Geology of the Kansas Flint Hills: Ancient Ice Ages, Sea Levels, and Climate Change

Citation: Miller, K. B. (2011). Geology of the Kansas Flint Hills: Ancient Ice Ages, Sea Levels, and Climate Change. Unpublished manuscript, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.During the Wolfcampian the mid-continent of North American lay within the low relief interior of the supercontinent Pangea in near equatorial latitudes. Throughout the Permian and into the Triassic this landmass drifted slowly to the north into higher latitudes (Rowley et al., 1985; Scotese, 1986; Witzke, 1990). In the Wolfcampian, the study area would have been relatively far from areas of active tectonism. The highlands of the ancestral Rockies lay ~500 km to the west and the Ouachita and Wichita uplifts were an approximately equal distance to the south. A broad low lying cratonic area probably lay to the north and east. The carbonate and fine clastic facies of the Council Grove and Chase Groups in northeastern Kansas suggest a vast shallow marine to marginal marine shelf periodically exposed during relative sealevel lowstands

Geological Cycles of the Flint Hills: Ancient Ice Ages, Sea Levels, and Climate Change

The history of the Earth is dynamic. Though it may not be apparent to us during our short span of life, the surface of the Earth and the life it supports are in a constant state of change---both progressive (directional) and cyclic. Earth history is also vast, with time scales that are hard to grasp. Geologic time is often referred to as “deep time” to emphasize its distinction from time as seen from a human perspective

Geological Cycles of the Flint Hills

Introduction: The history of the Earth is dynamic. Though it may not be apparent to us during our short span of life, the surface of the Earth and the life it supports are in a constant state of change – both progressive (directional) and cyclic. Earth history is also vast, with time scales that are hard to grasp. Geologic time is often referred to as “deep time” to emphasize its distinction from time as seen from a human perspective. (Originally published in the 2012 Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal.

Reevaluation of Wolfcampian Cyclothems in Northeastern Kansas: Significance of Subaerial Exposure and Flooding Surfaces

Ten cyclothems from the Wolfcampian of northeastern Kansas, including parts of the Council Grove and Chase Groups, were examined in detail with particular attention to discontinuity surfaces and paleosol development. These cyclothems are shown to be bounded by major discontinuities, or sequence boundaries, where marine limestones abruptly overlie paleosol profiles. Occurring within these cyclothemic sequences are prominent meter-scale cycles that are bounded by flooding surfaces, many of which overlie facies exhibiting evidence of subaerial exposure. They are developed within both the marine carbonate and shale intervals and variegated mudstone intervals of the cyclothems. These meter-scale cycles show a consistent carbonate-to-clastic pattern regardless of their stratigraphic position or component facies. Climate fluctuations within a generally monsoonal environment are determined to be the most likely forcing mechanism for the meter-scale cycles, with wetter climate phases resulting in the increased influx of terrigenous clastic sediment and drier climate phases favoring carbonate precipitation. Evidence of climate change at the scale of the cyclothemic sequences is also recognized in the studied interval. Cycles at both scales indicate that relative sea-level rise was associated with increasingly arid conditions and that sea-level fall was associated with an intensification of seasonal rainfall

Flexible Session Management in a Distributed Environment

Many secure communication libraries used by distributed systems, such as SSL, TLS, and Kerberos, fail to make a clear distinction between the authentication, session, and communication layers. In this paper we introduce CEDAR, the secure communication library used by the Condor High Throughput Computing software, and present the advantages to a distributed computing system resulting from CEDAR's separation of these layers. Regardless of the authentication method used, CEDAR establishes a secure session key, which has the flexibility to be used for multiple capabilities. We demonstrate how a layered approach to security sessions can avoid round-trips and latency inherent in network authentication. The creation of a distinct session management layer allows for optimizations to improve scalability by way of delegating sessions to other components in the system. This session delegation creates a chain of trust that reduces the overhead of establishing secure connections and enables centralized enforcement of system-wide security policies. Additionally, secure channels based upon UDP datagrams are often overlooked by existing libraries; we show how CEDAR's structure accommodates this as well. As an example of the utility of this work, we show how the use of delegated security sessions and other techniques inherent in CEDAR's architecture enables US CMS to meet their scalability requirements in deploying Condor over large-scale, wide-area grid systems

Alfalfa Insect Management Studies 1971-77

Three tests in southwestern Nebraska during 1971 and 1972 evaluated insecticides against the army cutworm. Adult alfalfa weevils did not damage new second growth alfalfa in a small plot study during a 3-year period (1973-1975) at Gothenburg, NE. However, excellent control of larval alfalfa weevils was obtained. These results indicated a need to establish economic threshold levels for the alfalfa weevil in Nebraska to prevent unnecessary use of insecticides. Four tests to control the alfalfa weevil with registered insecticides verified the efficacy of these materials under Nebraska conditions. A series of tests conducted during 1975 at the Mead Field Laboratory were designed to evaluate plant resistance, cultural practices and insecticides. The use of alfalfa varieties with resistance to various insect pests of alfalfa appeared to be an ideal control method. During 1975-1977, a test was conducted each year at the Mead Field Laboratory to evaluate new experimental insecticides against the alfalfa weevil and other pest insects of alfalfa grown for forage. A number of the new insecticides showed promise against the alfalfa weevil and the pea aphid

Alfalfa Insect Management Studies 1971-77

Three tests in southwestern Nebraska during 1971 and 1972 evaluated insecticides against the army cutworm. Adult alfalfa weevils did not damage new second growth alfalfa in a small plot study during a 3-year period (1973-1975) at Gothenburg, NE. However, excellent control of larval alfalfa weevils was obtained. These results indicated a need to establish economic threshold levels for the alfalfa weevil in Nebraska to prevent unnecessary use of insecticides. Four tests to control the alfalfa weevil with registered insecticides verified the efficacy of these materials under Nebraska conditions. A series of tests conducted during 1975 at the Mead Field Laboratory were designed to evaluate plant resistance, cultural practices and insecticides. The use of alfalfa varieties with resistance to various insect pests of alfalfa appeared to be an ideal control method. During 1975-1977, a test was conducted each year at the Mead Field Laboratory to evaluate new experimental insecticides against the alfalfa weevil and other pest insects of alfalfa grown for forage. A number of the new insecticides showed promise against the alfalfa weevil and the pea aphid