Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The fate of bars in braided rivers
Published: 2024-05-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Ancient river deposits are important archives of past landscape conditions on planetary surfaces. On Earth, they host valuable groundwater, energy resources, and carbon-storage potential. Reconstructing details of paleochannel forms and movements refines our understanding of the controls on river behavior under different climate, landcover, and tectonic conditions, and improves predictions and [...]
Fiber optic sensing for volcano monitoring and imaging volcanic processes
Published: 2024-05-03
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This chapter describes fiber optic sensing methodologies and their applications for understanding volcanic structure and processes. We assess their benefits for volcano monitoring and offer possible solutions to address their challenges. The physical principles at the basis of fiber optic sensing technologies have been known for several decades. These principles are related to various processes [...]
CO2 sensitivity studies under laboratory and outdoor conditions as contribution to climate change discussions
Published: 2024-05-02
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The EU considers climate change as an existential threat and wants to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and down to 0% by 2050 within the "EU Green Deal" and economic growth should be decoupled from the use of energy resources. It therefore sees fighting climate change as one of the most important targets1. There is considerable dis-consensus about growing CO2 levels in [...]
The potential of terrestrial and aquatic molluscs for the temporal analysis of Deckenschotter deposits and younger Quaternary sediments from the Swiss Plateau
Published: 2024-05-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
GeoAI and the Future of Spatial Analytics
Published: 2024-05-01
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Library and Information Science, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
This chapter discusses the challenges of traditional spatial analytical methods in their limited capacity to handle big and messy data, as well as mining unknown or latent patterns. It then introduces a new form of spatial analytics – geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) - and describes the advantages of this new strategy in big data analytics and data-driven discovery. Finally, a [...]
Is Net Zero Necessary? Meeting the Paris Agreement Temperature Target with 39% Global Emissions Reductions by the 2070s
Published: 2024-04-30
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Global Carbon Project (GCP) data shows that natural processes have been sequestering atmospheric CO2 on a yearly basis in proportion to how much the atmospheric CO2 concentration has risen above pre-Industrial levels, the so-called CO2 “sink rate”. Here it is argued that the future trajectory of the sink rate has not been adequately addressed, which has led to overestimation of future atmospheric [...]
The linked complexity of coseismic and postseismic faulting revealed by seismo-geodetic dynamic inversion of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake
Published: 2024-04-26
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Several regularly recurring moderate-size earthquakes motivated dense instrumentation of the Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault, providing an invaluable near-fault observatory. We present a seismo-geodetic dynamic inversion of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake, which illuminates the interlinked complexity of faulting across time scales. Using fast-velocity-weakening rate-and-state friction, [...]
A Review of the Migration of Hydrogen from the Planetary to Basin Scale
Published: 2024-04-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The occurrence of natural hydrogen and its sources have been reviewed extensively in the literature over the last few years, with current research across both academia and industry focused on assessing the feasibility of utilising natural hydrogen as an energy resource. However, gaps remain in our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the large-scale transport of hydrogen and migration [...]
Quantifying water availability in basins holding the majority of global lithium resources
Published: 2024-04-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
More than half the world’s lithium resources are found in brine aquifers in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Lithium brine processing requires freshwater, so as lithium exploration increases, accurate estimates of freshwater availability are critical for water management decisions in this region with limited water resources. Here we calculate modern freshwater inflows, such as groundwater recharge [...]
The application of MEMS seismometers to regional-scale passive seismology: a case study of the Sercel WiNG nodes.
Published: 2024-04-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Micro ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers have become increasingly common in geophysical studies. Despite this, no work has been done to assess the suitability of an array of MEMS sensors to low-frequency, regional-scale passive seismic studies. Consequently, a month’s-long deployment of twenty MEMS-based Sercel WING nodes, two Güralp CMG-ESPCDS and one 4.5 Hz geophone-Reftek system [...]
Dynamics of Aggregates and Sinking Carbon Fluxes in a Turbulent Ocean
Published: 2024-04-23
Subjects: Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The ocean's biological pump, a critical component of the Earth's carbon cycle, transports organic matter from the surface ocean to depth, which is dominated by the sinking particles, often in the form of large (>1 mm) marine snow aggregates. Controls on carbon export are thought to be driven solely by ecological processes that produce and repackage sinking particles. Here, we present [...]
Simulated sea surface temperatures around New Zealand from 1982-2015 compared to three ground truth datasets
Published: 2024-04-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In this brief note, I show the extent of global warming, as exemplified by sea surface temperature - SST - around New Zealand from 1982-2015. We use 16 members of the UKESM historical simulations from the sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change. These model data are compared to ground truth data from three observational datasets. All data is plotted with respect [...]
Sill propagation and climbing in layered crystalline host-rocks: Examples from saucer-shaped sills of the Faroe Islands
Published: 2024-04-19
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mafic sills/dolerites, commonly occurring in layered sedimentary and crystalline settings worldwide, may occur as sub-lateral sheets or as saucer-shaped bodies. Values and distributions of Young’s Modulus within their ambient host-rocks determine their mode of emplacement. Current models on development of saucer-shaped sills depict either melt propagation from single sources along [...]
Degree of sector zoning in clinopyroxene records dynamic magma recharge and ascent
Published: 2024-04-19
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A model of elastic softening and second order phase transitions in anisotropic phases, with application to stishovite and post-stishovite
Published: 2024-04-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper presents a Landau framework for describing instantaneous and time-dependent elastic softening in anisotropic solid solutions. As with previous Landau models, the framework minimizes a thermodynamic potential by varying isochemical parameters (q) that describe changes in structural, ordering or electronic spin state. Unlike previous models, no coupling terms are used; strain is not a [...]