Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Taphonomic Controls on a Multi-Element Skeletal Fossil Record
Published: 2024-08-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Animals with multi-element skeletons, including the vertebrates, echinoderms, and arthropods, are some of the most biodiverse and ecologically important animal groups. Understanding the relative impact of the myriad geological and biological factors which impact on the quality of multi-element skeletal fossils is thus crucial for disentangling perceived changes in biodiversity through time and [...]
Deforestation – a call for consistent carbon accounting
Published: 2024-08-01
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Carbon accounting conventions treat emissions differently depending on their source. Fossil fuel carbon emissions are assessed as gross, whereas anthropogenic land carbon emissions are assessed as net. Despite calls for consistent gross accounting, accounting guidelines remain unchanged. Here we consolidate arguments for consistent accounting and explore implications for national inventories, [...]
A Systematic Review of Neural Network Applications for Groundwater Level Prediction
Published: 2024-07-30
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Physical models have long been employed for groundwater level (GWL) prediction. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI), particularly neural networks (NNs), have gained widespread use in forecasting GWL. Forecasting of GWL is essential to enable analyze, quantify and manage groundwater. This systematic review investigates the application of NNs for GWL prediction, focusing on the architectures of [...]
Analyzing Sedimentary Rocks to Determine Hydrodynamic Conditions of Anambra Basin, South-Eastern Nigeria.
Published: 2024-07-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Anambra Basin, situated in southeastern Nigeria, stands out as a significant sedimentary basin characterized by its intricate and multifaceted geological history. This complexity arises from a combination of marine, fluvial, and deltaic processes that have shaped the basin over geological time. Our study is dedicated to examining the sedimentary rock formations within this basin, with a [...]
The first seismo-volcanological observatory on Montserrat
Published: 2024-07-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The first seismo-volcanological observatory in the anglophone Caribbean was established on Montserrat in 1936, in response to a volcano-seismic crisis that began in in 1933. Staff at Montserrat’s agricultural office began routinely observing earthquake shocks in 1934. In 1936, following a scientific expedition dispatched by the Royal Society, an observatory was established at the Grove Botanical [...]
Signal and noise in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26°N
Published: 2024-07-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is key to the redistribution of heat in the climate system. It is projected to weaken due to climate change. The RAPID mooring array observes the strength of the AMOC, showing an overall weakening of 1.0 Sv/decade from 2004–2023. However, the significance of this trend is controversial. Here we consider the RAPID observations in a [...]
Tomotectonics of Cordilleran North America since Jurassic times: double-sided subduction, archipelago collisions, and Baja-BC translation
Published: 2024-07-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Tomotectonics hindcasts paleo-trenches, through the spatiotemporal superposition of subducted lithosphere (slabs imaged in the earth’s mantle) with plate reconstructions (constrained by seafloor isochrons). The two geophysical datasets are linked through the tomotectonic null hypothesis, that oceanic lithosphere sinks vertically down after entering in the mantle. This linkage permits simple and [...]
LATTE: Open-source, high-performance acoustic and elastic traveltime computation, tomography, and source location
Published: 2024-07-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Groundwater Exploration Methods in West Africa: A Review.
Published: 2024-07-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The focus of groundwater research has evolved, expanded, and adapted to meet the water demands of society. In recent years, discernible trends have emerged in groundwater studies, particularly in the domains of exploration and exploitation. Groundwater exploration in West Africa has predominantly been driven by demand and ease of accessing water in its hosting environment. In light of the [...]
rmacrostrat: An R package for accessing and retrieving data from the Macrostrat geological database
Published: 2024-07-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The geological record is a vast archive of information that provides the only empirical data about the evolution of the Earth. In recent years, concentrated efforts have been made to compile macrostratigraphic data into the online centralized database Macrostrat (https://macrostrat.org). Macrostrat is a global stratigraphic database containing information regarding surface and subsurface rock [...]
Relating Multi-Scale Plume Detection and Area Estimates of Methane Emissions: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
Published: 2024-07-22
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Methodologies for inferring surface emissions of atmospheric trace gases can be categorized into plume detection and area-scale estimation. Plume detections are observations of emissions from either individual or clustered point sources. Area estimates are derived from top-down atmospheric flux inversion models or bottom-up inventories, which infer mean emissions typically over spatial scales [...]
Extreme warming of Amazon waters in a changing climate
Published: 2024-07-22
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In 2023, an unprecedented drought and heatwave severely impacted Amazon waters, leading to high mortality of fishes and river dolphins. Five of 10 lakes monitored showed exceptionally high daytime temperatures (>37°C), with one large lake reaching up to 41°C in the entire ~2-m deep water column, with up to 13°C of diel variation. Modeling show that high solar radiation, reduced water depth and [...]
Landscape response will reduce glacier sensitivity to climate change in High Mountain Asia
Published: 2024-07-22
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In High Mountain Asia (HMA) climate change threatens mountain water resources as glaciers melt, and the resulting changes in runoff and water availability are hypothesised to have considerable negative impacts on ecological and human systems. Numerous assessments of the ways in which glaciers will respond to climate warming have been published over the past decade. Many have used climate model [...]
Sensitivity of modelled mass balance and runoff to representations of debris and accumulation on the Kaskawulsh Glacier, Yukon, Canada
Published: 2024-07-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Runoff contributions from glacierized catchments are changing in response to accelerating mass loss. We reconstruct the 1980-2022 mass balance, runoff and water budget of the ~70% glacierized Kaskawulsh River headwaters in Yukon, Canada, using an enhanced temperature-index model driven by downscaled and bias-corrected reanalysis data. Debris is treated using melt-scaling factors based on [...]
Ground Motion Characteristics of Subshear and Supershear Ruptures in the Presence of Sediment Layers
Published: 2024-07-19
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We investigate the impact of sediment layers on ground motion characteristics during subshear and supershear rupture growth. Our findings suggest that sediment layers may lead to local supershear propagation, affecting ground motion, especially in the fault parallel (FP) direction. In contrast to homogeneous material models, we find that in the presence of sediment layers, a larger fault normal [...]