Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Geomorphology
The concavity of submarine canyon longitudinal profiles
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Submarine canyons incise continental shelves and slopes, and are important conduits for the transport of sediment, nutrients, organic carbon and pollutants from continents to oceans. Submarine canyons bear morphological similarities to subaerial valleys, such as their longitudinal (long) profiles. Long profiles record the interaction between erosion and uplift, making their shape, or concavity, a [...]
Transmissivity and groundwater flow exert a strong influence on drainage density
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Geomorphology, Hydrology
The extent to which groundwater flow affects drainage density and erosion has long been debated, but is still uncertain. Here, I present a new hybrid analytical and numerical model that simulates groundwater flow, overland flow, hillslope erosion and stream incision. The model is used to explore the relation between groundwater flow and the incision and persistence of streams for a set of [...]
Benthic biofilm potential for organic carbon accumulation in salt marsh sediments
Published: 2021-04-02
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology
Coastal salt marshes are productive environments with high potential for carbon accumulation and storage. Even though organic carbon in salt marsh sediment is typically attributed to plant biomass, it can also be produced by benthic photosynthetic biofilms. These biofilms, generally composed of diatoms and their secretions, are known for their high primary productivity and contribution to the [...]
Low variability runoff inhibits coupling of climate, tectonics, and topography in the Greater Caucasus
Published: 2021-03-23
Subjects: Geomorphology, Tectonics and Structure
Hypothesized feedbacks between climate and tectonics are mediated by the relationship between topography and long-term erosion rates. While many studies show monotonic relationships between channel steepness and erosion rates, the degree of nonlinearity in this relationship varies by landscape. Mechanistically explaining controls on this relationship in natural settings is critical because highly [...]
Long-term evolution of Earth's continental surface elevation
Published: 2021-03-17
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology
Determining the timescale over which continental surface elevation (hypsometry) evolves is difficult because it reflects a combination of isostasy and dynamic topography operating in concert with erosion and deposition. Here, we use 252 million year old and younger shallow marine sediments exposed at the surface as tracers of net change in continental surface elevation over time. In aggregate, we [...]
The Sidi Ifni transect across the rifted margin of Morocco (Central Atlantic): Vertical movements constrained by low-temperature thermochronology
Published: 2021-03-17
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Paleontology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
The occurrence of km-scale exhumations during syn- and post-rift stages has been documented along Atlantic continental margins, which are also characterised by basins undergoing substantial subsidence. The relationship between the exhuming and subsiding domains is poorly understood. In this study, we reconstruct the evolution of a 50 km long transect across the Moroccan rifted margin from the [...]
Prototyping a collaborative data curation service for coastal science
Published: 2021-03-16
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The growing push for open data has resulted in an abundance of data for coastal researchers, which can lead to problems for individual researchers related to discoverability of relevant data. One solution is to explicitly develop services for coastal researchers to help curate data for discovery, hosting discussions around reuse, community building, and finding collaborators. To develop the idea [...]
The imprint of erosion by glacial lake outburst floods in the topography of central Himalayan rivers
Published: 2021-03-11
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology
In steep landscapes, river incision sets the pace of landscape evolution. Transport of coarse sediment controls incision by evacuating material delivered to river channels by landslides. However, large landslide-derived boulders that impede bedrock erosion are immobile even in major runoff-driven floods. Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) mobilize these boulders and drive incision, yet their [...]
Decadal shoreline erosion and recovery of beaches in modified and natural estuaries
Published: 2021-03-08
Subjects: Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Sandy beaches in estuaries and bays (BEBs) are common landforms on the coasts of many major cities. They exist under a wide range of settings and their morphology is controlled by their distance from the estuary/bay entrance, exposure to different types of waves (e.g., ocean swells vs locally generated wind waves), proximity to flood-tide delta/shoals, and anthropogenic interventions (e.g., [...]
New insight into post-seismic landslide evolution processes in the tropics
Published: 2021-03-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology
Earthquakes do not only trigger landslides in co-seismic phases but also elevate post-seismic landslide susceptibility either by causing a strength reduction in hillslope materials or by producing co-seismic landslide deposits, which are prone to further remobilization under the external forces generated by subsequent rainfall events. However, we still have limited observations regarding the [...]
Space-time susceptibility modeling of hydro-morphological processes at the Chinese national scale
Published: 2021-03-05
Subjects: Geomorphology
Hydro-morphological processes (HMP; any process in the spectrum between debris flows and flash floods) threaten human infrastructures and lives; and their effects are only expected to worsen in the context of climate change. One of the ways to limit the potential damage of HMP is to take preventive or remedial actions probabilistically knowing where and how frequently they may occur. The expected [...]
Crisis at the Salton Sea: The Vital Role of Science
Published: 2021-03-04
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Chemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Salton Sea—a hypersaline, terminal lake in southern California—is in crisis. A combination of mismanagement and competition among federal, state and local agencies has hindered efforts to address declining lake levels and unstable water chemistry. This delay has heightened the public health threat to regional communities as retreating shorelines expose dry lakebed— a source of potentially [...]
An uncertainty-focused database approach to extract spatiotemporal trends from qualitative and discontinuous lake-status histories
Published: 2021-03-01
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Other Earth Sciences, Sedimentology, Statistical Methodology, Stratigraphy
Changes in lake status are often interpreted as palaeoclimate indicators due to their dependence on precipitation and evaporation. The Global Lake Status Database (GLSDB) has since long provided a standardised synopsis of qualitative lake status over the last 30,000 14C years. Potential sources of uncertainty however are not recorded in the GLSDB. Here we present an updated and improved [...]
Structural and stratigraphic development of Offshore NW Sulawesi, Indonesia
Published: 2021-02-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
The area of the Offshore NW Sulawesi lies between eastern Sundaland (Borneo) and the North Arm of Sulawesi. Possible influences on the basins include Paleogene rifting in the Celebes Sea and Makassar Strait, Neogene subsidence and uplift in Borneo, late Neogene subduction at the present-day North Sulawesi Trench, and displacements related to the Palu-Koro Fault. This study presents the results of [...]
Numerical modeling of Earth's dynamic surface: a community approach
Published: 2021-02-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy
Computational modelling occupies a unique niche in Earth environmental sciences. Models serve not just as scientific technology and infrastructure, but also as digital containers of the scientific community's understanding of the natural world. As this understanding improves, so too must the associated software. This dual nature---models as both infrastructure and hypotheses---means that [...]