Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Assessing the Earthquake Recording Capability of an Ocean-bottom Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array in the Sanriku region, Japan
Published: 2024-03-07
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Sparse seismic instrumentation in the oceans limits our understanding of the Earth’s dynamics. The emerging technology of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), which can turn existing fiber-optic cable arrays into thousands of seismic sensors, has the potential to fill the data gap. Yet, the power of OBDAS for routine seismic monitoring has to be further explored. In this study, we investigate the [...]
Moving graphs: Predicting barchan dune migration rates from their shapes
Published: 2024-03-07
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In this study, geometric perspectives on sand dune formation and motion are summarized, introduced, and combined to predict time-averaged velocities (migration rates) of barchan dunes directly from their shapes. First, it is proposed that smaller sediment accumulations outpace larger ones due to differences in surface-to-volume ratio. This ratio is defined by a bedform’s wavelength and its [...]
Plant controls over tropical wetland nitrous oxide dynamics: a review
Published: 2024-03-07
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Tropical wetlands are an important global source of greenhouse gas emissions, including nitrous oxide, a potent and long-last greenhouse gas. Tropical wetland ecosystems can be highly heterogeneous, featuring a variety of vegetation types, from grasses through to palms and mangroves. A variety of plant-mediated processes can exert key controls over wetland plant/soil nitrogen transportation and [...]
Sediment Corrections for Distributed Acoustic Sensing
Published: 2024-03-06
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
On continental margins, sediments cause significant and spatially variable delays in seismic phase arrival times. The strong impedance contrast of the sediment-bedrock interface causes P-wave splitting that is clearly seen on Distributed Acoustic Sensing recordings of earthquakes, resulting in additional phase arrivals that must be picked separately. We introduce sediment corrections to correctly [...]
Gibraltar subduction zone is invading the Atlantic
Published: 2024-03-05
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Subduction initiation is a cornerstone of the Wilson cycle. It marks the turning point in an ocean’s lifetime, allowing its lithosphere to be recycled into the mantle. However, formation of subduction zones in Atlantic-type oceans is challenging, given it commonly involves the action of an external force, such as the slab pull from a nearby subduction zone, a far-field compression or the impact [...]
Three-dimensional mineral dendrites reveal a non-classical crystallization pathway
Published: 2024-03-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Fluid Dynamics, Geochemistry, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Manganese (Mn) dendrites are a common type of mineral dendrite that typically forms two-dimensional structures on rock surfaces. Three-dimensional (3D) Mn dendrites in rocks have rarely been reported, hence their growth implications have largely escaped attention. Here, we combine high-resolution X-ray and electron-based data with numerical modelling to give the first detailed description of [...]
Storage Efficiency and Reduced Complexity Modelling
Published: 2024-03-04
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is vital to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. Most CCS projects rely on the permanent geological storage of CO2 within deep sedimentary rock formations, but accurately constraining the capacity of these reservoirs usually involves detailed and computationally demanding reservoir modelling and simulation of the pressure evolution and [...]
MYTH-BUSTING: WAS PULAU TIGA REALLY FIRST CREATED BY A MUD VOLCANO ERUPTION IN 1897?
Published: 2024-03-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
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The problems of the Anthropocene in the Geologic Time Scale, and beyond
Published: 2024-02-29
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The formalization of the Anthropocene in the Geologic Time Scale (GTS) is a matter of debate. An assessment of the two current options, one formalizing the Anthropocene as an Epoch and the other considering the Anthropocene as an informal event in the Earth’s history that does not require formalization, are critically analyzed. The focus of the analysis is on the philosophical issues underlying [...]
Unconfined gravity current interactions with orthogonal topography: Implications for combined-flow processes and the depositional record.
Published: 2024-02-28
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Turbidity current behaviour is affected by interactions with seafloor topography. Changes in flow dynamics will depend on the physiographic configuration of the topography (orientation and gradient), and the character of the incoming flow (magnitude and rheology). A better understanding of how unconfined turbidity currents interact with topography will improve interpretations of the stratigraphic [...]
Assessing and improving the robustness of Bayesian evidential learning in one dimension for inverting TDEM data: introducing a new threshold procedure
Published: 2024-02-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding the subsurface is of prime importance for many geological and hydro-geological applications. Geophysical methods offer an economical alternative for in-vestigating the subsurface compared to costly borehole investigation methods, but geophysical results are commonly obtained through an inversion whose solution is non-unique. Deterministic inversions providing a unique solution are [...]
Tidally driven porewater exchange and diel cycles control CO2 fluxes in mangroves
Published: 2024-02-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mangrove soils are highly enriched in organic carbon. Tidal pumping drives seawater and oxygen into mangrove sediments during flood tide and releases carbon-rich porewater during ebb tides. Here, we resolve semi-diurnal (flood/ebb tides), diel (day/night) and weekly (neap/spring tides) drivers of porewater-derived CO2 fluxes in two mangroves and update global estimates of CO2 emissions. Tidal [...]
Co-constructing ‘third spaces’ for engagement between minoritized community groups and environmental scientists
Published: 2024-02-27
Subjects: Education, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The demographics of environmental and Earth scientists are not representative of the UK’s multicultural society. We sought to widen diversity through two related engaged research projects, 'Walking the Walk' and 'Landscape Stories'. This paper offers a critically reflexive account, based on the methodology of duoethnography, of how we co-constructed a ‘third space’ for these projects. We sought [...]
GLAMOUR: GLobAl building MOrphology dataset for URban hydroclimate modelling
Published: 2024-02-26
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding building morphology is crucial for accurately simulating interactions between urban structures and hydroclimate dynamics. Despite significant efforts to generate detailed global building morphology datasets, there is a lack of practical solutions using publicly accessible resources. In this work, we present GLAMOUR, a dataset derived from open-source Sentinel imagery that captures [...]
Deciphering the role of evapotranspiration in declining relative humidity trends over land
Published: 2024-02-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In recent decades, relative humidity (RH) over land has declined, driving increases in droughts and wildfires. Previous explanations attribute this trend to insufficient moisture advection from the ocean to sustain RH over land, but this ignores atmospheric moisture supplied from terrestrial evapotranspiration (E). While state-of-the-art climate models underestimate this RH trend, the reason [...]