Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Strike-slip restraining screwed fault geometry reconstructed from the 2025 Myanmar earthquake
Published: 2025-08-25
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a fault surface model of the 2025 Mw 7.7 Myanmar earthquake based on the potency density tensor inversion (PDTI) of teleseismic P-waves combined with surface reconstruction from distributed potency tensor solutions. Our source model demonstrates that the earthquake fault is twisted, varying the dip angle along strike. Inferred fault twists are prominent near fault-segment junctions, [...]
Environmental and ecological changes across the Permian–Triassic transition in Türkiye: integrating virtual outcrop models and new fieldwork data
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences
The Permian–Triassic transition is characterized by major environmental changes (e.g., hyperthermals, perturbations in carbon cycle) and the largest known mass extinction event in the Phanerozoic. However, successions with a relatively complete sedimentological and paleontological record across the Permian–Triassic are limited to a few well-known sections in Europe and South China. Here, we [...]
Modeling urban traffic heat flux in the Community Earth System Model: Formulation and validation for two sites
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Vehicular traffic is a major contributor to anthropogenic heat flux (AHF) in urban areas, amplifying urban heat island effects. However, few Earth system models explicitly represent traffic conditions and their associated heat emissions. This study introduces a new urban traffic module into the Community Earth System Model (CESM), enabling interactive simulation of traffic-related heat in urban [...]
Megadyke propagation down dynamic topography
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Magmatic dykes that align vertically and extend laterally for hundreds to thousands of kilometres are known as megadykes. Observations of solidified swarms of megadykes suggest the dykes propagate away from a common source. We hypothesize that megadyke propagation is driven by dynamic topography above a buoyant mantle plume. We develop a model describing lateral dyke propagation from a [...]
The Grand Challenges of WPI-AIMEC: Executive Summary
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Climate, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Marine Biology, Nature and Society Relations, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Remote Sensing, Sustainability
The ocean has a heat capacity 1,000 times greater than that of the atmosphere and stores 50 times more carbon comparatively, thus, constituting a major sink of anthropogenically released greenhouse gases. Warming effects of human activities on the climate system are now undeniably shown to impact marine life and ecosystems, both directly via warming of the ocean and/or indirectly altering ocean [...]
An Ice Core Snapshot of Past Atmospheric Chemistry in Mt. Everest’s 'Death Zone'
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Glaciology, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a unique atmospheric chemistry record from the highest ice core ever recovered (8020 m, South Col Glacier (SCG), Mt. Everest), that captures ~400 years of deposition during the latter half of the first millennium BCE. Due to recent glacier thinning, the upper ~2000 years of accumulation have been lost, however, this is the only ice core record ever recovered from the “Death Zone [...]
How do climate, geomorphology, and land-use control sediment yield generation in an anthropogenically modified landscape?
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology
Understanding the controls on sediment yield (SY) is essential for water resource management. However, in the Cauvery basin in India, progress is hindered by fragmented studies that lack an integrated analysis. This research quantifies sub-catchment SY using long-term gauging data and employs Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) and multiple regression (MLR) to evaluate geomorphic, climatic, [...]
Geological CO2 storage assessment in emerging CCS regions: Review of sequestration potential, policy development, and socio-economic factors in Poland
Published: 2025-08-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Emerging carbon capture and storage (CCS) markets face critical challenges in developing systematic methodologies to assess geological CO2 storage potential under conditions of limited data availability, evolving regulatory frameworks, and nascent infrastructure development. This study establishes an assessment framework designed for lower-maturity CCS regions, using Poland as a representative [...]
Quantifying the intensity of crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO): some practical considerations and recommended practices
Published: 2025-08-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs) commonly develop during the crystal-plastic deformation of rocks and minerals and are widely used to infer strain intensity and geometry, reconstruct deformation conditions, and estimate mechanical anisotropy. Numerous methods have been proposed to quantify CPO intensity as a scalar metric, but these metrics can be highly sensitive to their [...]
The Role of Tectonic Luck in Long-Term Habitability of Abiotic Earth-like Planets
Published: 2025-08-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
Carbonate-silicate weathering feedback is thought to stabilize Earth's climate on geologic timescales. If climate warms, faster mineral dissolution and increased rainfall speed up weathering, increasing CO2 drawdown and opposing the initial warming. Limits to where this feedback might operate on terrestrial exoplanets with N2-O2-CO2-H2O atmospheres are used to define the 'habitable zone'-the [...]
Best practices for the analyses of CO2 fluids by Raman Spectroscopy
Published: 2025-08-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
Raman spectroscopy is a key method for determining CO₂ densities in geological fluids, yet acquisition, calibration, and processing methodologies vary widely between laboratories. This study evaluates how these parameters affect precision and accuracy. We show that spectral non-linearity can cause a single instrument to show variable relationships between CO2 density and spectral parameters as [...]
Alaskan Glacier Depths from a Decade of Airborne Radar Sounding
Published: 2025-08-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences
NASA’s Operation IceBridge employed airborne radar sounders in Alaska and adjacent northwestern Canada between 2012-2021 to measure the thickness of the region’s glaciers. Here we present the first comprehensive analysis of these data, providing over 5,500 linear-km of ice thickness and bed elevation measurements – constituting the greatest ice thickness inventory for this region to date. Aside [...]
Analysis of geomagnetic secular variation for the last 1.5 Ma recorded by volcanic rocks of the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt: new data from Sierra de Chichinautzin, Mexico
Published: 2025-08-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
The great wealth of volcanism along the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) and the need to improve the secular variation curve of the Earth magnetic field of the region is the aim of this research. 300 oriented cores from 33 sites and 21 individual cooling units were acquired from Sierra de Chichinautzin volcanic field (ChVF) and Sierra de Santa Catarina (SSC). Directional analysis and rock [...]
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 [...]
Subsurface Lithologic Controls on Off-Fault Deformation and Multi-Fault Slip During the 2016 Mw 6.5 Norcia Earthquake Revealed by Satellite Geodesy
Published: 2025-08-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Understanding the mechanisms controlling deformation localization is crucial for our understanding of fault mechanics and improving seismic hazard assessment, but has not been extensively studied for normal-faulting earthquakes. Here, we present a thorough analysis of the 2016 Mw 6.5 Norcia, Italy, earthquake using high-resolution satellite geodesy. We investigate the degree of deformation [...]