Marian Meyers, committee members. Electronic text (138 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30).

Bottomland hardwood forests present a unique opportunity to examine the ecological response to hydrologically altered river and floodplain systems. These ecosystems, under natural conditions, are floodplain forests directly linked to the river. However, with major alterations to the river-floodplain system, bottomland hardwood forests can now provide insight into the loss of river connectivity and history of the flood pulse. This study reviewed the age distribution and growth of Quercus lyrata Walt. and the anatomical response of Quercus spp. to high magnitude floods in the 19th and 20th century in an old-growth Mississippi River floodplain forest in southeastern Missouri. Tree-ring samples collected from 43 trees at Big Oak Tree State Park contain physiological signatures (`flood rings') associated with growing season floods in the 20th century, and similar signatures are present in years corresponding to historical floods of the 19th century. The duration of 20th century Mississippi River growing season floods were examined to compare the occurrence of flood rings and the duration and intensity of floods on the Mississippi River at New Madrid, Missouri. Patterns in the occurrence of flood rings are developed as a response to alterations to the Mississippi River, river floodplain, and park hydrologic system.