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Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences

Ongoing tectonic subsidence in the Lesser Antilles subduction zone

Elenora van Rijsingen, Eric Calais, Romain Jolivet, et al.

Published: 2021-04-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences

Geological estimates of vertical motions in the central part of the Lesser Antilles show subsidence on timescales ranging from 125.000 to 100 years, which has been interpreted to be caused by interseismic locking along the subduction megathrust. However, horizontal GNSS velocities show that the Lesser Antilles subduction interface is currently building up little to no elastic strain. Here we [...]

Revision of thelodonts, acanthodians, conodonts, and the depositional environments in the Burgen outlier (Ludlow, Silurian) of Gotland, Sweden

Emilia Jarochowska, Oskar Bremer, Alexandra Yiu, et al.

Published: 2021-04-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Ludfordian strata exposed in the Burgen outlier in eastern Gotland record a time of initial faunal recovery after a global environmental perturbation manifested in the Ludfordian Carbon Isotope Excursion (LCIE). Vertebrate microfossils in the collection of the late Lennart Jeppsson, hosted at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, hold the key to reconstruct the dynamics of faunal immigration and [...]

Subdivide and Conquer: Adapting Non-manifold Subdivision Surfaces to Surface-Based Representation and Reconstruction of Complex Geological Structures

Mohammad Moulaeifard, Florian Wellmann, Miguel de la Varga, et al.

Published: 2021-04-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Mining Engineering

Methods from the field of Computer Graphics are the foundation for the representation of geological structures in the form of geological models. However, as many of these methods have been developed for other types of applications, some of the requirements for the representation of geological features may not be considered and the capacities and limitations of different algorithms are not always [...]

Reactivation Potential of Intraplate Faults in the Western Quebec Seismic Zone, Eastern Canada

Jeremy Rimando, Alexander Lewis Peace

Published: 2021-04-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The intraplate western Quebec seismic Zone (WQSZ) in eastern Canada experiences moderate seismicity that mainly results from reactivation of inherited structures under the present-day, NE-striking regional stress field and, possibly to a minor extent, through stress perturbations in response to glacio-isostatic adjustments. This work comprises the first numerical stress simulation-based study [...]

Source region geochemistry from unmixing downstream sedimentary elemental compositions

Alex George Lipp, Gareth G Roberts, Alexander C Whittaker, et al.

Published: 2021-04-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The geochemistry of river sediments is routinely used to obtain information about geologic and environmental processes occurring upstream. For example, downstream samples are used to constrain chemical weathering and physical erosion rates upstream, as well as the locations of mineral deposits or contaminant sources. Previous work has shown that, by assuming conservative mixing, the geochemistry [...]

A global hydrothermal reactor triggered prebiotic synthesis on Earth

Chiara Boschi, Andrea Dini, Gretchen L. Früh-Green, et al.

Published: 2021-04-15
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Planetary Geology

Biosignatures in the rock record limit the time available for life to start on Earth to 600-800 million years1 (4.5-3.7 Ga; Hadean-Archean). Whether the conditions for the synthesis of complex organic molecules were unique to this time or remain present today is unclear, but understanding these conditions is essential for the search of life on other planets. The outer portion of the Hadean Earth [...]

Structure and Stress Field of the Lithosphere between Pamir and Tarim

Wasja Bloch, Bernd Schurr, Xiaohui Yuan, et al.

Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure

The Pamir plateau protrudes ~300 km between the Tajik- and Tarim-basin lithosphere of Central Asia. Whether its salient location and shape are caused by forceful indentation of a promontory of Indian mantle lithosphere is debated. We present a new local-seismicity and focal-mechanism catalog, and a P-wave velocity model of the eastern part of the collision system. The data suggest a [...]

Microstructural differences between naturally-deposited and laboratory beach sands

Amy Ferrick, Vashan Wright, Michael Manga, et al.

Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology

The orientation of and contacts between grains of sand reflect the processes that deposit the sands. Grain orientation and contact geometry also influence mechanical properties. Quantifying and understanding sand microstructure thus provide an opportunity to understand depositional processes better and connect microstructure and macroscopic properties. We compare naturally-deposited beach sands [...]

Probing the DPRK nuclear test-site down to low seismic magnitude

Steven John Gibbons, Tormod Kværna, Sven Peter Näsholm, et al.

Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

On 3 September 2017, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) carried out its sixth declared underground nuclear test (NK6) at the Punggye‐ri test site. With body‐wave magnitude 6.1, this explosion was significantly larger than any of the previous five explosions, and it has been followed by numerous smaller seismic events. The explosion generated seismic waves dominated by significantly [...]

A simplified palaeoceanography archiving system (PARIS) and GUI for storage and visualisation of marine sediment core proxy data vs age and depth.

Bryan C. Lougheed, Claire Waelbroeck, Nicolas Smialkowski, et al.

Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Oceanography

Scientific discovery can be aided when data is shared following the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability (FAIR) data (Wilkinson et al., 2016). Recent discussions in the palaeoclimate literature have focussed on defining the ideal database format for storing data and associated metadata. Here, we highlight an often overlooked primary process in widespread [...]

Past fires and post-fire impacts reconstructed from a southwest Australian stalagmite

Liza Kathleen McDonough, Pauline C Treble, Andy Baker, et al.

Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences

Our current understanding of climate and its relationship to fires is generally confined to the recent past where instrumental records and satellite imagery are available. Speleothem records of past environmental change provide a unique opportunity to explore fire frequency and intensity in the past, and the antecedent climatic conditions leading to fire events. Here, we compare fire sensitive [...]

The state of pore fluid pressure and 3D megathrust earthquake dynamics

Elizabeth H Madden, Thomas Ulrich, Alice-Agnes Gabriel

Published: 2021-04-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences

The importance of pore fluid pressure (Pf) for fault strength, stress state and slip behavior holds promise for explaining spatio-temporal subduction zone megathrust behavior, but the coseismic state of Pf and its distribution with depth are poorly constrained. Here, we analyze fault stress states and 3D rupture dynamics of six scenarios based on the 2004 Mw 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. We [...]

Impact of trench retreat rate on initiating focused back-arc extension within a mobile overriding plate

ZHIBIN LEI, J. Huw Davies

Published: 2021-04-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences

Rapid trench retreat, or slab roll-back, is often observed in subduction zones where active and focused back-arc extension develops. However, the correlation between trench retreat rate and back-arc extension has not been rigorously tested. Here we study the correlation by investigating a series of 2-D thermo-mechanical and internally driven numerical models with a mobile overriding plate in [...]

Orbital, the Box - An interactive educational tool for in-depth understanding of astronomical climate forcing.

Bryan C. Lougheed

Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Adult and Continuing Education, Astrophysics and Astronomy, Climate, Earth Sciences, Education, Educational Methods, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Higher Education, Instructional Media Design, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, The Sun and the Solar System

“Orbital, the Box” provides an interactive tool with graphical user interface (GUI) for stimulating active, visual learning for understanding of astronomical climate forcing. This cross-platform tool can be run locally on a personal computer using a standard web browser environment with no need for plugins, thus maximising accessibility for students and teachers alike. The tool facilitates in the [...]

Near-real-time and state-level monitoring of U.S. CO2 emissions

Chaopeng Hong, Philippe Ciais, Zhu Liu, et al.

Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

As the ambition and urgency of climate mitigation efforts across the U.S. increase, annual estimates of national CO2 emissions provide only vague and outdated information about changes and progress. Using near-real-time activity data compiled from numerous sources, here we present and analyze daily, state-level estimates of fossil fuel CO2 emissions from January 2019 through December 2020. Our [...]

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