Preprints
There are 5493 Preprints listed.
Acquisition of Data for Building Photogrammetric Virtual Outcrop Models for the Geosciences using Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs)
Published: 2021-09-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Over the past five years the use of 3D models in the Earth Sciences has become ubiquitous. These models, termed Virtual outcrops, are most commonly generated using Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry, an image-based modelling method that has achieved widespread uptake and utilization. Data for these models is commonly acquired using remotely piloted aerial vehicles (RPVs), commonly called [...]
Scum of the Earth: a hypothesis for prebiotic multi-compartmentalised environments}
Published: 2021-09-14
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences
Compartmentalisation by bioenergetic membranes is a universal feature of life. The eventual compartmentalisation of prebiotic systems is therefore often argued to comprise a key step during the origin of life. Compartments may have been active participants in prebiotic chemistry, concentrating and spatially organising key reactants. However, most prebiotically plausible compartments are leaky or [...]
Discovery of Deccan Inclination Anomaly and its possible geodynamic implications over the Indian Plate
Published: 2021-09-14
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The rapid northward drift of the Indian plate during Deccan volcanism assumes a gradual shallowing of paleomagnetic inclinations in subsequent lava flow formations. A comparison of palaeomagnetic data produced during the last six decades reveals an inclination anomaly during Chron C29r (66.398 - 65.688 Ma) along with brief clockwise-counter-clockwise rotations during and after the main phase [...]
Three-dimensional fluid-driven stable frictional ruptures
Published: 2021-09-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
We investigate the quasi-static growth of a fluid-driven frictional shear crack that propagates in mixed mode (II+III) on a planar fault interface that separates two identical half-spaces of a three-dimensional solid. The fault interface is characterized by a shear strength equal to the product of a constant friction coefficient and the local effective normal stress. Fluid is injected into the [...]
On the asymmetry of cyclones and anticyclones in the cellular regime of rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection
Published: 2021-09-13
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RRBC) denotes the free convection between two parallel plates with a fixed temperature difference, placed in a rotating reference frame. It is a prototype model of geophysical and astrophysical convection. Rotation breaks the symmetry on its rotating axis, making the cyclones and anticyclones unequal in size and magnitude. Such an asymmetry has long been [...]
A NEW APPROACH TO IDENTIFY ON-GROUND LAMP TYPES FROM NIGHT-TIME ISS IMAGES
Published: 2021-09-12
Subjects: Planetary Sciences
Artificial night-time light (NTL), emitted by various on-ground human activities, becomes further intensive in many regions worldwide. Its adverse effects on humans’ and ecosystems’ health crucially depend on the light spectrum, making the remote discrimination between different lamps a highly important task. However, such studies remain extremely limited, and none of them exploits freely [...]
GAIANIZING DARWIN: NATURAL SELECTION IMPAIRS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PLANETARY TEMPERATURE SELF-REGULATION
Published: 2021-09-11
Subjects: Life Sciences
Many neo-Darwinists have rejected the Gaia hypothesis, arguing that organisms cannot reach a common good by natural selection and that natural selection cannot act on the whole planet. In response, Watson and Lovelock put forward a model they called Daisyworld (Dw), a hypothetical planet which can regulate its temperature over a wide range of solar luminosities. This is accomplished by ordinary [...]
A re-evaluation of wetland carbon sink mitigation concepts and measurements: A diagenetic solution
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Life Sciences
The capacity of wetlands to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the sum of two services–the protection of vulnerable organic stocks from remineralisation, and the capacity to sequester GHGs relative to their anthropogenic replacements. Organic carbon accumulation (CA) down through the sediment column is often taken as the measure of sequestration because of its capacity to record long-term [...]
Streambed pollution: A comprehensive review of its sources, eco-hydro-geo-chemical impacts, assessment, and mitigation strategies
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Streambeds are an integral component of the river ecosystems. It provides habitat for a vast array of benthic and aquatic organisms as well as facilitates the bio-degradation and transformation of organic matter and other nutrients. Increasing anthropogenic influence introduces multiple stressors to the stream networks resulting in pollution of streambeds, which in turn, could have detrimental [...]
Interpretable Models Capture the Complex Relationship Between Climate Indices and Fire Season Intensity in Maritime Southeast Asia
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Statistical Models
There have been many extreme fire seasons in Maritime Southeast Asia (MSEA) over the last two decades, a trend which will likely continue or accelerate due to climate change. Fires, in turn, are a major driver of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) variability, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Here we attempt to maximize the amount of CO variability that can be explained via [...]
Flow-dependent and dynamical systems analyses of predictability of the Pacific-North American summertime circulation
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Dynamical Systems, Earth Sciences
Forecast skills of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and intrinsic predictability can be flow-dependent, e.g., different among weather regimes. Here, we have examined the predictability of distinct Pacific-North American weather regimes in June-September. Four weather regimes are identified using a self-organizing map analysis of daily 500-hPa geopotential height anomalies, and are [...]
The dynamics of the Campi Flegrei caldera magma chamber.
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Fluid Dynamics, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Volcanology
The Campi Flegrei volcanic system is certainly a remarkable case study for what concerns magma chamber dynamics. In fact, its magmatic and volcanic history appears to have been largely driven by chamber processes like fractional crystallization, magma mixing, and volatile degassing. These processes have been intensely investigated with a variety of approaches that are described in many chapters [...]
Integrating the ‘the triangle of geography, geology and geophysics’ into sustainable development
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
In the context of tackling climate change in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, HRH Prince El-Hassan bin Talal has called for an integrated approach to human and natu-ral resources management that takes account of ‘the triangle of geography, geology and geophysics’. The lack of application of geoscientific knowledge to sustainable develop-ment issues is surprising given that advancing [...]
An open workflow for the study of unseen weather extremes
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Climate, Hydrology, Meteorology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Ensemble members from weather and climate predictions can be used to generate large samples of simulated weather events, allowing the estimation of extreme (hitherto unseen) events. Here, we provide a protocol and open workflow for applying the ‘UNSEEN’ method for hydro-climatic extremes globally, based on Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S) seasonal predictions but also considering other [...]
Inhibition of photoferrotrophy by nitric oxide in ferruginous environments
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Anoxygenic phototrophic Fe(II)-oxidizers (photoferrotrophs) are thought to have thrived in Earth’s ancient ferruginous oceans and played a primary role in the precipitation of Archean and Paleoproterozoic (3.8-1.85 Ga) banded iron formations (BIF). The end of BIF deposition by photoferrotrophs has often been interpreted as being the result a deepening of water column oxygenation below the photic [...]