Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Despite a century of warming, increased snowfall has buffered the ice phenology of North America’s largest high-elevation lake against climate change
Published: 2023-06-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Lakes are sentinels of environmental change. In cold climates, lake ice phenology—the timing and duration of ice cover during winter—is a key control on ecosystem function. Ice phenology is likely driven by a complex interplay between physical characteristics and climatic conditions. Under climate change, lakes are generally freezing later, melting out earlier, and experiencing a shorter duration [...]
California margin temperatures modulate regional circulation and extreme summer precipitation in the desert Southwest
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
In August 2022, Death Valley, the driest place in North America, experienced record flooding from summertime rainfall associated with the North American monsoon (NAM). Given the socioeconomic cost of these type of events, there is a dire need to understand their drivers and future statistics. Existing theory predicts that increases in the intensity of precipitation is a robust response to [...]
A diffuse interface method for earthquake rupture dynamics based on a phase-field model
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In traditional modeling approaches, earthquakes are often depicted as displacement discontinuities across zero-thickness surfaces embedded within a linear elastodynamic continuum. This simplification, however, overlooks the intricate nature of natural fault zones and may fail to capture key physical phenomena integral to fault processes. Here, we propose a diffuse interface description for [...]
Full vector inversion of magnetic microscopy images using Euler deconvolution as a priori information
Published: 2023-06-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Paleomagnetic data are usually obtained from whole cylindric samples, where the signal results from the sum of magnetic moments from hundreds of thousands to millions of magnetic particles within the sample volume. This usually includes both stable and unstable remanence carriers. Recently, magnetic microscopy techniques allowed the investigation of individual grains by directly imaging their [...]
Causes of Late Cretaceous subduction termination below South China and Borneo: Was the Proto-South China Sea underlain by an oceanic plateau?
Published: 2023-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The South China, Indochina, and Borneo margins surrounding the South China Sea contain long-lived arcs that became inactive at approximately 85 Ma, even though an embayment of oceanic crust (the ‘Proto-South China Sea’) remained in the intervening region. This oceanic crust eventually subducted in the Cenozoic below Borneo and the Cagayan arc, while the modern South China Sea opened in its wake. [...]
A critical reappraisal of paleomagnetic evidence for Philippine Sea Plate rotation
Published: 2023-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The kinematic history of the Philippine Sea Plate (PSP) is crucial for interpreting its geological record related to subduction initiation processes and the paleogeography of the junction between the Paleo-Pacific and Tethyan oceanic realms. However, reconstructing PSP’s kinematic history is difficult because the plate has been surrounded by subduction zones for most of its history. In absence of [...]
Listening to Manchester: Using citizen science Raspberry Shake seismometers to quantify road traffic
Published: 2023-05-31
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Human Geography
Road traffic is a major contributor to greenhouse gases in our cities. This study has been designed to test whether low-cost citizen science seismometers (Raspberry Shakes) can be used to quantify temporal and spatial variations in road traffic. I used a network of seismometers installed around Greater Manchester to record signals in the frequency range 1-50 Hz. Data were processed using the open [...]
Decompression and Fracturing Caused by Magmatically Induced Thermal Stresses
Published: 2023-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Studies of host rock deformation around magmatic intrusions usually focus on the development of stresses directly related to the intrusion process. This is done either by considering an inflating region that represents the intruding body, or by considering multiphase deformation. Thermal processes, especially volume changes caused by thermal expansion are typically ignored. We show that thermal [...]
Discovery of a 15-kilometer-wide impact crater candidate in western Saudi Arabia
Published: 2023-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology
There are few reports on impact craters in Saudi Arabia. This paper aims to fill a gap in the literature in this area. Using satellite imaging, a circular structure with a diameter of approximately 15 kilometers was detected on the edge of Harrat Rahat volcanic field in western Saudi Arabia. Fieldwork showed that the circular structure is a newly-discovered comet impact crater candidate, this [...]
Comment on ‘The magmatic architecture and evolution of the Chang’e-5 lunar basalts’ Penny E. Wieser1, Christy Till2, Adam Kent3, Matthew Gleeson1
Published: 2023-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
Luo et al.1 present exciting new data on lunar basalt samples erupted at ~2 Ga, and brought to Earth by the Chang’e-5 (CE-5) mission. These samples offer important new opportunities to understand lunar magmatic systems. Luo et al.1 use Clinopyroxene-Liquid (Cpx-Liq) thermobarometry and pMELTS modelling of mineral compositions to determine the pressures (P) and temperatures (T) of magma storage on [...]
Impacts of Carbonate Buffering on Atmospheric Equilibration of CO2, δ13CDIC, and Δ14CDIC in Rivers and Streams
Published: 2023-05-28
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology
Rivers and streams play an important role within the global carbon cycle, in part through emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere. However, the sources of this CO2 and their spatiotemporal variability are difficult to constrain. Recent work has highlighted the role of carbonate buffering reactions that may serve as a source of CO2 in high alkalinity systems. In this study, we seek to develop a [...]
Formulating and Solving the Data-Consistent Geophysical Inverse Problem for Subsurface Modeling Applications
Published: 2023-05-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Probability
Today, most probabilistic geophysical inverse problems are formulated using one of two methods: (1) conditional probability and Bayes’ Theorem, or (2) Tarantola’s theory of intersecting probability densities. More recently, a third inverse problem formulation based on pushforward probability measures was proposed, termed “data-consistent inversion”. Many practical problems can be cast into any of [...]
Macroplastic fragmentation in rivers
Published: 2023-05-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Sedimentology
The process of macroplastic (>0.5 cm) fragmentation results in the production of smaller plastic particles (micro- and nanoplastics), which threaten biota and human health and are difficult to remove from the environment. The global coverage and long retention times of macroplastic waste in fluvial systems (ranging from years to centuries) create long-lasting and widespread potential for its [...]
Maxar’s WorldView-3 Enables Low-Concentration Methane Detection from Space
Published: 2023-05-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Methane is large contributor to climate change; for this reason, detecting and eliminating sources of methane emissions is a key element to minimizing the effects of on-going climate change. While there are a variety of methods currently used to detect methane emissions, ranging from ground-based sensors to aerial sensors like drones and aircraft, satellite detections provide a broad-area [...]
Global mean sea level higher than present during the Holocene
Published: 2023-05-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Global mean sea-level (GMSL) change can provide insight on how ice sheets, glaciers, and oceans respond to warming[1;2]. The Holocene (11.7 ka to present) marks a time when temperatures may have exceeded early industrial (1850 CE) values[3]. Evidence from Greenland[4] and Antarctica[5;6] indicates that both ice sheets retreated inland of their present-day extents during the Holocene, yet previous [...]