Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

6731

Sean Pinardi

Date

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Earth Sciences

Concentration

Geology

Committee Chair

Randel Tom Cox

Committee Member

Jerry Barholomew

Committee Member

Deborah Leslie

Abstract

A prominent topographic lineament lays adjacent and parallel to the southeastern margin of the Reelfoot Rift. Recent paleoseismological studies suggest the southern segment of the lineament corresponds to a pair of steeply dipping strike-slip faults. However, the northern segment of the lineament is seismically quiescent and was mapped as a fluvial terrace riser by several geologists in the past. To ascertain whether the northern segment of the lineament could have been produced by faulting, the concavity of the lineament's slope was quantified and compared to that of several known fault scarp and terrace riser slopes. A hypsometric analysis was performed in order to assess whether any surface deformation related to faulting might have occured along the lineament, and electrical resistivity tomography was used to image subsurface features. When combined, results from these analyses strongly suggest mid-Quaternary faulting is responsible for creating the northern segment of the rift margin lineament.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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