Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Geophysics and Seismology
Machine learning and fault rupture: a review
Published: 2020-07-01
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Theory and Algorithms
Geophysics has historically been a data-driven field, however in recent years the exponential increase of available data has lead to increased adoption of machine learning techniques and algorithm for analysis, detection and forecasting applications to faulting. This work reviews recent advances in the application of machine learning in the study of fault rupture ranging from the laboratory to [...]
Seismological Expression of the Iron Spin Crossover in Ferropericlase in the Earth’s Lower Mantle
Published: 2020-06-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geophysics and Seismology, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Quantum Physics, Tectonics and Structure
The two most abundant minerals on Earth which together make up over 90% of the Earth’s lower mantle are (Mg,Fe)O-ferropericlase (Fp) and (Mg,Fe)SiO3-bridgmanite (Bm). Iron in Fp undergoes a high-spin to low-spin (HS-LS) crossover that influences density, viscosity, elasticity, thermal conductivity, and elemental partitioning, however, the predicted effects of this transition are not apparent in [...]
Geological Facies Modeling Based on Progressive Growing of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)
Published: 2020-06-21
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Geological facies modeling has long been studied to predict subsurface resources. In recent years, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have been used as a new method for geological facies modeling with surprisingly good results. However, in conventional GANs, all layers are trained concurrently, and the scales of the geological features are not considered. In this study, we propose to train [...]
Excessive seismicity over a limited source: the August 2019 earthquake swarm near Mt. Salak in West Java (Indonesia)
Published: 2020-06-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The triggering mechanism of swarm-like seismicity in the Java Island of Indonesia is generally not well understood. Understanding earthquake swarm phenomena and monitoring in various tectonic settings can be improved by the detection of micro-earthquakes; however, such a catalog is not available due to various reasons including the existing limited seismic network and using an outdated algorithm [...]
Sensing earth and environment dynamics by telecommunication fiber-optic sensors: An urban experiment in Pennsylvania USA
Published: 2020-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Continuous seismic monitoring of the Earths near surface (top 100 meters), especially with improving the resolution and extent of data both in space and time, would yield more accurate insights about the effect of extreme weather events (e.g. flooding or drought) and climate change on the Earths surface and subsurface systems. However, continuous long-term seismic monitoring, especially in urban [...]
The 3D thermal field across the Alpine orogen and its forelands and the relation to seismicity
Published: 2020-06-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Temperature exerts a first order control on rock strength, principally via thermally activated creep deformation and on the distribution at depth of the brittle-ductile transition zone. The latter can be regarded as the lower bound to the seismogenic zone, thereby controlling the spatial distribution of seismicity within a lithospheric plate. As such, models of the crustal thermal field are [...]
The Whole Antarctic Ocean Model (WAOM v1.0): Development and Evaluation
Published: 2020-06-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), including an ice shelf component, has been applied on a circum-Antarctic domain to derive estimates of ice shelf basal melting. Significant improvements made compared to previous models of this scale are the inclusion of tides and a horizontal spatial resolution of 2 km, which is sufficient to resolve onshelf heat transport by bathymetric troughs and [...]
Mechanical Response of Shallow Crust to Groundwater Storage Variations: Inferences from Deformation and Seismic Observations in the Eastern Southern Alps, Italy
Published: 2020-06-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Changes in continental water storage generate vertical surface deformation, induce crustal stress perturbations and modulate seismicity rates. However, the degree to which regional changes in terrestrial water content influence crustal stresses and the occurrence of earthquakes remains an open problem. We show how changes in groundwater storage, computed for a ~1000 km^2 basin, focus deformation [...]
Breakup Without Borders: How Continents Speed Up and Slow Down During Rifting
Published: 2020-05-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Relative plate motions during continental rifting result from the interplay of local with far-field forces. Here, we study the dynamics of rifting and breakup using large-scale numerical simulations of mantle convection with self-consistent evolution of plate boundaries. We show that continental separation follows a characteristic evolution with four distinctive phases: (1) An initial slow [...]
Where does subduction initiate and cease? A global scale perspective
Published: 2020-05-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The thermo-mechanical evolution of the Earths mantle is largely controlled by the dynamics of subduction zones, which connect the surface tectonic plates with the interior. However, little is known about the systematics of where subduction initiates and ceases within the framework of global plate motions and evolving continental configurations. Here, we investigate where new subduction zones [...]
Oceanic high-frequency global seismic wave propagation with realistic bathymetry
Published: 2020-05-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a new approach to simulate high-frequency seismic wave propagation in and under the oceans. Based upon AxiSEM3D (Leng et al. 2019), this method sup- ports a fluid ocean layer, with associated water-depth phases and seafloor topography (bathymetry). The computational efficiency and flexibility of this formulation means that high-frequency calculations may be carried out with relatively [...]
Kilometer-scale sound speed structure that affects GNSS-A observation: Case study off the Kii channel
Published: 2020-05-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Global Navigation Satellite System-Acoustic ranging combination technique (GNSS-A) is a recently developed technology to precisely detect seafloor crustal deformation. This method can also estimate km-scale underwater sound speed structure (SSS) as a by-product of monitoring seafloor crustal deformation. This paper evaluates the validity of the spatial gradient and its temporal variation of [...]
Hotspots and mantle plumes revisited: Towards reconciling the mantle heat transfer discrepancy
Published: 2020-05-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mantle convection is the principal mechanism by which heat is transferred from the deep Earth to the surface. Cold subducting slabs sink into the mantle and steadily warm, whilst upwelling plumes carry heat to the base of lithospheric plates where it can subsequently escape by conduction. Accurate estimation of the total heat carried by these plumes is important for understanding geodynamic [...]
Including Earth-structure uncertainties in nonlinear moment-tensor estimations
Published: 2020-05-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earthquake-source parameters can be estimated from seismic waveforms. Since these data indirectly observe the deformation process, parameters of a physical model that quantifies the deformation process are inferred through the inverse problem; which is under-determined. This requires several assumptions to be made about Earth structure and other aspects that affect the source parameter [...]
Optimal processing for seismic noise correlations
Published: 2020-05-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A wide spectrum of processing schemes is commonly applied during the calculation of seismic noise correlations. This is intended to suppress large-amplitude transient and monochromatic signals, to accelerate convergence of the correlation process, or to modify raw correlations into more plausible approximations of inter-station Greens functions. Many processing schemes, such as one-bit [...]