Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Engaging the Earth Science and Engineering Communities in Developing a River Morphology Information System (RIMORPHIS)
Published: 2023-06-29
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
ABSTRACT: River morphology data are critical for understanding and studying river processes and for managing rivers for multiple socio-economic uses. While such data have been acquired extensively over time, several issues hinder their use for river morphology studies such as data accessibility, variety of data formats, lack of data models for data storage, and lack of processing tools to [...]
Subseasonal Variability of U.S. Coastal Sea Level from MJO and ENSO Teleconnection Interference
Published: 2023-06-27
Subjects: Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Climate variability affects sea levels as certain climate modes can accelerate or decelerate the rising sea level trend, but subseasonal variability of coastal sea levels is under-explored. This study is the first to investigate how remote tropical forcing from the MJO and ENSO impact subseasonal U.S. coastal sea level variability. Here, composite analyses using tide gauge data from six coastal [...]
Geostationary satellite observations of extreme methane emissions from a natural gas pipeline
Published: 2023-06-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We demonstrate geostationary satellite monitoring of a large methane point source with the U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) constellation. GOES provides continuous 5–10-minute coverage of the Americas at 0.5–2 km nadir pixel resolution in 16 spectral bands. We use the shortwave infrared bands to track the full evolution of an extreme methane release from the El Encino [...]
The longest-lived Pacific hotspots reveal a plume tail for the largest oceanic plateau
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Volcanic hotspots are thought to initially form by melting in an upwelling mantle plume head followed by melting of the plume tail. Plate motion then generates an age progressive volcanic track originating from a large igneous province and connecting to a presently active hotspot. However, the most voluminous large igneous province, the ~120 Ma Ontong-Java Nui Plateau (OJP-Nui) in the [...]
Beyond the First Tipping Points of Southern Hemisphere Climate
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Analysis of observations, reanalysis and model simulations, including via machine learning methods specifically designed for regime identification, have revealed changes in aspects of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) circulation and Australian climate and extremes over the last half century that point to transitions to new states. In particular, our analysis shows a dramatic shift in the [...]
A theory of stochastic fluvial landscape evolution
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
Geometries of eroding landscapes contain important information about geologic, climatic, biotic and geomorphic processes. They are also characterised by variability, which makes disentangling their origins challenging. Observations and physical models of fluvial processes, which set the pace of erosion on most continents, emphasise complexity and variability. In contrast, the spectral content of [...]
Mind the uncertainty: Global plate model choice impacts deep-time palaeobiological studies
Published: 2023-06-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Climate, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Geology, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
1. Global plate models (GPMs) aim to reconstruct the tectonic evolution of the Earth by modelling the motion of the plates and continents through time. These models enable palaeobiologists to study the past distribution of extinct organisms. However, different GPMs exist that vary in their partitioning of the Earth's surface and the modelling of continental motions. Consequently, the preferred [...]
Cohesional behaviours in volcanic material and the implications for deposit architecture.
Published: 2023-06-22
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Pyroclastic Density Currents (PDCs) are hazardous, multiphase currents of heterogeneous volcanic material and gas. Their high mobility can be partially attributed to fluidisation mechanisms. Moisture (as liquid or gas) can enter a PDC through external (e.g., interaction with bodies of water) or internal (e.g., initial eruptive activity style) processes and presence of moisture can be recorded [...]
Aeolian dust accretion outpaces erosion in the formation of Mediterranean alpine soils. New evidence from the periglacial zone of Mount Olympus, Greece
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Soil formation in Mediterranean periglacial landscapes remains poorly understood as the interplay between erosion and aeolian dust accretion in providing parent materials, and mineral weathering and pedogenesis, as dominant post depositional processes, depends on a variety of local and regional factors. Herein, we investigate the balance between erosion and aeolian dust accretion in the formation [...]
Eddy-mean flow interaction with a Multiple Scale Quasi Geostrophic model
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Parameterization of mesoscale eddies in coarse resolution ocean models are necessary to include the effect of eddies on the large-scale oceanic circulation. We propose to use a multiple-scale quasi geostrophic model to capture the eddy dynamics that develop in response to a prescribe large-scale flow. The multiple scale quasi geostrophic model consists in extending the traditional quasi [...]
Metabasic Rocks as Important Nitrogen Carriers to Forearc Depths: Implications for Deep Nitrogen Cycling
Published: 2023-06-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding deep nitrogen (N) cycling better requires investigating the delivery of N to subduction systems via various lithologies. Input to subduction zones through mafic rocks is more voluminous and massive as compared to sedimentary rocks which calls for a thorough investigation of the behavior of N in metabasic rocks. Here we estimate the delivery of N to subduction zones at fore-arc [...]
Assessing the relative importance of methane super-emitters and diffuse area sources in quantifying total emissions for oil and gas production areas in Algeria
Published: 2023-06-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Methane emissions from oil and gas production provide an important and partly mitigable contribution to anthropogenic global warming. Here, we investigate 2020 emissions from the largest gas field in Algeria, Hassi R'Mel, and the oil production dominated area of Hassi Messaoud. We first use methane data from the high-resolution (20 m) Sentinel-2 instrument to identify eleven point source [...]
Pb diffusion in magnetite: dating magnetite crystallization and the timing of remanent magnetization in banded iron formation
Published: 2023-06-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The ferrimagnetic mineral magnetite (Fe3O4) is abundant in banded iron formation (BIFs), and has the potential to provide U-Pb or Pb-Pb age information on these rocks because it incorporates small amounts of U during growth. Combined with age measurements, paleomagnetic studies of BIF magnetites may also yield insight into the history of Earth’s magnetic field and its relationship to early [...]
Water discharge and sediment flux intermittency in the fluvial Escanilla Formation, Spain: Implications for changes in stratigraphic architecture
Published: 2023-06-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Water discharge and sediment flux variations are important parameters controlling the morphodynamical behavior of rivers. Although quantitative estimates for discharge and flux variability are well constrained for modern rivers, far fewer assessments of flow and sediment flux intermittency in ancient fluvial systems from the rock record are available. In this study we explore the relationship [...]
Is there Information in Residuals: Hydrograph and Recession Flows Predictions using Deep Learning?
Published: 2023-06-16
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study examines streamflow simulations using deep learning (DL) to: (1) Understand why global DL models trained on multiple watersheds outperform local DL models trained on single watersheds, given the watershed uniqueness hypothesis and (2) Improve recession flow simulation accuracy. It introduces a novel global-local (GL) modeling strategy, where global model outputs are fed as input to a [...]