Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
A Review of Atmospheric Micro/Nanoplastics: Insights into Source and Fate for Modelling Studies
Published: 2025-05-09
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Environmental Sciences
Micro/nanoplastics (MNPs), as emerging pollutants, have attracted increasing attention due to their potential adverse effects on human health, ecosystems, and climate. The rapid, turbulent, and large-scale nature of atmospheric transport facilitates both horizontal and vertical movement of MNPs over long distances within a short time, largely independent of topographical constraints, thereby [...]
Initial assessment of all-season Arctic sea ice thickness from ICESat-2
Published: 2025-05-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
We present an initial assessment of all-season Arctic sea ice thickness estimates from ICESat-2 by combining freeboard retrievals with all-season SnowModel-LG snow loading. ICESat-2 captures the key regional and seasonal patterns of Arctic sea ice variability and shows good agreement with CryoSat-2 all-season estimates, including regional patterns of inter-annual variability in summer ice [...]
Pliocene to Holocene deformation and earthquake potential of the Mesamávida fault, West Andean Thrust System of central-southern Chile (36ºS)
Published: 2025-05-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Crustal reverse faults are recognized for their potential to generate devastating earthquakes, making them a focus of seismic hazard assessment. Along the Chilean Andes, the Western Andean Thrust System (WATS)—a structure marking the Central Valley-Principal Cordillera border—includes several probable late Quaternary faults. However, evidence for large Holocene earthquakes (M~7) has only been [...]
The Apalachicola Barrier Island complex: a benchmark for MIS 5e (125 ka) sea-level oscillations?
Published: 2025-05-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology
The geomorphological and stratigraphic framework of coastal sandy barrier systems preserve records of past sea-level changes, climatic shifts, and storm histories. Recent methodological advances such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), LiDAR topography, and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating now allow for high-resolution reconstructions of these past coastal dynamics, significantly [...]
Challenges in using modern pollen analogs for Cenozoic paleoecology: examples from the European Neogene
Published: 2025-05-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Plant Sciences
The use of modern pollen analogs in paleoecology is well established in Quaternary studies; however, the reliability of this approach decreases with increasing geological age due to evolutionary changes. Establishing a definitive chronological boundary beyond which modern pollen analogs remain reliable is currently unfeasible. This limitation affects not only paleoenvironmental reconstructions [...]
A SCALABLE MACHINE LEARNING MODELLING TOOL FOR MAPPING LANDSLIDE RUNOUT USING A CASE STUDY IN HAWKES BAY, NEW ZEALAND
Published: 2025-05-02
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Other Statistics and Probability
Understanding landslide runout is crucial for land use planning, utility networks, and assessing infrastructure resilience on slopes. Recent guidance recommends incorporating landslide runout models along with climate change implications when assessing land for development. The advancement of machine learning (ML) techniques can offer new insights and a tool to be used alongside current methods. [...]
Application of mud gas analysis for reservoir evaluation
Published: 2025-05-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mud gas, which is usually used for monitoring the safety of the wells while drilling, can also be used as a formation evaluation tool. This study aims to analyse mud gas ratios and compare them with the traditional formation evaluation tools, such as resistivity. The analysis of four wells, either exploration or development wells, located in differing geological settings, shows that [...]
Cooling after net zero
Published: 2025-05-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Climate policy aims to limit global warming by achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Climate models indicate that achieving net-zero emissions yields a nearly constant global temperature over the following decades. However, whether temperatures remain stable in the centuries after net-zero emissions is uncertain, as models produce conflicting results. Here, we explain how this disagreement [...]
Reliability of Contrast-Based Automated Fracture Detection from Decimeter Resolution Aerial Imagery
Published: 2025-04-30
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Other Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Aerial imagery that captures outcrop exposures of rocks enables the characterization of structural discontinuities such as faults and fractures across large and difficult-to-access areas. These datasets provide an opportunity to analyze the characteristics of fault and fracture networks as analogues for the subsurface. The application of automated interpretation methods to imagery has the [...]
Natural forests of the world - a 2020 baseline for deforestation and degradation monitoring
Published: 2025-04-29
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Remote Sensing
Informed decisions to reduce deforestation, protect biodiversity, and curb carbon emissions require not just knowing where forests are, but understanding their composition. Identifying natural forests, which serve as critical biodiversity hotspots and major carbon sinks, is particularly valuable. We developed a novel global natural forest map for 2020 at 10 m resolution. This map can support [...]
Earth hit twice - The hypothesis of planetary rearrangement of the lithosphere by impact and interference waves
Published: 2025-04-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences
This study presents the impact-antipodal-interference hypothesis as a new model of planetary-scale crustal deformation. By analysing the distribution and properties of three megastructures - the Mariana Trench, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and the Amazon Basin - it is demonstrated that their formation may be linked to large-scale cosmic impacts and the seismic wave interference occurring within [...]
Dual-Layer Gradient-Boosted Equivalent Sources for Magnetic Data
Published: 2025-04-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Magnetic data often require interpolation onto a regular grid at constant height before further analysis. A widely used approach for this is the equivalent sources technique, which has been adapted over time to improve its computational efficiency and accuracy of the predictions. However, many of these adaptations still face challenges, including border effects in the predictions or reliance on a [...]
Calcium isotope constraints on Mesoarchean seawater
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
The cause of the Great Oxidation Event ~2.4 billion-years-ago (Ga) is hotly debated. Recent models favor the emergence of continents as driving the event. However, we suggest that extensive shallow-marine carbonate platforms existed in the Mesoarchean. This conclusion is based on Ca isotopes from 2.8 Ga carbonate rocks, that constrains the Ca isotope value of Mesoarchean seawater to -0.5‰ [...]
Spatio-economic valuation of sand in the context of shoreline (in)stability in the Senegal estuary (West Africa), integrating DeltaDTM and LiDAR technology
Published: 2025-04-24
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Natural Resource Economics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Statistics and Probability
Coastal erosion is an increasing challenge in coastal management, resulting from complex interactions between geomorphological features, marine forcing, and anthropogenic interventions. The growing influence of human development and intervention on estuaries and coastal area evolution has led to a global sediment crisis, particularly in tropical or low-lying deltas (for example, Niger, Senegal, [...]
Helmets Labeling Crops: Kenya Crop Type Dataset Created via Helmet-Mounted Cameras and Deep Learning
Published: 2025-04-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Accurate, up-to-date agricultural monitoring is essential for assessing food production, particularly in countries like Kenya, where recurring climate extremes, including floods and droughts, exacerbate food insecurity challenges. In regions dominated by smallholder farmers, a significant obstacle to effective agricultural monitoring is the limited availability of current, detailed crop-type [...]