Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Using flood-excess volume to show that upscaling beaver dams for protection against extreme floods proves unrealistic
Published: 2018-07-10
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Other Applied Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The questions we address in the present article are the following: (i) whether (extreme) river floods can be prevented or seriously mitigated by the introduction of beavers in the wild, and (ii) for which river catchments does flood mitigation by beaver activity (not) work? By using the concept of flood-excess volume (FEV) for four rivers in the UK, in the context of five (extreme) UK flood [...]
On using flood-excess volume to assess natural flood management, exemplified for extreme 2007 and 2015 floods in Yorkshire
Published: 2018-07-10
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Other Applied Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper offers a protocol for conducting a quantified assessment of the relative merits of both existing and proposed methods of Natural Flood Management (NFM). Assessment is based on the rarely used concept of flood-excess volume (FEV), which approximately quantifies the volume of water one wishes to eliminate via flood-mitigation schemes, and is exemplified using publicly available [...]
On using flood-excess volume in flood mitigation, exemplified for the River Aire Boxing Day Flood of 2015
Published: 2018-07-10
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Other Applied Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The goals of this paper are threefold, namely to: (i) define the rarely used concept of flood-excess volume (FEV) as the flood volume above a chosen river-level threshold of flooding; (ii) show how to estimate FEV for the Boxing Day Flood of 2015 of the River Aire in the UK; and, (iii) analyse the use of FEV in evaluating a hypothetical flood-alleviation scheme (FASII+) for the River [...]
Stress change before and after the 2011 M9 Tohoku-oki earthquake
Published: 2018-07-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Megathrust systems hold important clues for our understanding of long- and short-term plate boundary dynamics, and the 2011 M9 Tohoku-oki earthquake provides a data-rich case in point. Here, we show that the F-net moment tensor catalog indicates systematic changes in crustal stress in the years leading up to the M9, due to the co-seismic effect, and for the last few years due to [...]
Digital photogrammetry of historical aerial photographs using open-source software
Published: 2018-07-07
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Programming Languages and Compilers, Software Engineering
Several collections of aerial photographs have been acquired in the Dominican Republic during the last 70 years. Although many of these sources are increasingly becoming available as scanned images, limited digital photogrammetric processing has been done, mainly because of the unaffordable prices of proprietary software licenses and the lack of clear workflows for processing historical photos. [...]
A network scale, intermediate complexity model for simulating channel evolution over years to decades
Published: 2018-07-03
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Excessive river erosion and sedimentation threatens critical infrastructure, degrades aquatic habitat, and impairs water quality. Tools for predicting the magnitude of erosion, sedimentation, and channel evolution processes are needed for effective mitigation and management. We present a new numerical model that simulates coupled river bed and bank erosion at the watershed scale. The model uses [...]
Uncertainties of sandy shoreline change projections as sea level rises
Published: 2018-07-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
Sandy shorelines are constantly evolving, threatening frequently human assets such as buildings or transport infrastructures. In these environments, sea level rise will exacerbate coastal erosion to an amount which remains uncertain. Sandy shoreline change projections inherits the uncertainties of future mean sea level changes, of vertical ground motions, and of other natural and anthropogenic [...]
Delayed Recognition of Geomorphology Papers in The Geological Society of America Bulletin
Published: 2018-07-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Geological Society of America Bulletin was an early home for quantitative geomorphology research. Though geomorphology papers are not uniformly the highest cited papers in the Bulletin, many show ‘delayed recognition’ —they garner only few citations directly after publication, before suddenly being widely and numerously cited (sometimes decades after publication). I focus here on 1) [...]
Coseismic extension recorded within the damage zone of the Vado di Ferruccio Thrust Fault, Central Apennines, Italy
Published: 2018-07-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Recent high resolution hypocentral localisation along active fault systems in the Central Apennines illuminates the activation of seismogenic volumes dipping at low angle (<30°) in extensional settings overprinting contractional deformations affecting the continental crust of the Adria microplate. Individuation of the geological structures and of the fault processes associated with these [...]
The impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation on European hydro-power generation
Published: 2018-07-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
In this paper we analyse and quantify the impact of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the daily hydropower generation in the European countries. We create a consistent dataset of hydropower generation using a machine- learning methodology, this activity is an output of the Copernicus Climate Change Service ECEM contract. The model is set up using generation data on 2015-2016, and then an [...]
The Dark Geo-Cultural Heritage of Volcanoes: Combining Cultural and Geoheritage Perspectives for Mututal Benefit
Published: 2018-06-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
It is now widely accepted that vulnerability is in part culturally and historically contingent. Similarly, geoheritage cannot be readily disentangled from cultural values and cultural heritage given that the assignment of value to a given geosite is conducted in the present and that many if not most geosites are also sites of culture-historical significance. Vice versa, most tangible cultural [...]
The slow slip of viscous faults
Published: 2018-06-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We examine a simple mechanism for the spatio-temporal evolution of transient, slow slip. We consider the problem of slip on a fault that lies within an elastic continuum and whose strength is proportional to sliding rate. This rate dependence may correspond to a viscously deforming shear zone or the linearization of a non-linear, rate-dependent fault strength. We examine the response of such a [...]
Cyclic CO2 – H2O injection and residual trapping: implications for CO2 injection efficiency and storage security
Published: 2018-06-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
To meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 2ºC or below it is widely accepted that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) will have to be deployed at scale. The influence of residual trapping on CO2 well injectivity and its response over time has a major impact on the injection efficiency and storage capacity of CO2 storage sites. For the first time, experiments have been [...]
Micromorphological report of Hof ter Coign
Published: 2018-06-28
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Education, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Geology, Life Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science
Micromorphological report of the Hof ter Coign site (Belgium)
Constructional process of relatively high-relief crescent-shaped bedforms in submarine channels by gravelly sand-laden flows: analysis of the ancient case study of the Guredin palaeo-bedforms
Published: 2018-06-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
The channel-fills of the Miocene Alikayasi submarine channel system in the south of Turkey offer an extraordinary opportunity to improve our understanding of the physical properties of gravity-driven gravelly sand-laden flows and their resulting deposits on the seafloor. This study describes and analyses a particular area of an ancient channel-fill that is interpreted as the preserved deposits of [...]