Preprints
There are 4725 Preprints listed.
The large-scale troughs on Asteroid 4 Vesta accommodate opening-mode displacement
Published: 2020-10-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Dawn mission at Asteroid 4 Vesta revealed two sets of enormous linear structures. Both sets are troughs—linear, negative-relief landforms—with one spanning around two-thirds of the equator and the other set located in the northern hemisphere. Previous work evaluated the shapes of the troughs and interpreted them to be analogous to grabens, which are landforms caused by faulting; however, an [...]
Improving mechanical behaviour of collapsible soils by grouting active clay nanoparticles
Published: 2020-10-27
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The primary geotechnical concern of collapsible soils such as loess is their hydromechanical instability. During (re)wetting, metastable aggregates disintegrate leading soil to collapse under the applied load or self-weight. In situ chemical stabilisation, such as grouting, is a favoured option to improve the mechanical behaviour of soils; however, the low permeability of loess limits the [...]
Impacts of a regional multi-year insect defoliation event on seasonal runoff ratios and instantaneous streamflow characteristics
Published: 2020-10-26
Subjects: Forest Sciences, Hydrology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Repeated moderate severity forest disturbances can cause short- and long-term shifts in ecosystem processes. Prior work has found that stand-replacing disturbances (e.g., clear-cutting) increases streamflow in temperate forests, but streamflow responses to repeated moderate severity disturbances are more equivocal. This study examined a moderate disturbance caused by an unexpected population [...]
Assimilation of GNSS Reflectometry Delay-Doppler Maps into Global Ocean Surface Wind Analyses
Published: 2020-10-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Direct remote sensing observations (e.g. radar backscatter, radiometer brightness temperature, or radio occultation bending angle) are often more effective for use in data assimilation (DA) than the corresponding geophysical retrievals (e.g. ocean surface winds, soil moisture, or atmospheric water vapor). In the particular case of Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R), the [...]
Salt-magma interactions influence intrusion distribution and salt tectonics in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil
Published: 2020-10-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Tectonics and Structure, Volcanology
Many sedimentary basins host thick evaporite (salt) deposits. Some of these basins also host extensive igneous intrusion networks. It thus seems inevitable that, in some locations, magma will interact with salt. Yet how interaction between these materials may influence salt tectonics or magma emplacement, particularly at the basin-scale, remains poorly understood. We use 3D seismic reflection [...]
Forecasting landslides by taking their temperature: Combining mathematical and experimental modeling with field data on the case of the El Forn landslide (Andorra)
Published: 2020-10-25
Subjects: Engineering
In this study we are suggesting a temperature-based modeling approach for deep-seated landslides, validated through combined field monitoring and experimental testing. The Silurian shales of the shear band of El Forn landslide (Andorra) have been characterized through thermal and rate controlled triaxial tests, thereby calibrating a mathematical model that is used to monitor the behavior of [...]
The Global Warming Potential Misrepresents the Physics of Global Warming Thereby Misleading Policy Makers
Published: 2020-10-25
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy
The Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a widely used metric used to compare the climate change effects of various greenhouse gases. Although GWP has an established role in international climate agreements, GWP does not, in general, describe any specific identifiable impact of greenhouse gas emissions on climate. It is argued here that GWP is unphysical, unintuitive, arbitrary, ignores the time [...]
Modeling transpiration with sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence via water use efficiency and stomatal conductance
Published: 2020-10-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology
Successfully applied in the carbon research area, sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has raised the interest of researchers from the water research domain. However, the mechanism between SIF emitted by plants and transpiration (T) has not been fully explored. To improve the understanding of the relationship between SIF and T, we developed two SIF-T models, the WUE model and the [...]
India Flood Inventory: Creation of a multi-source national geospatial database to facilitate comprehensive flood research
Published: 2020-10-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Floods are one of the most devastating natural hazards across the world, with India being one of the worst affected countries in terms of fatalities and economic damage. In-depth research is required in order to understand the complex hydrometeorological and geomorphic factors at play and design solutions to minimize the impact of floods. But the existence of a historical inventory of floods is [...]
Global decline of deep water formation with increasing atmospheric CO2
Published: 2020-10-24
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Deep water formation is not only the driver of the global ocean circulation; by sending heat and carbon to the deep ocean, it is also crucial for climate change mitigation. Yet its future is uncertain: will it slow down as stratification increases, emerge in polar regions as the wind starts blowing over previously ice-covered waters, or intensify with increased evaporation? Here we present the [...]
Spatial Disaggregation of Particulate Matter Emission Inventory in the Metropolitan Area of Aburr\'a Valley for Air Quality Modelling
Published: 2020-10-24
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Other Environmental Sciences
In this paper a local emission inventory for PM10 and PM2.5 is presented that has been developed using a top-down spatial disaggregation of the official emission inventory for the Metropolitan Area of the Aburra Valley in Colombia. The local emission inventory was evaluated using the LOTOS-EUROS Chemical Transport Model in a high-resolution simulation, and compared with the global emission [...]
Mapping and classifying large deformation from digital imagery: application to analogue models of lithosphere deformation
Published: 2020-10-24
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), an image cross-correlation technique, is widely used for obtaining velocity fields from series of images of deforming objects. Rather than instantaneous velocities, we are interested in reconstructing cumulative deformation, and use PIV-derived incremental displacements for this purpose. Our focus is on analogue models of tectonic processes, which can accumulate [...]
Microbial lipid signatures in Arctic deltaic sediments - insights into methane cycling and climate variability
Published: 2020-10-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Glycerol Dialkyl Glycerol Tetraethers (GDGTs) are ubiquitous biomolecules whose structural diversity or isotopic composition is increasingly used to reconstruct environmental changes such as air temperatures or pCO2. Isoprenoid GDGTs, in particular GDGT-0, are biosynthesized by a large range of Archaea. To assess the potential of GDGT-0 as a tracer of past methane cycle variations, three sediment [...]
Characterizing seismic scattering in 3D heterogeneous Earth by a single parameter
Published: 2020-10-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We derive a theoretical parameter for three seismic scattering regimes where seismic wavelengths are either much shorter, similar, or much longer than the correlation length of small-scale Earth heterogeneities. We focus our analysis on the power spectral density of the von Karman autocorrelation function, used to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of small-scale variations of elastic rock [...]
A Storm Hazard Matrix combining coastal flooding and beach erosion
Published: 2020-10-24
Subjects: Oceanography, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Coastal storms cause widespread damage to property, infrastructure, economic activity and the environment. Along open sandy coastlines, two of the primary coastal storm hazards are coastal flooding by elevated ocean water levels and beach erosion as the result of storm wave action. At continental margins characterized by a shallow, wide continental shelf, coastal storms are more commonly [...]