Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Suitability Analysis of Remote Sensing Techniques for Shoreline Extraction of Global River Deltas
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
High frequency flooding, sea level rise and changes to riverine sediment fluxes have threatened the habitable land area of river deltas, where close to half a billion people live, globally. Understanding shoreline positions is important for overall sustainable planning of deltaic communities and delta evolution predictive modeling. However, a gap in literature is recognized where there is a) no [...]
Turbulent flow effects in a slickwater fracture propagation in permeable rock
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
This work is devoted to an analysis of the near-tip region of a hydraulic fracture driven by slickwater in a permeable saturated rock. We consider a steady-state problem of a semi-infinite fracture propagating with constant velocity. The host rock is elastic and homogeneous, and fracture propagates according to linear elastic fracture mechanics. The fluid exchange between the fracture and [...]
Antarctic Ice Shelves Lose Most of Their Mass From Shallow Depths
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding the processes involved in basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves is important to quantify the rate at which Antarctica will lose mass. Current research of of ice shelf-ocean interaction is almost exclusively guided by satellite derived estimates of Antarctic-wide ice shelf melting, which highlight deep warm water intrusions and melting along ice shelf grounding lines. Here we [...]
A First Constraint on Basal Melt-water Production of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Greenland ice sheet is one of the largest sources of sea-level rise since the early 2000s. Basal melt has not been included explicitly in assessments of ice-sheet mass loss so far. Here, we present the first full-coverage estimate of the ice-sheet wide basal melt in Greenland and its recent change through time. We find that presently basal melting contributes at least 22.3 +5/-3 Gt per year [...]
Across-strike asymmetry of the Andes orogen linked to the age and geometry of the Nazca plate
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The spine of Andes – the trace of the highest mountain topography – weaves back and forth, in places near the coastline, in others farther inland. Its position is thought to be partially influenced by the asymmetric distribution of rainfall causing the migration of the topographic divide (i.e. mountain peaks) in favor of the more erosive (wetter) side and consuming the less erosive (drier) side. [...]
Deformation controlled Long-Period seismicity in low cohesion volcanic sediments
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
Volcano seismicity is an important tool in remotely monitoring and forecasting activity at volcanoes around the world. Volcanic earthquakes show diverse spectral characteristics, with shallow Long Period (Low Frequency) seismicity and long duration tremor generally interpreted as indicators of fluid migration, and as potential precursors to eruption. Here we show that a common low-cohesion [...]
Methane concentrations in streams reveal gas leak discharges in regions of oil, gas, and coal development
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
As natural gas has grown in importance as a global energy source, leakage of methane (CH4) from wells has sometimes been noted. Leakage of this greenhouse gas is important because it affects groundwater quality and, when emitted to the atmosphere, climate. We hypothesized that streams might be most contaminated by CH4 in the northern Appalachian Basin in regions with the longest history of [...]
The social-ecological dimensions of changing global freshwater availability
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Quantifying physical water security at the global scale remains hampered by a lack of systematically produced observational data. Here we combine the observed trends in global freshwater availability from the recently completed Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite mission1 with more than a dozen other global datasets and provide the missing observational basis to numerous existing [...]
Seismic constraints on rock damaging in a failing mountain peak: the Hochvogel, Allgäu
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Large rock slope failures play a pivotal role in long-term landscape evolution and are a major concern in land use planning and hazard aspects. While the failure phase and the time immediately prior to failure are increasingly well studied, the nature of the preparation phase remains enigmatic. This knowledge gap is due, to a large degree, to difficulties associated with instrumenting high [...]
Intrasalt Structure and Strain Partitioning in Layered Evaporites: Implications for Drilling Through Messinian Salt in the Eastern Mediterranean
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
We use 3D seismic reflection data from the Levant margin, offshore Lebanon to investigate the structural evolution of the Messinian evaporite sequence, and how intrasalt strain varies within a thick salt sheet during early-stage salt tectonics. Intra-Messinian reflectivity reveals lithological heterogeneity within the otherwise halite-dominated sequence. This leads to rheological heterogeneity, [...]
The 3D thermal field across the Alpine orogen and its forelands and the relation to seismicity
Published: 2020-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Temperature exerts a first order control on rock strength, principally via thermally activated creep deformation and on the distribution at depth of the brittle-ductile transition zone. The latter can be regarded as the lower bound to the seismogenic zone, thereby controlling the spatial distribution of seismicity within a lithospheric plate. As such, models of the crustal thermal field are [...]
Seasonal impact-based mapping of compound hazards
Published: 2020-06-17
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Mathematics, Multivariate Analysis, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
Impact-based, seasonal mapping of compound hazards is proposed. It is pragmatic, identifies phenomena to drive the research agenda, produces outputs relevant to stakeholders, and could be applied to many hazards globally. Illustratively, flooding and wind damage can co-occur, worsening their joint impact, yet where wet and windy seasons combine has not yet been systematically mapped. Here, [...]
Spatial Statistics on the Geospatial Web
Published: 2020-06-17
Subjects: Computational Engineering, Computer Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Geospatial Web provides data as well as processing functionality using web interfaces. Typical examples of such processes are models and predictions for spatial data, known as spatial statistics. Such analyses are written by domain experts in scripting languages and rarely exposed as web services. We present a concept of script annotations for automatic deployment in server runtime [...]
Syn-depositional Mesozoic siliciclastic pathways on the Moroccan Atlantic margin linked to evaporite mobilisation
Published: 2020-06-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Evaporite mobilisation in evaporite-cored anticlines leads to topographic growth that can alter sedimentary routing in shallow marine environments. This paper analyses two evaporite-cored anticlines perpendicular to the NW Africa coast to understand how their tectonic evolution influenced sediment pathways during the Early to Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous exhumation of the Mesozoic margin [...]
Increased air pollution exposure among the Chinese population during the national quarantine in 2020
Published: 2020-06-15
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The COVID-19 quarantine in China is thought to have been beneficial for reducing the population exposure to ambient air pollution. The overall exposure also depends, however, on indoor air quality and human mobility and activities, which also changed during the pandemic. Here we integrate real-time mobility data, questionnaire survey on during-pandemic human activity patterns, advanced air [...]