Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Geomorphology
Towards centimeter precision SAR-RFID localization
Published: 2024-11-21
Subjects: Engineering, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) shows great potential for earth-sciences applications, notably for landslide surface monitoring at a high spatio-temporal resolution with long-term robustness to meteorological events (rain, fog, snow). The ability to localize RFID tags using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) approach, would offer new possibilites for [...]
DARTS: Multi-year database of AI-detected retrogressive thaw slumps in the circum-arctic permafrost region
Published: 2024-10-20
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Retrogressive Thaw Slumps (RTS) and Active Layer Detachment Slides (ALD) are widespread thermal mass-wasting hillslope failures triggered by thawing permafrost. Despite increasing rates of these failures, knowledge about their pan-arctic spatial and temporal distribution remains limited. We present the Database of AI-detected Arctic RTS and ALD footprints (DARTS), the largest hillslope [...]
Interseismic deformation fingerprints on the hyperarid coastal landscape in North Chilean subduction
Published: 2024-10-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
Along-strike seismotectonic behavior of subduction megathrusts feeds back into the forearc deformation as elastic and permanent deformation. However, whether and how short-term elastic deformation reflects long-term permanent deformation in the forearc and shapes the coastal region remains unclear. To evaluate the forearc deformation, we analyze the interseismic surface deformation obtained from [...]
Landscape evolution of the Black Forest: From the Variscan orogeny to the modern era
Published: 2024-09-28
Subjects: Geomorphology, Glaciology, Soil Science
With a maximum elevation of 1493 m above sea-level, the Black Forest (Schwarzwald in German) is the second highest mountain range in Germany. It is subdivided in three main natural regions, the northern, central, and southern Black Forest. The Variscan basement of the Black Forest consists of plutonic and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks formed during the Mesozoic under marine and terrestrial [...]
High-resolution geophysical monitoring of moisture accumulation preceding slope movement – a path to improved early warning
Published: 2024-09-26
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology
Slope failures are an ongoing global threat leading to significant numbers of fatalities and infrastructure damage. Landslide impact on communities can be reduced using efficient early warning systems to plan mitigation measures and protect elements at risk. This manuscript presents an innovative geophysical approach to monitoring landslide dynamics, which combines Electrical Resistivity [...]
Topographic analysis for mapping dunes and assessing dune field resilience using multitemporal LiDAR at White Sands, New Mexico
Published: 2024-09-26
Subjects: Geomorphology
Sand dune morphology is indicative of complex system interactions at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales that govern dune topographic structure. We created an object-oriented topographic framework based on slope attitude, curvature, and contextual analysis to map and characterize sand dune morphology at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA that limits empiricism and reliance on a [...]
Al Hawi, a 4-km-wide impact structure in northern Saudi Arabia
Published: 2024-09-24
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
The northern region of Saudi Arabia hosts several impact craters and structures. This paper describes the discovery of a 4-km-wide complex impact structure located in the paleozoic sedimentary rocks of northern Saudi Arabia 210 kilometers north east of the city of Tabuk. The impact structure is composed of a central peak displaying intense folding and shock metamorphism surrounded by an inner [...]
How much is enough? Uncertainty aware sample mass determination of coarse-grained soils for particle size analyses
Published: 2024-08-24
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Geology, Geomorphology, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Other Earth Sciences, Probability, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Stratigraphy
Determining particle size distributions (PSD) of soils is a basic first step in many geotechnical analyses and guidance is given in different national standards. For ambiguous reasons, the recommended required minimum sample mass (m_min) for the PSD-analyses of soils with a main component of gravel or greater is always based on equations including the soil's maximum grain diameter (D_max). We [...]
Novel landforms: integrating people as key drivers of process and form in geomorphology
Published: 2024-08-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology
People alter the earth’s surface in diverse and prolific ways, from enhancing physical and chemical erosion to controlling water transport across drainage networks. These modifications are often faster, more extensive, and wholly novel when compared to natural landscape evolutionary processes. Existing literature largely portrays people as independent of a landscape’s geologic and climatic [...]
Reconstructing past sea-level changes from storm-built beach ridges
Published: 2024-08-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology
Storm-built beach ridges, built by waves on sedimentary coasts, can be used as geomorphological indicators of past sea level. However, quantifying the relationship between the geomorphological elements of the ridge and the paleo sea level at the time of deposition is difficult, as a beach ridge is primarily correlated to wave energy and only secondarily to the position of sea level. In this work, [...]
Using Hydrogeomorphic Features to Quantify Structural and Functional Hydrologic Connectivity in a Coastal Plain Headwater Stream
Published: 2024-08-02
Subjects: Geomorphology, Hydrology
Headwater streams comprise most of the global river length, and hydrologic processes occurring in headwaters affect the chemical, physical, and biological functions of downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, we do not have a clear understanding of the spatial scales that drive hydrologic processes across headwater systems, particularly in Coastal Plain landscapes. We address this gap by [...]
Towards automatic delineation of landslide source and runout
Published: 2024-07-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Mathematics
Mapping landslide-depleted source areas is pivotal for refining predictive models and volume estimations, yet these critical regions are often conflated with the landslide runouts, leading to sub-optimal assessments. The source areas are typically the regions where the actual failure occurs, providing crucial information on the initiation mechanisms and the nature of landslide propagation. [...]
geodl: An R package for geospatial deep learning semantic segmentation using torch and terra
Published: 2024-07-18
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Programming Languages and Compilers
Convolutional neural network (CNN)-based deep learning (DL) methods have transformed the analysis of geospatial, Earth observation, and geophysical data due to their ability to model spatial context information at multiple scales. Such methods are especially applicable to pixel-level classification, or semantic segmentation, tasks. A variety of R packages have been developed for processing and [...]
Quantifying relationships between fault parameters and rupture characteristics associated with thrust and reverse fault earthquakes.
Published: 2024-07-12
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Risk Analysis, Tectonics and Structure
We investigate the influence of earthquake source characteristics and geological site parameters on fault scarp morphologies for thrust and reverse fault earthquakes using geomechanical models. We performed a total of 3,434 distinct element method (DEM) model experiments to evaluate the impact of the sediment depth, density, homogeneous and heterogeneous sediment strengths, fault dip, and the [...]
Building quantitative skills with a simplified physical model of coastal storm deposition
Published: 2024-07-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Educational Methods, Geomorphology, Higher Education, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
This article describes an exercise for a physical laboratory experiment designed to enable physical geography students to practice transferrable quantitative skills through inquiry-based learning. The exercise is a deliberately simplified physical model of storm-driven coastal overwash typical of low-lying coastal barrier systems. The experiment can be trialled in anything from a baking pan or [...]