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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 361 records · Page 20

2017 Meander C sediment characterization from the East River, Colorado

This dataset includes characterization data collected on sediment samples from Meander C as part of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) located in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The data were collected to investigate the nature of mineral-organic associations across the meander transect and with depth. Samples were collected in 2017, and analyzed using sequential extractions (water, pyrophosphate, HCl, and dithionite) and density fractionation. Data collected include: texture, pH, root biomass, and metals (Fe, Al, Ca, Si) of bulk sediment samples; C and N of heavy fraction; and extractable OC, Fe, and Al, and organic matter characterization using high-resolution mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) of sequential extractions. Sample locations are included in the ‘sample_metadata.xlsx” file. Sediment characterization data is included in the accompanying csv files: bulk and density fractions (MCB2017_density-and-bulk-fractions.csv), sequential extractions (MCB2017_sequential-extractions.csv), and FT-ICR-MS data from sequential extractions in three files to be read by the R package ftmsRanalysis (MCB2017_FTICRMS-sequential-edata.csv, MCB2017_FTICRMS-sequential-emeta.csv, and MCB2017_FTICRMS-sequential-fdata.csv). Sediment was collected in triplicate; ID’s refer to individual samples.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

2016 Floodplain Geochemistry from the East River Watershed, Colorado

This dataset includes groundwater geochemistry data from floodplain piezometers collected as a part of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) located in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The data were collected in order to investigate the role of hyporheic exchange and other river corridor processes on riverine export of solutes. Floodplain piezometers installed in several meanders (Meander C, Meander D, and Meander O) in the vicinity of the Pumphouse were sampled at several dates in 2016. Data includes in-field measurements (pH, electrical conductivity, oxidation reduction potential, dissolved oxygen, dissolved Fe(II), dissolved sulfide, and groundwater level) along with laboratory measurements (dissolved inorganic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, metals and major cations). Five files are included in this dataset, including: sample locations and depths in a csv file (metadata.csv), aqueous geochemistry data in a csv file, analytical detection limits in a csv file, a file-level metadata (flmd.csv) file, and a data dictionary (dd.csv) file. Data that was below the detection limit is reported as one half of the detection limit and missing data is listed as "-9999".

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Mineralogy of floodplain sediments from Meanders C, O, and Z in the East River Watershed, CO, USA

This dataset includes bulk X-ray diffraction data from floodplain sediments collected as a part of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) located in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The data were collected in order to investigate the role of biogeochemical cycling and other river corridor processes on riverine export of solutes. Sediment cores were collected from Meander C, Meander O, and Meander Z in July 2016 to September 2017 to depths of approximately 40-95 cm. Sample metadata including locations, depths, and sample dates are included in a csv file ("sample_list_and_locations.csv"). The file "diffraction_data.csv" contains raw diffraction data, and mineral quantification is in the file "mineral_abundance.csv". This dataset also includes a file-level metadata (flmd.csv) file that lists each file contained in the dataset with associated metadata and a data dictionary (dd.csv) file that contains column/row headers used throughout the files along with a definition, units, and data type.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

2019 Meander C and Meander Z floodplain groundwater chemistry from the East River Watershed, CO, USA

This dataset includes groundwater geochemistry data from floodplain piezometers collected as a part of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) located in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The data were collected in order to investigate the role of hyporheic exchange and other river corridor processes on riverine export of solutes. Data includes samples from two intra-meander zones: Meander C, in the Pumphouse vicinity, and Meander Z, just upstream of the confluence with Brush Creek. Floodplain piezometers installed along two transects across Meander C (MCP and MCB wells) and Meander Z (MZA and MZB wells) were sampled on daily to weekly time scales during summer-fall 2019. Some river water grab samples are also included. Data includes in-field measurements (pH, electrical conductivity [EC], oxidation reduction potential [ORP], dissolved oxygen [DO], and groundwater level) along with laboratory measurements (dissolved inorganic carbon [DIC], dissolved organic carbon [DOC], metals and major cations, anions [chloride, sulfate, nitrate], and dissolved ammonium). Files are included in this dataset include: sample locations and depths in both a kmz file which can be opened in Google Earth and a csv file, aqueous geochemistry data in a csv files for Meander C and Meander Z, and analytical detection limits in a csv file. This dataset also includes a file-level metadata (flmd.csv) file that lists each file contained in the dataset with associated metadata and a data dictionary (dd.csv) file that contains column/row headers used throughout the files along with a definition, units, and data type.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A first look at geological aspects of ERTS imagery of Wyoming

There are no author-identified significant results in this report. The analysis of six MSS-5 frames covering most of the western half of Wyoming is discussed. The frames under consideration covered the following areas: (1) Rock Springs, (2) Western Wind River Basin, and (3) Bighorn Basin-Absarokas Mountains. Miscellaneous observations concerning identification of natural and man-made structures are included.

Short, N.↗

River Meander Studies

The feasibility of using satellite television photography of geomorphological indices to obtain a correlation between a stream meander power spectrum and stream discharge frequency distribution is considered. Water resources assessment includes information on the average rainfall over large drainage basins and calculations relating flow measurements to geographical areas. Photoelectric optical scanning techniques provide a digitized procedure for locating and following river meander curve points.

Schubert, G.↗

Application of remote sensing in the study of vegetation and soils in Idaho

The author has identified the following significant results. Comparison of ERTS-1 imagery and USGS 1:250,000 scale maps of study areas with known ground points revealed significant map errors. These errors were sufficient to render impractical the projection of ERTS-1 imagery directly onto maps of the area. Marked differences were found in the delineation of ground features by different MSS bands. Generally, Band 4 was least useful, while Band 5 proved valuable for indicating patterns of native vegetation, cultivated areas - both dry and irrigated, lava fields, drainage basins, and deep bodies of water. Band 6 was better for landforms and drainages and for shallow bodies of water than Band 5 but inferior for indicating patterns in native vegetation and most types of cultivated land. Band 7 was best of all for indicating lava flows, water bodies, and landform features. Use of a additive color viewer-projector aided greatly in separation of images. A combination of Bands 5 and 7 with appropriate color filters proved best for separating most types of native vegetation and cultivated crops. Landform features and water bodies also showed well with this combination. The addition of Band 4 imagery to these further enhanced the identification of semi-dormant vegetation.

Tisdale, E. W.↗

Photogeology of the dark material in the Taurus-Littrow region of the moon

Regional relations and characteristics of the dark material as observed on photographs of the Taurus-Littrow region of the moon are reviewed to provide a background for interpretations of its nature and origin. The dark material seems to be a surficial deposit that covers mare and highland areas near the southeastern edge of the Serenitatis Basin. The age of the dark material, as deduced from photogeologic analysis, is ambiguous: contact relations near its western edge suggest that it is older than the central light basalts of Mare Serenitatis; evidence elsewhere indicates that it may be younger. The origin of the dark material is also uncertain, and the following alternate hypotheses are briefly considered: (1) thick regolith, (2) dark impact ejecta, (3) pyroclastic blanket, or (4) a material of different origin in different places.

Lucchitta, B. K.↗

Resource analysis applications in Michigan

During the past two years, available NASA imagery has been applied to a broad spectrum of problems of concern to Michigan-based agencies. These demonstrations include the testing of remote sensing for the purposes of (1) highway corridor planning and impact assessments, (2) game management-area information bases, (3) multi-agency river basin planning, (4) timber resource management information systems, (5) agricultural land reservation policies, and (6) shoreline flooding damage assessment. In addition, cost accounting procedures have been developed for evaluating the relative costs of utilizing remote sensing in land cover and land use analysis data collection procedures.

Schar, S. W.↗

Origin of lunar light plains

In order to determine the origin of Cayley-type lunar light plains, their physical properties, distribution, and relative ages are examined from Apollo orbital and Lunar Orbiter photographs. The distribution and apparent age of the plains deposits and data on highly feldspathic breccias indicate that these superficial materials are neither locally derived nor part of the Imbrium ejecta. The existence of a planar facies of continuous ejecta at Orientale and in the ejecta blankets of small craters is demonstrated. The data and interpretation presented support the hypothesis that the surface and near-surface materials of some light plains, including those at the Apollo 16 site, are at least partly composed of ejecta from the Orientale basin and that the materials of many rugged areas, such as the Descartes highlands, are overlain by similar material. The possibility that some Cayley-type plains may have a different origin is not excluded.

Chao, E. C. T.↗

Tropospheric methane from an Amazonian floodplain lake

The sources of methane and its flux to the troposphere from the Amazonian floodplain were investigated during the dry season of July and August 1985, using measurements of methane concentration gradients obtained aboard a houseboat laboratory anchored in Lago Calado, a stratified dendritic lake of about 6-sq km area located near the center of the Amazon Basin. Methane concentrations in the mixed layer of the lake were found to vary from 0.0001 to 0.0055 mM, with no consistent temporal trend. The measured methane flux from the surface of the open lake to the atmosphere averaged 27 mg CH4/sq m per day, consistent with the buildup in ambient methane in the nocturnal surface mixed layer of the troposphere. Ebullition contributed 70 percent to the average total flux. The source of methane to the lake and, ultimately, to the troposphere is the benthic sediments.

Crill, Patrick M.↗

Milankovitch insulation forcing and cyclic formation of large-scale glacial, fluvial, and eolian landforms in central Alaska

Continuous marine and ice-core proxy climate records indicate that the Earth's orbital geometry modulates long-term changes. Until recently, little direct evidence has been available to demonstrate correlations between Milankovitch cycles and large-scale terrestrial landforms produced during worldwide glaciations. In central Alaska large areas of loess and sand fill valleys and basins near major outwash streams. The streams themselves are bordered by sets of outwash terraces, and the terraces grade up valley into sets of moraines. The discovery of the Stampede tephra (approximately 175,000 yr ago) reworked within push moraines of the Lignite Creek glaciation suggests that this event correlates with the glaciation of marine isotope stage 6. A new occurrence of the Old Crow tephra (approximately 140,000 yr ago) on the surface of the oldest outwash terrace of the Tanana River, correlated with Delta glaciation, suggests this event also occurred at this time. The penultimate Healy glaciation apparently correlates with marine isotope stage 4, while radiocarbon dates indicate the latest Pleistocene moraines correlate with marine isotope stage 2. Recognition of the importance of orbital forcing to the cyclical formation of glacial landforms and landscapes can help in interpretations of remotely sensed glacial and proglacial land forms.

Beget, J. E.↗

Strong Magnetic Anomalies on the Lunar Near Side

The near side magnetic field is dominated by the demagnetized Imbrium basin and Oceanus Procellarum regions. However, surrounding this area are a number of strong magnetic anomalies, including Rima Sirsalis and Reiner Gamma.

Halekas, J. S.↗

Geologic Mapping in Southern Margaritifer Terra

Margaritifer Terra records a complex geologic history [1-5], and the area from Holden crater through Ladon Valles, Ladon basin, and up to Morava Valles is no exception [e.g., 6-13]. The 1:500,000 geologic map of MTM quadrangles -15027, -20027, -25027, and -25032 (Figs. 1 and 2 [14]) identifies a range of units that delineate the history of water-related activity and regional geologic context.

Irwin, R. P., III↗

Application Explorer Mission-A heat capacity mapping mission

The author has identified the following significant results. Fine orogenic sediments, not detectable on the images recorded within the visible wavelength region, can be clearly recognized on all night IR-images. The area of glaciation in the northern foreland of the Alps can be partially identified on the basis of night-IR data. The terminal moraine of various glacierization phases can be mapped and the relative dry and unsorted moraine material consisting of crystalline components can be located through the vegetation cover. The eastern part of the glaciation area can be traced because of reverse temperature effect. In addition to the upper Bavarian lakes, the night-IR images clearly indicate the distribution of high soil moisture areas such as swamps and bogs. The geological border of the upper fresh water molasse in the northern part of the basin north of Munich is identifiable on night IR-imagery. Drift peat areas can be located on day-IR images of the dry season of the year.

Source record↗

Use of LANDSAT data for resources investigation in the lower basin of Danube and Danube Delta

The author has identified the following significant results. A most important is that bands 4 and 5 very clearly show the sedimentary discharge into the sea and the spreading regime in the sea at the mouth of the Danube and out at sea at great distances to over 100 km. Another particularly significant result is shown by bands 6 and 7, presenting the successive stages of sediments in the Danube Delta, with the clear marking of the separation between the fluvial and marine delta. The survey of floods and of some of their effects may also be studied on all of the bands in the complex area of the Danube Delta and in the lower basin of the Danube.

Oprescu, N.↗

Venusian impact basins and cratered terrains

The consensus regarding interpretation of Magellan radar imagery assigns Venus a young volcanic surface subjected in many areas to moderate crustal shortening. I infer that, on the contrary, ancient densely cratered terrain and large impact basins may be preserved over more than half the planet and that crustal shortening has been much overestimated. I see wind erosion and deposition as far more effective in modifying old structures. Integration with lunar chronology suggests that most of the surface of Venus may be older than 3.0 Ga and much may be older than 3.8 Ga. Broad volcanos, hug volcanic domes, plains preserving lobate flow patterns, and numerous lesser volcanic features, pocked sparsely by impact craters, are indeed obvious on Magellan imagery. Some of these postvolcanic impact craters have been slightly extended, but only a small portion has been flooded by still younger lavas. Relative ages of the young craters are indicated by the varying eolian removal of their forms and ejecta blankets and flow lobes, and the oldest are much subdued. If these young impact craters, maximum diameter 275 km, include all preserved impact structures, then their quantity and distribution indicate that Venus was largely resurfaced by volcanism approx. 0.5 Ga, subsequent eruptions having been at a much reduced rate. Away from the approx. 0.5 Ga volcanic features, much of Venus is, however, dominated by circular and subcircular features, 50-2000 km in diameter, many of them multiring, that may be mostly older impact and impact-melt structures substantially modified by wind action. Eolian erosion scoured to bedrock old ridges and uplands, including those that may be cratered terrains and the rims and outer-ring depressions of large impact basins, and removed all surficial deposits to the limits of resolution of the imagery. The complementary eolian deposits form not only dunes, wind streaks, and small plains, but also broad radar-dark plains, commonly assumed to be volcanic although lacking flow morphology, whose materials appear to be thick because they are smoothly compacted into buried craters.

Hamilton, Warren B.↗

Impact phenomena as factors in the evolution of the Earth

It is estimated that 30 to 200 large impact basins could have been formed on the early Earth. These large impacts may have resulted in extensive volcanism and enhanced endogenic geologic activity over large areas. Initial modelling of the thermal and subsidence history of large terrestrial basins indicates that they created geologic and thermal anomalies which lasted for geologically significant times. The role of large-scale impact in the biological evolution of the Earth has been highlighted by the discovery of siderophile anomalies at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary and associated with North American microtektites. Although in neither case has an associated crater been identified, the observations are consistent with the deposition of projectile-contaminated high-speed ejecta from major impact events. Consideration of impact processes reveals a number of mechanisms by which large-scale impact may induce extinctions.

Grieve, R. A. F.↗