Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Other Earth Sciences
Structural traps and seals for expanding CO2 storage in the northern Horda Platform, North Sea
Published: 2021-12-24
Subjects: Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
The maturation of geological CCS along the Norwegian Continental Shelf is ongoing in the Norwegian North Sea, however, more storage sites are needed to reach climate mitigation goals by 2050. In order to augment the Aurora site and expand CO2 storage in the northern Horda Platform, regional traps and seals must be assessed to better understand the area’s potential. Here, we leverage wellbore and [...]
Hermann Löns’ “Quintär” – an early approach to the geological stratigraphy of the Age of Humans and its significance in geosciences
Published: 2021-12-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Other Earth Sciences, Stratigraphy
In 1908, Hermann Löns outlined the concept of a Quintär” (“Quintary period”) to describe geological and biological manifestations of the Age of Humans. His definition of the “Quintary” consisted of two components: a lithostratigraphic (“Quintary deposits” or “Quintary stratum”), and a faunistic (“Quintary fauna”) one. With a view on the stratigraphic component, Löns already anticipated the [...]
A copula-based assessment of renewable energy droughts across Europe
Published: 2021-12-05
Subjects: Multivariate Analysis, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences
Meeting carbon-reduction targets will require thorough consideration of climate variability and climate change due to the increasing share of climate-sensitive renewable energy sources (RES). One of the main concerns arises from situations of low renewable production and high demand, which can hinder the power system. We analysed energy droughts, defined as periods of low energy production (wind [...]
Estuarine-deltaic controls on coastal carbon burial in the western Ganges-Brahmaputra delta over the last 5,000 years
Published: 2021-11-26
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Statistics and Probability, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Water Resource Management
The Ganges–Brahmaputra fluvial system drains the Himalayas and is one of the largest sources of terrestrial biosphere carbon to the ocean. It represents a major continental reservoir of CO2 associated with c. 1–2 billion tons of sediment transported each year. Shallow coastal environments receive substantial inputs of terrestrial carbon (900 Tg C yr−1), with allochthonous carbon capture on [...]
Vertical Deformation and Residual Altimeter Systematic Errors around Continental Australia Inferred from a Kalman-Based Approach
Published: 2021-11-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Other Earth Sciences
We further developed a space-time Kalman approach to estimate time-variable signals in residual altimeter systematic errors and vertical land motion (VLM) around the Australian coast since the 1990s, through combining multi-mission absolute sea-level (ASL), relative sea-level (RSL) from tide gauges (TGs) and GPS heights records. Our results confirmed continent-wide subsidence and TG-specific VLMs [...]
From offshore to onshore probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment via efficient Monte-Carlo sampling
Published: 2021-11-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Other Earth Sciences
Offshore Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Assessments (offshore PTHAs) provide large-scale analyses of earthquake-tsunami frequencies and uncertainties in the deep ocean, but do not provide high-resolution onshore tsunami hazard information as required for many risk-management applications. To understand the implications of an offshore PTHA for the onshore hazard at any site, in principle the tsunami [...]
Mesophotic Depth Biogenic Accumulations (“Biogenic Mounds”) Offshore the Maltese Islands, Central Mediterranean Sea
Published: 2021-10-28
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences
The mesophotic domain is a poorly explored part of the oceans, notably in the Mediterranean Sea. Benthic communities in these depths are not well documented and as such are under higher risk from anthropogenic impacts. Hard substrate habitats in this depth window are not common and are a key ecotope. The Malta Plateau in the central Mediterranean, which is characterized by low sedimentation [...]
Reproducibility in subsurface geoscience
Published: 2021-10-27
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Mineral Physics, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Speleology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology, Water Resource Management
Reproducibility, the extent to which consistent results are obtained when an experiment or study is repeated, sits at the foundation of science. The aim of this process is to produce robust findings and knowledge, with reproducibility being the screening tool to benchmark how well we are implementing the scientific method. However, the re-examination of results from many disciplines has caused [...]
Linking technical geothermal potential from borehole heat exchangers and heating demand scenarios on a regional scale
Published: 2021-10-20
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Extracting shallow geothermal energy using borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) can help decarbonising the residential heating sector. To assist urban planers and policy makers in developing carbon-neutral heating plans the regional technical shallow geothermal potential must be analysed. Here, we propose a methodology to estimate the technical geothermal potential of BHE fields on a regional scale [...]
An experimental combination of IGS repro3 campaign’s orbit products using a variance component estimation strategy
Published: 2021-10-05
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Other Earth Sciences, Other Mathematics
Over the past years, the International GNSS Service (IGS) has put efforts into reprocessing campaigns reanalyzing the full data collected by the IGS network since 1994. The goal is to provide a consistent set of orbits, station coordinates, and earth rotation parameters using state-of-the-art models. Different from the previous campaigns - namely: repro1 and repro2 - the repro3 includes not only [...]
Drone-mounted GPR surveying: flight-height considerations for diffraction-based velocity analysis
Published: 2021-09-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Earth Sciences
Recent studies highlight the potential of the drone platform for ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveying. Most guidance for optimizing drone flight heights is based on maximizing the image quality of target responses, but no study yet considers the impact on diffraction traveltimes. Strong GPR velocity contrasts across the air-ground interface introduce significant refraction effects that [...]
Safety and Belonging in the Field: A Checklist for Educators
Published: 2021-08-19
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Climate, Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Fresh Water Studies, Geochemistry, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Higher Education, Human Geography, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Meteorology, Mineral Physics, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Other Geography, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Planetary Sciences, Outdoor Education, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geomorphology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Glaciology, Planetary Hydrology, Planetary Mineral Physics, Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sedimentology, Remote Sensing, Sedimentology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science, Spatial Science, Speleology, Stratigraphy, Sustainability, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology, Water Resource Management
Ensuring taught fieldwork is a positive, generative, collective, and valuable experience for all participants requires considerations beyond course content. To guarantee safety and belonging, participants’ identities (backgrounds and protected characteristics) must be considered as a part of fieldwork planning and implementation. Furthermore, getting fieldwork right is an important step in [...]
Salt welding during canopy advance and shortening in the Green Canyon Area, northern Gulf of Mexico
Published: 2021-07-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Other Earth Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
Welds form due to tectonically-induced thinning and/or dissolution of salt, with their composition and completeness thought to at least partly reflect their structural position within the salt-tectonic system. Despite their importance as seals or migration pathways for accumulations of hydrocarbons and CO2, we have relatively few published examples of drilled subsurface welds; such examples would [...]
The world’s second-largest, recorded landslide event: lessons learnt from the landslides triggered during and after the 2018 Mw 7.5 Papua New Guinea earthquake
Published: 2021-07-30
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences
Widespread landslide events provide rare but valuable opportunities to investigate the spatial and size distributions of landslides in relation to seismic, climatic, geological and morphological factors. This study presents a unique event inventory for the co-seismic landslides induced by the February 25, 2018 Mw 7.5 Papua New Guinea earthquake as well as its post-seismic counterparts including [...]
Strengths and limitations of in situ U-Pb titanite petrochronology in polymetamorphic rocks: An example from western Maine, USA.
Published: 2021-07-29
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Titanite is a potentially powerful U-Pb petrochronometer that may record metamorphism, metasomatism, and deformation. Titanite may also incorporate significant inherited Pb, the correction for which may introduce inaccuracies and result in geologically ambiguous U-Pb dates. Here we present laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)-derived titanite U-Pb dates and trace [...]