Nashville, Tennessee Approved

First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Calvin Miller. He’s the man. Calvin has been a leader in everything from geology to vocabulary building to good living. I don’t think he’s ever been a jerk (an aspect of his character I furiously admire and will seek, for the rest of my life, to emulate). Thank you, Calvin, for all your time, energy, and guidance. Others: Dr. Joe Wooden at USGS/Stanford provided invaluable input and guidance throughout the data collection and reduction process. Thanks to Dr. Jonathan Miller at San Jose State University, whose discussions and ideas advanced this project. I thank Dr. John Ayers for reading this thesis with interest and offering helpful suggestions. Dr. Steve Ludington with the USGS in Menlo Park also gave helpful input and turned me onto some interesting imagery. Lily Lowery, a fellow Sewanee graduate, yielded her time and energy in the field, lab, and office. The many discussions I’ve had with Lily about this project have been fantastic. Ben George, my field assistant for a month, helped me gather data and throw around ideas. Our long, hot days and fireside chats are fond memories of mine. I thank the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences for the teaching assistantships I held, and all the support the students and faculty have given me. Thanks to the Graduate School for helping to fund my presentation at the American Geophysical Union Joint Assembly, spring 2005. I’d like to thank Lanier, my lady, for always being as supportive as humanly possible, and for giving me nice thought-breaks when geology wasn’t looking so nice. And finally, my mother and father for reasons I won’t try to get into. Financial support for this project came from NSF grant