Master of Science / Department of Geology / Matthew W. Totten / A 3D seismic survey was conducted on Beauchamp, Beauchamp North and Beauchamp Northwest fields, which are located in Stanton County, southwest Kansas, by Berexco, Inc. Stanton County is situated on the Hugoton embayment which is the shelf of the Anadarko basin. The producing formation in this area is the Morrow formation, which is the lower Pennsylvanian period. The Morrow formation is mostly a clastic unit and its base was transgressive marine. It is considered an unconformity lying on the Mississippian rocks. Wide geologists agreed with the name of Morrow as name in the rock stratigraphic sequence in the study area (Forgotson, et al., 1966). "The Morrowan series is defined as the interval between the base of the Atokan Thirteen finger limestones and the top of the pre-Pennsylvanian unconformity" (Puckette, et al., 1996). The depositional environment of upper Morrow Formation in western Kansas, according to Sonnenberg (1985), Krystinik et al (1990), was a valley-fill deposit. The purpose of this study is to focus on detecting valley-fill sandstone in the study area by using appropriate seismic attributes. Coherence and discontinuity along dip succeeded to map incised valley-fill sandstone width. On another hand, spectral decomposition displayed subtle changes in incised valley thickness. Positive curvature shows valley edges in moderate resolution, but the most negative curvature wasn't clear enough to display the valley-fill sand. The result of RMS amplitude and average energy attributes results were almost the same. They exhibited four areas of high amplitude and energy in the valley which may indicate the presence of hydrocarbon. Sweetness and envelope amplitude both detected the valley in the study area. A gamma ray cross section shows that there are sequences of incised valley-fill sandstone which are sandstone A, B, C and D of the upper Morrow formation. Johns 2-12 well is producing oil from lower Morrow and sandstone A, thus the valley in the study area may produce oil from Sandstone A or B as RMS amplitude and average energy showing high amplitude in four areas in the valley.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Allen W. Archer / The Morrowan middle Bloyd sandstone of northwest Arkansas records a fluvial to estuarine transition in a drowned incised valley system. Lower portions of outcrops contain fluvially deposited, planar-tabular cross-stratified sandstone with a uni-directional southwest paleoflow. Intervals with dune scale, intricately interwoven trough cross-stratification with northeastern paleoflow is attributed to strong tidal and wave influence in the outer estuary. Upwards the middle Bloyd changes into a muddy mid-estuarine interval with heterolithic bedding and a bi-directional northeast-southwest paleoflow. Overlying this interval a marine sand about one meter in thickness can be found containing bryozoan and crinoid fossils. Overlying the middle Bloyd, the marine Dye Shale member of the Bloyd Formation marks the transition to a dominantly marine setting.

Mountaintop removal and valley fill (MTRVF) mining has become a widespread means of coal extraction in the central Appalachians. During MTRVF several hundred meters of overburden are removed to access coal seams, and excess rubble is dumped into adjoining valleys and streams. Filling valleys eliminates stream headwaters and may result in loss of stream ecosystem functions, which are dependent on temporal and lateral connectivity in river networks. To determine the affect of MTRVF on stream ecosystem function, leaf breakdown, which is an ecosystem level attribute of forested streams, was measured in five streams draining MTRVF sites and five reference streams in central West Virginia. Leaf packs of white oak and red maple were installed in these streams in December 2007, leaves were collected in January, February, March, April, and June of 2008, and leaves were washed and processed in the lab. Leaf breakdown rates were significantly slower in filled streams. MTRVF streams were marked by high sediment levels, elevated base flow, elevated conductivity and pH, and a lower density and richness of shredding macroinvertebrates than reference sites, suggesting that slower leaf decay was the result of the combined set of altered conditions in MTRVF streams. Additionally, MTRVF streams showed no species-level difference between red maple and white oak breakdown rates, indicating that MTRVF inhibits control of ecosystem function exerted by leaf species characteristics. / Master of Science

Surface coal mining has altered Appalachian landscapes, affecting water quality and aquatic ecology. Valley fills created from excess overburden are prominent features of many mined landscapes. Increased total dissolved solids (TDS), as measured by its surrogate specific conductance (SC), is a significant water quality concern related to the exposure of fresh mineral surfaces to weathering in valley fills. Specific conductance levels in waters draining Appalachian mined areas are highly variable, yet the causes for this variability are not well known. Here we sought to improve understanding of such variability by investigating the interior subsurface structure and hydrologic flowpaths within a series of valley fills and relating that to valley fill characteristics such as age and construction method. We used electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) to investigate the subsurface structure of four valley fills in two dimensions. We combined ERI with artificial rainfall to investigate the location and transit time of hydrologic preferential infiltration flowpaths through the fills. Finally, we used our ERI results in conjunction with SC data from effluent streams to improve understanding of SC relationship to fill flowpaths and characteristics. ERI results indicated considerable variability in substrate type and widespread presence of preferential infiltration flowpaths among the valley fills studied. We estimated an average preferential flowpath length of 6.6 meters, average transit time of 1.4 hours, and average velocity of 5.1 m/h or 0.14 cm/s through preferential infiltration flowpaths. ERI successfully distinguished fills constructed using methods of conventional loose-dump and experimental controlled-material compacted-lift construction. Conventional fills had greater ranges of subsurface resistivity, indicating a wider range of substrate types and/or more variable moisture content. Conventional fills also showed more accumulation of water within the fill during artificial rainfall, possibly indicating more quick/deep preferential infiltration flowpaths than in the experimental fill. Relationships between other fill characteristics as well as stream effluent SC were not related in a statistically significant way to fill structure or flowpaths. ERI appears to be a robust non-invasive technique that provides reliable information on valley fill structure and hydrology, and experimental compacted-lift valley fill construction produces significantly altered hydrologic response, which in turn affects downstream SC. / MS