Tectonic Geomorphic Analysis of the Eastern Lowlands, Mississippi River Valley Using LiDAR

• Main Author: Noor, Samia
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Memphis Digital Commons 2019
• Subjects: Neotectonics; LiDAR; Remote Sensing; Bootheel fault; Reelfoot thrust; Sikeston bulge; Pleistocene terraces; Eastern Lowlands; Kennett; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/2045; https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/context/etd/article/3153/viewcontent/6510.pdf

To identify neotectonism in and adjacent to the New Madrid seismic zones, I used Mississippi River Valley Pleistocene terraces of the Eastern Lowlands as a geomorphic marker for the evaluation of Pleistocene and Holocene deformation. The Quaternary glacial and interglacial cycles controlled drainage system in the northern Mississippi Embayment by cyclically draining meltwater from the retreating Laurentide ice sheet. The advance and retreat of the ice sheet caused avulsion of the Mississippi River several times and created the Pleistocene river terraces in both the Western and Eastern Lowlands. High-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) images of the terraces were used to construct polynomial surfaces to look for deformation of the terraces. From the LiDAR Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and higher-order polynomial surfaces, a tectonic bulge of Lake County uplift, north-to-south tilt of the Tiptonville dome, and north-south trough on the Kennett-Morehouse terraces parallel to the Bootheel fault were observed.