Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
DARTS: Multi-year database of AI-detected retrogressive thaw slumps in the circum-arctic permafrost region
Published: 2024-10-20
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Retrogressive Thaw Slumps (RTS) and Active Layer Detachment Slides (ALD) are widespread thermal mass-wasting hillslope failures triggered by thawing permafrost. Despite increasing rates of these failures, knowledge about their pan-arctic spatial and temporal distribution remains limited. We present the Database of AI-detected Arctic RTS and ALD footprints (DARTS), the largest hillslope [...]
deeptime: an R package that facilitates highly customizable and reproducible visualizations of data over geological time intervals
Published: 2024-10-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Stratigraphy
Data visualization is a key component of any scientific data analysis workflow and is vital for the summarization and dissemination of complex ideas and results. One common hurdle across the Geosciences and other scientific fields remains the reproducibility of many types of visualizations of data over long time intervals (104+ years). Here I introduce the R package deeptime, which provides [...]
Phanerozoic thermochronology record of Afro-Arabia through space and time
Published: 2024-10-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Low-temperature thermochronology has been widely used in eastern Africa and Arabia (Afro-Arabia) to investigate the long-term thermal evolution of the crust in response to Phanerozoic tectonism. Yet, utilisation of this invaluable thermochronology record to inform numerical investigations into the long-term tectonothermal, geodynamic and landscape evolution of the region has been limited by the [...]
Inferring Long-Term Tectonic Uplift Patterns from Bayesian Inversion of Fluvially-Incised Landscapes
Published: 2024-10-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Earth surface processes encode the combined forcing of tectonics and climate in topography. Separating their contributions is essential for using landscapes as quantitative records of crustal deformation. Here, we develop a method for inverting spatially-variable fields of long-term rock uplift and rock erodibility from fluvially-incised landscapes, while accounting for climatic variability. Our [...]
Tracking glacier surge evolution using interferometric SAR coherence — examples from Svalbard
Published: 2024-10-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a practically simple methodology for tracking glacier surge onset and evolution using interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) coherence. Detecting surges early and monitoring their build-up is interesting for a multitude of scientific and safety-related aspects. We show that InSAR coherence maps allow the detection of surge-related instability on Svalbard many years before [...]
Single-station vehicle tracking using six-component seismic measurements: A comparative study with array-based methods
Published: 2024-10-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Determining the direction of seismic waves is crucial for many applications, from monitoring natural hazards like avalanches and landslides to detecting nuclear explosions and conducting surveillance. Traditional methods rely on arrays of seismic sensors arranged in specific patterns, but deploying these arrays can be challenging or impossible in many environments, such as cities, ocean floors, [...]
Unlocking DAS amplitude information through coherency coupling quantification
Published: 2024-10-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) allows one to measure strain at metre-resolution along a fibreoptic cable, increasing spatial sampling of a seismic wavefield compared to conventional instrumentation. However, the challenge of measuring DAS-derived strain amplitude currently limits applications of this technology. Absolute amplitude measurements are required for estimating earthquake [...]
The link between water and ferric iron in Earth's lower mantle
Published: 2024-10-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Mineral Physics
As the most massive geochemical reservoir, the lower mantle affects Earth's budget of volatile elements, including hydrogen or H2O. The properties of minerals in Earth's lower mantle are further affected by changes in the electronic configurations of iron cations, i.e., spin transitions. Potential feedback between deep H2O retention and spin transitions in mantle minerals, however, remain [...]
Interseismic deformation fingerprints on the hyperarid coastal landscape in North Chilean subduction
Published: 2024-10-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
Along-strike seismotectonic behavior of subduction megathrusts feeds back into the forearc deformation as elastic and permanent deformation. However, whether and how short-term elastic deformation reflects long-term permanent deformation in the forearc and shapes the coastal region remains unclear. To evaluate the forearc deformation, we analyze the interseismic surface deformation obtained from [...]
Advancing vegetation monitoring with virtual laser scanning of dynamic scenes (VLS-4D): Opportunities, implementations and future perspectives
Published: 2024-10-07
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Physical and Environmental Geography, Remote Sensing
Virtual Laser Scanning (VLS) is an established and valuable research tool in forestry and ecology, widely used to simulate labelled LiDAR point cloud data for sensitivity analysis, model training and method testing. In VLS, vegetation has traditionally been modelled as static, neglecting the influence of vegetation dynamics on LiDAR point cloud representations and limiting applications to [...]
How can Light Pollution over the City of Mumbai be Assessed and Reversed?
Published: 2024-10-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physics
Light pollution, which adversely affects entire ecosystems, is a lesser-known but completely reversible form of pollution. The financial capital of India, Mumbai has been experiencing a steady rise in light pollution levels. This research article aims to answer the question “How can light pollution over the city of Mumbai be assessed and reversed?” It uses satellite data to map radiance levels [...]
Questioning Dark Oxygen Production in the Deep-sea Ferromanganese Nodule Field
Published: 2024-10-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Oceanography
Previous studies have concluded that the natural process where oxygen is consumed as decomposition of organic matter that supplied from shallow waters occurs on the deep-sea floor. Sweetman et al.1 presented the surprising observation that deep-sea ferromanganese nodules generate oxygen, which they labelled as dark oxygen production. The authors claimed that oxygen was generated through the [...]
Contrasting Land‑Uses Affect Chemical Composition of Organic Matter in Tropical Soils: A Case Study via Os Staining and FTIR
Published: 2024-10-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Soil Science
Particulate organic matter (POM) is a significant component of soil organic carbon (SOC), particularly in tropical soils, where it often serves as a primary precursor for the formation of mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM). This study investigates the impact of contrasting land-use practices on composition of POM in tropical soils. Using dual-energy X-ray microtomography approach with [...]
Imaging a buried terrane with district-scale ambient noise tomography and gravity modelling: insights for scale-reduction in mineral exploration
Published: 2024-10-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mineral exploration proceeds by a process of scale-reduction. Decisions need to be made at all stages as the physical search space becomes progressively reduced from regional through to district, camp and tenement/deposit scale. While there are many regional scale datasets available to explorers through public geoscience agencies, one of the most difficult steps to make is from the regional-scale [...]
Rapid transformation of biogenic silica to authigenic clay during reverse weathering
Published: 2024-10-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry
Formation of authigenic clay minerals during early diagenesis of marine sediments, termed “reverse weathering” (RW), is an important process for regulating ocean pH and atmospheric CO2 over geologic time scales. It is also considered a“missing sink” of the modern marine Si cycle. Although the importance of RW has been increasingly recognized, the rate and mechanisms of this process remain [...]