Preprints
There are 7801 Preprints listed.
Groundwater Potential Mapping in Northwestern Nigeria: A Comparison of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Galileo-Enhanced CAT-XGB
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Global water scarcity intensifies the need for high-resolution groundwater assessment tools, yet traditional approaches struggle to reconcile qualitative expert weights with the extensive spatial coverage offered by remote sensing data. This study presents a comparative framework evaluating expert-driven Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (a ten-layer Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)) against [...]
P- and S-Wave Travel-Time Characteristics and Station-Dependent Residuals from Local Earthquakes in Ghana
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Understanding P- and S-wave travel-time behaviour is important for characterizing seismic-wave propagation and identifying station-dependent variability within regional seismic networks. This study investigates P- and S-wave travel-time characteristics and station-dependent residuals using local earthquakes recorded by the Ghana Digital Seismic Network (GHDSN). The analysis reexamines the [...]
The critical role of stored energy in metamorphism
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The mechanical behaviour of the Earth is widely assumed to change with increasing timescale as rocks progressively relax imposed stresses [1]. On short timescales, elasticity dominates and its release drives earthquakes [2]; at intermediate timescales, viscoelastic relaxation facilitates processes such as glacial rebound [3]; whereas over geological timescales viscous deformation dominates, [...]
Three gaps for foundation models to address in satellite remote sensing of inland waters
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Long-term Earth observation of inland waters depends on continuity between satellite missions, adequate combinations of spectral, spatial and temporal resolution, and representative calibration and validation datasets. Discontinuities and trade-offs in these components constrain the records available for studying inland waters and their change. We examine three gaps affecting inland water remote [...]
“Grand” petit-spot volcanism off the Japan Trench
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Petit-spot volcanoes are a recently discovered type of small intraplate volcanoes that erupt on the outer rise of subducting plates. At petit-spot regions on the outer rise of the Japan Trench, an anomalously shallow acoustic basement reflector is widely distributed, leading to the hypothesis that it corresponds to sills or sheet-like lava flows and is associated with petit-spot magmatism. Here [...]
Validating and Comparing Open InSAR Vertical Land Motion Products: Lessons from Three Cases
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Education, Engineering
Open, satellite-derived vertical land motion (VLM) products are increasingly used to estimate relative sea-level rise and coastal hazard, often well beyond the studies that produced them. Researchers often infer the reliability of these VLM products from agreement with other products rather than validating them against independent observations. Researchers then sometimes attribute differences [...]
Drilled petit-spot basalts reveal asthenospheric mantle heterogeneity before subduction
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Geochemistry, Geology
Submarine petit-spot volcanoes form where oceanic plates bend and flex before sinking into subduction zones, providing a rare opportunity to sample mantle-derived melts before subduction. Here we report results from the first scientific drilling of a sediment-buried petit-spot volcano during International Ocean Drilling Programme Expedition 502, recovering basalts from a previously inaccessible [...]
Idealized Earth system model analysis of the primary controls on shallow seafloor oxygenation
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Key components of the Earth system, including climate, atmospheric oxygen, the strength of the biological pump, and continental configuration, have varied substantially through time. How these factors might have interacted to shape the evolution of marine life—particularly the availability of viable animal habitat—remains unclear. Here, we apply an Earth system model to investigate how tectonic [...]
A Structured Inference Framework for Spatial Hydrological Monitoring Networks
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Regional hydrologic and environmental inference relies on spatial monitoring networks exhibiting dependence, heterogeneity, and evolving behavior. Many regional analyses apply statistical methods in isolation, with limited structure governing when pooling, spatial modeling, or non‑stationary inference is admissible. This study presents HyMES Regional, a structured inference framework that [...]
Tectonic history of East Asia and the Asiana hypothesis
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
When almost all continents were assembled in the late Paleozoic supercontinent Pangea, East Asian continental blocks existed as distinct, separate entities. Ocean closures and stepwise assembly of these blocks into larger continents were the main paleogeographic changes to influence paleoclimate and biogeography during Pangea time. In this Perspective, we review how Triassic assembly of the East [...]
The Spatial Journey: A Visual Narrative of the Keffi to Makurdi Field Trip
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Education, Environmental Education, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Outdoor Education, Physical and Environmental Geography, Spatial Science
Background: Field-based education is a critical academic component in geographical studies, designed to bridge theoretical knowledge with empirical observation. This paper reports on the development of a visual and interactive geospatial narrative based on a five-day geography educational field trip from Keffi to Makurdi, Nigeria, from the 26th to the 30th of August 2024. Objective: The primary [...]
Understanding Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Water Bodies via Multi-Classifier Machine Learning Approaches in Semi-Arid Ahmedabad City
Published: 2026-10-08
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Hydrology, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Water Resource Management
The research examines the spatiotemporal change of water bodies in Ahmedabad city in western part of India which is a rapidly urbanizing area. It integrates high-resolution remote sensing data with modern machine learning approaches. Understanding the long-term pattern is crucial to understanding and managing the water resources in the changing climate, also city experiences the low precipitation [...]
When and why does CO2 mineralization in basalts stall? A critical review of microscale passivation, pore-clogging mechanisms and the multiscale imaging needed to resolve them
Published: 2026-10-08
Subjects: Geochemistry, Geology
In-situ CO2 mineralization in basalts is among the most secure forms of geological carbon storage. Field pilots report rapid mineralization and, where monitored, stable injectivity, yet many laboratory experiments show that carbonation slows or stops long before the reactive cation inventory of the rock is consumed. We synthesise four field pilots (CarbFix1, CarbFix2, Wallula, Jizan) and 37 [...]
A rheology for temperate ice in glaciers (RTIG) based on borehole deformation experiments
Published: 2026-10-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The rheology of temperate glacier ice, which contains small amounts of liquid water, largely controls the fast dynamics of glaciers and polar ice streams. Recent laboratory experiments suggest a constant-viscosity ice rheology when the water content between ice grains exceeds 0.6%. Such a linear flow law, where the deformation rate is proportional to the applied stress, is in contrast to the [...]
An Idealized Model of Matrix Storage and the Tidal Response of Coastal Aquifers
Published: 2026-10-08
Subjects: Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Oceanography, Partial Differential Equations
Tides entering a coastal aquifer weaken and lag the sea as they travel inland, and classical theory requires the two rates to be equal. Field records often show the amplitude decaying faster than the phase lag grows, which is usually attributed to geometry or leakage. We examine a third mechanism, the exchange of water between a conduit network and the matrix blocks it surrounds, and ask when [...]