Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The competition for salt and kinematic interactions between minibasins during density-driven subsidence: observations from numerical models
Published: 2019-03-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Stratal geometries of salt-floored minibasins provide a record of the interplay between minibasin subsidence and sedimentation. Minibasin subsidence and resulting stratal geometries are frequently interpreted by considering the minibasins in isolation and implicitly assuming that internal geometries are the result of purely vertical halokinetic processes. However, minibasins rarely form in [...]
Temporally constant Quaternary uplift rates and their relationship with extensional upper-plate faults in south Crete (Greece), constrained with 36Cl exposure dating.
Published: 2019-03-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Preserved sets of marine terraces and palaeoshorelines above subduction zones provide an opportunity to explore the long-term deformation that occurs as a result of upper-plate extension. We investigate uplifted palaeoshorelines along the South Central Crete Fault and over its western tip, located above the Hellenic Subduction Zone, in order to derive uplift rates and examine the role that known [...]
Anthropogenic activities alter drought termination
Published: 2019-03-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Despite the increasing influence of human activities on water resources in our current Anthropocene era, the impacts of these activities on the duration, rate and timing of the recovery of drought events, known as the drought termination phase, remain unknown. Here, we present the first assessment of how different human activities (i.e. water abstractions, reservoirs, water transfers) affect [...]
Direct observations of the coupling between quartz dissolution and Mg-silicate formation
Published: 2019-03-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Although quartz is a stable mineral at Earth surface conditions, field samples have shown its rapid dissolution in combination with the precipitation of Mg-silicate phases. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments were performed to investigate the dissolution of quartz and the precipitation of secondary phases in high-pH, Mg-rich solutions both in-situ and ex-situ. Experiments were conducted at [...]
Numerical wave propagation through ice-covered regions
Published: 2019-03-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In recent years, seismic station coverage in polar regions has been increasing steadily, providing new insight into the deep structure and dynamics of these remote parts of the globe. Numerical seismic wave propagation through polar regions is complicated by the presence of ice sheets. At periods relevant for regional-scale waveform tomography, the ice acts as a thin layer that, for an exact [...]
Formation of magnesium silicate hydrate cement in nature
Published: 2019-03-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Tillite lithified by magnesium silicate hydrate (M-S-H) cement has been formed at the surface of the Feragen Ultramafic Body in SE Norway. Serpentinization of olivine-rich rocks led to formation of brucite that dissolves during weathering to form a high pH (>9) Mg-rich fluid. This fluid dissolves quartz deposited by glaciers during the Weichselian glaciation. Subsequent evaporation leads to [...]
Obstructed Minibasins on a Salt-Detached Slope: An Example from above the Sigsbee Canopy, Northern Gulf of Mexico
Published: 2019-03-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Salt-detached gravity-gliding/spreading systems having a rugose base-of-salt display complex strain patterns. However, little was previously known about how welding of supra-salt minibasins to the sub-salt may influence both the downslope translation of minibasins on salt-detached slopes and the regional pattern of supra-salt strain. Using a regional 3D seismic reflection data set, we examine a [...]
Segmentation of rifts through structural inheritance: Creation of the Davis Strait
Published: 2019-03-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Mesozoic-Cenozoic rifting between Greenland and North America created the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, while leaving preserved continental lithosphere in the Davis Strait which lies between them. Inherited crustal structures from a Palaeoproterozoic collision have been hypothesized to account for the tectonic features of this rift system. However, the role of mantle lithosphere heterogeneities in [...]
Poroelastic effects destabilize mildly rate-strengthening friction to generate stable slow slip pulses
Published: 2019-03-18
Subjects: Applied Mechanics, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Mechanical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, Tribology
Slow slip events on tectonic faults, sliding instabilities that never accelerate to inertially limited ruptures or earthquakes, are one of the most enigmatic phenomena in frictional sliding. While observations of slow slip events continue to mount, a plausible mechanism that permits instability while simultaneously limiting slip speed remains elusive. Rate-and-state friction has been successful [...]
Beneficial land use change: Strategic expansion of new biomass plantations can reduce environmental impacts from EU agriculture
Published: 2019-03-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Society faces the double challenge of increasing biomass production to meet the future demands for food, materials and bioenergy, while addressing negative impacts of current (and future) land use. In the discourse, land use change (LUC) has often been considered as negative, referring to impacts of deforestation and expansion of biomass plantations. However, strategic establishment of suitable [...]
Equifinality and preservation potential of complex eskers
Published: 2019-03-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Eskers are useful for reconstructing meltwater drainage systems of glaciers and ice sheets. However, our process understanding of eskers suffers from a disconnect between sporadic detailed morpho-sedimentary investigations of abundant large-scale ancient esker systems, and a small number of modern analogues where esker formation has been observed. This paper presents the results of detailed field [...]
The Dynamics of Elongated Earthquake Ruptures
Published: 2019-03-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The largest earthquakes propagate laterally after saturating the fault’s seismogenic width and reach large length-to-width ratios L/W. Smaller earthquakes can also develop elongated ruptures due to confinement by heterogeneities of initial stresses or material properties. The energetics of such elongated ruptures is radically different from that of conventional circular crack models: they feature [...]
Early exhumation of the Frontal Cordillera (Southern Central Andes) and implications for Andean mountain-building at ~33.5°S
Published: 2019-03-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The Andes are the modern active example of a Cordilleran-type orogen, with mountain-building and crustal thickening within the upper plate of a subduction zone. Despite numerous studies of this emblematic mountain range, several primary traits of this orogeny remain unresolved or poorly documented. The onset of uplift and deformation of the Frontal Cordillera basement culmination of the Southern [...]
Half the worlds population already experiences years 1.5°C warmer than preindustrial
Published: 2019-03-12
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 °C above preindustrial. A natural question for the public to ask is “But how much warmer than preindustrial is where I live?” We develop a pattern-scaling technique to present local annually-resolved, gridded temperature anomalies prior to the industrial burning of fossil fuels. On average the past 5 years, [...]
Average daily flow of microplastics through a tertiary wastewater treatment plant over a ten-month period
Published: 2019-03-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Microplastics (MPs, <5 mm in size) are classified as emerging contaminants but treatment processes are not designed to remove these small particles. Wastewater treatment systems have been proposed as pathways for MPs pollution to receiving waters but quantitative and qualitative data on MP occurrence and transport remains limited, hindering risk assessment and regulation. Here, for the first [...]