Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Geomorphology
Late Quaternary climatic histories from the Hermes Cave, Corinth Rift, Greece
Published: 2021-06-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Speleology
The Greek peninsula is located at the crossroads of several major atmospheric circulation patterns and is consequently characterized by high variability in climatic conditions, making it an important location to examine past climate variability. Over the last decades, the focus of many studies in the region has been to unravel Holocene paleoclimatic oscillations and their impact on the [...]
Rift kinematics preserved in deep-time erosional landscape below the northern North Sea
Published: 2021-06-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Our understanding of continental rifting is, in large parts, derived from the stratigraphic record. This record is, however, incomplete as it does not often capture the geomorphic and erosional signal of rifting. New 3D seismic reflection data reveals a Late Permian-Early Triassic landscape incised into the pre-rift basement of the northern North Sea. This landscape, which covers at least 542 [...]
Environmental variability at the margin of the South American Monsoon System recorded by a high-resolution sediment record from Lagoa Dourada (South Brazil)
Published: 2021-06-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Sedimentology
High-resolution geochemical and sedimentological data have been obtained for a lacustrine sediment record from Lagoa Dourada (South Brazil). Four distinctly different depositional processes were determined: (1) Suspension fallout of fine-grained minerogenic particles transferred via fluvial activity dominates the Early Holocene and relates to open grassland in the catchment area; (2) Activation [...]
30-year record of Himalaya mass-wasting reveals landscape perturbations by extreme events
Published: 2021-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology
In mountainous environments, quantifying the drivers of mass-wasting is fundamental for understanding landscape evolution and improving hazard management. Here, we quantify the magnitudes of mass-wasting caused by the Asia Summer Monsoon (ASM), extreme rainfall and earthquakes in the Nepal Himalayas. Using a newly compiled 30-year mass-wasting inventory, we establish empirical relationships [...]
Characteristics of landslide path dependency revealed through multiple resolution landslide inventories in the Nepal Himalaya
Published: 2021-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology
Recent research in Umbria, Italy, has shown that landslide susceptibility is controlled by a process called path-dependency, which describes how past landslides control the locations of future landslides. To date, landslide path-dependency has only been characterised in Italy. This raises the question of whether this process occurs in other geomorphic settings, and thus whether path-dependency [...]
OpenOBS: Open-source, low-cost optical backscatter sensors for water quality and sediment-transport research
Published: 2021-06-17
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Fluid Dynamics, Fresh Water Studies, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Sedimentology, Water Resource Management
Optical backscatter sensors (OBSs) are commonly used to measure the turbidity, or light obscuration, of water in fresh and marine environments and various industrial applications. These turbidity measurements are commonly calibrated to yield total suspended solids (TSS) or suspended sediment concentration (SSC) measurements for water quality, sediment transport, and diverse other research and [...]
Remote bed-level change and overwash observation with low-cost ultrasonic distance sensors
Published: 2021-06-13
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Few datasets exist of high-frequency, in situ measurements of storm overwash, an essential mechanism for the subaerial maintenance of barrier islands and spits. Here we describe a new sensor platform for measuring bed-level change and estimating overwash inundation depths. Our MeOw (Measuring Overwash) stations consist of two ultrasonic distance sensors, a microprocessor board, and a camera and [...]
Spatial and morphometric relationships of submarine landslides offshore west and southwest Iberia
Published: 2021-06-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Submarine landslides are ubiquitous geohazards in marine environments occurring at multiple scales. Increasing efforts have been made to catalogue and categorise submarine landslides in comprehensive databases, aiming to better understand their preconditioning and trigger factors. Using the recently compiled, open-access MAGICLAND dataset, we investigate the distribution and morphometric trends [...]
Deep-water syn-rift stratigraphy as archives of Early-Mid Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental signals and controls on sediment delivery
Published: 2021-05-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
The timing and character of coarse siliciclastic sediment delivered to deep-water environments in active rift basins is governed by the complicated interactions of tectonics, climate, eustasy, hinterland geology, and shelf process regime. The stratigraphic archives of deep-water syn-rift basin-fills provide records of palaeoenvironmental changes (e.g. climate and vegetation) in onshore [...]
The importance of threshold in alluvial river channel geometry and dynamics
Published: 2021-05-27
Subjects: Fluid Dynamics, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, Water Resource Management
Many cities and settlements are organized around alluvial rivers, which are self-formed channels composed of gravel, sand and mud. Much of the time alluvial river channels are oversized, in that they could accommodate greater water flow; yet during extreme storms they are woefully undersized, and potentially catastrophic flooding can occur. Considering widely varying hydroclimates, sediment [...]
What sets aeolian dune height?
Published: 2021-05-24
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Earth's major sand seas are often populated with giant dunes, up to hundreds of meters in height and kilometers in wavelength. These massive sediment piles, visible from space on our planet and across the Solar System, indicate that conditions for sand transport have persisted for millenia. Unraveling how giant dunes form therefore has implications for understanding atmospheric flows and climatic [...]
The influence of rock uplift rate on the formation and preservation of individual marine terraces during multiple sea level stands
Published: 2021-05-13
Subjects: Climate, Geology, Geomorphology
Marine terraces are a cornerstone for the study of paleo sea level and crustal deformation. Commonly, individual erosive marine terraces are attributed to unique sea level high-stands. This stems from early reasoning that erosive marine platforms could only be significantly widened at the beginning of an interglacial. However, this implies that wave erosion is insignificant during the vast [...]
Syn- to post-rift alluvial basin fill: seismic stratigraphic analysis of Permian-Triassic deposition in the Horda Platform, Norway
Published: 2021-05-02
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
Discrepancies in models of continental rift-basin dynamics and stratigraphic response calls on further investigation on the subject. Geometric- and lithological trends between stages of faulting is studied in the Permian- Triassic continental rift succession in the Horda Platform. The Horda Platform occupies the northeastern margin of the North Sea aulacogen where Late Permian-Early Triassic [...]
Barrier islands as coupled human–landscape systems
Published: 2021-04-09
Subjects: Geomorphology, Nature and Society Relations, Sustainability
There are nearly 300 barrier islands between Maine and Texas, and of these, at least 70 are intensively developed. Mean population density along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are the highest in the country. Such concentrated development exists and continues despite the fact that barrier islands are transient landscapes, not only over geologic time scales of millennia but also within human and [...]
Rectangular drainage pattern evolution controlled by pipe cave collapse along clastic dikes, the Dead Sea Basin, Israel
Published: 2021-04-09
Subjects: Geomorphology, Tectonics and Structure