Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Influences on Discharge Partitioning on a Large River Delta: Case Study of the Mississippi-Atchafalaya Diversion, 1926–1950
Published: 2020-07-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The modern Mississippi River (M.R.) Delta is plumbed by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, setting water and sediment dispersal pathways for Earth’s fifth-largest river system. The Atchafalaya River’s (A.R.) partial annexation of discharge from the M.R., particularly between 1926 and 1950, prompted warnings of a rapid river avulsion and the construction of the Old River Control Structure to [...]
Tidal Modulation of Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting
Published: 2020-07-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Tides influence basal melting of individual Antarctic ice shelves, but their net impact on Antarctic-wide ice-ocean interaction has yet to be constrained. Here we quantify the impact of tides on ice shelf melting and the continental shelf seas by means of a 4 km resolution circum-Antarctic ocean model. Activating tides in the model increases the total basal mass loss by 57 Gt/yr (4 %), while [...]
Adjoint-based sensitivity analysis for a numerical storm surge model
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Numerical storm surge models are essential to forecasting coastal flood hazard and informing the design of coastal defences. However, such models rely on a variety of inputs, many of which will carry uncertainty, and an awareness and understanding of the sensitivity of the model outputs with respect to those uncertain inputs is necessary when interpreting model results. Here, we use an [...]
A comparison of Bayesian inference and gradient-based approaches for friction parameter estimation
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Numerical tidal models are essential to the study of a variety of coastal ocean processes, but typically rely on uncertain inputs, including a bottom friction parameter which can in principle be spatially varying. Here we employ an adjoint-capable numerical ocean model, Thetis, and apply it to the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, using a spatially varying Manning coefficient within the bottom [...]
Dislocation interactions in olivine control postseismic creep of the upper mantle
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Condensed Matter Physics, Earth Sciences, Geology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Tectonics and Structure
Changes in stress applied to mantle rocks, such as those imposed by earthquakes, induce a period of evolution in viscosity and microstructure. This transient creep is often modelled based on stress transfer among slip systems due to grain interactions. However, recent experiments have demonstrated that the intragranular accumulation of stresses among dislocations is the dominant cause of strain [...]
Seismological Expression of the Iron Spin Crossover in Ferropericlase in the Earth’s Lower Mantle
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Quantum Physics, Tectonics and Structure
The two most abundant minerals on Earth which together make up over 90% of the Earth’s lower mantle are (Mg,Fe)O-ferropericlase (Fp) and (Mg,Fe)SiO3-bridgmanite (Bm). Iron in Fp undergoes a high-spin to low-spin (HS-LS) crossover that influences density, viscosity, elasticity, thermal conductivity, and elemental partitioning, however, the predicted effects of this transition are not apparent in [...]
Modelling massive AIS streams with quad trees and Gaussian Mixtures
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Other Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Pressing issues related to the movement of people and goods can be tackled today thanks to improvements in tracking and communications technology that have made it possible to collect movement data on a big scale. Maritime data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) is one of the fast growing sources of movement data. Existing approaches for AIS data [...]
Fully Automated Carbonate Petrography Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks
Published: 2020-06-23
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Carbonate rocks are important archives of past ocean conditions as well as hosts of economic resources such as hydrocarbons, water, and minerals. Geologists typically perform compositional analysis of grain, matrix, cement and pore types in order to interpret depositional environments, diagenetic modification, and reservoir quality of carbonate strata. Such information can be obtained primarily [...]
Rates of olivine grain growth during dynamic recrystallization and post-deformation annealing
Published: 2020-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
We performed deformation and grain growth experiments on natural olivine aggregates with moderate olivine water contents (COH = 600±300 ppm H/Si) at 1000-1200°C and a confining pressure of 1400±100 MPa. Our experiments differ from published grain growth studies in that most were: 1) conducted on natural olivine cores rather than hot-pressed aggregates, and 2) dynamically recrystallized prior to [...]
An Ethical Decision-Making Framework with Serious Gaming: Smart Water Case Study on Flooding
Published: 2020-06-23
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Engineering, Engineering Education, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Theory and Algorithms
Sensors and control technologies are being deployed extensively in both urban water networks and rural river systems, leading to unprecedented ability to sense and control our water environment. Because these sensor networks and control systems allow for higher resolution monitoring and decision making in both time and space, greater discretization of control will allow for an unprecedented [...]
Geological Facies Modeling Based on Progressive Growing of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)
Published: 2020-06-21
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Geological facies modeling has long been studied to predict subsurface resources. In recent years, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have been used as a new method for geological facies modeling with surprisingly good results. However, in conventional GANs, all layers are trained concurrently, and the scales of the geological features are not considered. In this study, we propose to train [...]
A Review of Satellite Remote Sensing Techniques of River Delta Morphology Change
Published: 2020-06-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
River deltas are important coastal depositional systems that are home to almost half a billion people worldwide. Understanding morphology changes in deltas is important in identifying vulnerabilities to natural disasters and improving sustainable planning and management. Satellite remote sensing has shown to be a useful technology for analyzing these morphology changes owing largely to its [...]
Excessive seismicity over a limited source: the August 2019 earthquake swarm near Mt. Salak in West Java (Indonesia)
Published: 2020-06-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The triggering mechanism of swarm-like seismicity in the Java Island of Indonesia is generally not well understood. Understanding earthquake swarm phenomena and monitoring in various tectonic settings can be improved by the detection of micro-earthquakes; however, such a catalog is not available due to various reasons including the existing limited seismic network and using an outdated algorithm [...]
Terrestrial evaporation and global climate: lessons from Northland, a planet with a hemispheric continent
Published: 2020-06-21
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
From a climate perspective, land differs from the ocean in several fundamental physical ways, including albedo, heat capacity, amount of water storage, and differences in resistance to evaporation. These differences alter the surface energy and water budgets over land compared to ocean, with implications for both surface climate and atmospheric circulation. In this study, we use an idealized [...]
Ancient siderites reveal hot and humid super-greenhouse climate
Published: 2020-06-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ancient siderites reveal hot and humid super-greenhouse climate