Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Geological and Environmental Implications of Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques: Balancing Efficiency with Sustainability
Published: 2024-10-31
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This research paper explores the geological and environmental impacts of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology, focusing on the balance between efficiency and sustainability in fossil fuel extraction. EOR methods, including thermal recovery, gas injection, and chemical flooding, are critical to maximizing reservoir recovery, especially as global energy demand increases and conventional reserves [...]
Statistical properties and modelled duration of an intracontinental earthquake sequence: 2021 Mw 5.9 Woods Point earthquake, Australia
Published: 2024-10-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences
We investigate the 2021 moment magnitude (Mw) 5.9 Woods Point earthquake aftershock sequence (WPAS) in Victoria, Australia. WPAS Gutenberg-Richter b-values range from 0.76 to 1.07 and depend upon the earthquake magnitude type used (Mw vs Ml) and minimum completeness magnitude (Mc). The WPAS Modified Omori’s law p-value of 0.83~0.84 suggests slower aftershock decay rates, while the modelled [...]
Relative role of rock erodibility and sediment load in setting channel slope of mountain rivers
Published: 2024-10-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Rock strength influences channel slope by altering substrate erodibility and the size of sediments supplied to the channels. Although the frequent presence of knickpoints at lithological boundaries indicates that rock erodibility significantly determines channel morphology, a growing body of field evidence suggests that the coarse sediment supply from hard rock units is a primary factor in [...]
Station-orientation catalog for Australian broadband seismic stations
Published: 2024-10-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Many broadband seismic stations deployed permanently and temporarily in the Australian continent have been used for various seismological investigations in and around Australia. Although two horizontal components are generally assumed to be oriented in the north and east directions, as reported by data providers, misorientations of horizontal components from the true geographic north direction [...]
Application of machine learning methods to forecast petrophysical properties in basalts of the Serra Geral Group: Implications for carbon storage
Published: 2024-10-22
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study applies machine learning techniques for forecasting petrophysical properties (density, porosity, and permeability) in the basalts of the Serra Geral Group, located in the Paraná Basin, Brazil. These properties are crucial for the successful implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS), an important technology to combat climate change. Employing machine learning models—XGBoost, [...]
Computational Modeling of Climate Change Impacts on Flood Inflows Using Remote Sensing and SWAT: A Case Study of Ban Chat Reservoir, Northern Vietnam
Published: 2024-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study examines the changes in land cover and three water quality indicators (chlorophyll-a, colored dissolved organic matter, turbidity) using Sentinel-2 imagery in the Ban Chat hydropower area in Northern Vietnam during the period of 2016--2024. To assess the potential impact of flood flows into the Ban Chat reservoir, key information is extracted from remote sensing data, which is the [...]
DARTS: Multi-year database of AI-detected retrogressive thaw slumps in the circum-arctic permafrost region
Published: 2024-10-20
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Retrogressive Thaw Slumps (RTS) and Active Layer Detachment Slides (ALD) are widespread thermal mass-wasting hillslope failures triggered by thawing permafrost. Despite increasing rates of these failures, knowledge about their pan-arctic spatial and temporal distribution remains limited. We present the Database of AI-detected Arctic RTS and ALD footprints (DARTS), the largest hillslope [...]
deeptime: an R package that facilitates highly customizable visualizations of data over geological time intervals
Published: 2024-10-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Stratigraphy
Data visualization is a key component of any scientific data analysis workflow and is vital for the summarization and dissemination of complex ideas and results. One common hurdle across the Earth Sciences and other scientific fields remains the effective and reproducible visualization of data over long time intervals (104 – 107 years). Here I introduce the R package deeptime, which provides [...]
Phanerozoic thermochronology record of Afro-Arabia through space and time
Published: 2024-10-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Low-temperature thermochronology has been widely used in eastern Africa and Arabia (Afro-Arabia) to investigate the long-term thermal evolution of the crust in response to Phanerozoic tectonism. Yet, utilisation of this invaluable thermochronology record to inform numerical investigations into the long-term tectonothermal, geodynamic and landscape evolution of the region has been limited by the [...]
Inferring Long-Term Tectonic Uplift Patterns from Bayesian Inversion of Fluvially-Incised Landscapes
Published: 2024-10-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Earth surface processes encode the combined forcing of tectonics and climate in topography. Separating their contributions is essential for using landscapes as quantitative records of crustal deformation. Here, we develop a method for inverting spatially-variable fields of long-term rock uplift and rock erodibility from fluvially-incised landscapes, while accounting for climatic variability. Our [...]
Tracking glacier surge evolution using interferometric SAR coherence — examples from Svalbard
Published: 2024-10-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a practically simple methodology for tracking glacier surge onset and evolution using interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) coherence. Detecting surges early and monitoring their build-up is interesting for a multitude of scientific and safety-related aspects. We show that InSAR coherence maps allow the detection of surge-related instability on Svalbard many years before [...]
Single-station vehicle tracking using six-component seismic measurements: A comparative study with array-based methods
Published: 2024-10-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Determining the direction of seismic waves is crucial for many applications, from monitoring natural hazards like avalanches and landslides to detecting nuclear explosions and conducting surveillance. Traditional methods rely on arrays of seismic sensors arranged in specific patterns, but deploying these arrays can be challenging or impossible in many environments, such as cities, ocean floors, [...]
Unlocking DAS amplitude information through coherency coupling quantification
Published: 2024-10-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) allows one to measure strain at metre-resolution along a fibreoptic cable, increasing spatial sampling of a seismic wavefield compared to conventional instrumentation. However, the challenge of measuring DAS-derived strain amplitude currently limits applications of this technology. Absolute amplitude measurements are required for estimating earthquake [...]
The link between water and ferric iron in Earth's lower mantle
Published: 2024-10-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Mineral Physics
As the most massive geochemical reservoir, the lower mantle affects Earth's budget of volatile elements, including hydrogen or H2O. The properties of minerals in Earth's lower mantle are further affected by changes in the electronic configurations of iron cations, i.e., spin transitions. Potential feedback between deep H2O retention and spin transitions in mantle minerals, however, remain [...]
Interseismic deformation fingerprints on the hyperarid coastal landscape in North Chilean subduction
Published: 2024-10-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
Along-strike seismotectonic behavior of subduction megathrusts feeds back into the forearc deformation as elastic and permanent deformation. However, whether and how short-term elastic deformation reflects long-term permanent deformation in the forearc and shapes the coastal region remains unclear. To evaluate the forearc deformation, we analyze the interseismic surface deformation obtained from [...]