Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Relative humidity gradients as a key constraint on terrestrial water and energy fluxes
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth’s climate and water cycle are highly dependent on the latent heat flux (LE) associated with terrestrial evapotranspiration. While the widely-used Penman-Monteith LE model is useful to explore vegetative controls on LE, land-atmosphere interactions are difficult to interpret due to the complex role of biological controls on underlying physical processes. Here, we present a novel LE model [...]
High-Pressure Deformation of Iron–Nickel–Silicon Alloys and Implications for Earth’s Inner Core
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earth’s inner core exhibits strong seismic anisotropy, often attributed to the alignment of hexagonal close-packed iron (hcp-Fe) alloy crystallites with the Earth’s poles. How this alignment developed depends on material properties of the alloy and is important to our understanding of the core’s crystallization history and active geodynamical forcing. Previous studies suggested that hcp-Fe is [...]
The global melt inclusion C/Ba array: mantle variability, melting process, or degassing?
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry
The Earth’s mantle holds more carbon than its oceans, atmosphere and continents combined, yet the distribution of carbon within the mantle remains uncertain. Our best constraints on the distribution of carbon within the upper mantle are derived from the carbon-trace element systematics of ultra-depleted glasses and melt inclusions from mid-ocean ridge basalts. However, carbon-trace element [...]
Dynamics of core-mantle separation: influence of viscosity contrast and metal/silicate partition coefficients on the chemical equilibrium
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The composition of the Earth's core and mantle is set by the chemical equilibrium between metals and silicates during core/mantle segregation. The metallic core separated from the mantle by gravitational descent in the form of diapirs in a magma ocean, and therefore the dynamics of the diapir's downward movement has an influence on the chemical equilibrium. In this study, we characterize the [...]
Amphibole Control on Copper Systematics in Arcs: Insights from the Analysis of Global Datasets
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Volcanology
Copper, sourced from porphyry deposits formed in arc settings, is a critical resource, and is primarily sourced from magmas. However, the processes that shape the copper contents of arc magmas are up for debate. Existing models place emphasis on different petrological agents that explain large-scale trends in copper systematics. Previous studies have noted the 'Cu paradox,' where the magmas with [...]
Inverse analysis to reconstruct hydraulic conditions of non-steady turbidity currents: Application to an ancient turbidite of the Kiyosumi Formation of the Awa Group, Boso Peninsula, central Japan
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
This study proposes a new method of inverse analysis from ancient turbidites to the non-steady turbidity currents with consideration of multiple grain-size classes. The forward model employed in this study is based on the shallow water equation, and the initial condition of flows are assumed to be the lock-exchange type condition. To obtain a solution of the inverse problem, this study employed [...]
Grain Size and Beach Face Slope on Paraglacial Beaches of New England, USA
Published: 2020-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Approximately 100 paired summer and winter transects of beach face slope and intertidal grain size were examined from 18 separate beaches in southern New England that span meso- and micro- tidal regimes. Paraglacial materials provide the principal local sediment source to beaches in this region and grain-size distribution of beaches corresponds to adjacent surficial geology. Stratified glacial [...]
Uncertainties in Projected Rainfall over Brazil: The Role of Climate Model, Bias Correction and Emission Scenario
Published: 2020-09-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The aim of this study is to answer four main questions: How well the Eta regional climate model simulates past precipitation over Brazil? What is the impact of bias correction on the reduction of model’s biases? What is the contribution of climate models, bias correction and emission scenarios to the total uncertainty of projected precipitation? And finally, what is the projected change in [...]
Mercury stable isotopes constrain atmospheric sources to the Ocean
Published: 2020-08-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Human exposure to toxic mercury (Hg) is dominated by the consumption of seafood1,2. Earth system models suggest that Hg in marine ecosystems is supplied by atmospheric wet and dry Hg(II) deposition, with a 3 times smaller contribution from gaseous Hg(0) uptake3,4. Observations of marine Hg(II) deposition and Hg(0) gas exchange are sparse however5, leaving the suggested importance of Hg(II) [...]
An analytical solution to the Navier–Stokes equation for incompressible flow around a solid sphere
Published: 2020-08-25
Subjects: Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Fluid Dynamics, Mechanical Engineering, Other Mechanical Engineering, Partial Differential Equations, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Special Functions
This paper is concerned with obtaining a formulation for the flow past a sphere in a viscous and incompressible fluid, building upon previously obtained well-known solutions that were limited to small Reynolds numbers. Using a method based on a summation of separation of variables, we develop a general analytical solution to the Navier--Stokes equation for the special case of axially symmetric [...]
The composition and weathering of the continents over geologic time
Published: 2020-08-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The composition of continental crust records a history of construction by tectonics and destruction by physical and chemical erosion. Quantitative constraints on how both igneous addition and chemical weathering have modified the continents bulk composition are essential for understanding the evolution of geodynamics and climate. We have extracted temporal trends in sediments protolith [...]
GARPOS: analysis software for the GNSS-A seafloor positioning with simultaneous estimation of sound speed structure
Published: 2020-08-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Global Navigation Satellite System – Acoustic ranging combined seafloor geodetic technique (GNSS-A) has extended the geodetic observation network into the ocean. The key issue for analyzing the GNSS-A data is how to correct the effect of sound speed variation in the seawater. We constructed a generalized observation equation and developed a method to directly extract the gradient sound speed [...]
Computing single-particle flotation kinetics using automated mineralogy data and machine learning
Published: 2020-08-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Mining Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Studies of flotation kinetics are essential for understanding, predicting, and optimizing the selective recovery of minerals and metals through flotation. Recently, much effort has been made to use intrinsic ore properties to model flotation behavior. Particle-based characterization methods, e.g. SEM-based image analysis, has enabled much of this development. However, currently available methods [...]
Quantification of non-linear multiphase flow in porous media
Published: 2020-08-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We measure the pressure difference during two-phase flow across a sandstone sample for a range of injection rates and fractional flows of water, the wetting phase, during an imbibition experiment. We quantify the onset of a transition from a linear relationship between flow rate and pressure gradient to a non-linear power-law dependence. We show that the transition from linear (Darcy) to [...]
An Integrated Flood Risk Assessment and Mitigation Framework: Middle Cedar River Basin Case Study
Published: 2020-08-20
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Property buyout is one of the most frequently preferred flood mitigation applications by decision-makers for long-term risk reduction. Due to its high-level funding requirements as a mitigation solution, it requires extensive benefits and costs analysis for the selected region. Many communities in the State of Iowa experienced flood events (i.e. 1993, 2008, 2014, 2019) which resulted in a heavy [...]