Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Can barrier islands survive sea-level rise? Quantifying the relative role of tidal deltas and overwash deposition
Published: 2019-07-18
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geology, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Accepted open-access publication available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085524 Barrier island response to sea-level rise depends on their ability to transgress and move sediment onto and behind the barrier, either through flood-tidal delta deposition, or via overwash. Our understanding of these processes over decadal or longer timescales, however, is limited. Here we [...]
Evolution of a shear zone before, during and after melting
Published: 2019-07-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Partial melt in the deforming mid/lower continental crust causes a strength decrease and drives formation of lithological heterogeneities. However, mechanisms of formation of syn-melt deformation zones and strain partitioning in partially molten rock remain poorly understood. We use field and microstructural observations to unravel the evolution of a partial melt shear zone, Seiland Igneous [...]
Evaluating precipitation datasets for large-scale distributed hydrological modelling
Published: 2019-07-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Over the past decades, a variety of valuable research studies has helped to advance our understanding of the advantages and limitations of satellite derived precipitation datasets as a forcing to hydrological models, in combination with or as an alternative to gauge data. However, most studies have assessed the performance of only one single dataset (or a few), have used global precipitation [...]
Relationships between soil chemical properties and rare earth element concentrations in the aboveground biomass of a tropical herbaceous plant
Published: 2019-07-18
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The geochemical behavior of rare earth elements (REE) has been mainly investigated in geological systems where they represent the best proxies for processes occurring at the interface between different media. REE concentrations, normalized with respect to the upper continental crust, were used to assess their behavior. In this study, REE geochemical behavior was investigated in plant shoots of a [...]
Pan-European groundwater to atmosphere terrestrial systems climatology from a physically consistent simulation
Published: 2019-07-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Applying the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform, TSMP, this study provides the first simulated long-term (1996-2018), high-resolution (~12.5km) terrestrial system climatology over Europe, which comprises variables from groundwater across the land surface to the top of the atmosphere (G2A). The data set offers an unprecedented opportunity to test hypotheses related to short- and long-range [...]
Urban Seismic Site Characterization by Fiber-Optic Seismology
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Accurate ground-motion prediction requires detailed site effect assessment, but in urban areas where such assessments are most important, geotechnical surveys are difficult to perform, limiting their availability. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) offers an appealing alternative by repurposing existing fiber-optic cables, normally employed for telecommunication, as an array of seismic sensors. [...]
The Baltic TRANSCOAST approach – investigating shallow coasts as terrestrial-marine interface of water and matter fluxes
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Plant Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Soil Science
In Baltic TRANSCOAST we study the physical, biogeochemical, and biological processes at the land-ocean interface. The coastal zone is heavily impacted by various human activities as well as by geomorphological and climatic processes – on both the land and the sea side. Land-sea interactions at low lying coastal areas that are often dominated by peatlands, and are a common feature along the Baltic [...]
Global coastal wetland expansion under accelerated sea-level rise is unlikely
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Schuerch et al. (2018) [1] deserve credit for compiling a wide range of disparate, global datasets that will be instrumental in predicting future coastal wetland change. However, we challenge their projections that range from modest losses to substantial gains worldwide by the end of this century. Their modeling does not adequately capture the role of sediment supply which must be treated [...]
The moment duration scaling relation for slow rupture arises from transient rupture speeds
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The relation between seismic moment and earthquake duration for slow rupture follows a different power law exponent than sub-shear rupture. The origin of this difference in exponents remains unclear. Here, we introduce a minimal one-dimensional Burridge-Knopoff model which contains slow, sub-shear and super-shear rupture, and demonstrate that different power law exponents occur because the [...]
Assessing Climate Model Projections of Anthropogenic Warming Patterns
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Projections of future anthropogenic climate change and their uncertainties are determined by analyzing large ensembles of numerical climate models. Since the late 1980s, transient climate models have projected a pronounced global warming, with relatively high warming in the Arctic and over land and low warming over the Southern Ocean. In general, confidence in climate model projections is based [...]
Terrane boundary reactivation, barriers to lateral fault propagation and reactivated fabrics - Rifting across the Median Batholith Zone, Great South Basin, New Zealand
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Prominent structural heterogeneities within the lithosphere may localise or partition strain and deformation during tectonic events. The NE-trending Great South Basin, offshore New Zealand, formed perpendicular to a series of underlying crustal terranes, including the dominantly granitic Median Batholith Zone, which along with boundaries between individual terranes, exert a strong control on rift [...]
Southern Ocean Phytoplankton Blooms Observed by Biogeochemical Floats
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The spring bloom in the Southern Ocean is the rapid-growth phase of the seasonal cycle in phytoplankton. Many previous studies have characterized the spring bloom using chlorophyll estimates from satellite ocean color observations. Assumptions regarding the chlorophyll-to-carbon ratio within phytoplankton and vertical structure of biogeochemical variables lead to uncertainty in satellite-based [...]
Heat distribution in the Southeast Pacific is only weakly sensitive to high-latitude heat flux and wind stress
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Southern Ocean features regionally-varying ventilation pathways that transport heat and carbon from the surface ocean to the interior thermocline on timescales of decades to centuries, but the factors that control the distribution of heat along these pathways are not well understood. In this study, we use a global ocean state estimate (ECCOv4) to (1) define the recently ventilated interior [...]
The sensitivity of Southeast Pacific heat distribution to local and remote changes in ocean properties
Published: 2019-07-16
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Southern Ocean features ventilation pathways that transport surface waters into the subsurface thermocline on timescales of decades to centuries, sequestering anomalies of heat and carbon away from the atmosphere and thereby regulating the rate of surface warming. Despite its importance for climate sensitivity, the factors that control the distribution of heat along these pathways are not [...]
Influence of fault roughness on surface displacement: from numerical simulations to coseismic slip distributions
Published: 2019-07-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Field studies characterized early on natural faults as rough, i.e. non-planar at all scales. Fault roughness induces local stress perturbations, which dramatically affect rupture behavior, resulting in slip heterogeneity. The relation between fault roughness and produced slip remains, however, a key knowledge gap in current numerical and field studies. In this study, we analyze numerical [...]