Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Sedimentology
The fate of bars in braided rivers
Published: 2024-05-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Ancient river deposits are important archives of past landscape conditions on planetary surfaces. On Earth, they host valuable groundwater, energy resources, and carbon-storage potential. Reconstructing details of paleochannel forms and movements refines our understanding of the controls on river behavior under different climate, landcover, and tectonic conditions, and improves predictions and [...]
How do ancient mass-transport complexes influence subsequent failure events? A case study from the Kangaroo Syncline, offshore NW Australia
Published: 2024-05-03
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology
Mass-transport complexes (MTCs) are common features in all continental margins. In some passive margins, accumulations of stacked MTCs indicate repeated slope failure, which raises the question of whether MTC emplacement may influence or even pre-condition, subsequent slope failures. Here, we use 3D seismic reflection data from the Kangaroo Syncline, NW Australia, to investigate how pre-existing [...]
Controls on mesophotic carbonate facies and sediment distribution across the Maltese shelf, central Mediterranean Sea
Published: 2024-05-02
Subjects: Other Environmental Sciences, Sedimentology
Although ~20% of global carbonate occurs on extra-tropical shelves, our understanding of these depositional environments still lags far behind that of tropical carbonate platforms. The Maltese shelf in the central Mediterranean offers an opportunity to study in situ facies distribution in a light-dominated extra-tropical carbonate platform and the factors controlling them. The Maltese shelf [...]
The potential of terrestrial and aquatic molluscs for the temporal analysis of Deckenschotter deposits and younger Quaternary sediments from the Swiss Plateau
Published: 2024-05-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Evolution and architecture of an exhumed ocean-facing coarse-grained submarine canyon fill, Baja California, Mexico
Published: 2024-04-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
Present day submarine canyons are active conduits for large volumes of sediment, carbon, and pollutants from continents to oceans. However, the evolution of submarine canyons over geological timescales remains poorly understood due to their erosional nature and low preservation potential. The Late Cretaceous Punta Baja Formation represents a well-preserved submarine canyon-fill on a [...]
Pleistocene shifts in Great Basin hydroclimate seasonality govern the formation of lithium-rich paleolake deposits
Published: 2024-04-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Paleobiology, Sedimentology
Southwestern North America is currently experiencing a multidecadal megadrought, with severe consequences for water resources. However, significant uncertainty remains about how precipitation will change in the 21st century in this semi-arid region. Paleoclimatic records are essential for both contextualizing current change, and for helping constrain the sensitivity of regional hydroclimate to [...]
Using mixed siliciclastic-bioclastic sediments as a natural analogue for plastic-rich systems
Published: 2024-04-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology
Mixed siliciclastic-bioclastic sediments and systems represent an analogue to understanding the behaviour and impact of plastic sediments in natural environments. The integration of knowledge derived from different mixed systems can enhance our comprehension of depositional processes, bedform morphology, and plastic distribution as well as assess the potentiality of siliciclastic-bioclastic [...]
The role of salt diapirism in controlling the sedimentology and distribution of deep-water deposits, Pierce Field, East Central Graben, North Sea
Published: 2024-03-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Other Earth Sciences, Sedimentology, Tectonics and Structure
Passively rising diapirs control flank deformation (i.e., within 1 km of the salt-sediment interface) and resultant stratigraphic architecture of syn-kinematic units. Growth strata associated with deformation at the flanks of passive diapirs are known as halokinetic sequences. Very few studies have conducted an integrated analysis of composite halokinetic sequences, CHS (stacked halokinetic [...]
Early extensional salt tectonics controls deep-water sediment dispersal
Published: 2024-02-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology
The impact of seafloor deformation on sediment routing during the initial phases of extensional salt tectonics is largely unresolved despite influencing the volume of coarse-grained clastic material delivered to the deep sea. Using 3D seismic reflection data from the northern Levant Basin offshore Lebanon, we investigate the interplay between early extension-related salt deformation and [...]
WITHDRAWN: The potential of terrestrial and aquatic molluscs for the temporal analysis of Deckenschotter deposits and younger Quaternary sediments from the Swiss Plateau
Published: 2024-02-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Facies models for rocky shorelines and their application to transgressed basement highs in the North Sea.
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Rocky shorelines form where basement highs are eroded and flooded during marine transgressive events. Despite the Mesozoic North Sea rift generated numerous platform margins and rotated fault blocks which acted as basement highs, rocky shoreline deposits have not been previously reported. In the rock record rocky shoreline deposits are usually represented by thin conglomerates overlying major [...]
River Floodplains, Organic Carbon, and Paleoclimate: How River Dynamics Impart Biases in the Biogeochemical Climate Record of Terrestrial Landscapes
Published: 2024-01-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
River floodplains can be both sources and sinks for organic carbon. In the sedimentary record, geochemical signatures of terrestrial water availability record climate and ecology along river corridors in deep time. However, paleoenvironmental reconstructions are often confounded by the complex dynamics of organic carbon residence, entrainment, and deposition in a fluvial system. As alluvial [...]
The Rapa Nui Little Ice Age drought: evidence, potential causes and socioecological impact
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Paleontology, Sedimentology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
A decade ago, an island-wide drought was proposed to have occurred on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) during the Little Ice Age (LIA). This climatic event was considered to be important for ecological and cultural transformations that occurred on the island during the 16th and 17th centuries. Independent multiproxy paleoecological and paleoclimatic evidence produced in the last years supports the [...]
PHOTOMOB: AUTOMATED GIS METHOD FOR ESTIMATION OF FRACTIONAL GRAIN DYNAMICS IN GRAVEL BED RIVERS. PART 1: GRAIN SIZE
Published: 2023-12-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
Particle entrainment intensity is spatially and temporally variable, making it a complex phenomenon to measure. This paper is the first of a pair, in which we present an automated image processing procedure (PhotoMOB) for monitoring the mobility/stability of gravel river beds. The method is based on local comparison of the shape of the grains identified at the same coordinates between successive [...]
PhotoMOB: Automated GIS method for estimation of fractional grain dynamics in gravel bed rivers. Part 2: Bed stability and fractional mobility
Published: 2023-12-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
Bed mobility and stability are spatially and temporally variable, making it a complex phenomenon to study. This paper is the second of a pair, in which we present an automated image processing procedure for monitoring the mobility/stability of gravel river beds. The method is based on local comparison of the shape of the grains identified at the same coordinates between successive photos to [...]