Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
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: 2025-10-24
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: 2025-10-23
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: 2025-10-23
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 [...]
Radiogenic Sr-Nd-Pb isotope behavior in different grain-sized fine lithic materials during basalt weathering
Published: 2025-10-15
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Radiogenic isotopes are widely used as sediment provenance tracers; however, their weathering response has not been fully established. This study investigates the weathering sensitivity of Sr-Nd-Pb isotopes in fine lithic fractions (FLF; grain size <2 μm, <5 μm, and <20 μm) capable of long-range transport. Geochemical and isotope compositions have been measured in the physicochemically [...]
Glacier processes from seismic recordings on Sørsdal Glacier, East Antarctica
Published: 2025-10-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A catalogue of seismic events is produced and analysed for Sørsdal Glacier, East Antarctica. Recordings were made using an irregular array of three broadband and eight short-period seismometers, with approximately 3 km aperture, deployed slightly upstream of the expected grounding line during the 2017-18 austral summer. The broadband sensors were used to construct the event catalogue, and the [...]
A Collaborative Assessment of Coastal Ocean Acidification Monitoring in Maine & Standard Operating Procedures and Best Practices for the Collection of Continuous pH Data in Coastal Marine Environments
Published: 2025-10-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
The ‘Sensor Squad’ of the Maine Ocean Climate Collaborative is the product of a 2023 Maine Coastal and Marine Climate Action Fund grant to conduct “A two-year pilot project designed to address and overcome technological barriers to ocean acidification data collection, develop protocols to elevate quality assurance and ensure comparable data, and meet regularly to discuss project results and data [...]
A new chronostratigraphic anchor for the early Cambrian: Integrating δ¹³C chemostratigraphy and Bayesian astrochronology in West Gondwana (Anti-Atlas, Morocco)
Published: 2025-10-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The early Cambrian represents a critical interval in Earth’s history characterized by rapid biological innovation and significant perturbations in global carbon cycling. However, a comprehensive understanding of the processes at play and their spatial and temporal relationships is hindered by fossil provincialism, diachronous bioevents, and inadequate high-precision geochronology. The Tiout [...]
Eocene lacustrine–volcaniclastic deposits at Aliabad (Central Iran): A possible Proto-basin of the Oligo-Miocene Qom Formation
Published: 2025-10-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Volcanology
Central Iran hosts intricate Cenozoic successions where the Oligo‑Miocene Qom Formation forms a major hydrocarbon reservoir. The stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental relationship of the Eocene Aliabad deposits to this formation has been controversial. This study integrates stratigraphic logging, petrography, geochemistry (XRD/XRF), and ichnology on 46 thin sections from Aliabad and 157 [...]