Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Can spinodal decomposition occur during decompression-induced vesiculation of magma?
Published: 2025-08-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Volcanic eruptions are driven by decompression-induced vesiculation of supersaturated volatiles in magma. The initial phase has long been described as a process of nucleation and growth. Recently, it was proposed that spinodal decomposition—an energetically spontaneous phase separation that does not require a distinct interface—may occur during decompression. This idea has attracted attention, [...]
Mutual Gravitational Capture as a Mechanism for Planetary Growth: An Alternative Hypothesis
Published: 2025-08-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study proposes a new hypothesis for the growth of rocky planets through successive events of mutual gravitational capture followed by planetary fusion. The model suggests that collisions resulting from mutual gravitational captures within the Hill sphere occur under initial conditions of zero relative velocity, aligned velocity vectors, and relatively similar mass ratios. Under these [...]
Impact of Equatorial Wind Change on the Meridional Heat Transport in the Atlantic
Published: 2025-08-13
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ocean heat transport in the Atlantic basin is northwards at all latitudes, and is largest between the equator and 42 degN. This heat transport impacts multiple aspects of the Earth's climate, setting tropical precipitation, surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice concentration. In this paper, we attempt to understand the role of the equatorial winds in setting the meridional heat transport in [...]
Enhanced weathering and its potential connection to ocean oxygenation and eukaryotic evolution at 1.57 Ga
Published: 2025-08-12
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Chemical weathering is a critical Earth system process that regulates climate, ocean chemistry and the long-term carbon cycle. During the mid-Proterozoic (~1.8‒0.8 Ga), chemical weathering is generally considered to have been relatively muted, but this perception remains largely untested, limiting our understanding of the drivers of purported oxygenation events and coeval biological evolution. [...]
Virunga Volcanoes Supersite Biennial Report: 2017- 2019
Published: 2025-08-09
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Virunga Volcanoes is the first Supersite established on the African continent in a highly populated Multi-hazards region. This permanent Supersite was established in a critical context as little was known about the Virunga hazards sources and their dynamics, and little done as measures to evaluate, mitigate and reduce their impacts. Similarly, the active volcanoes are poorly studied and [...]
Prioritizing wildfire fuel management in California
Published: 2025-08-07
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The resources available for managing wildfire risk are insufficient and ultimately finite, while the risk of catastrophic fires is enormous and growing. Prioritization of responses is thus critical, but the basis for comparing the costs and societal benefits of alternative investments in wildfire mitigation is inadequate. Here, we assess and compare the costs of landscape-scale fuel treatment in [...]
Climate driven hydrologic nonstationarity patterns across the Contiguous United States
Published: 2025-08-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We calculated metrics of climate change, land use-land cover change, and hydrologic nonstationarity in 671 catchments across the Contiguous United States (CONUS) that are known not to have relatively little urbanization and anthropogenic land cover. Climate change is correlated with hydrologic nonstationarity in these basins. Land use-land cover change has no correlation with hydrologic [...]
Comment on "Mineral-water reactions in Earth's mantle: Predictions from Born theory and ab initio molecular dynamics" by Fowler et al. 2024 (Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 372, 111-123)
Published: 2025-08-07
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
This comment addresses discrepancies in dielectric constant calculations of water under extreme conditions ( ~10 GPa and 1000 K) between Fowler et al.'s recent study [Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 372, 111-123 (2024)] and the earlier work by Pan et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 110, 6646–6650 (2013)]. Through reproduced ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations using the CP2K code with extended [...]
Reconstructing Jezero Crater’s Paleoenvironment: Insights from Perseverance Rover and Orbital Data
Published: 2025-08-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Jezero Crater on Mars is a critical site for investigating ancient aqueous environments due to its preserved delta and lacustrine features. Reconstructing its paleoenvironmental history is essential for understanding Mars’ climate evolution and assessing its past habitability. This study integrates in-situ data from the Perseverance rover, including review for high-resolution imaging, [...]
Natural Origins of 3I/ATLAS: Why 3I/ATLAS is Not an Alien Probe
Published: 2025-08-04
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A number of scientists have talked about the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (C/2023 A3) since it was found in 2025. This is mostly because Dr. Avi Loeb thinks the object could be an alien probe because of its size, path, and chemical ambiguity. This work looks closely at Loeb's claims and gives a fresh astrogeological reason for them: Another group of scientists found that the lithified clastic [...]
Artificial Intelligence in Earth Science: A GeoAI Perspective
Published: 2025-08-03
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
GeoAI, or geospatial artificial intelligence, has transformative potential for Earth science by integrating geospatial data with artificial intelligence to enhance environmental monitoring, predictive modeling, and decision-making. This commentary, based on the Greg Leptoukh Lecture at AGU 2024, explores the evolving role of GeoAI in addressing pressing challenges—from environmental change in the [...]
Spaceborne mineral mapping reduces dust’s shortwave radiative impact uncertainty
Published: 2025-08-01
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mineral dust impacts climate through complex interactions with radiation, which remain poorly quantified due to uncertainties in the amount of light-absorbing iron oxides within dust particles. NASA’s EMIT imaging spectrometer, now delivering high-resolution soil mineralogy from the International Space Station, provides the first observational basis to address this gap at a global scale. Using [...]
Slow Slip Events in Mexico: A Historical Perspective
Published: 2025-08-01
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper introduces a historical catalogue of slow slip events (SSE) for the Mexican subduction zone. The catalogue incorporates all 25 SSEs recorded since they were discovered in 1997. The inversion of GPS data for ten SSEs in Guerrero and five in Oaxaca reveals a clear slow slip segmentation along the Middle America Trench, with slip maxima between 30 and 40 km depth in both regions. SSEs in [...]
The 1908 Tunguska event and electromagnetic phenomena
Published: 2025-07-31
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper is a continuation of a series of works, devoted to various aspects of the 1908 Tunguska event. In this paper its author would like to draw attention to the arguments about the manifestations of electromagnetic phenomena in the 1908 Tunguska event. A review is provided of some data supporting the idea about the manifestation of electromagnetic phenomena. Although there is no direct [...]
Regionally divergent drivers behind transgressions of the freshwater change planetary boundary
Published: 2025-07-31
Subjects: Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Human-driven freshwater change contributes to elevated Earth system risks. Here, we advance the understanding of drivers behind the transgression of the planetary boundary for freshwater change (PB-FW), based on historical (1901–2019) streamflow (blue water) and soil moisture (green water) simulations from a large ensemble of global hydrological models. Since the former estimate ending in 2005, [...]