Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
PREPRINT: A global platform solution for Big Data in low-temperature thermochronology
Published: 2022-11-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Low-temperature thermochronology is a powerful tool for constraining the thermal evolution of geological materials at temperatures (< ~300 °C) common in the upper crust in relation to geodynamics, continental crustal evolution, landscape evolution, and natural resource formation and preservation. However, complexities inherent to these analytical techniques can make interpreting the significance [...]
A new automated method for improving georeferencing of nighttime ECOSTRESS thermal imagery
Published: 2022-11-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Georeferencing accuracy plays a crucial role in providing high-quality ready-to-use remote sensing data. Georeferencing of satellite imagery is typically based on position and pointing direction of a sensor, which are provided by star trackers and GPS. As the Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) is not equipped with star trackers, georeferencing of its [...]
The unknown fate of macroplastic in mountain rivers
Published: 2022-11-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Mountain rivers are typically seen as relatively pristine ecosystems, supporting numerous goods (e.g., water resources) for human populations living not only in the mountain regions but also downstream from them. Recent evidence suggests, however, that mountain river valleys in populated areas can be substantially polluted by macroplastic (plastic item > 5 mm). It is, however, unknown how [...]
Revisiting earlier predictions of glacier retreat: The case of Langfjordjøkelen
Published: 2022-11-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
European glaciers constitute a part of the climate system that is bound to greatly change in the course of the 21st century. Recent length-change observations from Langfjordjøkelen in northern Norway confirm the earlier predictions of Charalampidis (2012), who identified the glacier’s disequilibrium with climate and hence extensive committed ice loss in the 21st century. Simulations suggest that, [...]
Seismic Architecture of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere System in the Western United States from a Joint Inversion of Body- and Surface-wave Observations: Distribution of Partial Melt in the Upper Mantle
Published: 2022-11-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Quantitative evaluation of the physical state of the upper mantle, including mapping temperature variations and the possible distribution of partial melt, requires accurately characterizing absolute seismic velocities near seismic discontinuities. We present a joint inversion for absolute but discontinuous models of shear-wave velocity (Vs) using 4 types of data: Rayleigh wave phases velocities, [...]
The missing carbon budget puzzle piece: shallow-water hydrothermal vents contribution to global CO2 fluxes
Published: 2022-11-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Volcanology
The release of CO2 gases from volcanoes and their secondary geothermal manifestations are an important contributor to the global carbon budget. While degassing from mid ocean ridges is relatively well-constrained, the contribution of shallow submarine volcanic degassing to the atmosphere is less clear. Shallow-water hydrothermal vents are common seafloor features present at depths shallower than [...]
Too many streams and not enough time or money? Analytical depletion functions for streamflow depletion estimates
Published: 2022-11-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Groundwater pumping can cause streamflow depletion by reducing groundwater discharge to streams and/or inducing surface water infiltration. Analytical and numerical models are two standard methods used to predict streamflow depletion. Numerical models require extensive data and efforts to develop robust estimates, while analytical models are easy to implement with low data and experience [...]
Kinematic and rheological controls on rift-related fault evolution
Published: 2022-11-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Tectonics and Structure
Continental extension is primarily accommodated by the evolution of normal fault networks. Rifts are shaped by complex tectonic processes and it has historically been difficult to determine the key rift controls using only observations from natural rifts. Here, we use 3D thermo-mechanical, high-resolution (<650 m) forward models of continental extension to investigate how fault network patterns [...]
Tectonics is a hologram
Published: 2022-11-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
A hologram is an image in which each area contains almost all the information about the entire system. It is a metaphor commonly used for complex systems in which the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts because of self-organization. And also the whole is smaller than the sum of the parts, since the collective organization limits the behavior of dynamic features. The tectonic evolution of [...]
Salt tectonics in intracontinental sedimentary basins: Triassic – Jurassic salt movement in the Baltic sector of the North German Basin and its relation to post-Permian regional tectonics
Published: 2022-11-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
The formation and structural evolution of complex intracontinental basins, like the North German Basin, mark fundamental earth processes. Understanding these is not only essential to basic research but also of socioeconomic importance because of the multitude of resources, potential hazards and subsurface use capability in such basins. As part of the Central European Basin System, major [...]
Atmospheric carbon emissions from benthic trawling depend on water depth and ocean circulation
Published: 2022-10-28
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Through its vastness, resilience and biogeochemical complexity, the ocean offers humanity some of the largest potential natural pathways for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while avoiding new sources of anthropogenic emissions. In proposing a network of new marine protected areas in service of global ocean conservation, Sala et al. describe a potentially large climate benefit of such [...]
Strategies for making geoscience PhD recruitment more equitable
Published: 2022-10-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Education, Outdoor Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Doctoral study is a crucial part of the academic pipeline, but discriminatory admissions procedures disproportionately impact students from ethnic minority backgrounds. We examine how doctoral recruitment policies contribute to inequity in the geosciences and propose improvements for change.
Quantitative constraints on flood variability in the rock record.
Published: 2022-10-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Floods determine river behaviour in time and space. Yet quantitative measures of discharge variability from geological stratigraphy are sparse, even though they are critical to understand landscape sensitivity to past and future environmental change. Here we show how storm-driven river floods in the geologic past can be quantified, using Carboniferous stratigraphy as an exemplar. The geometries [...]
PySulfSat: An Open-Source Python3 Tool for modelling sulfide and sulfate saturation
Published: 2022-10-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences
We present PySulfSat, an Open-Source Python3 tool for modeling sulfide and anhydrite saturation in magmas. PySulfSat supports a variety of data types (spreadsheets, Petrolog3 outputs, MELTS tbl files). PySulfSat can be used with alphaMELTS for Python infrastructure to track sulfur solubility during fractional crystallization within a single Jupyter Notebook. PySulfSat allows far more [...]
Short Communication: The Wasserstein distance as a dissimilarity metric for comparing detrital age spectra, and other geological distributions
Published: 2022-10-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
Distributional data such as detrital age populations or grain size distributions are common in the geological sciences. As analytical techniques become more sophisticated, increasingly large amounts of distributional data are being gathered. These advances require quantitative and objective methods, such as multidimensional scaling (MDS), to analyse large numbers of samples. Crucial to such [...]