Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Testing the potential of using coarse-grain feldspars for post-IR IRSL dating of calcium sulphate-wedge growth in the Atacama Desert
Published: 2022-08-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The growth of vertically laminated calcium-sulphate wedges in the Atacama Desert is assumed to be driven by the interaction of moisture supply and salt dynamics in the subsurface. Geochronological data of these wedge laminations is yet sparse but indispensable to resolve wedge-growth phases and episodes of moisture supply and to use these deposits as a palaeoclimate archive in the hyperarid [...]
Influence of reef isostasy, dynamic topography, and glacial isostatic adjustment on sea-level records in Northeastern Australia
Published: 2022-08-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding sea level during the warmest peak of the Last Interglacial (125,000 yrs ago; Marine Isotope Stage 5e) is important for assessing future ice-sheet dynamics in response to climate change, and relies on the measurement and interpretation of paleo sea-level indicators, corrected for post-depositional vertical land motions. The coasts and continental shelves of northeastern Australia [...]
Resolving minute temporal seismic velocity changes induced by earthquake damage: The more stations, the merrier ?
Published: 2022-07-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Ground shaking induced by earthquakes often introduces transient changes in seismic velocity monitored with ambient noise. These changes are usually attributed to relaxation behavior following the co-seismic damage in the subsurface and are of relevance for postseismic hazard mitigation. However, the velocity evolution associated with this phenomenon can occur at very small timescales and [...]
Mud redeposition during river incision as a factor affecting authigenic 10Be/9Be dating: Early Pleistocene large mammal fossil-bearing site Nová Vieska, eastern Danube Basin
Published: 2022-07-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
This study examines the suitability of the authigenic 10Be/9Be dating method to the dating of the deposits of an incising river, taking as an example the Nová Vieska river terrace, which accumulated during the neotectonic inversion of the Danube Basin (western Slovakia). The succession was formed by a wandering river with minor preservation of proximal floodplain muds. The frequent occurrence of [...]
Water discharge variations control fluvial stratigraphic architecture in the Middle Eocene Escanilla formation, Spain
Published: 2022-07-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Ancient fluvial deposits typically display repetitive changes in their depositional architecture such as alternating intervals of coarse-grained highly amalgamated (HA), laterally-stacked, channel bodies, and finer-grained less amalgamated (LA), vertically-stacked, channels encased in floodplain deposits. Such patterns are usually ascribed to slower, respectively higher, rates of base level rise [...]
Sampling across large-scale geological gradients to study geosphere-biosphere interactions
Published: 2022-07-25
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Life Sciences, Microbiology
Despite being one of the largest microbial ecosystems on Earth, with >1029 microbial cells, many basic open questions remain about how life exists and thrives in the deep subsurface biosphere, inside Earth’s crust. Much of this ambiguity is due to the fact that it is exceedingly difficult and (often prohibitively expensive) to directly sample the deep subsurface, requiring elaborate drilling [...]
Geochemical implication of Eu isotopic ratio in anorthosite: new evidence of Eu isotope fractionation during feldspar crystallization
Published: 2022-07-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Rare earth element geochemistry can provide critical information on the evolution of the crust-mantle system. Europium (Eu) exists in divalent and trivalent states, and Eu2+ can substitute for Ca2+ during plagioclase feldspar crystallization in reducing magmas. This leads to positive Eu anomaly in Ca-plagioclase-rich anorthosite derived from the mantle and negative Eu anomalies in fractionated [...]
Machine Learning for Elastic-Electrical Cross-Property Modelling Of Sandstones
Published: 2022-07-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Improving slope stability estimates by incorporating geophysical and remote sensing monitoring data into hydro-geomechanical modeling
Published: 2022-07-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Landslides are a major natural hazard, threatening communities and infrastructure worldwide. The mitigation of these hazards relies on the understanding of their causes and triggering processes, directly depending on soil properties, land use, and their variations over time. In this study, we propose a new approach combining geophysics and remote sensing with hydrological and geomechanical [...]
Understanding Slow-moving Landslide Triggering Processes Using Low-cost Passive Seismic and Inclinometer Monitoring
Published: 2022-07-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Landslides are a major natural hazard, threatening communities and infrastructures worldwide. Mitigation of these hazards relies on understanding their causes and triggering processes, which critically depend on subsurface characteristics and their variations over time. In this study, we present a novel approach combining passive seismic and low-cost inclinometer monitoring methods to improve the [...]
A Technical Overview of the North Carolina ECONet
Published: 2022-07-20
Subjects: Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Education, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Forest Management, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Plant Sciences
Regional weather networks–also referred to as mesonets–are imperative for filling in the spatial and temporal data gaps between nationally supported weather stations. The North Carolina Environment and Climate Observing Network (ECONet) fills this regional role; it is a mesoscale network of 44 (as of 2023) automated stations collecting 12 environmental variables every minute across North [...]
Mechanical Analysis of Fault Slip Rate Sites within the San Gorgonio Pass Region, Southern California USA
Published: 2022-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
Crustal deformation models show incompatibility between inferred fault geometry and geologic slip rates where model and geologic slip rates disagree. We do not know if the impact of these incompatibilities is local to sites or has wider effect on the fault system deformation. Here, we investigate the roles of structural position of sites and uncertainty of slip rates using one suite of mechanical [...]
Large hot provinces at the base of the mantle stabilise the palaeomagnetic field
Published: 2022-07-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Other Earth Sciences
A crucial characteristic of Earth’s magnetic field, known since 1600, is that it approximates a dipole (bar magnet) aligned with the planetary rotation axis. Previous studies have disagreed over the extent to which this situation has persisted through geological time which is important for determining solar wind shielding and building palaeogeographic reconstructions. It has recently become [...]
Sinh-arcsinh-normal distributions to add uncertainty to neural network regression tasks: applications to tropical cyclone intensity forecasts
Published: 2022-07-15
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Earth Sciences, Statistical Methodology
A simple method for adding uncertainty to neural network regression tasks in earth science via estimation of a general probability distribution is described. Specifically, we highlight the sinh-arcsinh-normal distributions as particularly well suited for neural network uncertainty estimation. The methodology supports estimation of heteroscedastic, asymmetric uncertainties by a simple modification [...]
Slab to back-arc to arc: fluid and melt pathways through the mantle wedge beneath the Lesser Antilles
Published: 2022-07-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology
Volatiles expelled from subducted plates melt the overlying warm mantle, feeding arc volcanism. However, debates continue over the factors controlling melt generation and transport and how these determine the placement of volcanoes. To broaden our synoptic view of these fundamental mantle wedge processes, we image seismic attenuation beneath the Lesser Antilles arc, an end-member system that [...]