Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Lateral variability of shelf-edge, slope and basin-floor deposits, Santos Basin, offshore Brazil
Published: 2019-06-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Construction of continental margins is driven by sediment transported across the shelf to the shelf-edge, where it is reworked by wave-, tide- and river-influenced processes within deltas and flanking clastic shorelines. Stalling of continental margin progradation often results in degradation of the outer shelf to upper slope, with re-sedimentation to the lower slope and basin-floor via a range [...]
Reducing uncertainties in climate projections with emergent constraints: Concepts, Examples and Prospects
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Models disagree on a significant number of responses to climate change, such as climate feedback, regional changes, or the strength of equilibrium climate sensitivity. Emergent constraints aim to reduce these uncertainties by finding links between the inter-model spread in an observable predictor and climate projections. In this paper, the concepts underlying this framework are recalled with an [...]
Is it always Slowdown of the Walker circulation at solar cycle maximum?
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
It is a commentary following a published paper in PNAS titled, ‘Slowdown of the Walker circulation at solar cycle maximum’, by Stergios Misios, Lesley J. Gray, Mads F. Knudsen, Christoffer Karoff, Hauke Schmidt, and Joanna D. Haigh (2019). The article of Misios et.al.(2019) claims that there is a slowdown of the Walker Circulation during maximum periods of solar cycles. In support, they provided [...]
More hots: Quantifying upward trends in the number of extremely hot days and nights in Tallahassee, Florida, USA: 1892–2018
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The U.S. National Weather Service Office (WSO) Tallahassee official record shows an upward trend in the number of hot days at a rate of 2.1% per year and a more pronounced upward trend in the number of hot nights at a rate of 4.5% per year. Increasingly frequent hot days and nights result from more and longer hot events (consecutive hot days/nights).
Dynamical Systems Theory Sheds New Light on Compound Climate Extremes in Europe and Eastern North America
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Dynamic Systems, Earth Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
We propose a novel approach to the study of compound extremes, grounded in dynamical systems theory. Specifically, we present the co-recurrence ratio (α), which elucidates the dependence structure between variables by quantifying their joint recurrences. This approach is applied to daily climate extremes, derived from the ERA-Interim reanalysis over the 1979-2018 period. The analysis focuses on [...]
Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Estimation in the Northwestern Himalayan Watershed using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Snow depth (SD) and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) constitute essential physical properties of snow and find extensive usage in the hydrological modelling domain. However, the prominent impact of the hydrometeorological conditions and difficult terrain conditions inhibit accurate measurement of the SD and SWE— an ongoing research problem in the cryosphere paradigm. In this context, spaceborne [...]
Investigating the water movements around a shallow shipwreck in Big Tub Harbour of Lake Huron: implications for managing underwater shipwrecks.
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Sweepstakes in Fathom Five National Marine Park is one of Ontarios more iconic shipwrecks. Continued exposure to water currents has directly and indirectly affected the integrity of the wreck and resulted in management interventions including efforts to stabilize the wreck and control vessel activity. An extensive series of field measurements were made during the peak tourist season in the [...]
Information-theoretic Portfolio Decision Model for Optimal Flood Management
Published: 2019-06-27
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computational Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Engineering, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Probability, Risk Analysis, Statistics and Probability, Sustainability, Systems Engineering, Water Resource Management
The increasing impact of flooding urges more effective flood management strategies to guarantee sustainable ecosystem development. Recent catastrophes underline the importance of avoiding local flood management, but characterizing large scale basin wide approaches for systemic flood risk management. Here we introduce an information-theoretic Portfolio Decision Model (iPDM) for the optimization of [...]
The influence of a slope break on turbidite deposits: an experimental investigation
Published: 2019-06-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Bypassing turbidity currents can travel downslope without depositing any of their suspended sediment load. Along the way, they may encounter a slope break (i.e. an abrupt decrease in slope angle) that initiates sediment deposition. Depending on the initiation point of deposition (the upslope pinch-out), these turbidite deposits in slope-break systems can form potential reservoirs for [...]
Pervasive foreshock activity across southern California
Published: 2019-06-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Foreshocks have been documented as preceding less than half of all mainshock earthquakes. These observations are difficult to reconcile with laboratory earthquake experiments and theoretical models of earthquake nucleation, which both suggest that foreshock activity should be nearly ubiquitous. Here we use a state-of-the-art, high-resolution earthquake catalog to study foreshock sequences of [...]
Multiple episodes of sand injection leading to accumulation and leakage of hydrocarbons along the San Andreas/San Gregorio fault system, California.
Published: 2019-06-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Tectonics and Structure
The presence of sand injections has proven to enhance the likelihood of hydrocarbon traps within siliciclastic successions. Through the development of large interconnected networks of sills and dykes, sand injection complexes provide a volume of porous and permeable rocks within the low permeability host units. Overall, the formation of sand injection complexes requires extensive fracturing and [...]
Systems of intensive vertical vortices in turbulent atmosphere
Published: 2019-06-22
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
At certain conditions a system of well-separated quasi-point vortices can appear in two-dimensional turbulence. Such system contains main part (almost entire) of the flow enstrophy (mean squared vorticity). Spectral properties of the two-dimensional turbulence in the presence of the system of the quasi-point vortices have been studied using notion of the distributed chaos. Results of direct [...]
Are magnetic stripes on the Cuvier Abyssal Plain (offshore NW Australia) diagnostic of oceanic crust?
Published: 2019-06-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Magnetic stripes have long been used to define the presence and age of oceanic crust. However, continental crust heavily intruded by magma can record magnetic reversals akin to those observed in oceanic crust. We re-evaluate the nature of the Cuvier Abyssal Plain (CAP), offshore NW Australia, which hosts magnetic stripes and has previously been defined as oceanic crust. We use magnetic, 2D [...]
Mixing, stratification and plankton under lake-ice during winter in a large lake: implications for spring dissolved oxygen levels
Published: 2019-06-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The mixing and stratification present under the ice during winter can have a profound influence on the following summertime hypolimnetic oxygen levels. During winter, plankton rely on updrafts caused by convection to remain in the photic zone in ice-covered lakes, thus there is a crucial link in winter between light levels, under-ice circulation and dissolved oxygen (DO) production. Detailed [...]
Large uncertainty in volcanic aerosol radiative forcing derived from ice cores
Published: 2019-06-20
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
Reconstructions of volcanic aerosol radiative forcing are required to understand past climate variability. Currently, reconstructions of pre-20th century volcanic forcing are derived from sulfate concentrations measured in polar ice cores, predominantly using a relationship between average ice sheet sulfate deposition and stratospheric sulfate aerosol based on a single explosive eruption - the [...]