Preprints
There are 4715 Preprints listed.
Komatiites: their geochemistry and origins
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Komatiites are ultra-hot ultramafic lavas, largely restricted to the Archaean. They represent an extreme endmember of terrestrial magmatism and challenge our understanding of how mantle melting operates. We briefly introduce this compositionally diverse group of lavas and critically evaluate constraints on their formation. Despite evidence for moderate water contents in some komatiites, the vast [...]
FireSight: Utilizing Deep Learning for Wildfire Prediction And Determining Escape Routes
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Since 2000, seven million acres have burned every year. Yet, since robust analytics are scarce, capitalizing on machine learning algorithms have the capability to bridge gaps in decision making and effective deployment. Despite this, a major limitation in current research is resolution and accuracy. Utilizing public data from NASA’s MODIS, LP DAAC, University of Idaho, and UC Irvine, 12 input [...]
Inter-annual Variation of Summer Southwest Monsoon Rainfall over the Monsoon Core Region of the Eastern Bay of Bengal and its Relationship with Oceans
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Using rainfall data from the Observation and, ERA5 reanalysis of sea surface temperature, this study examined the inter-annual variation of summer southwest monsoon rainfall on the eastern Bay of Bengal (BoB) mainland Indochina regions associated with ENSO. The composite study exhibits decreased rainfall in the eastern coastal region of BoB, and an increase in the northern Indo-Myanmar region [...]
Messages from the past; the petroglyphs of El Hierro Island
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Ancient cultures have frequently made use of stone surfaces to carve and engrave symbols, letters and messages for others. These petroglyphs usually have a lasting character and are frequently preserved well beyond the survival of the culture that produced the petroglyphs. In this article we focus on the written and pictorial testimony of the pre-Hispanic era of the island of El Hierro [...]
Chapter 4. Bacterial and archaeal DNA from lake sediments
Published: 2023-09-22
Subjects: Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
General microbial patterns of biogeography can be established based on sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) retrieved from diverse inland aquatic ecosystems, provided that certain variable environmental factors are taken into consideration in order to trace the admixture of prokaryotic sedDNA preserved in lacustrine sediments from source to sink. These include several watershed characteristics, such as [...]
Catchment characterization: current descriptors, knowledge gaps and future opportunities
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
An ability to describe hydrologically relevant differences between places is at the core of our science. A common way to characterize hydrological catchments is to use descriptors that summarize important physical aspects of the system, often by aggregating heterogeneous geospatial data into a single number. Such descriptors aim to capture various facets of catchment functioning and structure, [...]
Complexity in the 3D stress fields of mid-ocean ridge tectonics: a manifestation of sub-crustal mush dynamics
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mid-ocean ridge (MOR) systems evolve in strongly heterogeneous stress environments. However, the origin of such stress complexity still awaits a comprehensive explanation, which is the central theme of the present article. This study develops a thermo-mechanical model to demonstrate the multi-ordered 3D convective circulations, produced by decompression melting in the mushy region, as the key [...]
Groundwaterscapes: A global classification and mapping of groundwater’s large-scale socioeconomic, ecological, and Earth system functions
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Physical and Environmental Geography, Spatial Science, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Groundwater is a dynamic component of the global water cycle with important social, economic, ecological, and Earth system functions. We present a new global classification and mapping of groundwater systems, which we call groundwaterscapes, that represent predominant configurations of large-scale groundwater system functions. We identify 18 groundwaterscapes, which offer a new lens to [...]
The 2021 La Palma eruption; social dilemmas resulting from living close to an active volcano
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Damage and destruction caused by the 2021 eruption of the Tajogaite volcano on La Palma was unprecedented relative to other historical eruptions of the last century (1909, 1949, 1971, 2011) in the Canary Islands. The devastation caused by the eruption was not a result of eruption magnitude, which was only marginally larger than other historical events, but instead of increasing vulnerability due [...]
Shifting institutional culture to develop climate solutions with Open Science
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
TROPOMI/S5P sensitivity limits with respect to detection of NO2 plumes from seagoing ships
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Monitoring
The marine shipping industry is among the strong emitters of nitrogen oxides (NOx) -- a substance harmful to ecology and human health. Monitoring of emissions from shipping is a significant societal task. Currently, the only technical possibility to observe NO2 emission from seagoing ships on a global scale is using TROPOMI data. A range of studies reported that NO2 plumes from some individual [...]
Reactive iron as an important reservoir of marine organic carbon over geological timescales
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Microbiology
Reactive iron (FeR) has been suggested to serve as a semi-persistent sink of organic carbon (OC) in surface marine sediments, where approximately 10-20% of total OC (TOC) is associated with FeR (FeR-OC). However, the persistence of FeR-OC on geological timescales remains poorly constrained. Here, we retrieved FeR-OC records in two long sediment cores of the northern South China Sea spanning [...]
Imprint of chaos on the ocean energy cycle from an eddying North Atlantic ensemble
Published: 2023-09-18
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We examine the ocean energy cycle where the eddies are defined about the ensemble mean of a partially air-sea coupled, eddy-rich ensemble simulation of the North Atlantic. The decomposition about the ensemble mean leads to a parameter-free definition of eddies, which is interpreted as the expression of oceanic chaos. Using the ensemble framework, we define the reservoirs of mean and eddy kinetic [...]
Antarctic Geothermal Heat Flow, Crustal Conductivity and Heat Production Inferred From Seismological Data
Published: 2023-09-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Geothermal heat flow is a key parameter in governing ice dynamics, via its influence on basal melt and sliding, englacial rheology, and erosion. It is expected to exhibit significant lateral variability across Antarctica. Despite this, surface heat flow derived from Earth's interior remains one of the most poorly constrained parameters controlling ice-sheet evolution. To obtain a continent-wide [...]
Effects on Target Geology
Published: 2023-09-15
Subjects: Planetary Sciences
The process of impact crater formation can fundamentally change the nature of target materials, creating products that can be observed from planetary-scale geophysics all the way down to mineral microstructure. Impact-generated shock waves can vaporise, melt, and permanently deform the materials they pass through. Large quantities of the target are damaged and displaced, ejecting material outside [...]