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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Applications of Landsat imagery to geological research in Minnesota

A large part of northeastern Minnesota north of Lake Superior was studied using Landsat images. The area is being studied for its intercontinental rift and for large, low grade, copper-nickel deposits. By using Landsat imagery in conjunction with field data, it is possible to develop a much higher level of continuity and structural resolution in interpretations of the bedrock geology. Preliminary results indicate that it is possible to distinguish various surficial morphological features such as the Vermilion and Highland moraines, the Toimi drumlin field, and an unnamed drumlin field apparently associated with the Highland moraine.

Weiblen, P. W.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Flood hazard studies in Central Texas using orbital and suborbital remote sensing machinery

Central Texas is subject to infrequent, unusually intense rainstorms which cause extremely rapid runoff from drainage basins developed on the deeply dissected limestone and marl bedrock of the Edwards Plateau. One approach to flood hazard evaluation in this area is a parametric model relating flood hydrograph characteristics to quantitative geomorphic properties of the drainage basins. The preliminary model uses multiple regression techniques to predict potential peak flood discharge from basin magnitude, drainage density, and ruggedness number. After mapping small catchment networks from remote sensing imagery, input data for the model are generated by network digitization and analysis by a computer assisted routine of watershed analysis. The study evaluated the network resolution capabilities of the following data formats: (1) large-scale (1:24,000) topographic maps, employing Strahler's "method of v's," (2) standard low altitude black and white aerial photography (1:13,000 and 1:20,000 scales), (3) NASA - generated aerial infrared photography at scales ranging from 1:48,000 to 1:123,000, and (4) Skylab Earth Resources Experiment Package S-190A and S-190B sensors (1:750,000 and 1:500,000 respectively).

Baker, V. R.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Application of EREP imagery to fracture-related mine safety hazards in coal mining and mining-environmental problems in Indiana

The author has identified the following significant results. This investigation evaluated the applicability of a variety of sensor types, formats, and resolution capabilities to the study of both fuel and nonfuel mined lands. The image reinforcement provided by stereo viewing of the EREP images proved useful for identifying lineaments and for mined lands mapping. Skylab S190B color and color infrared transparencies were the most useful EREP imagery. New information on lineament and fracture patterns in the bedrock of Indiana and Illinois extracted from analysis of the Skylab imagery has contributed to furthering the geological understanding of this portion of the Illinois basin.

Wier, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Interdisciplinary applications and interpretations of ERTS data within the Susquehanna River basin

The author has identified the following significant results. The full potential of high quality data is achieved only with the application of efficient and effective interpretation techniques. An excellent operating system for handling, processing, and interpreting ERTS-1 and other MSS data was achieved. Programs for processing digital data are implemented on a large nondedicated general purpose computer. Significant results were attained in mapping land use, agricultural croplands, forest resources, and vegetative cover. Categories of land use classified and mapped depend upon the geographic location, the detail required, and the types of lands use of interest. Physiographic and structural provinces are spectacularly displayed on ERTS-1 MSS image mosaics. Geologic bedrock structures show up well and formation contacts can sometimes be traced for hundreds of kilometers. Large circular structures and regional features, previously obscured by the detail of higher resolution data, can be seen. Environmental monitoring was performed in three areas: coal strip mining, coal refuse problems, and damage to vegetation caused by insects and pollution.

Mcmurtry, G. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Latitudinal variation of wind erosion of crater ejecta deposits on Mars

The characteristics of wind erosion as the dominant process involved in eroding crater ejecta deposits on Mars are studied. Present-day crater formation in mid to high latitudes involves impact into some thickness of aeolian debris, while impact in the equatorial zone is more likely to involve target materials consisting of coarse-grained aeolian lag deposits or even bedrock. Latitudinal variation dominates differences in ejecta emplacement mechanisms and probably differences in patterns of wind erosion of ejecta and surrounding intercrater materials. Escarpments develop as the deposits are eroded back toward crater rims. Erosion only takes places at escarpment edges where surface roughness may be low enough to allow particle entrainment. Preferential preservation of ejecta emplaced in thick debris may occur. An empirical model developed for wind erosion of ejecta deposits in nonmantled areas suggests that removal of ejecta materials on the average is exceedingly slow. Results suggest high differential aeolian erosion rates that are a function of both grain sizes and large-scale surface roughness.

Arvidson, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1976

The use of ERTS/LANDSAT imagery in relation to airborne remote sensing for terrain analysis in western Queensland, Australia

The author has identified the following significant results. Distinctive spectral signatures were found associated with areas of near surface bedrock with covered ground east of Dugald River and along the Thorntonia River valley west of Lady Annie. Linears identified in the Dugald River area on LANDSAT 2 imagery taken in March and July 1975 over the Cloncurry-Dobbyn area, displayed preferred orientation. A linear group with NE-SW orientation was identified in the Lady Annie area. In this area, the copper mineralization in the Mt. Kelly area occurs along a well marked linear with NNW/SSE direction apparent on images for March, September, and November 1975. Geobotanical anomalies provided surface expression of the copper deposits in Mt. Kelley.

Cole, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Vibration characteristics of a large wind turbine tower on non-rigid foundations

Vibration characteristics of the Mod-OA wind turbine supported by nonrigid foundations were investigated for a range of soil rigidities. The study shows that the influence of foundation rotation on the fundamental frequency of the wind turbine is quite significant for cohesive soils or loose sand. The reduction in natural frequency can be greater than 20 percent. However, for a foundation resting on well graded, dense granular materials or bedrock, such effect is small and the foundation can be treated as a fixed base.

Yee, S. T.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Comparative studies of grain size separates of 60009

Five samples from 60009, the lower half of a double drive tube, were analyzed via grain-size methods, with particle types classified and counted in the coarser grain sizes. Studies were undertaken of particle types and distributions by petrographic methods, of magnetic fractions, of the size splits and magnetic splits as analyzed by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) techniques, of maturity (based on agglutinate content, FMR index Is/FeO, mean size of sub-cm material, magnetic fraction), of possible reworking or mixing in situ, and of depositional history. Maturity indices are in substantial agreement for all of the five samples. Strong positive correlation of percent agglutinates and percent bedrock-derived lithic fragments, combined with negative correlation of those components with percent single crystal plagioclase, argue against in situ reworking of the same soil.

Mckay, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Application of a computerized environmental information system to master and sector planning

A computerized composite mapping system developed as an aid in the land use decision making process is described. Emphasis is placed on consideration of the environment in urban planning. The presence of alluvium, shallow bedrock, surface water, and vegetation growth are among the environmental factors considered. An analysis of the Shady Grove Sector planning is presented as an example of the use of computerized composite mapping for long range planning.

Stewart, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Large-scale erosional and depositional features of the Channeled Scabland

The channeled scabland is a great anastomosing complex of highly overfit stand channels eroded into the basalt bedrock and overlying sediments of the Columbia Plateau. Both the erosional and depositional bed forms in these channels are described according to a simple hierarchical classification. The catastrophic flood flows produced macroforms (scale controlled by channel width) through the erosion of rock and sediment and by deposition (bars). Mesoforms (scale controlled by channel depth) are also erosional and depositional.

Baker, V. R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Preliminary studies of electromagnetic sounding of cometary nuclei

The internal structure of a comet could be determined with a spacecraft borne electromagnetic sounder. A dielectric profile of the comet could be produced in direct analogy with terrestrial glacier and ice sheet sounding experiments. This profile would allow the detection of a rocky core or ice layers if they exist, just as layers in the ice and the bedrock interface have been clearly observed through the Greenland ice sheet. It would also provide a gross estimate of the amount of dust in the icy region. Models for the response of the nucleus and cometary plasma to electromagnetic sounding are developed and used to derive experimental parameters. A point system design was completed. Preliminary engineering study results indicate that the sounder is well within the bounds of current space technology.

Gabriel, A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

The geology of the Viking Lander 1 site

Stereo pictures show that Viking Lander 1 landed on volcanic terrain of undulating topography in the plains of Chryse. The bedrock is exposed along several ridge crests, and blocks are more numerous than can be attributed to impact ejecta. The presence of a variety of rock types suggests in situ weathering of extrusive and near-surface basaltic igneous rocks along a linear volcanic vent. Fine-grained sediment is present in drift complexes and isolated drifts. A small patch of fine-grained sediment slumped down one of the drift faces during the course of the Viking mission. Otherwise, no other morphological changes unrelated to spacecraft activity have been observed.

Binder, A. B.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Petrology of Apollo 15 black-and-white rocks 15445 and 15455 - Fragments of the Imbrium impact melt sheet

The paper describes two macroscopically similar black-and-white rocks, 15445 and 15455, which were collected from the rim of Spur Crater on the Apennine Front. The two Apollo 15 rocks are very similar in chemistry and clast population, but the matrix of 15455 is finer grained than that of 15445. The 15445 sample contains a lithic clast assemblage of plutonic/metamorphic spinel troctolite, troctolite, norite, and anorthosite, and its fine-grained vesicular black coherent matrix consists of a melt-bonded aggregate of small mineral clasts which are mainly olivine, plagioclase, and pink spinel. The two rocks are distinct from any other large samples from the Apollo 15 site. It is suggested that the rocks are samples of an impact melt sheet which forms a bedrock unit of the Apennine Front, and that this melt sheet did not form in a local small-scale event but was produced during the Imbrium impact event.

Ryder, G.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Lunar granites with unique ternary feldspars

An unusually high concentration of granitic fragments, with textures ranging from holocrystalline to glassy, occurs throughout Boulder 1, a complex breccia of highland rocks from Apollo 17, Station 2. Among the minerals included in the granites are enigmatic K-Ca-rich feldspars that fall in the forbidden region of the ternary diagram. The great variability in chemistry and texture is probably the result of impact degradation and melting of a granitic source-rock. Studies of the breccia matrix suggest that this original granitic source-rock may have contained more pyroxenes and phosphates than most of the present clasts contain. Petrographic observations on Apollo 15 KREEP basalts indicate that granitic liquids may be produced by differentiation without immiscibility, and the association of the granites with KREEP-rich fragments in the boulder suggests that the granites represent a residual liquid from the plutonic fractional crystallization of a KREEP-rich magma. Boulder 1 is unique among Apollo 17 samples in its silica-KREEP-rich composition. We conclude that the boulder represents a source-rock unlike the bedrock of South Massif.

Ryder, G.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Exposure histories of Bench Crater rocks

A description is presented of the results of mass spectrometric analyses of the noble gases krypton and xenon, in eight Apollo 12 basaltic rocks. The significance of the results is evaluated. It is concluded that the Bench Crater rocks are not what they appear to be in their field relationships. They are not fragments ejected from bedrock by the Bench impact. Most, if not all, have had a previous history of regolith residence prior to the Bench impact. In retrospect, sampling of fresh ejecta from lunar craters during the Apollo missions turned out to be surprisingly difficult. Sampling was successful for Cone and North Ray craters where large boulders were available, but fresh South Ray ejecta was surprisingly elusive. The reported investigation shows that fresh ejecta was not obtained from Bench, and moreover, that the concept of 'radial sampling', in which the rocks sampled from a crater rim are supposed to represent the deepest material excavated, fails very badly for Bench.

Burnett, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Mineral precipitation in north slope aufeis

The Canning and Shaviovik river aufeis fields were studied on the ground and with aircraft data. Powdered calcium carbonate (CaCO3) patches, a few cm in thickness, were found in discrete locations on both aufeis fields. This is indicative of chemical weathering of limestone bedrock which is known to underlie much of the eastern arctic coastal plain of Alaska. Spring or river water which remains unfrozen throughout much of the winter carries CaCO3 in solution; as the river ice freezes more deeply the CaCO3 in solution is forced upwards through cracks in the river ice. Upon exposure to the cold air CaCO3 is excluded as the water freezes, forming successive layers during aufeis growth. In the melt season CaCO3, slush/powder accumulates in patches on top of the ice as the aufeis melts downward.

Hall, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Late diagenetic indicators of buried oil and gas. 2: Direct detection experiment at Cement and Garza fields, Oklahoma and Texas, using enhanced LANDSAT 1 and 2 images

The author has identified the following significant results. The Cement oil field, Oklahoma, was a test site for an experiment designed to evaluate LANDSAT's capability to detect an alteration zone in surface rocks caused by hydrocarbon microseepage. Loss of iron and impregnation of sandstone by carbonate cements and replacement of gypsum by calcite were the major alteration phenomena at Cement. The bedrock alterations were partially masked by unaltered overlying beds, thick soils, and dense natural and cultivated vegetation. Interpreters, biased by detailed ground truth, were able to map the alteration zone subjectively using a magnified, filtered, and sinusoidally stretched LANDSAT composite image; other interpreters, unbiased by ground truth data, could not duplicate that interpretation.

Donovan, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1978

The measurement of long period and secular deformation with deep borehole tiltmeters

Two clusters of instruments were emplaced in fractured bedrock in eastern Massachusetts in 1970 and 1975. The intrasite agreement at tidal periods was about two percent, but there is no agreement at longer periods. A strong temperature-induced annual component ranging from 3 to 15 urads was present on instruments installed at depths of 15-20m; it was not apparent on those at 100-120m. One instrument, in continuous operation for three years at 100m, showed a net drift of 0.3 urads down to the SW, with a maximum departure of 2.0 urads from the trend. Pore pressure variations, material corrosion and creep, and local movements are apparently the limiting factors to long-term measurements.

Cabaniss, G. H.↗