I solve boundary-value problems for an idealized thrust block moving over a detachment surface and ramp, and produce theoretical bed-duplication folds in the thrust block that closely resemble the Powell Valley anticline in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The anticline is narrow and rounded if the translation is small, and broad and flat-topped if the translation is large. The limbs of the anticline are symmetric if drag is zero. Drag along the ramp part of the detachment surface can explain the asymmetry of dips of the two limbs of the Powell Valley anticline, particularly if drag between relatively competent rocks in opposition at the ramp causes an initial anticline to form as the thrust block begins to move, and then drag reduces markedly as relatively soft shales at the base of the block were thrust over competent rocks in the ramp.
Roots of white ash have a better configuration than roots of sugar maple for anchoring shallow colluvium against landsliding on hillslopes along the Ohio River and its tributaries in southwestern Ohio. The landslides are in a shallow layer of colluvium, about one meter thick, overlying shale and limestone bedrock. The sliding hillsides range in slope angle from 16 to 36 degrees and the roots which penetrate shear surfaces are anchored in the weathered bedrock and help to hold landmasses in place. The hillsides are covered by a mesophytic forest, locally known as a ravine community, dominated by white ash, sugar maple and sweet buckeye. Sugar maple is the most common species on the landslides; its roots do not penetrate the soil as deeply as the roots of the white ash.
Filtration theory was developed by engineers to model the removal of particulate matter from industrial gases. Recently, it has been used by biologists and paleo-biologists to model the capture of food particles by filter feeding organisms. The purpose of this study was to test paleosynecologic (biofacies-level) and paleoautecologic (species-level) models of crinoid distribution utilizing filtration theory. These models were tested by analyzing the crinoid faunas of three transgressive-regressive sequences from the Upper Pennsylvanian Lansing Group of midcontinent North America.