Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Do surface lateral flows matter for data assimilation of soil moisture observations into hyperresolution land models?
Published: 2018-10-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Hyperresolution land modeling is expected to innovate the simulation of terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycles. One of the major advantages of existing hyperresolution land models against conventional 1-demensional land surface models is that surface and subsurface lateral water flows can be explicitly simulated. Despite a lot of efforts on assimilating hydrological observations into the [...]
Volcanic-plutonic parity and the differentiation of the continental crust
Published: 2018-10-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
The continental crust is central to the biological and geological history of Earth. However, crustal heterogeneity has prevented a thorough geochemical comparison of its primary igneous building blocks – volcanic and plutonic rocks – and the processes by which they differentiate to felsic compositions. Our analysis of a comprehensive global dataset of volcanic and plutonic whole-rock geochemistry [...]
Statistical geochemistry reveals disruption in secular lithospheric evolution about 2.5 Gyr ago
Published: 2018-10-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Secular cooling of the Earth is required by surface heat loss and declining radiogenic heat production over the last 4.5 billion years. Igneous geochemistry has been used to understand how changing heat flux influenced Archean geodynamics, but records of systematic geochemical evolution are complicated by heterogeneity of the rock record and uncertainties regarding selection and preservation [...]
A stochastic sampling approach to zircon eruption age interpretation
Published: 2018-10-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
The accessory mineral zircon is widely used to constrain the timing of igneous processes such as magma crystallization or eruption. However, zircon U-Pb ages record zircon crystallization, which is not an instantaneous process. Zircon saturation calculations link zircon crystallization, temperature, and melt fraction, allowing for the estimation of zircon crystallization distributions as a [...]
Plate tectonics and continental basaltic geochemistry throughout Earth history
Published: 2018-10-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Basaltic magmas constitute the primary mass flux from Earths mantle to its crust, carrying information about the conditions of mantle melting through which they were generated. As such, changes in the average basaltic geochemistry through time reflect changes in underlying parameters such as mantle potential temperature and the geodynamic setting of mantle melting. However, sampling bias, [...]
Temporal variation in relative zircon abundance throughout Earth history
Published: 2018-10-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Zircon is the preeminent chronometer of deep time on Earth, informing models of crustal growth and providing our only direct window into the Hadean Eon. However, the quantity of zircon crystallised per unit mass of magma is highly variable, complicating interpretation of the terrestrial zircon record. Here we combine zircon saturation simulations with a dataset of ∼52,000 igneous whole rock [...]
The Empirical Bases for the Earth3 Model: Technical Notes on the Sustainable Development Goals and Planetary Boundaries
Published: 2018-10-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability
This technical note presents the bases for the Earth3 model system with a focus on how SDGs and Planetary Boundaries are assessed in the model. This includes data selection, sources, analysis and forecasting methods. We also present the threshold levels that have been chosen for the respective SDGs and Planetary Boundaries.
Vulnerability of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands to present-day rates of relative sea-level rise
Published: 2018-10-01
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy, Sustainability
Coastal Louisiana has lost about 5,000km2 of wetlands over the past century and concern exists whether remaining wetlands will persist while facing some of the world’s highest rates of relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Here we analyse an unprecedented data set derived from 274 rod surface-elevation table-marker horizon stations, to determine present-day surface-elevation change, vertical accretion [...]
Quantifying natural delta variability using a multiple-point geostatistics prior uncertainty model
Published: 2018-10-01
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geology, Geomorphology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Theory and Algorithms
We address the question of quantifying uncertainty associated with autogenic pattern variability in a channelized transport system by means of a modern geostatistical method. This question has considerable relevance for practical subsurface applications as well, particularly those related to uncertainty quantification relying on Bayesian approaches. Specifically, we show how the autogenic [...]
A revised chronostratigraphic framework for the Aptian of the Essaouira-Agadir Basin, a candidate type section for the NW African Atlantic Margin.
Published: 2018-09-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
The Essaouira-Agadir Basin (EAB) of Morocco contains the most extensive exposure of Aptian to Lower Albian strata onshore the NW African Atlantic Margin. This paper documents the first high-resolution, multi-disciplinary stratigraphic approach for the Aptian to Lower Albian on the NW African Atlantic Margin. Previous biostratigraphic work almost exclusively relied on long-distance correlation of [...]
Learning about climate change uncertainty enables flexible water infrastructure planning
Published: 2018-09-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Climate, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability, Water Resource Management
Water resources planning requires making decisions about infrastructure development under substantial uncertainty in future regional climate conditions. However, uncertainty in climate change projections will evolve over the 100-year lifetime of a dam as new climate observations become available. Flexible strategies in which infrastructure is proactively designed to be changed in the future have [...]
Segregation of bare and protonated Mg vacancies to dislocation cores in MgO
Published: 2018-09-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Water can be incorporated into the lattice of mantle minerals in the form of protons charge-balanced by the creation of cation vacancies. These protonated vacancies, when they interact with dislocations, increase strain rates by enhancing dislocation climb and, potentially, by reducing the Peierls barrier to glide. We use atomic scale simulations to investigate segregation of Mg vacancies to [...]
Atomistic simulations of Mg vacancy segregation to dislocation cores in forsterite
Published: 2018-09-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Interactions between dislocations in olivine and extrinsic cation vacancies created under hydrous or oxidizing conditions may influence the rheology of the Earths upper mantle. In this study, we use atomic-scale simulations to calculate segregation energies for bare and protonated Mg vacancies to M1 and M2 sites in the core regions of [100](010) and [001](010) edge dislocations, and [100] and [...]
High-temperature shear zone formation in Carrara marble: The effect of loading conditions
Published: 2018-09-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Rock deformation at depths in the Earth’s crust is often localized in high temperature shear zones occurring at different scales in a variety of lithologies. The presence of material heterogeneities is known to trigger shear zone development, but the mechanisms controlling initiation and evolution of localization are not fully understood. To investigate the effect of loading conditions on shear [...]
Pleistocene-Holocene tectonic reconstruction of the Ballık travertine (Denizli Graben, SW Turkey): (De)formation of large travertine geobodies at intersecting grabens
Published: 2018-09-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Travertine geobodies have been identified as potential reservoir analogues to carbonate build-ups in pre-salt hydrocarbon systems. To investigate travertine geobody deformation, faults were mapped in 35 travertine quarries that excavate the Ballık travertine, i.e. a c. 12.5 km2 large travertine geobody that precipitated at the intersection of the NE margin of the Denizli Basin and neighbouring [...]