Multiple shallow sediment cores were obtained from Pilot Valley playa, a sub-basin located in the northwestern Bonneville basin. Analysis of stratigraphy, ostracodes, mineralogy, chemistry, total inorganic carbon (TIC), total organic carbon (TOC), and stable isotopes were performed to better place these sediments into proper context with respect to the Lake Bonneville cycle. Results showed Pilot Valley playa contains a nearly full sequence of Lake Bonneville deep-water marl in addition to sediments deposited before and after the Lake Bonneville cycle. Within the marl is a sequence of organic rich algal laminated marl correlated with the Stansbury oscillation. Four 14C ages ranging from ~22.4 k 14C years to ~15.8 k 14C years from preserved algae filaments in this sequence place it well within the time frame of the Stansbury oscillation. Oolitic sand found below this sequence indicates the existence of a shallow (<~5 m), saline lake in Pilot Valley prior to the transgression of Lake Bonneville. Analysis of sediments deposited during the late regressive phase of Lake Bonneville indicates the lake may have fallen to levels below that of Pilot Valley prior to transgressing to the Gilbert level.

Dust originating from dry lakes contributes harmful and toxic elements to downwind urban areas and mountain snowpack that is compounded by local contaminant inputs from anthropogenic sources. To evaluate dust contributions to an urban area from regional playas, we sampled playa dust sources, urban dust deposition, and snow dust deposition in central Utah, USA. Samples were analyzed for grain size, mineralogy, and chemistry. Bulk mineralogy between playa, urban, and snow dust samples was similar, with silicate, carbonate, and evaporite minerals. Grain size distribution between fine playa, urban, and snow dust particles was also similar. Elements found at high concentrations in playas include Li, Na, Mg, Ca, Sr, and U, and most other elements were found at higher concentrations in urban and snow deposition samples. Particularly enriched elements in dust deposition include Cu, Se, Ag, Cd, Sb, and La, which are sourced from industrial activity, mining, and vehicular emissions and wear. Based on results from mass balance modeling, a large majority of the dust mass deposited on the Wasatch Front is from playa sources. Urban and playa dust sources largely remain constant seasonally, although spikes in playa-associated element concentrations during a particular seasonal sample may indicate frequent and/or more intense dust events. Among the highly environmentally available elements B, Ca, Sr, and U, are Cd and Se, both of which present toxicity concerns for humans and environments. This is the first study describing heavy metal contamination and sources in Utah, USA.

No description available.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The records of environmental change in Australia’s arid zone can be greatly enriched by employing a multi-proxy approach and landscape-scale analysis. This research uses these tools to construct a palaeoenvironmental history of the Paroo/Warrego Region. While the Region’s flow regimes and water balances are characterised by medium-term (decadal) variability (Young, 1999), its hydrological records are inadequately brief. Subsequently, land and water management decisions are based on short term data, risking irreversible damage, desertification or loss of diversity. A better understanding of this highly dynamic landscape can thus improve the land and resource management outcomes. While dating was constrained by a lack of funds, the Paroo/Warrego history reconstructed from fluvial and aeolian deposits correlated well with events recorded from other inland regions of the Australian continent. In summary, this new research provided evidence of high lake water levels prior to the Last Glacial. The extreme aridity at the onset of Last Glacial caused long term drying of the lakes and mobilisation of the red sand dunes. In latter stages of the glacial phase the aridity gave way to periodic fluctuations between flood and drought events that probably lasted until 16 000 - 14 000 BP. The new climatic regime resulted in formation of gypsum lunettes and later, following reduction in gypsum supply, clay lunettes. The orientation of red sand dunes and lunettes indicates a more northerly extent of the westerlies than in modern times. Around the late Pleistocene-early Holocene boundary the climate became more stable and wetter, but still somewhat drier than during the pre-Last Glacial lacustrine phase. As a result, the region’s lakes reverted to a permanent and semi-permanent status. A strong aridity signal, comparable to the semi-regular droughts of the Last Glacial, was recorded in the Paroo/Warrego lakes during the late 1890s-1940s period of below average rainfall. It was followed by 50 years of wetter conditions with two extremely wet phases in the 1950s and the 1970s. Finally, the most recent records suggest a new drying trend. The semi-arid vegetation appears to have adapted to climate variability, with herbs and grasses expanding with the onset of wet conditions before being replaced by Chenopodiaceae as the landscape started to dry. The fresher lake basins and water courses were likely to provide refuge during prolonged arid phases and dispersal foci during intervening wetter periods, thus enabling greater flexibility in response to changes and enhancing resilience. The European land use interfered with the natural cycles and balances, leading to decrease in ground cover, suppression of fire, increase in runoff and catchment erosion, acceleration of sediment accumulation rates in wetlands, resulting in decline of their water holding capacity, and expansion of woody vegetation. The research improved the processing protocols, reference databases, and transfer of methods to enable greater sample processing efficiency and improve results. The use of multiple proxies (including biotic and abiotic components) and sites, as well as different depositional features, provided access to a broader picture of environmental change than was previously possible. It also facilitated multi-scale resolution, allowing discrimination between localised responses of individual lakes and regional trends. The full value of this research will come from informing natural resource managers, whose actions will shape the future landscapes of the Paroo and Warrego Region.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The records of environmental change in Australia’s arid zone can be greatly enriched by employing a multi-proxy approach and landscape-scale analysis. This research uses these tools to construct a palaeoenvironmental history of the Paroo/Warrego Region. While the Region’s flow regimes and water balances are characterised by medium-term (decadal) variability (Young, 1999), its hydrological records are inadequately brief. Subsequently, land and water management decisions are based on short term data, risking irreversible damage, desertification or loss of diversity. A better understanding of this highly dynamic landscape can thus improve the land and resource management outcomes. While dating was constrained by a lack of funds, the Paroo/Warrego history reconstructed from fluvial and aeolian deposits correlated well with events recorded from other inland regions of the Australian continent. In summary, this new research provided evidence of high lake water levels prior to the Last Glacial. The extreme aridity at the onset of Last Glacial caused long term drying of the lakes and mobilisation of the red sand dunes. In latter stages of the glacial phase the aridity gave way to periodic fluctuations between flood and drought events that probably lasted until 16 000 - 14 000 BP. The new climatic regime resulted in formation of gypsum lunettes and later, following reduction in gypsum supply, clay lunettes. The orientation of red sand dunes and lunettes indicates a more northerly extent of the westerlies than in modern times. Around the late Pleistocene-early Holocene boundary the climate became more stable and wetter, but still somewhat drier than during the pre-Last Glacial lacustrine phase. As a result, the region’s lakes reverted to a permanent and semi-permanent status. A strong aridity signal, comparable to the semi-regular droughts of the Last Glacial, was recorded in the Paroo/Warrego lakes during the late 1890s-1940s period of below average rainfall. It was followed by 50 years of wetter conditions with two extremely wet phases in the 1950s and the 1970s. Finally, the most recent records suggest a new drying trend. The semi-arid vegetation appears to have adapted to climate variability, with herbs and grasses expanding with the onset of wet conditions before being replaced by Chenopodiaceae as the landscape started to dry. The fresher lake basins and water courses were likely to provide refuge during prolonged arid phases and dispersal foci during intervening wetter periods, thus enabling greater flexibility in response to changes and enhancing resilience. The European land use interfered with the natural cycles and balances, leading to decrease in ground cover, suppression of fire, increase in runoff and catchment erosion, acceleration of sediment accumulation rates in wetlands, resulting in decline of their water holding capacity, and expansion of woody vegetation. The research improved the processing protocols, reference databases, and transfer of methods to enable greater sample processing efficiency and improve results. The use of multiple proxies (including biotic and abiotic components) and sites, as well as different depositional features, provided access to a broader picture of environmental change than was previously possible. It also facilitated multi-scale resolution, allowing discrimination between localised responses of individual lakes and regional trends. The full value of this research will come from informing natural resource managers, whose actions will shape the future landscapes of the Paroo and Warrego Region.

abstract: Esta disertación explora la descripción del espacio turístico de costa a través de tres novelas contemporáneas. El análisis de Antagonía, El Tercer Reich y Crematorio revela tanto un cambio en la percepción sobre el turismo de masas en los últimos cuarenta años, en el que se rechaza el turismo de masas por su impacto negativo en el espacio natural, como el uso de unas convenciones literarias específicas que hunden sus raíces en el siglo XIX, lo que nos permite afirmar la presencia de un cronotopo; el cronotopo del turismo de costa. La originalidad de nuestra investigación radica en el acercamiento a un tema de importancia que la crítica literaria todavía no ha estudiado en profundidad. Era necesario investigar las novelas turísticas contemporáneas de costa con una perspectiva amplia, permitiendo observar no sólo el pasado sino también las distintas direcciones de este campo específico. El presente análisis busca servir de modelo a futuras investigaciones. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2017

Tesis

Honey Lake Basin is a large, hydrologically closed valley with two playa lakes that are separated by a low elevation sill. The Basin has a complex hydrogeologic setting, with numerous groundwater flow paths that interact with surface waters and three basic aquifers; shallow, deep, and geothermal. Thirteen flow paths; eleven cold and two thermal, are identified and the geochemical evolution of those paths are characterized by integrating solute chemistry and isotopic data. The chemical flow paths include recharge in either granitoid or volcanic terrains in the Sierra Nevada Range and the Modoc Plateau, respectively. The groundwater then flows through alluvial fan and stream sedimentary environments and eventually flows through lacustrine and playa sediments in the closed basin. This investigating characterizes geochemical evolution of groundwater flow from both mafic and granitic terrains to lacustrine sediments with evaporite minerals, in a closed basin environment. Temperature data reveal that thermal waters circulate to 1.6-3.0 km and 2.8-3.8 km along two major fault zones. Shallow groundwaters above 17°C are determined to have a component of thermal water and mixing ratios are presented. δ18O and δD data show that deep groundwater was recharged by cooler, more humid precipitation from the last ice age, whereas shallow groundwaters reflect current meteoric conditions and show extensive evaporation trends. The two thermal flow paths show exchange with silicate minerals at high temperatures (>100°C). δ13C data show interaction with carbonate minerals in basin fill lacustrine sediments. 3H concentrations and 14C ages show that deep groundwaters throughout the Basin and shallower groundwaters in the center of the basin are not greatly affected by post-1952 recharge. Mean 14C ages range from modern to 23,500 years old. NETPATH was used to model geochemical evolution along the flow paths. Groundwater on the west side of the basin (granitic terrain) is typically low TDS (~150 mg/L) calcium-bicarbonate water and evolves into higher TDS (~300 mg/L) sodium-bicarbonate groundwater as it interacts with granitic rocks and then lacustrine sediments. Groundwater on the east side of the basin (mafic terrain) is typically low TDS (~200 mg/L) sodium-bicarbonate water and evolves into high TDS (~300 mg/L) sodium-bicarbonate water groundwater as it interacts with mafic rocks and then lacustrine sediments. Dissolution of silicate minerals and calcite, and ion exchange with clays is responsible for major chemistry changes. As both of these types of groundwaters come into contact with lacustrine sediments with evaporite minerals on the playas, dissolution of halite and gypsum dominate and the groundwater becomes extremely high in TDS (~ 1100 mg/L on the Honey Lake Playa and ~ 43,000 mg/L on the Fish Spring Playa) and strongly sodium-chloride in character.

A vast area of the northeastern Great Basin of the western USA was inundated by a succession of Plio-Pleistocene lakes, including Lake Bonneville (28 ka to 12 ka). The Pilot Valley playa, located just east of the Utah-Nevada border near Wendover, Utah, within the eastern Basin and Range Province, represents an 8 to 16 km wide and ~50 km long remnant of these lakes. The playa corresponds to the upper surface of a closed basin that is delimited by two mountain ranges, which are mantled by recent alluvial fans over which the playa sediments have prograded. In order to investigate the interaction of Plio- Pleistocene lake sedimentation and alluvial fan development, high-resolution seismic reflection profiles have been acquired near the base of both the west-bounding and the east-bounding ranges. On the western side of the basin, the seismic profiles provide images of sub-horizontal playa sediments prograding over the inclined alluvial fans. Theboundary between the playa and fan sediments is marked by a prominent angular unconformity. Seismic images from the eastern side of the basin reveal a markedly different structural and stratigraphic style with down-to-the-basin normal faulting of relatively shallow Paleozoic bedrock overlain by alluvial fan deposits, which are in turn on-lapped by a thin veneer of playa sediments. The results contained herein reveal for the first time the stratigraphic relationships between Quaternary pluvial sediments as a shoreline depositional facies and the adjacent bounding fan deposits. Post-stack reprocessing of lower-resolution but deeper penetration seismic data located in an analogous basin to the southwest, provides a likely context for the Pilot Valley seismic data. The new geophysical images, when integrated with available geologic mapping and limited well control, aid in constraining how deep aquifers are locally recharged from an adjacent range. The results also clearly demonstrate the strong structural asymmetry of the range and playa system, which is consistent with a classic half-graben structure. Lastly, this study demonstrates the utility of the shallow seismic reflection method as a tool to provide high-resolution sub-surface images in the geophysically challenging environment of Basin and Range geology.

No description available.