Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Quantification of the hydrological control on speleothem oxygen isotopic variability
Published: 2021-04-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Speleothems have long been regarded as state-of-the-art materials for terrestrial paleoclimate reconstruction owing to their potential for precisely dated chronologies and preservation of detailed oxygen isotopic (d18O) records that are routinely interpreted as a proxy for hydroclimate. Yet replicated speleothem d18O records from the same cave do not always agree, posing a conundrum: if these [...]
The Sediment Budget Estimator (SBE): a process-model for the stochastic estimation of fluxes and budgets of sediment through submarine channel systems.
Published: 2021-04-09
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Turbidity currents transport vast amounts of sediment through submarine channels onto deep-marine basin floor fans. There is a lack of quantitative tools for the reconstruction of the sediment budget of these systems. The aim of this paper is to construct a simple and user-friendly model that can estimate turbidity-current structure and sediment budget based on observable submarine channel [...]
Why is the Hurricane Season So Sharp?
Published: 2021-04-09
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding tropical cyclone (TC) climatology is a problem of profound societal significance and deep scientific interest. The annual cycle is the biggest radiatively-forced signal in TC variability, presenting a key test of our understanding and modeling of TC activity. TCs over the North Atlantic (NA) basin, which are usually called hurricanes, have a sharp peak in the annual cycle, with more [...]
Paleoclimate Changes in the Pacific Northwest Over the Past 36,000 Years from Clumped Isotope Measurements and Isotope-Enabled Model Analysis
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Climate, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Soil Science
Since the last glacial period, North America has experienced dramatic changes in regional climate, including the collapse of ice sheets and changes in effective precipitation. We use clumped isotopes and analysis of transient climate simulations to provide constraints on hydroclimate changes in the Pacific Northwest. The coldest soil temperatures (~10.5 ±1.°C to 14.9 ±1.2°C) occurred [...]
Orbital, the Box - An interactive educational tool for in-depth understanding of astronomical climate forcing.
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Adult and Continuing Education, Astrophysics and Astronomy, Climate, Earth Sciences, Education, Educational Methods, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Higher Education, Instructional Media Design, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, The Sun and the Solar System
“Orbital, the Box” provides an interactive tool with graphical user interface (GUI) for stimulating active, visual learning for understanding of astronomical climate forcing. This cross-platform tool can be run locally on a personal computer using a standard web browser environment with no need for plugins, thus maximising accessibility for students and teachers alike. The tool facilitates in the [...]
Near-real-time and state-level monitoring of U.S. CO2 emissions
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
As the ambition and urgency of climate mitigation efforts across the U.S. increase, annual estimates of national CO2 emissions provide only vague and outdated information about changes and progress. Using near-real-time activity data compiled from numerous sources, here we present and analyze daily, state-level estimates of fossil fuel CO2 emissions from January 2019 through December 2020. Our [...]
The concavity of submarine canyon longitudinal profiles
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Submarine canyons incise continental shelves and slopes, and are important conduits for the transport of sediment, nutrients, organic carbon and pollutants from continents to oceans. Submarine canyons bear morphological similarities to subaerial valleys, such as their longitudinal (long) profiles. Long profiles record the interaction between erosion and uplift, making their shape, or concavity, a [...]
Long-term hydrometeorological time-series analysis over the central highlands of West Papua
Published: 2021-04-06
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This article introduces an innovative data-driven approach to examining the long-term temporal rainfall patterns in the central highlands of West Papua, Indonesia. Through the utilization of wavelet transforms, we identified signs of a negative temporal correlation between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the 12-month Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI-12). Building upon this [...]
An overview of the evolving jurisdictional scope of the U.S. Clean Water Act for hydrologists
Published: 2021-04-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal mechanism by which the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of streams, lakes, and wetlands are protected in the U.S. The CWA has evolved considerably since its initial passage in 1948, including explicit expansions and contractions of jurisdictional scope through a series of legislative actions, court decisions, and agency rules. Here, we [...]
Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum
Published: 2021-03-31
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Climate changes across the last 24,000 years provide key insights into Earth system responses to external forcing. Climate model simulations and proxy data have independently allowed for study of this crucial interval; however, they have at times yielded disparate conclusions. Here, we leverage both types of information using paleoclimate data assimilation to produce the first observationally [...]
Crustal-scale listric geometry of the San Andreas Fault driven by lower crustal flow
Published: 2021-03-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The San Andreas Fault (SAF) is one of the dominant components of the transform boundary between the Pacific and the North American Plate. Although the fault is verti-cal-to sub-vertical at shallow (<10 km) depth, it variably dips at angles of ca. 40-70º to the southwest near the western Transverse Range and to the northeast in its southern seg-ment at depths of ca. 10-20 km, and thus can be [...]
Towards a morphology diagram for terrestrial carbonates: evaluating the impact of carbonate supersaturation and alginic acid in calcite precipitate morphology
Published: 2021-03-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ancient and recent terrestrial carbonate-precipitating systems are characterised by a heterogeneous array of deposits volumetrically dominated by calcite. In these environments, calcite precipitates display an extraordinary morphological diversity, from single crystal rhombohedral prisms, to blocky crystalline encrustations, or spherulitic to dendritic aggregates. Despite many decades of thorough [...]
The role of the timing of sudden stratospheric warmings for precipitation and temperature anomalies in Europe
Published: 2021-03-26
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Northern Hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex (SPV), a band of fast westerly winds over the Pole extending from approximately 10 to 50 km altitude, is a key driver of European winter weather. Extremely weak polar vortex states, so called sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs), are on average followed by dry and cold weather in Northern Europe, as well as wetter weather in Southern Europe. [...]
Glacier surges controlled by the close interplay between subglacial friction and drainage
Published: 2021-03-26
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The fast flow of glaciers and ice sheets is largely influenced by friction at the ice- bedrock interface, and our imperfect understanding of subglacial friction accounts for one of the largest uncertainties in predictions of future sea-level rise. Glacier motion ranges from slow creep to cyclic surge instabilities and devastating glacier collapse as well as continuously fast-flowing ice-streams. [...]
Titan's prevailing circulation might drive highly intermittent, yet significant sediment transport
Published: 2021-03-25
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is characterized by gigantic linear dunes and an active dust cycle. Much like on Earth, these aeolian processes are caused by the wind-driven saltation of surface grains. It is still unclear, however, how saltation on Titan can occur despite the typically weak surface winds and the potentially cohesive surface grains. Here, we explore the hypothesis that [...]