Preprints
There are 4725 Preprints listed.
Geometry and topology of estuary and braided river channel networks automatically extracted from topographic data
Published: 2019-06-18
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Automatic and objective extraction of channel networks from topography in systems with multiple interconnected channels, like braided rivers and estuaries, remains a major challenge in hydrology and geomorphology. Representing channelized systems as networks provides a mathematical framework for analyzing transport and geomorphology. In this paper, we introduce a mathematically rigorous [...]
Optimizing Regional Climate Model Output for Hydro-Climate Applications in the Eastern Nile Basin
Published: 2019-06-18
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Hydrology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study focuses on the Eastern Nile (EN) Basin, most of whose water flows into the High Aswan Dam (HAD), Egypt. It is, therefore, crucial to have an accurate hydrological assessment overtime to plan water resource management in the area. With complex topography, it is important to capture most of the physics captured with the least bias in meteorological information. Weather Research and [...]
Tracing the migration of mantle CO2 in gas fields and mineral water springs in south-east Australia using noble gas and stable isotopes
Published: 2019-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Geochemical monitoring of CO2 storage requires understanding of both innate and introduced fluids in the crust as well as the subsurface processes that can change the geochemical fingerprint of CO2 during injection, storage and any subsequent migration. Here, we analyse a natural analogue of CO2 storage, migration and leakage to the atmosphere, using noble gas and stable isotopes to constrain the [...]
Active fault scarps in southern Malawi and their implications for the distribution of strain in incipient continental rifts
Published: 2019-06-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
The distribution of deformation during the early stages of continental rifting is an important constraint on our understanding of continental breakup. Incipient rifting in East Africa has been considered to be dominated by slip along rift border faults, with a subsequent transition to focussed extension on axial segments in thinned crust and/or with active magmatism. Here, we study [...]
Probing the chemical transformation of seawater-soluble crude oil components during microbial oxidation
Published: 2019-06-18
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Studies assessing the environmental impacts of oil spills focus primarily on the non-water-soluble components, leaving the fate of the water-soluble fraction (WSF) largely unexplored. We employed untargeted chemical analysis along with biological information to probe the transformation of crude oil WSF in seawater, in the absence of light, in a laboratory experiment. Over a 14-day incubation, [...]
Stepwise chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry with trace element analysis of microfractured Hadean zircon
Published: 2019-06-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Hadean Jack Hills zircons represent the oldest known terrestrial material, providing a unique and truly direct record of Hadean Earth history. This zircon population has been extensively studied via high spatial resolution, high throughput in situ isotopic and elemental analysis techniques such as secondary ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS), but not by comparatively destructive, [...]
Technical note: Limitations on the use of space borne differential SAR interferometry for systematic monitoring and failure forecast of alpine landslides
Published: 2019-06-16
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Recent advances on satellite geodesy have boosted our capabilities to map and monitor landslides globally with unprecedented resolutions. In this scenario, differential interferometry of space borne synthetic aperture radar imagery (DInSAR) plays a major role in identifying surface displacements associated to slope instabilities and in monitoring their spatial and temporal evolution. However, [...]
Evaluating the relationship between the area and latitude of large igneous provinces and Earth’s long-term climate state
Published: 2019-06-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
One of the hypothesized effects of large igneous provinces (LIPs) is planetary cooling on million-year timescales associated with enhanced silicate weathering of the freshly-emplaced basalt. This study combines reconstructions of the original surface extent and emplacement ages of LIPs, a paleogeographic model, and a parameterization of LIP erosion to estimate LIP area in all latitudinal bands [...]
Gravitational field calculation in spherical coordinates using variable densities in depth
Published: 2019-06-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a new methodology to compute the gravitational fields generated by tesseroids (spherical prisms) whose density varies with depth according to an arbitrary continuous function. It approximates the gravitational fields through the Gauss-Legendre Quadrature along with two discretization algorithms that automatically control its accuracy by adaptively dividing the tesseroid into smaller [...]
Areal parameter estimates from multiple datasets
Published: 2019-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A wide range of methods exist for interpolation between spatially distributed points drawn from a single population. Yet often multiple datasets are available with differing distribution, character and reliability. A simple scheme is introduced to allow the fusion of multiple datasets. Each dataset is assigned an a priori spatial influence zone around each point and a relative weight based on its [...]
Modification of fumarolic gases by the ice-covered edifice of Erebus volcano, Antarctica
Published: 2019-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
The chemistry of gases measured in ice caves and from warm geothermal ground at Erebus volcano, Antarctica, show that gas emissions are dominated by air, with varying amounts of added volcanic CO2. This suggests widespread circulation of air through the volcanic edifice, as well as spatially or temporally varying contributions from magmatic degassing. The resulting gases are further modified by [...]
Distributed sensing of earthquakes and ocean-solid Earth interactions on seafloor telecom cables
Published: 2019-06-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Two thirds of the surface of our planet are covered by water and are still poorly instrumented, which has prevented the earth science community from addressing numerous key scientific questions. The potential to leverage the existing fiber optic seafloor telecom cables that criss-cross the oceans, by turning them into dense arrays of seismo-acoustic sensors, remains to be evaluated. Here, we [...]
Understanding Low Cloud Mesoscale Morphology with an Information Maximizing Generative Adversarial Network
Published: 2019-06-05
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Atmospheric Sciences, Computer Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a class of machine learning algorithms with two neural networks, one generator and one discriminator, playing adversarial games with each other. Information maximizing GANs (InfoGANs) is a particular GAN type that tries to maximize mutual information between a subset of latent variables and generated samples, thereby establishing a mapping between the [...]
Decadal land-use/land-cover and land surface temperature change in Dubai and implications on the urban heat island effect: A preliminary assessment
Published: 2019-06-05
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, International and Area Studies, Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The emirate of Dubai is the most populous and most developed of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates. By the end of the 20th century, the emirate had shifted its economy from being primarily petroleum-based to a focus on tourism and financial services. The emirate’s capital, also named Dubai, has been growing at a rapid pace; the population in 1999 was 862,000 inhabitants, [...]
A new method for in-situ measurement of the erosion threshold of river channels
Published: 2019-06-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The vast majority of alluvial deposits have some degree of cohesion, typically due to the presence of clays and/or organic matter. Determining the threshold fluid shear stress necessary to entrain these sediments is essential for predicting erosion rates and morphodynamics of rivers, tidal channels, and coasts. Cohesive sediments present a greater challenge than non-cohesive sand and gravel beds [...]