Last "Discovery" Shuttle Mission, February 24, 2011

(02/24/2011) --- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Rising on twin columns of fire and creating rolling clouds of smoke and steam, space shuttle Discovery lifts off Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a picturesque, warm, late February afternoon. Launch of the STS-133 mission was at 4:53 p.m. EST on Feb. 24. Discovery and its six-member crew are on a mission to deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module, packed with supplies and critical spare parts, as well as Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, to the International Space Station

A camera-toting balloon captured dramatic photos of NASA's shuttle Discovery streaking into orbit on its final flight yesterday (Feb. 24), snapping the images from the edge of space as part of a non-profit student project.

In one of the photos, Discovery arcs off planet Earth, leaving a trail of exhaust in its wake. Another shows the shuttle's exhaust plume torn to shreds in the high-altitude river of air called the jetstream.The balloon snapped photos from an altitude of more than 70,000 feet (21,200 meters), project organizers said.

Dicovery launched into orbit at 4:53 p.m. EST (2153 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on its 39th and final mission, ahead of the shuttle program's retirement later this year.

The balloon – nicknamed Robonaut-1 in honor of the Robonaut-2 robot riding on Discovery – took to the skies about an hour earlier from a relatively nearby staging ground.

The student balloon mission is a joint effort of two non-profit educational organizations, the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and Quest for Stars. The California-based Quest for Stars lets middle-school and high-school students help place balloon-borne experiments at the edge of space using relatively cheap, off-the-shelf hardware.

Robonaut-1 rose toward the edge of space, getting in position to observe the historic launch. When Discovery came into view, the balloon was ready — it snapped multiple pictures, capturing the shuttle and the wafting vapor trail it left behind.

More amazing views are expected to follow, project organizers said.

"We are processing the images now and we not only got it in stills, we got it flying on video," Quest for Stars founder and CEO Bobby Russell said in a Twitter message today (Feb. 25). "We are looking for the best ones now."

An educational mission

Quest for Stars travels to middle schools and high schools to brief students on missions like these, and then brings the resulting images and souvenirs back to the kids.The group doesn't charge the schools or students anything, Russell said — it's funded by donations.

The main goal of such missions is to get students excited about science by letting them participate in the process. The group hopes to help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, Russell said.

Robonaut-1's flight was the second mission Quest for Stars has run for and with schools. It's planning another balloon launch next month, Russell said, and hopes to expand from there.

The Robonaut-1 flight was the first joint mission operated by Quest for Stars and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, an organization set up in 1986 by families of the astronauts lost in the space shuttle Challenger accident that year.

Discovery's STS-133 mission is the shuttle's final mission after nearly 27 years of spaceflight. NASA is retiring all three of its reusable space planes this year, marking the end of the 30-year space shuttle program.

During an 11-day mission, Discovery's six-astroanut crew will deliver the humanoid robot Robonaut 2 and a storage room to the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are planned to upgrade and maintain the orbiting lab.

 

(02/24/2011) --- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Rising on twin columns of fire and creating rolling clouds of smoke and steam, space shuttle Discovery lifts off Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a picturesque, warm, late February afternoon. 

 Shuttle Discovery Closing in On Space Station for Saturday Arrival

HOUSTON – The space shuttle Discovery is closing in on the International Space Station to make one last delivery to the orbiting laboratory today (Feb. 26).

Shuttle commander Steve Lindsey is scheduled to dock Discovery at the orbiting laboratory at 2:16 p.m. EST (1916 GMT). The shuttle launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (Feb. 24) on its final voyage into space.

Discovery and its six-astronaut crew are flying an 11-day mission to deliver supplies, spare parts, an extra storage module and a humanoid robot assistant to the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are also planned during the shuttle's week-long stay at the orbiting lab.

"Look who is coming to dinner! STS 133 is headed our way!" space station astronaut Cady Coleman, of NASA, wrote on Twitter after Discovery's Thursday launch. [Photos: Shuttle Discovery Launches on Final Voyage]

Discovery's astronaut crew will begin today's space rendezvous shortly after 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT). This will be the 13th and last time Discovery docks at the space station, since the shuttle's STS-133 mission is its final flight before being retired from service.

One last engine burn conducted shortly after 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT) will help the shuttle reach the station.

But before Discovery can park at the orbiting laboratory, Lindsey will fly the spacecraft through a slow back flip beneath the space station. This will allow astronauts inside the space station to snap high-resolution photographs of Discovery so that teams on the ground can check the health of Discovery's tile-covered belly, and whether any tiles need repair.

This flip operation has been a part of every NASA shuttle flight since the loss of shuttle Columbia in 2003. Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew perished during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere because of heat shield damage on one of the orbiter's wings.

"For rendezvous, I do the manual phase where I take over the vehicle at about 2,000 feet away from space station, fly up to position underneath the space station, do something called an RPM, Rotational Pitch Maneuver, or R-bar Pitch Maneuver, which is basically is just a 360 [degree] back flip so that the space station crew can take pictures of our tiles and make sure they’re okay from a thermal protection systems standpoint," Lindsey said in a NASA interview before launch. "Then I’ll fly around the front of the vehicle and manually fly in to do the docking."

The space shuttle's pre-docking flip is one of three separate heat shield inspections built into every shuttle mission.

Yesterday, Discovery astronauts used an inspection boom and their shuttle's robotic arm to survey the heat shield panels along their spacecraft's wings and nose cap. A similar scan will be performed shortly after the shuttle undocks from the space station later in the mission.

NASA officials have said that, based on their initial look, Discovery's heat shield appears to be in good shape after its Thursday launch.

 Beacuse of the timing of all recent launches of International spacecraft that is

currently docked at the space station......NASA wants to put a crew into one of
the 2 Russian Soyuz Craft and perform a flyaround of the station to get pictures
of the station with all of these spacecraft docked to the international space station
.....which will probably never happen again....

Here's the list of the spacecraft currently docked at ISS:
U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery
Russian Soyuz 25 (TMA-20)
Russian Soyuz 24 (TMA-01M)
Russian Progress 41 (Resupply Craft)
European ATV 2 Johannes Kepler (Resupply Craft)
Japanese HTV 2 Kounotori2 (Resupply Craft)

The Law of Attraction (Gravity's Force cont)

The law of attraction is always working. You can never escape it, ever. Everything that comes into your life, you are attracting into your life. Think about who you are. You are a soul, a spirit, nonphysical, and you live in a physical body. You have the ability to dictate the vibration that your mind and body will be in. Vibration is law of the universe. This entire universe operates by vibration. There are no accidents. The law of vibration decrees that we live in an ocean of motion. Absolutely nothing resists. Everything moves, everything is vibrating. At one speed or another, we can move into a positive or negative vibration. We use the word "feeling" to describe the conscious awareness of the vibration we are in. When you are in a negative vibration, the only energy you can attract is like energy, you are going to attract negative situations into your life. When you are in a positive vibration, the only things you can attract are the things that are in harmony with you, positive things. Our body is a molecular structure in a very high speed of vibration, my mind is movement, and the body is the manefestation of that movement. We have the conscious ability to chose the images that we are gonna hold in our mind, we tap into an infinite souce of supply. We choose our thoughts. When we bring thoughts together we create ideas. When you take that idea and impress it upon your subconscious mind- which is univeral intellegence- you do not only effect your body but the entire universe. Believe that you can affect the entire universe. Thought waves are cosmic waves that penetrate all time and space. When you think something, you control the vibration you are in. When you control the vbration you are in, you can control what you attract into your life. Wealth, health, success, relationships, you dictate what you see. NO ONE else can cause you to think something you dont want to think. All great leaders through time are in agreement of one thing, we become what we think about. The ideas you build will determine the vibration you are in! The vibration we are in will dictate te energy we will attract to us. What do you really want?? What kind of relationships do you want?? Health? Prosperity? Poverty? What kind of business? You are the architecht of your life. You truly are. When you are drawing in from the infinite, you can never take more than you share. Abundance is your birth right. You will never attract into your life something that is not in harmony with you. If you want a greater thing, build that image, and holdonto that image. Stay in that vibration. THis entire universe is an orderly universe. Energy attracts like energy. The good that you want is already here, all you have to do is get into harmony with it. You do that with your own thinking. When you change your habitual way of thinking, you change your world. This depends on your belief in yourself, it will help you believe in yourself and know thy self. Re-evaluate the laws that govern your being.

Arbuckles, Oauchitas, and Witchita Mountains

The purpose of this paper is to inform. Most of the paper is cited correctly, though some areas are not. I wrote this paper using between 15-25 books, articles, and guide books. The Information is cited to best of my abilities after going back and rereading my sources for citation. The citations of this paper will be as close and i can. Most of my work for this project was for my learning purpose and i continued that trend into this paper. Be gentle but critical. Thanks.



According to Ham (1969), the geologic history of the Arbuckle mountains is primarily located int he Early Paleozoic carbonates and Late Paleozoic clastics. Partial of these deposits are located on a craton of Precambrian igneous basement.During the late Cambrian the area was beginning to subside into a deep trough where many thousands of feet of Upper Cambrian and Ordovician sediments deposited. Sediments of Silurian, Devonian, and Lower Mississippian rocks filled this trough and contains many unconformities (Pashuck 1972). The Pennsylvanian and Late Mississippian sediments prove the creation of another geosyncline which was primarily filled with clastic sediments. Since the Pennsylvanian and Mississippian time, the area has been weathered and eroded to the environment presently. (Pashuck, 1972)

The generalized stratigraphic column of the arbuckle region is in ascending order. The Timbered hills group consists of the Honey Creek Formation and Regan Formation. (Fredrickson, 1948; Hicks, 1956) The Regan Sandstone is about 350 feet thick and sits on the Colbert Rhyolite Porphyry and shows the basal deposits of a transgressing sea that had moved over the igneous weathered surface, this produced a topographic relief of several hundred feet. The Reagon Sandstone varies in thickness and is Upper Cambrian in age. (Lanier, 1972) The formation grades upward towards a coarse-grained, gray to light-brown sandstone, and the upper part of the formation being a massive, glauconitic, greenish-black sandstone (Hicks, 1956). The contact between the Honey Creek and Reagan is gradational, trilobites are evident in the transition. The Honey Creek Formation is the limestone unit overlying the Reagon Sandstone. The formation is approximate 110 feet thick in the Arbuckles and is late Cambrian in age. (Lanier, 1972) The limestone beds consists of coarsely crystalline, gray to grayish-green, glauconitic limestone, this limestone readily weathers into fragments of calcite crystals. Most of the Arbuckles' Honey Creek is Limestone, although in the Wichita Mountains, sandstone sequences occur int he lower beds where the Reagan Sandstone comes in contact with the Honey Creek Formation. (Lanier, 1972)

The next group is the Arbuckle. The arbuckle group consists mainly of beds of limestone, calcareous shale, sandstone, and some dolomite in the lower part (Easterling 1969). The thickness of the beds range from very thin to massive. Alternating resistant and nonresistant beds, dipping at high angles, account for the characteristic "tombstone topography: of the Arbuckle Mountains. Ham claims that there are numerous fossils to be found at the horizons, consisting of trilobites, brachiopods, mollusks, pelmatozoans, sponges, and graptolites. The depositional environment has been distinquished to that of a rapidly subsiding, shallow water marine environment, as apparent in the relatively low energy environment of micrites to the higher energy environment of intrasparites.

The Simpson group is from the Middle Ordovician. The Simpson strata has been traced to the central interior of states such as Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio. The Simpson group contains Joins, Oil Creek, McLish, Tulip Creek, and Bromide Formations in ascending order. (Harris, 1957) The Joins Formation is 294 feet thick, weathers more easily than the Arbuckle limestone and consists of limestones and shales, with several types of conglomerates. (Harris, 1957) The Oil Creek Formation is 747 feet thick and is divided into basal sandstone and inter-bedded shales and limestones, with some limestones being highly fossiliferous. Oil Creek is one of the major oil producing sandstones in the area. (Cleaver, 1972) The McLish Formation is also a divided formation of 400-foot upper layer of shale with interbedded limestone and 75-foot thick basal sandstone, the limestone is thought to be of shallow water depositional environment due to the numerous worm borings. (Cleaver, 1972) The tulip Formation is divided into a shales upper section of 200 feet and a lower 175-foot thick basal sandstone. There is a brief hiatus between the Tulip Formation and the Bromide Formation that is the most pronounced of all unconformities in the Simpson Group. The Tulip Formation is most well know as divided into the 120-foot thick Pooleville Member of massive limestone with abundant Brachiopods and the 300-foot thick Mountain Lake member that is mainly shale. The underlying Tulip Creek Formation is the disconformable contact with the Bromide Formation. (Cleaver 1972)

The Viola and Sylvan Formations follow varying in the thickness from 500-750 feet. The Viola Formation consisting of and upper light-gray to buff, finely crystalline, thin-bedded limestone and interbedded charts and a lower formation composed of gray, massive, coarsely crystalline limestones (Altenbaumer 1972). Through out the Viola's deposition, the depth of water was decreasing while the depositional energy was increasing, therefore the characteristic upper and lower divisions. The Sylvan Shale is Upper Ordovician in age is and poorly exposed. The thickness in the Arbuckle Mountains vary from 60 to 210 feet, owing the blame to the flowage of the soft shale during later folding. The lower Sylvan is brownish-black, carbonaceous slightly dolomitic shale while the upper i mostly greenish-gray, fine textured, and slightly calcareous (Altenbaumer 1972).

The Hunton Group of the Arbuckles is Silurian to Devonian in age, its limestone is typically a thin formation. The deposition was during a time span when there were two uplifts followed by erosion. The group contains many oolites, nodoles of chert and glauconite, and thin beds of fissile shales (Green 1972).

The Sycamore Limestone and Caney Shale is Mississippian in age. Its consists of slate blue, weathers tan to yellowish brown, hard, silty to sandy limestone with inter beds of calcareous shales ranging from thin partings to lentils up to 30 feet thick, it occurs only in the southwestern portion of the Arbuckles.(Haney 1972)

The Pennsylvanian Conglomerates contain four massive conglomerates that occur int he Arbuckle Mountains. The conglomerates in ascending order are Franks, Deese, Collings ranch, and Vanoss. (Ham 1954) The Hunton Anticline is on the northeast flank of te Arbuckles and was developed in the early Desmoinesian and emerged into late Virgilian. The conglomerate material surrounding the anticline, mostly collected in grabens and synclines, are previously marine deposited areas. During the Desmoinesian time, the Franks conglomerate was deposited into the Franks Graben, located between the Hunton Anticline and the Lawrence Uplift (morgan, 1924). The Franks and Deese Conglomerates were maybe mainly derived from the erosion of the Hunton-Arbuckle formations, both conglomerates being tightly folded, overturned, and faulted in late Pennsylanian. (Sturdivant 1972) the Colling Ranch Conglomerate and Vanoss conglomerates were formed by the time around the Arbuckle orogeny, uplifting material and supplying the deposited materials around the Arbuckles.. the Collings Ranch Conglomerate is boulder conglomerate, mainly composed of upper and middle Arbuckle limestone. While no granitic fragments are found in the Collings Ranch, there is some found in the Vanoss, meaning Vanoss must be younger than Collings Ranch.

The four Pennslvanian can be divided into an older group consisting of Franks and Deese and the younger group consisting of Collings Ranch and Vanoss. (Ham 1954) Each of these divided by composition and conglomerate material. (Figure) pg 35 brown book



The field trip studied the 17,000 square miles of the outcrops of the Wichita Mountains and Arbucle Mountains. Most of the cover of the Arbuckle and Wichita Mountains has a cover of Pennsylvanian and permian sedimentary rocks of generally southward-dipping Cretaceous sediments. (Ham, field book) These sediments are from the Gulf Coastal plain and are generally low dip. Some basement outcrops of the Wichitas cover a 400 square mile area, Arbuckles is lesser around 150 square miles. These basins can probably reach depths of 40,000 feet. One of the field trip's greatest importance was the basement-rock geology of the high-angle reverse faults of the Arbuckle-Wichita Region. Interpretation of intrusive relations and lithologic changes were also well coverd on the field excursion.



The comparison of Rocks between the Wichita Province and Easter Arbuckle Province brings together many similarities with few differences. These comparisons were made by Ham at the first annual meeting of the South-Central Section of the Geological Society of America, Inc.



The granitic rocks of the Wichita province were granites ranging 525 m.y., the feldspar is perthite with plagioclase being less than 5 percent with little or no microcline; the Arbuckle granitic rocks have two feldspar granites, microcline ubiquitous with plgioclase. The Wichita granitic rocks (WGR) contianed micrographic quartz-perthie intergrowths. Riebeckite-aegirite is local in small amounts, the granites are locally cataclastic. Wichita granite rocks are Epizonal, Eastern Arbuckle Granitic Rocks are Mesozonal, the riebeckite-aegirite is unknown, the straining of large quartz grains is moderate to pronounced and have a local slight gneissic structure, cataclastic features, and incipient metamorphism. (Ham, 1967)



The gabbroic rocks of Wichita Province are gabbros, troctolite, and anorthosite; the Diorite which is approx. 535 million years old,contains pyroxene and reddish-brown biotite, with related rocks of large gabbro intrusions. The gabbroic rocks of the Eastern Arbuckle province are unknow, but hey....the diorite, being 1,200 million years old, contains hornblende and olive-green biotite; the Diorite is in granite as dikes and sills and is locally schistose. (Ham, 1967)



Now for the Volcanic rocks of the two provinces. The volcanic rocks of the Witchitas is Carlton Rhyolite group, and the flows of 525 million years are pyroclastic, these are flows and tuffs of Navajoe Mountain Basalt-Spilite group; while the Arbuckles have rare dikes of rhyolite porphyry which resemble Carlton rhyolite, the type of rock is unknown. (Ham, 1967)



The last comparison that Ham mentioned is the Metamorphic rocks. Wichita Metamorphic rocks are Tillman Metasdimentary group and are biotite graywackes, there are hornfels and biotite schists at granite contacts. The Arbuckle metamorphic rock typs are unknown, but there is evidence of Hornblende-biotite schist inclusions in granite. (Ham, 1967)



The precambrian time rocks was hanging out with eastern Arbuckle coarse biotite-plagioclase-microcline granites of 2 ages (1,050 m.y. and 1,350 m.y.) with subsurface hornblend diorite sills (1,200 m.y.) into the older granite. After this came a major unconformity. In the late precambrian or early cambrian the tillman metasedimentary group with low-grade meta-graywacke, argillite, quartzite, and bedded chert in subsurface was very apparent, is probably atleast 15,000 feet.The middle cambrian brought about the Navajoe Mountain basalt-Spilite Group and Raggedy Mountain Gabbro group. These groups were followed by another unconformity. In Late Cambrian the extrusive and metasedimentary carlton rhyolite group was teame up with the Intrusive Wichita Granite group. An unconformity followed this time and late cambrian sediments were deposited over this time. The late cambrian sediments being the Reagan Sandstone, Honey Creek Limestone, and lower part of the Arbuckle group.





The Wichita Formations are composed of igneous rock hills, gabbroic rocks, granites, and rhyolites that are being exhumed from a cover of Permian Red Shales. Rhyloites are widely distributed on the subsurface of southern oklahoma. The Wichitas are the youngest major body of the Noth American Craton. The Wichitas are not structurally part of the cratonic body basement but are part of a thick stratified sequence deposited during the early stages of formation of the Anadarko basin, the deepest geologically, and the most persistant basin of the craton. Rocks of Wichita province are unique in development of North America.



The formation of the Wichtas began around when the land from North Texas to North of present Wichita Mountains, sank forming a basin that filled with the Cambrian Sea Water. The bay that resulted, was filed with mud and sand carried in by numerous rivers and streams. The filler material was later compressed into shale and sandstone by the weight of the overlying sediments. After the deposition of the sediments, hot molten rock at a very great depth below the surface of the Wichita area, which was forced upward intot he overlying sediments, turning the sandstone into "quartzite" by intense heat and pressure. Some of the molten rock poured intot he bay and formed a quickly cooled, slowly forming dark grey to black igneous rock know as gabbroo. There are several outcrops of gabbroo int he Wichita Refuge. Some of the molten rock poored out again onto the surface covering the basalts and gabbros, creating Rhyolite, these rocks are more typically deposited on land rather water, telling us the sea had receided before the deposition. After the formed Rhylotie, the land began to sink from "shifting and settling". The Wichita Mountains were forme about 300 milion years ago during he Pennsylvanian period, the mountains are probably highger than the ones now.The incredible uplift that produced these mountains were simultaneaous with large folds and faults. Erosion has probably stripped off the upper layers during the Permian time and producing the releif we see today in the field along with the deposited material in the flats. Red Soft Shale was one of the types of deposits in the area. Granite is a premier rock of this refuges of gravel. These erosion events were apparent 250 million years ago and ar still alike today, the erosion has slowed due to sediment burial in the moutains. (Fisher 1977; Ham 1962)







The orogenic movements in the Ouachita system, thick sequences of Mississppian (and maybe early Pennsylvanian), show powereful orogenic movements throughout the course of the geosyncline in Mississippian and early Pennsylvanian time. The eastern frontal Ouachita Mountains comprise an east-west trending structural belt about 15 miles wide which is characterized by major thrust faults, narrow, commonly overturned folds and areas of chaotic structure. The fault planes are poorly exposed but generally appear to dip from 45 degrees- 65 degrees to the south and likely decrease in dip somewhat with depth. The region is bordered by moderatly deformed rocks of the Arkansas Valley (Arkoma Basin) on the north and the intensively folded and faulted rocks of the Benton-Broken Bow uplift in the South. Lithic rock units that are exposed int he region are assigned from the Paleozoic Stanley SHale, Jackfork Sandstone, Johns Valley Shale, and Atoka Formation.(Cline and Shelborne, 1959)

Mississippian age Stnaley Shale is typically 10,000 feet in thickness and is a dominant rock unit inthe Oachita Mountains. The regional oucrops compose of a silty, grey-to-black shale, with gray siliceous shale and thin subgreywacke snadstone. These outcrops are just mostly exposed due probably to the overiding thrust plates. The dominant rock exposures in the area is the Jackfork Sandstone. The lower sections not exposed due to faulting. In the West-Polaski County line the lower jackfork sandstone is exposed as light brown, quartzitic sandstone with intervals of grey shale, ranging of 1200 feet in thickness. The middle unit, consisting of silty, micaceous, reddish-grey to gray shale, and containing numerous dense fine-grained discontinuous intervals and masses of quartzitic sandstone; ranging of about 3500 feet in thickness. These exposures of the jackfork usually show well developed cleavage and are intensively folded.The upper jackfork exposures, ranging 2800 feet in thickness, compose of fine-grained, light-gray to grayish brown quartzitic sandstone and gray-black shale. The depositional environments features of this section indicate turbidity currents and mass sediment flow. Paleontologic data indicates that the upper portions of the middle jackfork are Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) (Gordon and Stone). Gordon and Stone also suggest that the lowermost portions of the lower Jackfork are possibly Mississippian (Chesterian).

The Johns Valley Shale and Atoka Formation overlie the Jackfork Sandstone in the frontal Ouachita Mountains. The Johns Valley shale, typically clay shale with small concretions is not present in the area and thought to be because out overriding thrust plates. The Johns Valley Shale is about 1500 feet in thickness in Western Arkansas. The Atoka Formation is divided into three mappable units (lower, middle, and upper). The lower unit is exposed in many outcrops and consists of occasionally massive bedded, silty, micaceous sandstone and silty, black shale in nearly equal proportions. The depositional environments of this formations indicate turbidity current origin. The lower Atoka likely is extreme upper Morrowan.(Cline and Shelborne, 1959, 175-205p)



The Ouachita Montains have a stratigraphy and structural deelopment unlike the Arbuckles. The Ouachitas contain four major lithostratigraphic units, (a) Late Cambrian - early Devonian Marine sediments, mostly carbonates (b) Late Devonian - Mississppian dark shales (c) Pennsylvanian dark shales, sandstones, thin marine limestones and local conglomerates (d) Perminan Red Shales, sandstones, and halite-0gypsum evaporties. The thickest of those Paleozoic units is greatest on the Southern Oklahoma geosyncline and least on the cratonic marine. (Cline and Shelborne, 1959, 175-205p)



The groups of the Oauchitas are in ascending order. The Timbered Hills Group contain exposures of granites, feldspathic and normally glauconitic sequence of Franconian age, craton-wide submergence permitted widespread deposition of Late Cambrian Sandstones(Reagon Sandstone). The Arbuckle group contains no stratigraphic discontinuity, embraces shallow water marine deposition, richly fossiliferous and contain trilobites, brachiopods, mullusks, pelmatozoans, sponges, and towards the top, graptolites. The Arbuckle group consists of interbedded thin carbonate mudstones, interclasts calcarnites, oolitic calcarenites, stromatolites, and laminated dolomites or dolomitic limestone. The craton is similar limestone mostly dolomitized. The simpson group is cleanly washed sand from middle Ordivician in large volumn,greenish grey-shale is present, limestones of skeletal calcarenites or algal-mat carbonates, its upper formation contains well sorted, well rounded and frosted quartz grains, excellent petroleum resevoirs.

Potential Problems with highly expansive clays

Introduction

A lack of appreciation of the behavior of expansive clay causes billions of dollars of damage to buildings, roads, pipelines, and other structure every year in the United States. Many of the most populated areas of the country are underlain by expansive soils. The expansive soils undergo large changes in volume due to increased or decreased moisture content. (Kariukiet al, 1; Agee) Problems occur across the construction field due to lack of understanding, under estimations, and low respect for the highly expansive clays.

Identification of Expansive Soils

Very fine weathered soils and minerals are the expansive clays that pose a problem for building construction. The greatest risk lies with the expansive clays that are created due to the weathering of mudrocks and have a high intensity of drying conditions.(Doornkamp, 197) These clays are classified by their extremely fine grain size. A generally accepted classification for the measurement for the grain size is no larger than 4 µm. Geologist, soil scientists, and engineers from time to time disagree on the correct term usage of clays and their properties. Another generally accepted classification for clay is its high plasticity (Agee), which is its ability to be molded into any shape. Clays are dominated by plastic fines that have low resistance to deformation when wet and form hard cohesive masses when dry. (FHA, 12) These clays that are typically very fine sediments are generally very well graded as to produce an overall latticework that creates the clay that is difficult to work with mechanically.
The clay minerals make the clay susceptible to absorbing water. Clays are difficult to compact when excessively wet and generally impervious and impossible to drain by ordinary means. (FHA, 12; Agee) Clay can expand 10 % or more as it becomes wet. The clay is capable of exerting pressures of 20,000 pounds-per-square-foot or greater on foundations, slabs, and other confining structures. (Polk County, 2) Identification of clays can be made with a microscope or a small hand lens. Clays generally are composed of one or many minerals. Most clay is phyllosilicates with exception to other minerals. (dolomite, mica, quartz, feldspars, organic phase elements, and many others) The most common clay with highly expansive properties usually contains montmorillonite.
When the clay absorbs water the volume increases, the more water the clay absorbs, the more the clay’s volume increases. When the particles lose water or water is removed from the clay particles, the clay can shrink significantly. The highly expansive clays will be dominated by the water absorbing clay minerals so therefore the clay material is subject to changed in volume with changing moisture conditions. This category of clay mineral, typically used as one of many construction materials for foundations, could pose a threat to building construction. The clay typically has a swelling potential that is dependent on the clay content. ( Kariuki et al, 7)
These clays could possibly be observed performing extremely poorly with even human foot traffic over a short period of time. The highly expansive clay is generally a soil that will react to moisture with great differential in volume. Imagine the size of a popcorn cornel before it is heated to make popcorn. The size of the popcorn cornel can be related to the initial size of the clay particle. Once the cornel is popped, the difference between the size of the cornel and the popped cornel is relative to the difference of swelling per clay particle after absorbing water. Now, if that clay particle is multiplied a couple thousand times to make up a small area of clay, the swell potential could be great. That small area of clay can then be imagined to be the foundation under a building, if that area of clay receives a significant amount of moisture, the clay will swell considerably and cause damage to the structure.


Potential Problems

Potentially, there are literally thousands of problems, if not more, with highly expansive clays. Expansive clays pose a problem for building construction. The expansive clays with a large margin of potential of expanding or contracting due to moisture gain or loss can be classified as having a large shrink-swell potential.

Expansive soils can be a problem for a house built on the expansive clay. The JCP Geologists describe that house will move if the foundation was not designed to take this soil type into account. They describe that movement occurs because the expansive clays expand so forcefully causing the foundation to actually move. At different parts rates and distances, the different parts of the house will move causing the foundation to crack. (1) The JCP Geologists explain that the foundation cracking will begin to cause doors and windows to become jammed and the looks of the home could be affected. Not only are houses affected by the swelling, other structures can be affected too. Basically anything that is built on these untreated expansive clays could have problems with settling and expansion of the surrounding soils. Structures most often damaged from swelling soil include building foundations and walls of residential and light (one or two story) buildings, highways, canals and reservoir linings, and retaining walls. (Polk County, 2)
The Oregon Natural Hazards Workgroup, in Polk County, presented a thorough report on structures built on expansive soils. The workgroup describes how buildings that are less able to suppress the differential heave such as lightly loaded one-or-two story buildings, warehouses, residences, and pavements are especially vulnerable. Heave over time is hardly predictable because it is not easily foreseen as to the location and time the water is available to the soil. (Polk County,1) “Most heaving and associated structural distress occurs within five to eight years following construction, but the effects of heave may also not be observed for many years until some change occurs in the foundation conditions to disrupt the moisture regime” (Polk County, 3) This means that the foundation of the structure built on the expansive soils, will over time retard either the absorption or dewatering of the expansive soils to a point that eventually the area will begin to react to the flux in moisture. If the foundation of the structure encompasses, let’s say, a half acre of expansive soil, then that area that underlies the foundation is protected against the elements of air or water infiltration. But over time, the surrounding soils will slowly provide moisture to the underlying expansive soils and causing it to slowly gain moisture and expand. In the adverse case the surrounding soils could be drier than the expansive soils beneath the foundation and slowly dry out the soils causing sustenance. Both the expansion the soil, also called heave, and the subsidence will cause extensive damage to anything founded on this expansive clay. If the swelling soils are not recognized, the result can be a costly problem. (Polk County, 2) Poor design and construction of structures can worsen the problem. (Polk County,5) Improper building or structural design, faulty construction, inappropriate landscape and long-term maintenance practices unsuited for the soil are just a few problems that contribute to the increasing cost. (Polk County, 5)
Brink and his associates presented in their book “Soil Survey of Engineering” that houses are lightly loaded structures that are particularly vulnerable to heaving. They describe that the central area of the foundation is where the maximum upheaval is usually where the greatest moisture content is located. The upheaval will result in a dome-shaped distortion beneath the house and will produce widening-out cracks on the house. (116)
The Polk County Workgroup presents a short list of potential losses from building on expansive soils that have a large shrink-swell potential. Losses included but are not limited to structural damage, cracked driveways, sidewalks, basement floors, heaving of road and highway structures, condemnation of buildings, and disruption of pipelines and sewer lines.(Polk County, 3)


Polk County Natural Hazards Workgroup Indicators of Expansive Soil Movements
Exterior Interior
Diagonal cracks in brick walls, sagging brick lines, bowed or non-vertical walls, separation of wood trim joints at crevasse, separation of concrete driveway/ patio/ or sidewalk, tilting of landscape/retaining walls Cracks in sheetrock or ceilings, bowed of non-vertical walls, bottom of wall separated from floor, cracks of wall corners, cracks above doors, sticking windows, sticking doors, sloping floor surface, cracks in ceramic or vinyl tile


The Polk County Workgroup describes that major movements originate from the fluctuation of moisture content. Major structural damage is the effect of differential rather than total movements on the foundation. (2) The probability of damage to the structure can be increased by differential movement by shrink-swell of the expansive soils. (Polk County 3) The shrink of the expansive soils due to drying out or dewater is a major settlement problem. “Clay soils change their volume on drying out, particularly these containing active minerals”. (Brink et al, 108) Under drought conditions when the water table is lowered, substantial shrinkage can occur and will produce differential settlement in buildings especially under external walls where there is the least amount of protection against evaporation. (Brink et al, 108) The reverse process, heaving, may occur due to the wetting of these clay soils.(Brink et al, 108) Water loving trees can draw water from the clays that act as the foundation to the structure. (Brink et al, 109) These trees with their extensive root system such as poplars, willows, eucalyptus, and elmo must be planted at a distance from the structure less than 1.5 times their ultimate height. (Brink et al, 109)
Doornkamp described that one possible problem of subsidence due to the dewatering of the expansive clay, causing shrinkage, would be the matter of management and financial policies. Doornkamp describes that it would be prudent for companies to not only to create an insurance policy for the subsidence but to invest their money into building up the value of the property by taking into account the predictions of the soils and climate and working to improve the property that holds their interest. (201-202)
Structural damages from shrink-swell can include: cracks in grade beams, walls, and drilled shafts; distortion and cracking of pavements and on-grade floor slabs, jammed and misaligned doors and windows, and failure of steel or concrete blocks supporting grade beams. (Polk County, 2) “The magnitude of damages to structures can be extensive, impair the usefulness of the structure, and detract aesthetically from the environment. Maintenance and repair requirements can be extensive, and the expenses can grossly exceed the cost of the original cost of the foundation”. (Polk County, 2)
John Agee, a geotechnical engineer in Nashville, described that many qualified firms have a strong and firm understanding in the science of soil engineering. He acknowledged that many of today’s firms have engineers on staff within construction and building firms. Agee described that these engineers help provide better productivity and are very skilled on how the politics and physics of soil engineering affect a job. Mr. Agee provided an example story about shrink-swell where a building in Texas that had piles for the foundation. As the piles were in the ground and held in place by friction, the surrounding soils went through a series of shrinking and swelling from the addition of moisture. Due to the shrink-swell process, the piles were pushed out of the ground.

Living With Expansive Soils Action Plan
TYPICAL SOURCES - POSSIBLE PROBLEMS - POSSIBLE ACTIONS
________________________________________

• Rainfall -- Non-uniform runoff from roof may result in localized heave. Maintain soil sloping away from all sides of the foundation for a distance of at least 5 feet, use gutters with downspouts that discharge at least 3 feet from the foundation. 

• Gutter Down Spout-- Concentrated sources of water may lead to non-uniform foundation movements. Extend discharge a minimum of 3 feet from the foundation and use splash blocks to avoid erosion or use flexible discharge tubes. 

• Poor Drainage-- Localized source of water from rainwater flowing or ponding next to the foundation may lead to localized heave of the foundation. Slope ground away from all sides of the foundation for a distance of at least 5 feet, create drainage swales to divert water away from the foundation, keep dirt line several inches below the brick line, use clay soil fill to create positive slope away from the foundation. Do not use SANDY SOILS for fill next to foundation, use CLAYS. Compact the fill to shed water, not absorb it.

• Flower Beds-- Localized source of water not on all sides of foundation may result in non-uniform foundation movements. Do not flood or pond irrigation water, slope ground surface away from the foundation, do not trap water near the foundation with edging, use mulch to slow evaporation. 

• Sprinkler Valves-- Valves frequently leak and joints may leak with time, resulting in localized water sources which may cause non-uniform foundation movements. Locate at least 5 feet from foundation and inspect valves frequently. 

• Over Watering-- Provides excess source of soil water for suction to draw moisture under foundation which may cause a stable area to begin heaving and damaging your structure. Water just enough to keep plants and grass alive and growing, not thriving and lush through saturating the ground.

• A/C Unit Condensation-- Concentrated source of water which can result in non-uniform foundation movements. Direct the discharge line to drip on a concrete pad or splash block which has been properly sloped away from the foundation.

• Hot and Dry Climate-- Loss of soil moisture from under foundation edges may cause foundation settlement. Uniformly water landscape planting and area next to all sides of the foundation, instal1 automatic sprinkler systems, add sidewalks adjacent to the foundation.

• Excess Drying on the West Side / Non-uniform Moisture Loss-- Non-uniform drying on all sides of foundation from the sun or failure to provide watering on all sides of the foundation may cause non-uniform foundation movements. Apply more landscape water on drier sides of the foundation, use mulch to slow evaporative drying, plant quality shade trees along with installation of a tree root/vertical moisture barrier. 

• Trees-- Tree roots grow under foundation and dry out soils causing non-uniform foundation settlements. Plant tree a distance greater than their mature height from the foundation. If existing trees are closer-instal1 an approximately 4- foot deep tree root/vertical moisture barrier system near the foundation and possibly prune trees (to limit moisture stress) if barrier system is under the drip line of the tree. Water tree roots away from the foundation. 

• Landscape Planting-- Drying from roots, transpiration and soil suction may cause non-uniform foundation movements. Plant bushes and shrubs away from the foundation, uniformly water plants, do not flood or pond water next to the foundation. 

• Landscape / Retaining Walls -- Non-uniform drying on all sides of foundation may result in non-uniform foundation settlements. Apply more landscape water than other sides of the foundation, use mulch to slow evaporation. 

• Plumbing Line Leaks-- Leaks in sewer or water lines provides localized source of water that may lead to localized foundation movements. Monitor water bills, get leak detection plumber to isolate and repair leaks, verify repairs with pressure tests. 

• Shallow Subsurface Seepage / Moving Down Slope-- Concentrated source of water to foundation soils may result in non-uniform heave of the foundation. Install interceptor trench drain up slope to collect and divert seepage water around foundation soils and discharge down slope or to a sump. 

• Moisture Vapor Rising from Wetter Soil Beneath Foundation-- Gradual and uniform rise in soil moisture under foundation may lead to gradual heave of structure. Normal occurrence, foundation stiffness should be designed and constructed for this long term condition.

Death Valley Turtlebacks

The Death Valley turtlebacks have been a topic of intense field discussion since the first description. The turtlebacks, given the name by Curry (1938) due to the erosion on the broadly curved shape that has resemblance to the carapace of a turtle, represents the basin and range geology in the area. Curry describes that the turtleback surface is coincident with the anticlinal fold in metasedimentary units that are Precambrian in age and plunges from a height of 865 to 1,350 m northwestward to the playa of Death Valley. Wright, Troxel and Otton describe the turtlebacks as mullions that have developed along planes of weakness in a zone of normal faulting that penetrates the surface. This paper will attempt to describe the major work done on the Death Valley Turtlebacks with emphasis on Mormon Point.



Turtlebacks are features of the Death Valley region. The turtleback feature is characterized by smooth, upward convex topographic surface, a northwest-southwest axis, and the core crystalline basement complex overlain by younger metamorphic lithospheres (Wright and Miller 1990). The first interpretation is by H.D. Curry, who also did some of the earliest work on turtlebacks. Currys work has led him to conclude that the turtlebacks origin is a result of compression folding of the regional thrust fault (1954). Curry argues that the turtlebacks folding represents reverse faulting and he provided clear evidence on this theory. His decision to describe the turtlebacks as the stripped sole of normal thrust faulting is unclear, but may have related the notion to the similar faulting along the Amargosa Fault and also in the Panamint Range. Since normal faulting generally occurs at high angles, Curry describes the turtleback as having low angle faulting that can be observed in reverse faulting. He also argues that there is "chaotic structure, profound and apparent haphazard disorder, and intense crushing of the rocks that lie upon the surface..." which is objected in 1959 by Drewes who argues for orderly crushing in a small area.

Drewes first argued for the normal faulting (1959). His evidence included the presence of normal faults in the area and on the turtlebacks. Drewes also rejects the idea that the turtlebacks are in some way related to the faulting in the Amargosa Fault because of the stratigraphic sequence of rock units of the Turtlebacks is much younger than the units of the Amargosa Fault. Drewes describes the age of the turtleback faults to be Pleistocene in age while the Amargosa fault is to be Tertiary. Drewes pays much attention to the folding and anticlinal structure of the turtlebacks. Drewes describes that the Precambrian rocks underlying the turtlebacks were folded into anticlinal shape with the axis parallel to a nearby syncline. Intruding these folds is the Willow Springs Pluton that is a Precambrian metadiorite that Drewes claims to be undeformed. The folding occurred during the Precambrian time followed by a long period of deposition and erosion until the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene when movement along the Black Mountains fault detached large sedimentary blocks which moved downward along the normal faults (Drewes 1959). The movement and faulting created what can be seen today as the Turtleback surfaces. Drewes did not mention the plate tectonic theory as a cause for the faulting.

The plate tectonic theory is the engine behind the normal faulting. The normal faulting is a result of the strike-slip motion in the Death Valley fault area, which created a pulling apart motion by the two sides of the valley to create the graban. This motion can be seen in figure 2. (Swihart 2006). The normal faults in this area are an expression that motion. This theory is elaborated by Hill and Troxel in a paper "Tectonics of Death Valley Region, California from the Geological Society of America Bulletin where they said the structures of the Death Valley region, including the turtlebacks and Amargosa thrust fault, are manifestations of shortening in a NE-SW direction and relative extension in a NW-SE direction. Hill and Troxel describe the Death Valley area as a product of both compression and extension and an observation of right lateral offset in the Death Valley and Furnace Creek faults and a left lateral motion in the Garlock fault area. This compression force is a result of roughly perpendicular direction of forces supported by a distorted strain ellipse, a single system of deformation that has been active since the Tertiary time that contributed to the turtlebacks. (Hill and Troxel 1966).

Wright et all proposes the theory that the turtleback surfaces are gigantic mullions that developed along planes of weakness in a zone of normal faulting that penetrates the crust. The description presents that a cover of Cenozoic rocks was observed to have been deposited along the fault zone shortly after the faulting began. After the deposited material moved parallel to the axis of the turtleback surface in a downward and towards the northwest to deepen Death Valley. This can be viewed in the above picture.

The hypothesis by Wright et all is based on many years of observation of the linear features related to the movement along the fault surface of Mormon Point and Copper Canyon turtlebacks. They (turtlebacks) range in scale from minute slickenslides to fault mullions tens or hundreds of meters in amplitude, are all similarly oriented, and tend to lie parallel to the axes of the turtleback surfaces (Wright et al 1974). They also noted that layers of metasedimentary units were on the surface and those layers tend to yield to stress more readily. Wright et al mention that this hypothesis better coincides with the pull-apart hypothesis.

The conceptual view is that Badwater, Mormon Point, and the Copper Canyon turtlebacks share a common early history in a shear zone. Although each turtleback has differences, they all display a doubly plunging antiformal core of metamorphic and igneous rock. The turtlebacks also share the attribute of a brittle fault contact to the northwest that is overlain by Miocene-Pliocene age volcanic and/or sedimentary rock (Miller and Pavlis 2005). Miller and Pavlis also suggest that the turtlebacks are results of several shear faults rather just one.

These entire hypotheses are movements to better understand the fault systems in the Death Valley area. Every hypothesis used the areas tectonic features to describe the creation of the turtlebacks. There is plenty more to be said about this region and the highly debated turtlebacks, I just havent had enough education to know what most of the papers I read were talking about. Since the early 1900s, brilliant dudes have been researching, comparing, and discussing the turtlebacks and their origins, hopefully in the future more information can be learned and researched to produce a more concrete answer on the morphology and origin of the turtlebacks so geologists can gain a better understanding on the Death Valley Fault System.



Cited Resources



Miller, Marli B. and Palvis, Terry J. The Black Mountains Turtlebacks: Rosetta stones of Death Valley tectonics. Earth Science Reviews 73. 115-178p. 2005.

Curry, H.D., "'Turtleback' Fault Surfaces in Death Valley, California." Geological Society of America Bulletin (an Abstract of a presentation), v49, p 1875. 1938.

Hill, Mason L. and Troxel, Bennie W. "Tectonics of Death Valley Region, California." Geological Society of America Bulletin, v77, p435-438. 1966.

Wright, L.A. et al. "Turtleback Surfaces Viewed as Phenomena of Extensional Tectonics." Geology, v.2 p53-54, Geological Society of America, Feb 1974.

Swihart, George. Lecture. Death Valley Field Excursion. 2006.

Up Down Construction

When it came to building the new 50- story, mixed use complex that opened in Chicago in 1992, the engineers, geotechnical consultants, architects and managers overseeing construction were pressed with a 105 million dollar budget and one block of working space. (3) The Chicago Title and Trust Center was built on an old greyhound bus depot that was one block long and was once a 13 story base. (3) This gave the builders a 13-story base and a no-so typical dilemma to overcome. The question was how to build this 1.3 sq ft commercial development with a parking garage that could have a capacity of 130 cars on one block of one of the busiest cities within the continental forty-eight. With typical construction, the below grade section of the structure is built first followed by the construction of the above grade structure. The builders of this Chicago commercial building knew that this would not suffice. The method of up down construction was employed, a construction method that utilizes the ability of the above ground construction to begin before the below ground construction has finished. (3) In the case of the Chicago Title and Trust Center, by the time the sub grade floors had been completed, 20 upper level floors had been built.

In Up Down construction, or commonly known as Top Down Construction, the substructure and the superstructure are built at the same time. The construction begins with the construction of the slurry walls that are built around the building’s foundation. (1,2,3,6) If water is within the slurry walls, the water is removed prior to excavation (6) or during excavation if not present at time of slurry wall construction. The next step in up down construction is the load bearing elements that will carry the superstructure. (6)These elements are created by caisson-auger drilling shafts as deep as the lowest floor and installing steel beams that will be surrounded by rebar or steel cage that will later be filled in with concrete.(1,2) The installation of the columns and foundations is the key to this construction process. (2) The ground floor is next to be formed and poured as it is the reinforcement for the column structure and the upper superstructure construction progress. (1,6) This slab also serves as the reinforcement for the slurry walls and has “glory” holes, or access bays, for equipment and people to move in and out of the basement. (1,6) The work underground is similar to a mining operation, once the first basement floor is poured and cured and “gained sufficient strength” then the excavation of the lower level floor begins. (1,6) “The slab floors are commonly cast-in-place flat slabs or framed slabs. The procedure for forming each of the progressively lower-level slabs has ranged from customary formwork to casting the slab on a mud mat to a drop-form system.” (2) Soil under the top basement floor is excavated around the basement columns to slightly lower than the first basement floor elevation in order to allow for the installation of the forms for the first level basement slab. Glory holes are left open within each newly formed basement floor slab and the procedure is repeated. Each floor rests on the basement columns that were constructed earlier. (6) Once the floor is excavated and the slab is poured and cured, then the work can progress to the lower floors. (1) This excavation/mining work continues until the work has reached the bottom of the lowest level.
 

The Up down construction system has many advantages. Some advantages are the potential cost savings as the price of a temporary support system becomes prohibitive, the technical feasibility as site conditions becomes more complex, and the presence that this method requires no radical changes but rather a resourceful sequencing of proven construction techniques. (2) The up down construction method can eliminate the need for cross cutting or shoring during the excavation process and aside from the obvious simultaneous processes of sub and super structure construction that is a major advantage when dealing with tight capital that leads to significant savings (4), the method allows excavation of the lower level floors in a confined area around the immediate perimeter of the site whereas other conventional methods might disturb neighboring structures. (4) Lastly, another valuable advantage to the up down method of construction is the ability for mostly all trades to begin work at the same time. (3) This last advantage is especially optimistic in the overall work progress of the construction as the trades can work together instead of trying to work around each other’s existing installations. The simultaneous beginning of all trades could also prove useful in the overall construction providing extra communication, understanding between trades, and immediate feedback that may be lacking in more typical types of construction where different trades begin at different intervals throughout the construction process.

As with anything that provides a widespread advantage towards time management, there actually must also be disadvantages. The up down construction method has several disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages are the insufficient outlay information, complicated and unusual construction sequences, and problems that can occur during construction. (5) The top down construction method also is more expensive than conventional construction and does not allow for easy project redesign; project redesign may sometimes be frequently necessary in construction environments where the situation is uncertain. (5) Also, the variables of cost effectiveness and risk factors are not well understood because the method is relatively new in the United States. (5)

In a research paper by Joon H Paek,., and Jong H. Ock about a modified up down construction method, among describing the advantages and disadvantages of the method, such as the disadvantage “ due to innovative combination of heavy construction techniques, there are more potential risks with this method, such as schedule delay from poor planning, unforeseen technical problems, lack of coordination, and unpredictable accidents, than with conventional construction”, the paper provides newer techniques of thought concerning the original up down construction method. The paper presents the up down method in the same way which starts with excavation but instead of slurry wall the authors suggest soldier piles with tiebacks or for the limited space installations a soil-nailing system. The soil nailing system presented in the paper begins with the excavation, then once to the desired depth the temporary stable soil is sprayed with shotcrete then the soil nails are installed connecting to the face wall (5). The next step in the method is the typical foundation column/stem beam installation with cast in place concrete for the foundation. Next, the ground-level floor is installed using composite steel/concrete construction, this floor is utilized as a cross-lot brace. This modified method contrasts the original up down construction the greatest in the last of the sequence where the floors of the substructure are advances upward from the lowest floor rather from top downward.

From the experience in the field, project managers found that the modified up down construction method took typically three to four weeks longer and the cost, although there was less figures, was increase due to the modified method. (5) Since these variables were in place, the authors of the modified method offered a couple motives to use the modified method. The first being that the project’s sub grade levels must be more than 3 levels, second the project must have an adequate number of levels above grade, and last the project must not be in the early stages of design as redesign would offset the time savings.(5) Other variables to consider were: modified approach is more expensive, a larger volume of work is compressed into a short time span, which results in a great deal of site congestion and crowded conditions, access routes would need to be carefully designed, the tieback and soil nailing are not water proof so the conditions would need to be right in the environment.
Although the modified method has many variables to contend with, the method shows considerably more technical feasibility and reduces critical construction time. (5) Contractors may begin to use this technique for frequently as understanding of the modified method increases. (5).

The up down method is a cost, time, and space saving advantage to typical construction sequences.



















Works Cited
Works Cited was numbered in order to protect the paper from excessive citations.
1. "Up-down building technique shaves months from project schedule. " Civil Engineering 70.6 (2000): 31. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. MTSU Library, Murfreesboro, TN. 23 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/
2. Becker, James M.. . "Building Beneath Boston. " Civil Engineering 61.3 (1991): 66. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. MTSU Library, Murfreesboro, TN 23 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/
3. Lyons, William T. . "Ups and downs in Chicago. " Civil Engineering 63.12 (1993): 54. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. MTSU Library, Murfreesboro, TN 23 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/
4. "High Strength High Rise. " Civil Engineering 58.3 (1988): 62. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. MTSU Library, Murfreesboro, TN 23 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/
5. Paek, Joon H., and Jong H. Ock. "Innovative building construction technique: modified up/down method." Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 122.n2 (June 1996): 141(8). General OneFile. Gale. Middle Tennessee State University. 23 Mar. 2009
<http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.mtsu.edu/itx/start.do?prodId=ITOF>.
6. Patsy, Blake D., et al. “Leverage Value from Up-Down Construction”. Construction Issues.11.6(2006): 64. 05 Apr. 2009 http://www.structuremag.com/
7. Deep Excavation, LLC. “SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR DEEP EXCAVATION”. Top/Down Excavations. 05 Apr. 2009. http://www.deepexcavation.com/supportsystems_topdown.html

Excerpt from Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"

But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chuses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely. The charity of well-disposed people, indeed, supplies him with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this principle ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people, by treaty, by barter, and by purchase. With the money which one man gives him he purchases food. The old cloaths which another bestows upon him he exchanges for other old cloaths which suit him better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he can buy either food, cloaths, or lodging, as he has occasion.

Another excerpt

"The more you begin to investigate what we think we understand, where we came from, what we think we're doing, the more you begin to see we've been lied to. We've been lied to by every institution.

"What makes you think that the religious institution is the only one that's never been touched? The religious institutions of this world are at the bottom of the dirt. The religious institutions in this world are put there by the same people who gave you your government, your corrupt education, who set up your international banking cartels. Because our masters don't give a damn about you or your family. All they care about is what they have always cared about and that's controlling the whole damn world.

"We have been misled away from the true and divine presence in the universe that men have called god. I don't know what god is but I know what he isn't, and unless and until you are prepared to look at the whole truth, and wherever it may go, whoever it may lead to, if you want to look the other way or if you want to play favorite, then somewhere along the line you're going to find out you're messing with divine justice. The more you educate yourself the more you understand where things come from the more obvious things become and you begin to see lies everywhere.

"You have to know the truth and seek the truth and the truth will set you free."

[They must find it difficult…
Those who have taken authority as the truth,
Rather than truth as the authority.
-G. Massey, Egyptologist]

Was doing some thinking......

I grew up always having fun. Have always had a lot of friends, strong family life, and very outgoing personality. I played sports year-round and stayed very active in church and school. In the summer approaching my 8th grade year in school, I was diagnosed with stage 4b Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It changed my life. My life was turned upside down and I had no idea what the future would hold for me. I went through 4-6 weeks of vigorous, intrusive, and painful tests and experiments to determine my protocol. After, I went through 6 months of chemotherapy and radiation. I stayed in school but wore a hat..oh and a silver cross around my neck, and had the support towards the numbers of a large army. Everything I did was changed, I could barely hang with my friends because a cold could kill me, and one almost did. See, it isn't going through the sickness that your learn the most from, its coming out the other side and observing how much you have changed from your sickness.The years following created great change in my life as I started to unravel what God had done this for. I was an example.
When you do not have long to live, the only things that really matter are family, friends, relationships, and all the small and major moments you spend with the people on this planet. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, vaporized from the scene. School, work, tv, comedy, drama, he said-she said, world problems, family and friend problems, anything and everything else....never matters. You would be amazed.
So the following years people would tell me how much I have impacted their life and how much an inspiration I was for them. This BLEW ME AWAY. I began giving testimonies and talks to groups about my experience.
What I want to provide here is this: Everything happens for a reason, God has a plan in everyone's life. If you want to know God's plan, take all the tangibles of the world and throw them out of your situation and watch God open up his kingdom for your. From my experiences I have learn that God is in love with us no matter what. There is SOOOO much in this world that tries to keep you preoccupied, disturbed, mistaken, and above all from thinking that God is in control. Open your eyes. Discover what God's plan is for you and wake up every morning asking God what his plan is for your day. He will show you. Giving a month to live will make you humble and full of life. Think about it, you die tomorrow...quick...what is the first couple thoughts that go through your head?? Family? Friends? exactly...what really matters! Live in that moment for an hour, a day, a week, a month...6months! See if it doesn't change the way your think, feel, and interact with the world. i hope you find my story to your advantage. God bless

Man who scratches his ass should not bite his fingernails

>1. Don't change horses until they stop running.

>2. Strike while the bug is close.

>3.It's always darkest before Daylight Saving Time.

>4 Never underestimate the power of termites.

>5.You can lead a horse to water but How?

>6.Don't bite the hand that looks dirty.

>7 No news is impossible

>8. A miss is as good as a Mr.

>9. You can't teach an old dog new Math

>10. If you lie down with dogs, you'll stink in the morning.

>11. Love all, trust Me.

>12. The pen is mightier than the pigs.

>13. An idle mind is  the best way to relax.

>14. Where there's smoke there's pollution.

>15. Happy the bride who gets all the presents.

>16. A penny saved is not much.

>17. Two's company, three's the Musketeers.

>18. Don't put off till tomorrow what you put on to go to bed.

>19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and You have to blow your nose.

>20. There are none so blind as Stevie Wonder.

>21. Children should be seen and not spanked or grounded.

>22. If at first you don't succeed get new batteries.

>23. You get out of something only what you See in the picture on the box

>24. When the blind lead the blind get out of the way.

>25. A bird in the hand is going to poop on you.


War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.

Virginity like bubble, one prick all gone.

Man who eats prunes, gets good run for money.

Wife who puts husband in doghouse soon will find him in cathouse.

Man who fights with wife all day gets no piece at night.

Man who lives in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Man who scratches ass should not bite fingernails.

A bird in the hand is safer than one overhead.

You can lead a fool to wisdom, but you can't make him think.

A Wise Man can see more from the bottom of a well than a Fool can see from the top of a mountain.

You never test the depth of a river with both feet.

Hear and you forget; see and you remember; do and you understand.

The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.

Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.

There are no short cuts to any place worth going.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

A man who thinks too much about his ancestors is like a potato — the best part of him is underground.

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

Your heart understands what your head cannot yet conceive; trust your heart.

A peacock who sits on his tail is just another turkey.

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

If you are willing to admit faults, you have one less fault to admit.

You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.

Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.

It matters not what you do, as long as you are the best one doing it.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

It's a great satisfaction knowing that for a brief point in time you made a difference.

In golf as in life it is the follow through that makes the difference.

The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

It is only those who never do anything who never make mistakes.

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.

Many complain of their looks, but none of their brains.

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.

To be loved is to be fortunate, but to be hated is to achieve distinction.

Practice makes perfect, but nobody's perfect, so why practice?

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

I personally think we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Patience will come to those who wait for it.

Incoming fire has the right of way.

Man who run behind car get exhausted.

He who smiles in a crisis has found someone to blame.

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.

I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

The hand that turneth the knob, opens the door..
Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch.
There are two kinds of people in life: people who like their jobs, and people who don't work here anymore.
Love is temporary insanity curable by marriage
A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.
If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either.
Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.
We the willing, following the unknowing are doing the impossible. We have done so much for so long with so little that we are now able to do anything with nothing.
Half of the people in the world are below average.

To study a subject best, understand it thoroughly before you start.

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.

I can resist everything except temptation.

It's a great satisfaction knowing that for a brief point in time you made a difference.

The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does.

A bird in the hand is safer than one overhead.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

If you are willing to admit faults, you have one less fault to admit.

Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.

There are three faithful friends an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.

Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change.

Invariably they are both disappointed.

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it.

Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.

Man who sneezes without hanky takes matters into his own hands.