Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Multi-Agent Geophysical AI Workflow for Automated Reservoir Characterization
Published: 2025-11-06
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computational Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology
Traditional geophysical workflows like reservoir characterization are driven in a collaborative manner where teams of geoscientists share their individual analyses to inform key decisions made by executives. However, these workflows are repetitive, time-consuming, prone to human error, and introduce subjective bias. While researchers have used automation to address these limitations via deep [...]
Relict landscapes and fluvial landforms: Catastrophic outflow following a major Late Messinian base-level fall
Published: 2025-11-06
Subjects: Analysis, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Mathematics, Physics, Stratigraphy
During the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), the entire Mediterranean basin experienced deep canyon incision along its margins as the result of sea-level variations and rapidly increasing salinity. Yet, the processes and water sources capable of generating such dramatic incision have never been quantitatively demonstrated. Using high-resolution 3-D seismic reflection data and paleo-stream network [...]
Effect of chemical disequilibrium during metal-silicate partitioning on the thermal state of the early core and implications on the dynamics of metal/silicate segregation
Published: 2025-11-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology
In this study, we improved a previously published numerical model linking the core composition to the core temperature during accretion by introducing some amount of chemical disequilibrium during the segregation of the core in the magma ocean phase. At the minimum equilibrium rate in metal and silicate phases, the final temperature of the core by $\sim$ 250 K compared to the fully equilibrated [...]
Modelling the transport and dispersion of volcanic co-PDC ash clouds using NAME: an evaluation of source geometry and mass eruption rate
Published: 2025-11-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are gravity currents that frequently form during explosive volcanic eruptions. These ground-hugging density currents consist of high-temperature mixtures of pyroclasts (e.g., ash, pumice), lithics, and gas. They have the potential to generate co-PDC plumes, which detach from the underlying PDC as they buoyantly rise into the atmosphere. Co-PDC plumes, composed [...]
Bending the Sierra Madre Oriental: A Paleocene Orocline
Published: 2025-11-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
The Sierra Madre Oriental belt of the Mexican thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belt, which formed during the Late Cretaceous due to the subduction of the Farallon Plate beneath North America, exhibits a pronounced curvature of approximately 100°, concave to the southwest. A recent paleomagnetic study in Jurassic rocks has classified the curvature of the Sierra Madre Oriental as an orocline. However, [...]
Arctic Plastification: Climate-driven amplification of plastic pollution through accumulation and fragmentation
Published: 2025-10-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Rapid warming of the Arctic, known as Arctic Amplification, is reshaping ice, ocean, and coastal systems in ways that alter how plastic pollution accumulates and transforms in the region. As global plastic emissions continue to rise, more debris is transported northward by rivers and ocean currents. At the same time, the loss of sea ice, coastal erosion, and the formation of new shorelines are [...]
Emerging Remote Sensing Tools for Comprehensive Cryosphere Assessment
Published: 2025-10-27
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This review synthesizes current remote sensing (RS) applications for monitoring Earth's cryosphere, encompassing ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, snow cover, permafrost, and mountain ice features. It examines how satellite-based technologies, including radar interferometry, laser altimetry, passive microwave sensors, and optical imagery, have revolutionized cryospheric science by enabling [...]
A Static Enthalpy Equilibrium Approach to the Stability of Saturated Sands (Version 2)
Published: 2025-10-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
This preprint presents a physical formulaton for the stability of saturated granular systems based on a static enthalpy equilibrium. The approach definnes equilibrium as the balance between the gravitationel potential of the granular framework and the hydraulic work of the pore water. From this energetic condition, the limit state and the transition between stable, metastable, and liquefied [...]
Global presence and absence of ultra-low velocity zones as seen by Sdiff postcursors
Published: 2025-10-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
The core-mantle boundary is a region of significant lateral heterogeneity. Two antipodal large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs) dominate the lower mantle, while smaller but more extreme ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZs) pepper the lowermost mantle in a variety of morphologies. These ULVZs have been linked to both the edges of LLVPs and to plume-related hotspots, the latter of which may plausibly be [...]
Global Alpine Treeline Elevational Transects
Published: 2025-10-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Forest Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The Alpine Treeline Ecotone (ATE) is an important ecological transition zone at the juncture of montane forests and alpine tundra. It serves as a crucial habitat for diverse species and a sensitive indicator of climate change. Consistent characterization of the elevational gradients of ATE is challenging due to complex topography and data limitations. This study introduces a comprehensive [...]
Dead Sea Warming and the Origin of Salt Giants
Published: 2025-10-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Episodically, vast seas on Earth partly dried out, leaving deposits called “salt giants”. Recently, in addition to well-documented accelerated level decline and salt precipitation, the Dead Sea has suffered severe warming. The mechanisms underlying this warming and the formation of salt giants remain unresolved. Here we propose a physical model of hypersaline waterbodies that reproduces Dead Sea [...]
Assessing Volcanic Hazards and Financial Exposure: A Closer Look at Insurance Industry Preparedness
Published: 2025-10-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Volcanology
Within the insurance and reinsurance sectors, volcanoes and their secondary impacts are often an overlooked risk due to the long return periods associated with large explosive eruptions, and relatively low economic and insured losses from eruption events compared to other natural hazards such as large magnitude earthquakes. However, with continued population growth, globalisation and climate [...]
A Computer Vision Framework for Estimating Surface Habitability from Mars Using Convolutional Analysis
Published: 2025-10-22
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biology, Earth Sciences, Other Planetary Sciences, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geomorphology, Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sedimentology, Statistical Methodology, Theory and Algorithms
Identifying signs of life in extraterrestrial environments is one of the growing challenges in planetary science. Conventional approaches of detecting habitability rely heavily on direct contact with biosignatures or geological analyses, but limited data and mission costs hold back such methods. This work introduces a computer vision-based pipeline that analyzes planetary surface images to [...]
First documented record of the ammonite Turrilites costatus LAMARCK, 1801 from the Cenomanian of northern Saudi Arabia: Implications for Arabian Plate paleogeography
Published: 2025-10-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study presents the first documented occurrence of the heteromorph ammonite genus Turrilites LAMARCK, 1801, from the Cretaceous strata of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A dense, in-situ fossil assemblage, dominated by numerous specimens identified as Turrilites costatus LAMARCK, 1801, was discovered in an outcrop of the Aruma Formation located 9.5 km south of the city of Ar’ar in northern Saudi [...]
Sustainable Groundwater Decisions: Hydro-Economic Model Applications to Irrigation in Contrasting Environmental Conditions
Published: 2025-10-16
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Groundwater is important for global agriculture but increasing populations and rising food demand are placing significant pressure on its sustainable use for irrigation. Effective, financially viable irrigation management strategies are urgently needed. This study applies a farm-level hydro-economic model to two contrasting sites: the High Plains Aquifer (HPA), a deep, overexploited, unconfined [...]