Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Planetary Sciences
Coupling Mars ground and orbital views: generate viewsheds of Mastcam images from the Curiosity rover, using ArcGIS® and public datasets.
Published: 2020-04-30
Subjects: Other Planetary Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
The Mastcam (Mast Camera) instrument onboard the NASA Curiosity rover provides an exclusive view of Mars: the color high-resolution Mastcam images allow users to study Gale crater’s geological terrains and landscapes along the rover path. This view from the ground complements the spatially broader view provided by spacecrafts from orbit. However, for a given Mastcam image, it can be challenging [...]
Seismic electric signals (SES) and earthquakes: A review of an updated VAN method and competing hypotheses for SES generation and earthquake triggering
Published: 2020-04-07
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Electromagnetic phenomena are sometimes associated with seismic events, but earthquake prediction using seismic electric signals (SES) has not been seriously considered since the early 1990s. There are several causes: (1) false alarms that have created panics in Greece, and (2) a strong critique of the Varotsos-Alexopoulos-Nomicos (VAN) method used there. An updated VAN method that includes time [...]
Initial Exploration Free Floating CO2 Fixation Catalysts
Published: 2020-04-02
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Climate change as an inextricable and dire threat to humanity is well established. The primary problem stems from an excess of carbon dioxide in earths atmosphere and oceans causing a gradual increase in average temperature. With this there arises an immediate need for the alteration of this carbon dioxide into differing chemical states. Herein we perform an initial exploration of adapting the [...]
Analytical prediction of seismicity rate due to tides and other oscillating stresses
Published: 2020-03-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences, Tectonics and Structure
Oscillatory stresses are ubiquitous on earth and other solid-surface bodies. Tides and seasonal signals perpetually stress faults in the crust. Relating seismicity to these stresses offers fundamental insight into earthquake triggering. We present a simple model that describes seismicity rate due to perpetual oscillatory stresses. The model applies to large amplitude, non-harmonic, and [...]
Variations in the magnetic properties of meteoritic cloudy zone
Published: 2020-01-25
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Mineral Physics, Planetary Sciences
Iron and stony-iron meteorites form the Widmanstätten pattern during slow cooling. This pattern is comprised of several microstructures whose length-scale, composition and magnetic properties are dependent upon cooling rate. Here we focus on the cloudy zone: a region containing nanoscale tetrataenite islands with exceptional paleomagnetic recording properties. We present a systematic review of [...]
Tectono-magmatic, sedimentary and hydrothermal history of Arsinoes and Pyrrhae Chaos, Mars
Published: 2020-01-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
Arsinoes and Pyrrhae Chaos are two adjacent chaotic terrains located east of Valles Marineris and west of Arabia Terra, on Mars. In this work we produced a morpho‐stratigraphic map of the area, characterized by a volcanic bedrock disrupted into polygonal mesas and knobs (Chaotic Terrain Unit) and two non‐disrupted units. The latter present a spectral variation, likely associated with hydrated [...]
Centroid moment tensor inversions of offshore earthquakes using a three-dimensional velocity structure model: Slip distributions on the plate boundary along the Nankai Trough
Published: 2019-11-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Due to complex three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous structures, conventional one-dimensional (1D) analysis techniques using onshore seismograms can yield incorrect estimation of earthquake source parameters, especially dip angles and centroid depths of offshore earthquakes. Combining long-term onshore seismic observations and numerical simulations of seismic wave propagation in a 3D model, we [...]
Deep learning to infer eddy heat fluxes from sea surface height patterns of mesoscale turbulence
Published: 2019-11-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Planetary Sciences
Oceans play a major role in Earths climate by storing and transporting heat via turbulent currents called mesoscale eddies. However, direct monitoring of eddy-driven heat fluxes is currently impossible because it requires simultaneous surface and subsurface observations of velocity and heat content, while only surface properties of mesoscale eddies can be comprehensively measured by satellites in [...]
Linking the evolution of terrestrial interiors and an early outgassed atmosphere to astrophysical observations
Published: 2019-10-17
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Other Astrophysics and Astronomy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences
A terrestrial planet is molten during formation and may remain molten due to intense insolation or tidal forces. Observations favour the detection and characterisation of hot planets, potentially with large outgassed atmospheres. We aim to determine the radius of hot Earth-like planets with large outgassing atmospheres. Our goal is to explore the differences between molten and solid silicate [...]
Thermal and magnetic evolution of a crystallizing basal magma ocean in Earths mantle
Published: 2019-10-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences
We present the thermochemical evolution of a downward crystallizing BMO overlying the liquid outer core and probe its capability to dissipate enough power to generate and sustain an early dynamo. A total of 61 out of 112 scenarios for a BMO with imposed, present-day $Q_{BMO}$ values of 15, 18, and 21 TW and $Q_r$ values of 4, 8, and 12 TW fully crystallized during the age of the Earth. Most of [...]
The effect of remote sensing resolution limits on aeolian sandstone measurements and the reconstruction of ancient dune fields on Mars: Numerical experiment using the Page Sandstone, Earth
Published: 2019-09-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences
The distribution of cross-set thicknesses is important field-collected data for reconstructing ancient aeolian dune fields from the strata they accumulated, but most aeolian strata on Mars must be observed with remote sensing. We hypothesize that remote sensing resolution limits will affect cross-set thickness measurements and the dune field reconstructions that follow. Here, we test this [...]
Representation of European hydroclimatic patterns with Self-Organizing Maps
Published: 2019-05-15
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Planetary Sciences
Self-Organizing Maps provide a powerful, non-linear technique of dimensionality reduction that can be used to identify clusters with similar attributes. Here, they were constructed from a 1000-year-long gridded palaeoclimatic dataset, namely the Old World Drought Atlas, to detect regions of homogeneous hydroclimatic variability across the European continent. A classification scheme of 10 regions [...]
A new method to study inhomogeneities in climate records: Brownian Motion or Random Deviations?
Published: 2019-05-09
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Climate data is affected by inhomogeneities due to historical changes in the way the measurements were performed. Understanding these inhomogeneities is important for accurate estimates of long-term changes in the climate. These inhomogeneities are typically characterized by the number of breaks and the size of the jumps or the variance of the break signal, but a full characterization of the [...]
Decomposition of Amino Acids in Water with Application to In-Situ Measurements of Enceladus, Europa and Other Hydrothermally Active Icy Ocean Worlds
Published: 2019-04-17
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
To test the potential of using amino acid abundances as a biosignature at icy ocean worlds, we investigate whether primordial amino acids (accreted or formed by early aqueous processes) could persist until the present time. By examining the decomposition kinetics of amino acids in aqueous solution based on existing laboratory rate data, we find that all fourteen proteinogenic amino acids [...]
Preprint: Dataset of global extreme climatic indices due to an acceleration of ice sheet melting during the 21st century
Published: 2019-03-25
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Hydrology, Planetary Sciences
This article describes extreme indices maps (Data Cube, raster X Time) for different scenarios with a more important contribution to the sea level rise from Greenland and/or Antarctica during the 21st century under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission scenario. The indices are produced annually and globally with a resolution of 0.5°X0.5° from 1951 to 2099. The data were [...]