The goal of dissertation research was to use geochemical, statistical and geological methods to constrain and understand climate variability over several different time scales. Specifically, I have addressed three questions regarding past climate change: (1) how does the record of Irish cirque glaciers constrain the dimensions of the Irish Ice...
The goals of this dissertation are centered on understanding changes in Earth surface and climate systems through the use of geologic proxies as records of past changes in these systems. Specifically, this dissertation (1) establishes a new chronology for retreat of the Ross Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice...
This dissertation uses argon geochronology and cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating methods to address three research questions. The first question concerns a geomagnetic instability recorded in lava flows on the island of Floreana in the Galapagos Archipelago. Changes in the Earth’s magnetic field (intensity and orientation) occur frequently throughout geologic...
A first-order approximation is made of the frequency and magnitude of bedload transport downstream of the Pelton-Round Butte Dam Complex, lower Deschutes River, Oregon with implications for salmonid spawning habitat. Field measurements of channel hydraulics, geometry, and particle size were combined with one-dimensional hydraulic and bedload transport models to determine...
Glacial deposits on San Francisco Mountain, Arizona, were mapped in order to provide constraints on ice extents in separate valleys for late Pleistocene glacial events. Qualitative and semi-quantitative relative dating methods were employed in order to correlate moraines between drainages and to provide a basis for distinguishing between separate glacial...
Fast ice flow and unstable ice sheet behavior were characteristic features of the Lake Michigan Lobe of the southern Laurentide Ice Sheet. Such behavior may result from some combination of subglacial-sediment deformation and decoupled sliding at the ice-bed interface. Both mechanisms depend on high water pressure relative to ice pressure....