Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
A theory of stochastic fluvial landscape evolution
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
Geometries of eroding landscapes contain important information about geologic, climatic, biotic and geomorphic processes. They are also characterised by variability, which makes disentangling their origins challenging. Observations and physical models of fluvial processes, which set the pace of erosion on most continents, emphasise complexity and variability. In contrast, the spectral content of [...]
Mind the uncertainty: Global plate model choice impacts deep-time palaeobiological studies
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Biodiversity, Climate, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Geology, Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
1. Global plate models (GPMs) aim to reconstruct the tectonic evolution of the Earth by modelling the motion of the plates and continents through time. These models enable palaeobiologists to study the past distribution of extinct organisms. However, different GPMs exist that vary in their partitioning of the Earth's surface and the modelling of continental motions. Consequently, the preferred [...]
Towards Understanding the Geospatial Skills of ChatGPT: Taking a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Exam
Published: 2023-06-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Higher Education, Other Geography, Science and Mathematics Education, Spatial Science
This paper examines the performance of ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM), in a geographic information systems (GIS) exam. As LLMs like ChatGPT become increasingly prevalent in various domains, including education, it is important to understand their capabilities and limitations in specialized subject areas such as GIS. Human learning of spatial concepts significantly differs from LLM training [...]
Possible Eoarchean records of the geomagnetic field preserved in the Isua Supracrustal Belt, southern west Greenland
Published: 2023-06-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences
We present paleomagnetic field tests that hint that a record of Earth’s 3.7-billion-year (Ga) old magnetic field may be preserved as a chemical remanent magnetization acquired during amphibolite-grade metamorphism in the banded iron formation from the northeastern Isua Supracrustal Belt. Multiple petrological and geochronological lines of evidence indicate that the northern most part of Isua has [...]
A framework for estimating the anthropogenic part of Antarctica’s sea level contribution in a synthetic setting
Published: 2023-06-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
The relative contributions of anthropogenic climate change and internal variability in sea level rise from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are yet to be determined. Even the way to address this question is not yet clear, since these two are linked through ice-ocean feedbacks and probed using ice sheet models with substantial uncertainty. Here we demonstrate how their relative contributions can be [...]
Water discharge and sediment flux intermittency in the fluvial Escanilla Formation, Spain: Implications for changes in stratigraphic architecture
Published: 2023-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Water discharge and sediment flux variations are important parameters controlling the morphodynamical behavior of rivers. Although quantitative estimates for discharge and flux variability are well constrained for modern rivers, far fewer assessments of flow and sediment flux intermittency in ancient fluvial systems from the rock record are available. In this study we explore the relationship [...]
Glacial Isostatic Adjustment modelling of the mid-Holocene sea-level highstand of Singapore and Southeast Asia
Published: 2023-06-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The mid-Holocene sea-level highstand refers to the development of higher-than-present relative sea levels (RSLs) in far-field regions between 7,000 and 4,000 years ago because of equatorial ocean syphoning and continental levering. The timing, magnitude and spatial variability of the highstand are uncertain and the highstand parameterization in Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) modelling is [...]
Automated detecting, segmenting and measuring of grains in images of fluvial sediments: The potential for large and precise data from specialist deep learning models and transfer learning
Published: 2023-06-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The size of sedimentary particles in rivers bears information on the sediment entrainment or deposition mechanisms and the hydraulic conditions controlling them. However, collecting such data from coarse-grained sediments is work intensive, both in the field and remotely. Therefore, attention has turned to machine learning models to improve the data acquisition. Despite their success, current [...]
Physical vulnerability curve construction and quantitative risk assessment of a typhoon-triggered debris flow via numerical simulation: A case study of Zhejiang Province, SE China
Published: 2023-06-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Typhoons are recurrent meteorological phenomena in the South-eastern coastal area of China. They often trigger debris flows and other types of slope failure which cause significant economic damage and loss of life in an area with dense population and high economic activities. Accurate prediction of Typhoon-triggered debris flows and determination of the potential risk zones are crucial for risk [...]
From space-time landslide susceptibility to landslide risk forecast
Published: 2023-06-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The literature on landslide susceptibility is rich with examples that span a large number of topics. However, the component that pertains to the extension of the susceptibility framework toward space-time modeling is largely unexplored. This statement is even more valid when looking at the landslide risk context, where hardly any scientific contribution investigates risk dynamics in space and [...]
Formation of back-arc basins by lithospheric warping: examples of the Andaman, Bismarck and Banda Sea basins
Published: 2023-06-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Back-arc basins represent an intriguing phenomenon of the lithospheric evolution. They are the places of potential subduction initiation, what makes them highly important features within the theory of plate tectonics. The circumstances of their origin and life cycle are not well understood and whether the retreat of subduction is a cause or consequence of back-arc basin development remains an [...]
Diamond open access with preregistration: a new publishing model for palaeontology
Published: 2023-06-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Paleontology
The current academic publishing model is systemically unfit for purpose. The academic publishing ecosystem is dominated by a few large for-profit publishing houses which, at every stage of the publication process, transform academic work and public resources into private profit. Although extracting substantial profits, these publishing houses themselves add little value to the final published [...]
A new OSL dose model to account for post-depositional mixing of sediments
Published: 2023-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
In applications of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to unconsolidated sediments, the burial age of a sample of grains is estimated using statistical models of the distribution of the experimentally determined equivalent doses of the grains, together with estimates of the environmental dose rate. For grains that have been vertically mixed after deposition (e.g., due to bioturbation), [...]
Automated shear-wave splitting analysis for single- and multi- layer anisotropic media
Published: 2023-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Shear-wave velocity anisotropy is present throughout the earth. The strength and orientation of anisotropy can be observed by shear-wave splitting (birefringence) accumulated between earthquake sources and receivers. Seismic deployments are getting ever larger, increasing the number of earthquakes detected and the number of source-receiver pairs. Here, we present a new software package, SWSPy, [...]
Diamond open access with preregistration: a new publishing model for palaeontology
Published: 2023-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Paleontology
The current academic publishing model is systemically unfit for purpose. The academic publishing ecosystem is dominated by a few large for-profit publishing houses which, at every stage of the publication process, transform academic work and public resources into private profit. Although extracting substantial profits, these publishing houses themselves add little value to the final published [...]