Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Projected spatial reorganization of Köppen–Geiger climate zones under climate change and consequences for population and economic exposure
Published: 2026-02-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Sustainability
Climate change is expected to reorganize macro-climatic regimes at the planetary scale, with implications that extend beyond physical climate variables to the spatial configuration of human systems. While projected shifts in temperature and precipitation are well documented, their translation into categorical climate-regime transitions and associated socio-economic exposure remains insufficiently [...]
The Role of Flexure Margins in Controlling Open Fracture Distribution: Insights from Analogue Modeling of Orthogonal Rift and Pull-Apart Systems
Published: 2026-02-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Hydrocarbon exploration in Basement Fracture Reservoirs faces significant challenges in predicting fracture connectivity below seismic resolution. This study utilizes analogue sandbox modeling to compare the spatial distribution of open fractures in orthogonal normal fault systems and pull-apart basins. Methodological innovation is implemented through the use of a 1 mm thick gypsum layer atop 8 [...]
Basal Melt Dominance in Grounding-Line Dynamics: SAR Interferometry Reveals How Ocean Thermal Forcing Outpaces Tidal and Seasonal Controls in Antarctic Ice Shelves
Published: 2026-02-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The grounding line hinge position for the Fimbul Ice Shelf (Antarctic Peninsula) was determined using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometric data from June 2023 through October 2024. The data were used to determine the hinge position over eight different time intervals (i.e., SAR Pairs) at an average spatial resolution of 20 meters. The Fimbul Ice Shelf area of interest (AOI) was defined [...]
Channel Change and Sediment Transport in the Puyallup River Watershed through 2022
Published: 2026-02-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
The Puyallup River drains a 990 square mile watershed in western Washington, with headwaters on the glacier-covered flanks of Mount Rainier. Major tributaries include the White, Carbon, and Mowich Rivers. In the levee-confined reaches of the lower watershed, loss of flood conveyance due to sand and gravel deposition has been a chronic issue. Over much of the 20th century, flood conveyance was [...]
Filling the monitoring gap: Aquatic ecosystem metabolism as a cost-effective, scalable tool for assessing marine carbon dioxide removal
Published: 2026-02-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) is an emerging climate mitigation solution increasingly recognized as necessary to supplement greenhouse gas emission reductions. Various mCDR methods, from biotic to abiotic measures, are being piloted, fueled by enthusiasm from governments and the private sector. As companies start to sell carbon credits, standards for monitoring, reporting, and verification [...]
Biotite/melt trace-element, lithium, and F-OH partitioning in silicate magmas
Published: 2026-02-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Chemistry, Other Earth Sciences
Biotite is a key hydrous silicate mineral in evolved magmatic systems, but its control on the behaviour of minor- and trace-elements, in particular Li, Nb, F and the REE is not well understood. Here, we quantify that control in sodic (per)alkaline H2O-saturated magmas with variable F-content through crystallisation experiments at 650–800◦C and 200 MPa total pressure, at log f O2 ≈ FMQ +1. [...]
Potential groundwater recharge during floods
Published: 2026-02-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Groundwater constitutes 30% of fresh water reserves on Earth. It is important as a source for drinking water and irrigation due to its good quality. For many aquifers in arid regions, long-term groundwater extraction has put in risk its sustainable use. Thus, it is relevant to understand and quantify processes that contribute to sustainable groundwater recharge. Most recharge to aquifers in [...]
Multi-Sensor Fusion of Sentinel-2 Imagery and ICESat-2 Satellite Laser Bathymetry for Benthic Habitat Classification in Key Largo, Florida Keys
Published: 2026-02-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Multispectral imagery has traditionally been used to classify benthic habitats; however, many challenges exist when using this method alone including the overlap of spectral signatures among habitat types, and the loss of signal due to water depth in coastal areas. The authors propose an innovative method that combines multispectral imagery from Sentinel-2 (Tile 17RNJ, January 30, 2024) with [...]
Compositional Reservoir Simulation Sensitivity Studies: Grid, Permeability, and Well Configuration Analysis Using OPM Flow
Published: 2026-02-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Other Earth Sciences, Petroleum Engineering
This technical report presents a comprehensive parametric sensitivity analysis of compositional reservoir simulation using the open-source OPM Flow simulator, extending previous gas injection feasibility studies (Padder, 2026) through three systematic investigations: (1) grid refinement analysis comparing coarse (7×7×3, 147 cells) and refined (14×14×6, 1,176 cells) spatial discretization under [...]
Two-thirds of global coastline affected by climate-driven saline groundwater intrusion by end of century, reaching far inland by 2300
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Fresh groundwater is a vital resource along global coastlines where already over a third of the world’s population lives. Saline groundwater intrusion, driven by sea-level rise, groundwater abstraction, and reduced recharge, threatens the potability of coastal groundwater. Yet, the global potential for intrusion remains uncertain. Using a global groundwater model, we assess climate-driven saline [...]
Multiple-Well Monitoring Site Adjacent to the Midway- Sunset and Buena Vista Oil Fields, Kern County, California
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Groundwater quality in and around oil fields in the Southern San Joaquin Valley is of interest to many California residents that rely heavily on groundwater for domestic, commercial, and agricultural use. To help assess the effects of historical oil-field activities and natural geologic sources on groundwater near the southwest margins of the Kern County Groundwater Subbasin, a multiple-well [...]
Shifting the Paradigm: Redefining the Chronostratigraphy of the Triassic Rewan Group, Bowen Basin, Australia
Published: 2026-02-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The Triassic continental Rewan Group in the northern Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia, consisting of the Sagittarius Sandstone and the Arcadia Formation, preserves a key record of terrestrial environments and faunas that have been assumed to document recovery following the end‑Permian mass extinction (EPME). The Rewan Group accumulated in a retroarc foreland basin during the Hunter–Bowen [...]
LLM-augmented taxonomy for >4500 palaeopalynology genera
Published: 2026-02-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Mathematics
Large Language Models (LLMs), being text-based, are ideal types of artificial intelligence to consider the complexities of palaeontological taxonomy because palaeontology depends on published textual descriptions as the primary, authoritative record of a taxon. This paper describes (1) the preparation of palynological (the study of organic-walled microfossils) taxonomic text contained within the [...]
A Domain-Based Evolution Model for Red Sea: New Sea-Floor Spreading Evidence
Published: 2026-02-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The propagation of the Red Sea continental margin remains unevaluated. Despite the unanimous agreement that the southern Red Sea axial ridge valley is underlain by juvenile oceanic crust, there is a lack of such agreement for the central and northern Red Sea. Significant issues relating to Red Sea tectonics are whether the Arabian and Nubian plates have been completely separated (i.e., oceanic [...]
A metadata schema for documenting material samples from multiple domains
Published: 2026-02-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Library and Information Science
This paper documents a metadata schema, implementation, and associated vocabularies developed for the Internet of Samples (iSamples) project to integrate geoscience, archaeology/anthropology, biology and genomics sample descriptions in a single cross-domain catalog. To develop the sample description scheme for sample discovery across these disparate domains, we reviewed the metadata schema and [...]