Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Controls on grain size distribution in an ancient sand sea
Published: 2022-06-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Grain size distribution in deserts is driven by a combination of autogenic controls such as grain abrasion and sorting due to wind transport and allogenic controls such as provenance and spatial changes in wind-direction. Downwind grain-size trends in present day sand seas display contrasting results. For example, the Namib and Hexi Corridor sand seas show broad downwind fining and sorting [...]
Building Archean cratonic roots
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Geophysical, geochemical, and geological investigations have attributed the stable behaviour of Earth's continents to the presence of their Archean cratonic roots. These roots are likely composed of melt-depleted, low density residual peridotite with high Magnesium number (Mg#), while devolatilisation from the upper mantle during magmatic events might have made these roots more viscous and [...]
Validation of glacial-interglacial rainfall variations in southwest Sulawesi using Mg/Ca and δ18O in speleothems
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Hydrology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Speleology
The final version of this article is now published with Communications. Earth and Environment. To view this open access article, please use the Published Article DOI. Speleothem δ18O is widely used as a proxy for rainfall amount in the tropics on glacial-interglacial to interannual scales. However, uncertainties in the interpretation of this renowned proxy pose a vexing problem in tropical [...]
High resolution assessment of coal mining methane emissions by satellite in Shanxi, China
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Accurate assessment of coal mine methane (CMM) emissions is a prerequisite for defining baselines and assessing the effectiveness of mitigation measures. Such an endeavor is jeopardized however by large uncertainties in current CMM estimates. Here, we assimilated images of methane column atmospheric mixing ratios observed by the TROPOMI space borne instrument in a high-resolution regional [...]
Clay Mineral Type and Content Control Properties of Fine-Grained CO2 Caprocks—Laboratory Insights from Strongly Swelling and Non-Swelling Clay–Quartz Mixtures
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Understanding and predicting sealing characteristics and containment efficiency as a function of burial depth across sedimentary basins is a prerequisite for safe and secure subsurface storage. Instead of estimators and empirical relationships, this study aimed to delineate data-driven variability domains for non-cemented fine-grained clastic caprocks. Constant rate-of-strain uniaxial compression [...]
Understanding Sampling Bias in the Global Heat Flow Compilation
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Geology, Tectonics and Structure
Geothermal heat flow is commonly inferred from the gradient of temperature values in boreholes. Such measurements are expensive and logistically challenging in remote locations and, therefore, often targeted to regions of economic interest. As a result, measurements are not distributed evenly. Some tectonic, geologic and even topographic settings are overrepresented in global heat flow [...]
Advances in seismic imaging of magma and crystal mush
Published: 2022-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Volcanology
Seismic imaging methods have provided detailed three-dimensional constraints on the physical properties of magmatic systems leading to invaluable insight into the storage, differentiation and dynamics of magma. These constraints have been crucial to the development of our modern understanding of magmatic systems. However, there are still outstanding knowledge gaps resulting from the challenges [...]
The Mechanisms of Tsunami Amplification and the Earthquake Source of the 2021 M7 Acapulco, Mexico, Earthquake
Published: 2022-06-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Here we show a slip model for the 2021 M7 Acapulco, Mexico, earthquake produced by inversion of strong motion, GNSS, tide gauge, and InSAR data. The earthquake occurs within the Guerrero gap, identified as a region of concern for its seismogenic potential and paucity of large events. We find that rupture was compact, constrained to depths between 10 and 20 km and consistent of two main slip [...]
Space-time landslide hazard modeling via Ensemble Neural Networks
Published: 2022-06-02
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
For decades, a full numerical description of the spatio-temporal dynamics of a landslide could be achieved only via physics-based models. The part of the geomorphology community focusing on data-driven model has instead focused on predicting where landslides may occur via susceptibility models. Moreover, they have estimated when landslides may occur via models that belong to the [...]
Foraminifera as a tool for the reconstruction of paleobathymetry and geohazard: A case study from Taiwan
Published: 2022-06-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The calcite tests of foraminifera are an important biogenic component of marine sediments. The abundance of foraminiferal tests in marine sediments broadly varies with bathymetry, thus has been used to reconstruct paleobathymetry. It is also promising as a tracer for downslope transport triggered by earthquakes and typhoons, especially if the displaced material from shallow locality contrasts [...]
Inclination and heterogeneity of layered geological sequences influence dike-induced ground deformation
Published: 2022-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Mining Engineering
Constraints on the amount and pattern of ground deformation induced by dike emplacement are important for assessing potential eruptions. The vast majority of ground deformation inversions made for volcano monitoring during volcanic unrest assume that dikes are emplaced in either an elastic-half space (a homogeneous crust) or a crust made of horizontal layers with different mechanical properties. [...]
The historical impact of anthropogenic air-borne sulphur on the Pleistocene rock art of Sulawesi
Published: 2022-05-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Natural Resources and Conservation
The Maros-Pangkep karst in southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia, contains some of the world’s oldest rock art. However, the Pleistocene images survive only as weathered patches of pigment on exfoliated limestone surfaces. Salt efflorescence underneath the case-hardened limestone substrate causes spall-flaking, and it has been proposed that the loss of artwork has accelerated over recent decades. Here, [...]
Diagenetic priming of submarine landslides in ooze-rich substrates
Published: 2022-05-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology
Oozes are the most widespread deep-sea sediment in the global ocean, but very little is known about how changes in their physical properties during burial impact slope stability and related geohazards. Here, we use 3D seismic reflection, geochemical, and petrophysical data acquired both within and adjacent to 13 large (in total c. 6330 km2) submarine slides on the Exmouth Plateau, NW Shelf, [...]
Paleoclimate controls on lithium enrichment in Great Basin Pliocene-Pleistocene lacustrine clays
Published: 2022-05-29
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Other Environmental Sciences, Sedimentology
Terminal lakes are important archives of continental hydroclimate and in some cases contain important economic resources. Here, we present an ∼2.9 m.y. lacustrine carbonate carbon and oxygen stable isotope record from a Great Basin continental drill core. We paired these measurements with bulk lithium concentrations to reveal a relationship between past climate and lithium enrichment in [...]
How to drain a megalake: Comments on a study by Palcu et al. (2021) Scientific Reports 11, Art. Nr.: 11471.
Published: 2022-05-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Oceanography, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
In a recent paper by Palcu et al. (2021: Scientific Reports 11, Art. Nr.: 11471), the Cape Panagia section on the Taman peninsula (Russian Black Sea) was dated using magnetostratigraphy, in order to calibrate the timing of previously published regressions of the Paratethys megalake. The authors of the paper claim that this “largest megalake in the geological record” experienced four major [...]