Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Timing of the last deglaciation phases in the southern Baltic area inferred from Bayesian age modeling
Published: 2022-02-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology
A new chronology of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet retreat in the southern Baltic basin is proposed. Based on Bayesian age modeling, we show that the most likely ages of particular deglaciation phases are 16.5 ± 0.5 ka for the Gardno Phase, 15.6 ± 0.6 ka for the Słupsk Bank Phase, and 13.9 ± 0.5 ka for the Southern Middle Bank Phase. The Gardno moraines are correlated with the Halland Coastal [...]
The influence of layer and voxel geological modelling strategy on groundwater modelling results
Published: 2022-02-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Water Resource Management
Reliable groundwater model predictions are dependent on representative models of the geological environment, which can be modelled using several different techniques. In order to inform the choice of the geological modelling technique, the differences between a layer modelling approach and a voxel modelling approach were analyzed. The layer model consist of stratigraphically ordered surfaces, [...]
Climate-Catchment-Soil Control on Hydrological Droughts in Peninsular India
Published: 2022-01-28
Subjects: Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, Risk Analysis
Most land surface system models and observational assessments ignore detailed soil characteristics while describing the drought attributes such as growth, duration, recovery, and the termination rate of the event. With the national-scale digital soil maps available for India, we assessed the climate-catchment-soil nexus using daily observed streamflow records from 98 sites in tropical [...]
Seismic Geomorphology of a Late Cretaceous Turbidite Channel system in Deepwater Kribi/Campo sub-basin, offshore Cameroon
Published: 2022-01-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
In this study, a seismic reflection dataset and well-log data were integrated to investigate the geometry and internal configuration of a turbidite channel system within the Late Cretaceous interval of the deep-water Kribi-Campo sub-basin, offshore Cameroon. This interval is characterized by a well-developed submarine channel system consisting of an early and a late-stage channel. [...]
University of Sheffield Department of Geography Policy on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for field classes
Published: 2022-01-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geography, Higher Education, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Field-based teaching forms an important part of BSc/BA degree courses in Human Geography, Physical Geography, Environmental Science and taught postgraduate courses. The aim of this policy is to ensure that all students and teaching staff are able, and feel safe, to participate fully in compulsory and optional field classes offered by the Department of Geography. This is shared with the intention [...]
Integrating Connectivity Into Hydrodynamic Models: An Automated Open-Source Method to Refine an Unstructured Mesh Using Remote Sensing
Published: 2022-01-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Hydrodynamic models are an essential tool for studying the movement of water and other materials across the Earth surface. However, the possible questions which models can address remain limited by practical constraints on model size and resolution, particularly in fluvial and coastal environments in which hydrodynamically-relevant landscape features are topologically complex and span a wide [...]
Powering Earth’s ancient dynamo with silicon precipitation
Published: 2022-01-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology
Earth's core has produced a global magnetic field for the last 4 Gyrs, presently sustained by inner core growth. Models of the core with high thermal conductivity suggest potentially insufficient power available for the geodynamo prior to inner core formation ~1 Ga. Precipitation of SiO2 from the liquid core might offer an alternative power source for the magnetic field before inner core [...]
Deformation mechanisms and characteristics of the meta-BIFs from an early Proterozoic shear system of the Southern Granulite Terrane (SGT), India
Published: 2022-01-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences
We studied three samples of Banded Iron Formation (BIF) rocks from Southern Granulite Terrane (SGT) of India, which was metamorphosed at high-pressure granulite facies and exhumed from 40-50 km depth. We examined the microstructure, texture, and deformation mechanisms of the primary minerals (quartz, magnetite, and hematite). Microstructures, variations in size and shape of quartz grains suggest [...]
Tectonics dominates over climatic and oceanographic factors in controlling the physiography of the Americas shelf-break at a continental scale
Published: 2022-01-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The continental shelf-break defines the boundary between shallow- and deep-ocean environments, and is modified by subaerial and submarine processes through geological time. The physiography of the shelf-break therefore records the cumulative influence of these processes, and dictates where, and how efficiently, particulates and pollutants are transported into the deep-ocean. Despite its [...]
Explaining Variance of Pleistocene Climate Sensitivity: Path, Epochal and CO2 dependence
Published: 2022-01-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Improved high-resolution paleo records of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and reconstructions of Earth’s surface temperature are available. We analyze one authoritative Pleistocene data set to explore how the climate sensitivity parameter S varies under different system states, using linear regression of mean annual surface temperature changes against CO2 forcing changes. On the [...]
Deep submarine infiltration of altered geothermal groundwater on the south Chilean Margin
Published: 2022-01-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Hydrology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Submarine groundwater discharge is increasingly recognized as an important component of the oceanic geochemical budget, but knowledge of the distribution of this phenomenon is limited. To date, reports of meteoric inputs to marine sediments are typically limited to shallow shelf and coastal environments, whereas contributions of freshwater along deeper sections of tectonically active margins like [...]
Traversing the academic ladder as an early career researcher in earth and environmental sciences
Published: 2022-01-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
There is growing concern in Higher Education around job security, work-life balance and inequalities, and early career academics must make difficult trade-offs and life choices. Ample literature confirms that women navigating academia face additional challenges. Few studies have sought to connect contractual circumstances, employment priorities and their impacts on the life choices of individual [...]
Deep-water cycling and the Magmatic History of the Earth
Published: 2022-01-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences
Earth is a magmatically active planet. Magmatism connects Earth's interior to its atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere through cycling of volatiles, greenhouse gasses, and nutrients. Earth's magmatic history is intertwined with its thermal and tectonic evolution. How magmatism has evolved and been maintained in the face of planetary cooling remains an open question. We address this question [...]
Frequency-Difference Backprojection of Earthquakes
Published: 2022-01-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Back-projection has proven useful in imaging large earthquake rupture processes. The method is generally robust and does not require many assumptions about the fault geometry or the Earth velocity model. It can be applied in both the time and frequency domain. However, back-projection images are often obtained from records filtered in a narrow frequency range, limiting our ability to uncover the [...]
Subsurface Flow Batteries: Concept, Benefits and Hurdles
Published: 2022-01-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Storage of flow-battery electrolytes in aquifers is a novel concept for storing electrical energy in the subsurface. Flow-batteries operate by electrochemical transformations of electrolytes, rather than of electrodes, and their energy capacity can therefore be increased indefinitely by using larger electrolyte tanks. Saline aquifers may be the cheapest way to provide large-scale storage for this [...]