This dataset includes a 3-D model of the Courthouse Mesa toppling rock slab instability in Utah. These data were used in conjunction with ambient seismic array data to conduct modal analyses and improve the structural characterization of the rock slope instability. Data include a 3-D model of the rock slope instability (.stl) and a COMSOL Multiphysics project file showing the boundary conditions and solutions of the best model run (.mph). This dataset accompanies the research article entitled "Rock slope instability structural characterization using array-based modal analysis."
This dataset contains GIS map data and monitoring datasets collected between 2018 and 2022 at the Courthouse Mesa rock slope instability near Moab, Utah. Map data consist of an orthophoto, a polyline shapefile delineating mapped surficial cracks, and a point shapefile showing the locations of crack width monitoring points (M1–M5) and a vibrating wire crackmeter. Monitoring data include four years of continuous crack aperture measurements from the crackmeter, periodic crack width measurements from M1–M5, and three sets of air temperature measurements recorded between 2018 and 2022. Air temperatures were measured at the surface and inside the crack at several depths throughout the monitoring period.
This project was a NSF-funded collaborative research project entitled: Collaborative Research: Deciphering Eolian Paleoenvironmental and Hydrodynamic records: Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Colorado Plateau, USA This was a multifaceted interdisciplinary study of the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone (Ss)--a unique and distinctive unit in all of geologic history. This unit represents the largest known ancient desert (erg), and is typically classified as a record of a hyperarid environment. Furthermore, the Navajo Ss was deposited at a time when mammals were undergoing their first major diversification, and dinosaurs began to dominate the landscape in number and diversity. Our goal was to examine sedimentary features of the erg margin that recorded the active paleohydrology of the desert regime, and examine abundant trace- and body-fossil material to more fully document the structure and evolution of the biota in a variably arid landscape through Navajo Ss deposition. Field studies involved sedimentology and paleoecology. Laboratory studies involved isotope geochemistry of carbonate deposits, as well as thin section petrography.
