Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
A survey of storm-induced seaward-transport features observed during the 2019 and 2020 hurricane seasons
Published: 2021-09-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Hurricanes are known to play a critical role in reshaping coastlines, particularly on the open ocean coast in cases of overwash, but storm induced seaward-directed flow and responses are often ignored or un-documented. Subaerial evidence for seaward sediment transport (outwash, return-flow) increases our understanding of the impact hurricanes have on coastal and barrier island evolution. Towards [...]
Imaging an Underwater Basin and its Resonance Modes using Optical Fiber Distributed Acoustic Sensing
Published: 2021-09-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Distributed acoustic sensing is an ideal tool for ambient noise tomography owing to the dense spatial measurements and the ability to continuously record in harsh environments, such as underwater. We demonstrate the ability to image a complex underwater basin using ambient noise recorded on a fiber deployed offshore Greece. A two-dimensional shear-wave velocity model was derived by analyzing [...]
Dam Break Simulation with HEC-RAS and OpenFOAM
Published: 2021-09-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A dam break is a natural disaster that can cause significant property damage and loss of life. It's useful to identify potential flooding areas downstream in the event of a dam break. In this study both HEC-RAS and OpenFOAM are set up to simulate the inundation map downstream of the Dworshak dam in Idaho. Using the same topographical data from satellite observations, similar computational [...]
Hydroclimatic adaptation critical to the resilience of tropical forests
Published: 2021-09-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Biology, Hydrology, Remote Sensing
Forest and savanna ecosystems naturally exist as alternative stable states. The maximum capacity of these ecosystems to absorb perturbations without transitioning to the other alternative stable state is referred to as ‘resilience’. Previous studies have determined the resilience of terrestrial ecosystems to hydroclimatic changes predominantly based on space-for-time substitution. This [...]
Shear-wave Anisotropy in the Earth’s Inner Core
Published: 2021-09-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth’s inner core anisotropy is widely used to infer the deep Earth's evolution and present dynamics. Many compressional-wave anisotropy models have been proposed based on seismological observations. In contrast, inner-core shear-wave (J-wave) anisotropy – on a par with the compressional-wave anisotropy – has been elusive. Here we present a new class of the J-wave anisotropy observations [...]
The Impact of Neglecting Climate Change and Variability on ERCOT’s Forecasts of Electricity Demand in Texas
Published: 2021-09-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Risk Analysis
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the electric power across most of Texas. They make short-term assessments of electricity demand based on historical weather over the last decade or two, thereby ignoring the effects of climate change and the possibility of weather variability outside of the recent historical range. In this paper, we develop an empirical methodology to [...]
Acquisition of Data for Building Photogrammetric Virtual Outcrop Models for the Geosciences using Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs)
Published: 2021-09-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Over the past five years the use of 3D models in the Earth Sciences has become ubiquitous. These models, termed Virtual outcrops, are most commonly generated using Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry, an image-based modelling method that has achieved widespread uptake and utilization. Data for these models is commonly acquired using remotely piloted aerial vehicles (RPVs), commonly called [...]
Scum of the Earth: a hypothesis for prebiotic multi-compartmentalised environments}
Published: 2021-09-14
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences
Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or [...]
Three-dimensional fluid-driven stable frictional ruptures
Published: 2021-09-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
We investigate the quasi-static growth of a fluid-driven frictional shear crack that propagates in mixed mode (II+III) on a planar fault interface that separates two identical half-spaces of a three-dimensional solid. The fault interface is characterized by a shear strength equal to the product of a constant friction coefficient and the local effective normal stress. Fluid is injected into the [...]
Flow-dependent and dynamical systems analyses of predictability of the Pacific-North American summertime circulation
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Dynamical Systems, Earth Sciences
Forecast skills of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and intrinsic predictability can be flow-dependent, e.g., different among weather regimes. Here, we have examined the predictability of distinct Pacific-North American weather regimes in June-September. Four weather regimes are identified using a self-organizing map analysis of daily 500-hPa geopotential height anomalies, and are [...]
Tropical Cyclones Affecting Tokyo and Changing Storm Surge Hazard since 1980
Published: 2021-09-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Risk Analysis
This study investigated tidal records and landfall tropical cyclone (TC) best tracks in Japan from 1980 to 2019 to determine changes in storm surge heights in coastal regions of eastern Japan, including Tokyo. The results indicate that annual mean storm surge heights have increased in the last 20 years (2000–2019) compared to those in 1980–1999, and that these changes are noteworthy, particularly [...]
Thrusts control the thermal maturity of accreted sediments
Published: 2021-09-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Thermal maturity assessments of hydrocarbon-generation potential and thermal history rarely consider how upper-plate structures developing during subduction influence the trajectories of accreted sediments. Our thermomechanical models of subduction support that thrusts evolving under variable sedimentation rates and décollement strengths fundamentally influence the trajectory, temperature, and [...]
The ‘europium anomaly’ in plants: facts and fiction
Published: 2021-09-08
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Aims Rare earth elements (REEs) and normalized REE patterns determined in plant and soil samples represent powerful tools to trace biogeochemical processes during weathering, soil genesis and processes in the rhizosphere, and thus publications reporting rare earth elements and normalized REE patterns in soil systems and plants are rapidly increasing. Methods A normalized REE pattern allows [...]
Higher Long-Term Soil Moisture Increases Organic Carbon Accrual Through Microbial Conversion of Organic Inputs
Published: 2021-09-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
High long-term soil moisture may either stimulate or inhibit soil organic carbon (SOC) losses through changes to mineral and chemical composition, and resultant organo-mineral interactions. Yet, the trade-off between mineralization and accrual of SOC under long-term variation in unsaturated soil moisture remains an uncertainty. In this study, we tested the underexplored relationships between [...]
Drone-mounted GPR surveying: flight-height considerations for diffraction-based velocity analysis
Published: 2021-09-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Earth Sciences
Recent studies highlight the potential of the drone platform for ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveying. Most guidance for optimizing drone flight heights is based on maximizing the image quality of target responses, but no study yet considers the impact on diffraction traveltimes. Strong GPR velocity contrasts across the air-ground interface introduce significant refraction effects that [...]