Preprints
There are 6093 Preprints listed.
Reconstructing the morphologies and hydrodynamics of ancient rivers from source to sink: Cretaceous Western Interior Basin, Utah, USA
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy
Quantitative reconstruction of palaeohydrology from fluvial stratigraphy provides sophisticated insights into the response, and relative impact, of tectonic and climatic drivers on ancient fluvial landscapes. Here, field measurements and a suite of quantitative approaches are used to develop a four-dimensional (space and time) reconstruction of palaeohydrology in Late Cretaceous palaeorivers of [...]
A benthic light index of water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Good water quality is essential to the health of marine ecosystems, yet current metrics used to track water quality in the Great Barrier Reef are not strongly tied to ecological outcomes. There is a need for a better water quality index (WQI). Benthic light, the amount of light reaching the seafloor, is critical for coral and seagrass health and is strongly affected by water quality. It therefore [...]
Enhanced hydrological cycle increases ocean heat uptake and moderates transient climate sensitivity
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Climate, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
The large-scale moistening of the atmosphere in response to increasing greenhouse gases amplifies the existing patterns of precipitation minus evaporation (P-E) which, in turn, amplifies the spatial contrast in sea surface salinity (SSS). Through a series of CO2 doubling experiments, we demonstrate that surface salinification driven by the amplified dry conditions (P-E < 0), primarily in the [...]
Double-difference earthquake relocation using waveform cross-correlation in Central and East Java, Indonesia (Preprint)
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
The Central and East Java region, which is part of the Sunda Arc, has relatively high seismic rates due to the convergence of two major tectonic plates in the Indonesian region; i.e., the Indo-Australian Plate subducting under the Eurasian Plate. Many devastating earthquakes have occurred in this area as a result of the interaction between these two plates. Two examples are the 1994 Banyuwangi [...]
Deformation memory in the lithosphere: A comparison of damage-dependent weakening and grain-size sensitive rheologies
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Strain localization in the lithosphere and the formation, evolution, and maintenance of resulting plate boundaries play a crucial role in plate tectonics and thermo-chemical mantle convection. Previously activated lithospheric deformation zones often appear to maintain a “memory” of weakening, leading to tectonic inheritance within plate reorganizations including the Wilson cycle. Different [...]
Automatic Slowness Vector Measurements of Seismic Arrivals with Uncertainty Estimates using Bootstrap Sampling, Array Methods and Unsupervised Learning
Published: 2020-11-25
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Horizontal slowness vector measurements using array techniques have been used to analyse many Earth phenomena from lower mantle heterogeneity to meteorological event location. While providing observations essential for studying much of the Earth, slowness vector analysis is limited by the necessary and subjective visual inspection of observations. Furthermore, it is challenging to determine the [...]
Detection and forecasting of shallow landslides: lessons from a natural laboratory
Published: 2020-11-23
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Rapid shallow landslides are a significant hillslope erosion mechanism and limited understanding of their initiation and development results in persistent risk to infrastructure. Here, we analyse the slope above the strategic A83 Rest and be Thankful road in the west of Scotland. An inventory of 70 landslides (2003–2020) shows three types of shallow landslide, debris flows, creep deformation, and [...]
A Vision for the Future Low-Temperature Geochemical Data-scape
Published: 2020-11-21
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Other Computer Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Soil Science
Data sharing benefits the researcher, the scientific community, and most importantly, the public by enabling more impactful analysis of data and greater transparency in scientific research. However, like many other scientists, the low-temperature geochemistry (LTG) community has generally not developed protocols and standards for publishing, citing, and versioning datasets. This paper is the [...]
Rare occurrences of non-cascading foreshock activity in Southern California
Published: 2020-11-20
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Earthquakes preceding large events are commonly referred as foreshocks. They are often considered as precursory signals reflecting the nucleation process of the main rupture. Such foreshock sequences may also be explained by cascades of triggered events. Recent advances in earthquake detection is a motivation to re-evaluate seismicity variations prior to mainshocks. Based on a highly complete [...]
Mantle earthquakes in recently thinned Neoproterozoic lithosphere: Harrat Lunayyir, Saudi Arabia
Published: 2020-11-20
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
We use earthquake geothermometry, measured heat flow, and structural constraints from P-wave receiver functions to model the thermal evolution of the lithosphere beneath Harrat Lunayyir. We suggest that the lithosphere thinned to its present 60-km thickness in a second stage of lithospheric thinning at 15–12 Ma following initial Red Sea extension at ~27 Ma. Harrat Lunayyir is an active volcanic [...]
Particle energy partitioning and transverse diffusion during rarefied travel on an experimental hillslope
Published: 2020-11-19
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology
Recent theoretical and experimental work (Furbish et al., 2020a, 2020b) indicates that rarefied particle motions on rough hillslope surfaces are controlled by the balance between gravitational heating of particles due to conversion of potential to kinetic energy and frictional cooling of the particles due to collisions with the surface. Here we elaborate how particle energy is partitioned [...]
A quantitative assessment of the hydrogen storage capacity of the UK continental shelf
Published: 2020-11-19
Subjects: Oil, Gas, and Energy
Increased penetration of renewable energy sources and decarbonisation of the UK's gas supply will require large-scale energy storage. Using hydrogen as an energy storage vector, we estimate that 150 TWh of seasonal storage is required to replace seasonal variations in natural gas production. Large-scale storage is best suited to porous rock reservoirs. We present a method to quantify the hydrogen [...]
Photogrammetry in ichnology: 3D model generation, visualisation, and data extraction
Published: 2020-11-19
Subjects: Paleontology
3D digitisation of surfaces became a standard procedure in ichnology in recent years. 3D models allow not only for the digital preservation of vulnerable ichnological records, but also for the illustration, qualitative description, and quantitative analysis of the fossils. Here we discuss how to obtain photographs for photogrammetry, to generate, scale, and orient the models, and to extract [...]
The development of intermittent multiphase fluid flow pathways through a porous rock
Published: 2020-11-18
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Intermittent fluid flow has recently been identified as an important transport mode for subsurface multiphase flow systems such as CO2 storage and natural gas production. However, due to experimental limitations, it has not been possible to identify why intermittency occurs at subsurface conditions and what the implications are for upscaled flow properties such as relative permeability. We [...]
Times associated with source-to-sink propagation of environmental signals during landscape transience
Published: 2020-11-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Sediment archives in the terrestrial and marine realm are regularly analyzed to infer changes in climate and tectonic boundary conditions of the past. However, contradictory observations have been made regarding whether short period events are faithfully preserved in stratigraphic archives; for instance, in marine sediments offshore large river systems. On the one hand, short period events are [...]