Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Geophysics and Seismology
Assessing Basin Amplification and Rupture Directivity Effects Using Physics-Based Ground Motion Simulations in Wellington
Published: 2026-10-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Near-surface velocity structure plays a crucial role in modulating ground motion, and, in turn, contributes to seismic risk. However, a complete understanding of the basin effect is limited, owing to the paucity of detailed shallow basin structure, geological structures and near-field seismic sources. In this study, we perform physics-based simulations of ground motions incorporating the [...]
Integrating rapid 3D structural validation into interpretation: forward modelling of the Katnook Graben, Otway Basin
Published: 2026-10-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Structural validation of a prospect is invariably applied after the interpretation is finished, by restoring one or two key lines in 2D or, rarely, by a full 3D restoration that needs finished horizons and a specialist. The authors propose that a simple 3D kinematic forward model, built in minutes using a few explicit structural rules, fully restorable and scaled onto the mapped horizons, is a [...]
On-Fault Parameters and Fault Connectivity Control Synthetic Earthquake Catalogs and 30-Year Rupture Probabilities in RSQSim Simulations of the Eastern San Francisco Bay Area
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The faults in the Eastern San Francisco Bay Area in California have long been known as a source of seismic hazard. This potential for large earthquakes, paired with high population density and economic activity leads to high seismic risk in the Bay Area. In this study we utilize the physics-based earthquake simulator RSQSim to generate synthetic earthquake catalogs for the San Francisco East Bay. [...]
Relationship between Meteorological Parameters and Temporal Variations of Microseismic Processes at the Belarusian Antarctic Research Station
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Meteorology, Oceanography
This study involved an analysis of seismic data acquired in the surrounding area of the Belarusian Antarctic research station “Mount Vechernyaya” in February, 2023 to identify a possible relationship between the seismic noises and local meteorological parameters. Probability density functions of power spectral densities histograms were constructed using the ObsPy framework based on the source [...]
A retrodictive theory of the origin of the Moon: a secondary circumterrestrial disk redistributed by the retrograde flyby of a rocky planet
Published: 2026-10-22
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
The Moon is a datum, and the question is retrodictive: which physical pathways lead to it without a giant impact? The pathway examined starts from a young, hot proto-Earth, soft but never liquid, flattened and inflated by a 6 h rotation, surrounded by a disk of material that has not yet formed a satellite. A second rocky planet, planet B, passes close to the Earth against its rotation, without [...]
Robust clustering of variable-duration seismic waveforms using an incremental dynamic time warping framework
Published: 2026-10-21
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Different geophysical processes generate characteristic seismic waveforms. Identifying similar waveforms therefore helps to distinguish between different source mechanisms and to monitor seismic activity in settings ranging from volcanoes and glaciers to urban environments. In many applications, however, the seismic event types are unknown and no labelled training data is available. Then, [...]
3D inversions of magnetic and gravity data for the Yaouré region, Ivory Coast: a greenstone belt characterization
Published: 2026-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology
We carried out 3D inverse modeling of full tensor gravity gradiometry data, its derived products (Tz and Tz residual), and magnetic data to recover the density and magnetic susceptibility distributions of the Yaouré Greenstone Belt in Ivory Coast, West Africa. The study area presents significant challenges: it lacks well-defined stratigraphy and structural measurements, and it lies close to the [...]
A static arrest criterion classifies some fault-spanning ruptures as arrested
Published: 2026-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A static arrest length and a fully dynamic rupture are compared, one rupture at a time, for 60 antiplane and 60 in-plane cases on one 120 km fault with linear slip weakening and one correlation length of the initial stress. The standard deviations were fixed before those ruptures were drawn. The comparison tests the rule, used to build earthquake populations, that a rupture stops where its static [...]
Development of a Combined Detection and Relocation Workflow (TM2DD) to Characterize Escalating Hydraulic Fracturing Induced Seismicity in the Karnes Trough Fault Zone of the Eagle Ford Shale Play, Texas
Published: 2026-10-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
On January 30, 2025, an M4.7 earthquake shook the Eagle Ford Shale, Texas, the region's second M4 event in under eighteen months. Unlike much of the central United States, where induced seismicity stems from wastewater disposal, most of the earthquakes in the Eagle Ford are linked to hydraulic fracturing (HF) (Fasola et al., 2019; Fasola & Brudzinski, 2023). If HF-induced, the 2025 event [...]
Fitful but sustained rupture of the 2026 Mw 7.6 Venezuela earthquake
Published: 2026-10-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The devastating 2026 Venezuela earthquake was cataloged as a doublet of \Mw~7.2 and 7.5 events. Combining NISAR and ALOS-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar data, teleseismic source imaging, and ensemble Kalman inversion of multiple moment tensors and dynamic rupture simulations, we show that the 2026 Venezuela earthquake was instead a single \Mw~7.6 event with variable rupture speed and seismic moment [...]
Semi-analytic reference solutions for 3D controlled-source electromagnetics: a conductive sphere beneath Gaussian topography in a layered earth
Published: 2026-10-19
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Three-dimensional forward codes for controlled-source and transient electromagnetics are verified mostly by comparison with one another when the model contains topography and a compact body in a layered host. We present terrasphere_csem, an open-source semi-analytic reference for this coupled problem. A Gaussian hill or depression forms the surface of a horizontally layered earth, and a [...]
Earth's Bad Decades: A Sedimentary Record of the Chicxulub Aftermath from the New Jersey Coastal Plain and Offshore
Published: 2026-10-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
The New Jersey Coastal Plain (NJCP) preserves records of the Chicxulub impact approximately 2,500 km from the crater, providing a unique archive of ejecta fallout, sediment reworking, ecological disruption, and recovery following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Preservation of impact deposits varies with depositional setting. Offshore sections beneath the NJ continental shelf and slope [...]
Along-strike stress delays the ordering of slip on a fixed-length fault
Published: 2026-10-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The size of a large earthquake depends on how far the rupture runs and how much the fault slips. An early correlation with magnitude can appear while those two contributions are still mixed. Patches at both ends stop every rupture on a 120 km fault, so the length no longer varies and the early order is an order of slip. One background stress is a single value along the fault, and the other also [...]
Evaluating Dynamic Viability of Finite-Fault Slip Models with Ensemble Kalman Inversion
Published: 2026-10-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Finite-fault slip models are widely used to infer earthquake rupture processes, yet they are inherently non-unique and do not guarantee physically consistent rupture evolution. Here, we develop a data-constrained framework that couples Ensemble Kalman Inversion (EKI) with large-scale 3D dynamic rupture simulations to efficiently evaluate the dynamic viability of finite-fault slip models. The [...]
A thermodynamically consistent theory of multicomponent porous media: finite-deformation mechanics, compositional flow, electrostatics, reactions, and phase transformations
Published: 2026-10-10
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Petroleum Engineering
Reactive reservoir models must combine compositional flow, deformation, electrostatics, chemical reactions, and phase transformations without losing the thermodynamic origin of each term. This paper develops such a theory for multicomponent, multiphase porous media at finite deformation. Component mass conservation is first written on phase-attached material regions and then volume averaged, [...]