Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
The precession constant and its long-term variation
Published: 2020-12-08
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
The dynamical flattening of the Earth, H, related to the precession constant, is a fundamental astro-geodetic parameter that appears in studies of the Earth's rotation and orbital evolution. We present numerical predictions and observations of the variation in H over time scales ranging from tens of millions of years to decades. The geophysical processes controlling this variation include [...]
VESIcal Part I: An open-source thermodynamic model engine for mixed volatile (H2O-CO2) solubility in silicate melts
Published: 2020-12-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences, Volcanology
Thermodynamics has been fundamental to the interpretation of geologic data and modeling of geologic systems for decades. However, more recent advancements in computational capabilities and a marked increase in researchers’ accessibility to computing tools has outpaced the functionality and extensibility of currently available modeling tools. Here we present VESIcal (Volatile Equilibria and [...]
International disparities in open access practices in the Earth Sciences
Published: 2020-12-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Background. Open Access (OA) describes the free, unrestricted access to and re-use of research articles. Recently, a new wave of interest, debate, and practice surrounding OA publishing has emerged. Objectives. The paper presented here focuses on international disparities in OA publication practices of the Earth Science community. We aim to provide an overview of actual publication practices and [...]
Reconstructing Magma Storage Depths for the 2018 Kīlauean Eruption from Melt inclusion CO2 Contents: The Importance of Vapor Bubbles
Published: 2020-12-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The 2018 lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption and the accompanying collapse of the summit caldera marked the most destructive episode of activity at Kīlauea Volcano in the last 200 years. The eruption was extremely well-monitored, with extensive real-time lava sampling as well as continuous geodetic data capturing the caldera collapse. This multi-parameter dataset provides an exceptional [...]
Stalagmite carbon isotopes suggest deglacial increase in soil respiration in Western Europe driven by temperature change
Published: 2020-12-02
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Speleology
The temperate region of Western Europe underwent dramatic climatic and environmental change during the last deglaciation. Much of what is known about the terrestrial ecosystem response to deglacial warming stems from pollen preserved in sediment sequences, providing information on vegetation composition. Other ecosystem processes, such as soil respiration, remain poorly constrained over past [...]
Cascadia megathrust earthquake rupture model constrained by geodetic fault locking
Published: 2020-11-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Paleo-earthquakes along the Cascadia subduction zone inferred from offshore sediments and Japan coastal tsunami deposits approximated to M9+ and ruptured the entire margin. However, due to the lack of modern megathrust earthquake records and generally quiescence of subduction fault seismicity, the potential megathrust rupture scenario and influence of downdip limit of the seismogenic zone are [...]
Chemistry speedup in reactive transport simulations: purely data-driven and physics-based surrogates
Published: 2020-11-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry
The computational costs associated with coupled reactive transport simulations are mostly due to the chemical subsystem: replacing it with a pre-trained statistical surrogate is a promising strategy to achieve decisive speedups at price of small accuracy losses and thus to extend the scale of problems which can be handled. We introduce a hierarchical coupling scheme in which ``full [...]
The shape of volcanic conduits inferred from bubble size distributions
Published: 2020-11-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Volcanology
The most intense known explosive volcanic eruptions on Earth are Plinian eruptions of silicic magma. Geospeedometers indicate that Plinian magma erupts from high pressure within the magma chamber at average speeds of 0.001-1 MPa/s. Concurrently dissolved magmatic volatiles, predominantly water, nucleate about one quadrillion bubbles per cubic meter of melt, preserved as vesicles within tephra. [...]
Carbonate clumped isotope analysis (Δ47) of 21 carbonate standards determined via gas source isotope ratio mass spectrometry on four instrumental configurations using carbonate-based standardization and multi-year datasets
Published: 2020-11-28
Subjects: Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Rationale: Clumped isotope geochemistry examines the pairing or clumping of rare, heavy isotopes in molecules and provides information about the thermodynamic and kinetic controls on their formation. Since clumped isotope measurements of carbonate minerals were first published 15 years ago, interlaboratory offsets in calibrations have been observed, and laboratory and community practices for [...]
Reconstructing the morphologies and hydrodynamics of ancient rivers from source to sink: Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, Utah, USA
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Quantitative reconstruction of palaeohydrology from fluvial stratigraphy provides sophisticated insights into the response, and relative impact, of tectonic and climatic drivers on ancient fluvial landscapes. Here, field measurements and a suite of quantitative approaches are used to develop a four-dimensional (space and time) reconstruction of palaeohydrology in Late Cretaceous palaeorivers of [...]
Double-difference earthquake relocation using waveform cross-correlation in Central and East Java, Indonesia (Preprint)
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
The Central and East Java region, which is part of the Sunda Arc, has relatively high seismic rates due to the convergence of two major tectonic plates in the Indonesian region; i.e., the Indo-Australian Plate subducting under the Eurasian Plate. Many devastating earthquakes have occurred in this area as a result of the interaction between these two plates. Two examples are the 1994 Banyuwangi [...]
Deformation memory in the lithosphere: A comparison of damage-dependent weakening and grain-size sensitive rheologies
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Strain localization in the lithosphere and the formation, evolution, and maintenance of resulting plate boundaries play a crucial role in plate tectonics and thermo-chemical mantle convection. Previously activated lithospheric deformation zones often appear to maintain a “memory” of weakening, leading to tectonic inheritance within plate reorganizations including the Wilson cycle. Different [...]
A Vision for the Future Low-Temperature Geochemical Data-scape
Published: 2020-11-21
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Other Computer Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Soil Science
Data sharing benefits the researcher, the scientific community, and most importantly, the public by enabling more impactful analysis of data and greater transparency in scientific research. However, like many other scientists, the low-temperature geochemistry (LTG) community has generally not developed protocols and standards for publishing, citing, and versioning datasets. This paper is the [...]
Particle energy partitioning and transverse diffusion during rarefied travel on an experimental hillslope
Published: 2020-11-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology
Recent theoretical and experimental work (Furbish et al., 2020a, 2020b) indicates that rarefied particle motions on rough hillslope surfaces are controlled by the balance between gravitational heating of particles due to conversion of potential to kinetic energy and frictional cooling of the particles due to collisions with the surface. Here we elaborate how particle energy is partitioned [...]
Times associated with source-to-sink propagation of environmental signals during landscape transience
Published: 2020-11-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Sediment archives in the terrestrial and marine realm are regularly analyzed to infer changes in climate and tectonic boundary conditions of the past. However, contradictory observations have been made regarding whether short period events are faithfully preserved in stratigraphic archives; for instance, in marine sediments offshore large river systems. On the one hand, short period events are [...]