Preprints
There are 5427 Preprints listed.
A Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Railroad Network: Case Study for Iowa
Published: 2023-12-29
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Risk Analysis
Climate-induced disasters, particularly floods, pose a substantial risk to human well-being. These risks encompass economic losses, infrastructural damage, disruption of daily life, and potential loss of life. This study focuses on understanding flood risks to critical infrastructure, emphasizing the resilience and reliability of essential services during such disasters. In the United States, the [...]
The Severe Storm Index: Gauging our progress in the “War-Effort” against climate change
Published: 2023-12-27
Subjects: Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
While it is difficult, if not impossible, for most humans to conceptualize CO2 levels or ocean temperatures, we are very aware of the growing number of storms and their increase in severity. Indeed, according to the National Weather Service, the number of severe storms has increased in the United States from 1 – 3/decade in the 1950s through the 1980s, to 8/decade in the 1990s, 30/decade in the [...]
Deep-Water Fan Hierarchy: Assumptions, Evidence, and Numerical Modelling Analysis
Published: 2023-12-26
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Submarine fan strata are commonly described and interpreted assuming a nested, hierarchical organisation of elements, from beds, to lobe elements, lobes and lobe complexes. However, describing outcrop and subsurface strata following a particular conceptual method or model is never evidence in itself that the model or method accurately reflects the true nature of the strata. To develop better [...]
Geochronology and geodynamics of collision magmatism in the Southern Uplands-Down-Longford Terrane in Scotland and Ireland
Published: 2023-12-24
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The relationship between igneous activity and the geodynamics of subduction and collision is uncertain in northern Britain and Ireland, which lay on the Laurentian margin during accretion of Baltica and peri-Gondwanan terranes during the Palaeozoic Caledonian - Acadian orogenies. There is uncertainty over the relevance and timing of Iapetus slab breakoff beneath the Laurentian margin, and modest [...]
Diverse Carbonates in Exoplanet Oceans Promote the Carbon Cycle
Published: 2023-12-22
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Sciences
Carbonate precipitation in oceans is essential for the carbonate-silicate cycle (inorganic carbon cycle) to maintain temperate climates. By considering the thermodynamics of carbonate chemistry, we demonstrate that the ocean pH decreases by approximately 0.5 for a factor of 10 increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide content. The upper and lower limits of ocean pH are within 1-4 of each other, [...]
Dye tracing of upward brine migration in snow
Published: 2023-12-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences
The presence of salt in the snow overlying seasonal sea ice has profound thermodynamic and electromagnetic effects. However, the way that it arrives and is distributed within the marine snowpack remains poorly understood and modelled. We describe two experiments tracing upward brine movement in snow: one laboratory experiment at Rothera research station, West Antarctica, and a field experiment in [...]
Open-source approach for reproducible substrate mapping using semantic segmentation on recreation-grade side scan sonar datasets
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Analysis, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Databases and Information Systems, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Numerical Analysis and Computation, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Programming Languages and Compilers, Software Engineering, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management
Knowledge of the variation and distribution of substrates at large spatial extents in aquatic systems, particularly rivers, is severely lacking, impeding species conservation and ecosystem restoration efforts. Air and space-borne remote sensing important for terrestrial and atmospheric measurements are limited in benthic environments due to river stage, turbidity, and canopy cover, requiring [...]
On sea ice emission modeling for MOSAiC's L-band radiometric measurements
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The retrieval of sea ice thickness using L-band passive remote sensing requires robust models for emission from sea ice. In this work, measurements obtained from surface-based radiometers during the MOSAiC expedition are assessed with the Burke, Wilheit and SMRT radiative transfer models. These models encompass distinct methodologies: radiative transfer with/without wave coherence effects, and [...]
Investigation of Liquefaction Potential in Sands Mixed with Gravel
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Engineering
Liquefaction is one of the significant hazards associated with earthquakes. It was previously believed to occur mostly in clean sands; however, recent research has shown that liquefaction can occur in specific conditions in sands mixed with fine or coarse particles. Numerous studies have been conducted on clean sand, while limited research has focused on sands mixed with silt. Nevertheless, the [...]
MoonIndex, an Open-Source Tool to Generate Spectral Indexes for the Moon from M3 Data
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Spectral indexes are tools widely used to analyze the composition of planetary surfaces. Many indexes have been formulated over the years to map the lunar surface, but there is no unified database for them. In this work we describe an Open-Source Python package called MoonIndex, that recreates thirty-eight indexes compiled from the literature, using data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3). The [...]
Sustainable Living Unveiled: A Comprehensive Review of Key Studies on Zero Energy Homes
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
The journey to achieve Net Zero Energy in residential areas has progressed slowly. However, in recent times, the research behind accessing Net Zero has become more consistent. This paper discusses the steps to be taken in terms of technology, energy consumption, and energy efficiency to reach the goal of Net Zero. The timeline has been changed throughout discovering new and improved ways to [...]
Shortening and extrusion in the East Anatolian Plateau: how was Neogene Arabia-Europe convergence tectonically accommodated?
Published: 2023-12-21
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Deformation in orogenic belts is typically widely distributed but may be localized to form discrete, fast-moving fault zones enclosing semi-rigid microplates. An example is the Anatolian microplate, which is extruding westwards from the East Anatolian Plateau in the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone along the North and East Anatolian Faults that cause devastating earthquakes, including the February [...]
Zero Energy Homes: Definitions, Design Considerations, Challenges, and Real-world Applications
Published: 2023-12-20
Subjects: Engineering, Life Sciences
In the pursuit of sustainable living, Zero Energy Homes (ZEHs) have emerged as a promising solution to mitigate the carbon footprint of residential housing. This review paper explores the multifaceted realm of ZEHs by examining diverse definitions, design considerations, challenges, and real-world applications. The lack of standardized definitions is addressed, encompassing variations from [...]
Comprehensive Analysis of Riverine Flood Impact on Bridge and Transportation Network: Iowa Case Study
Published: 2023-12-20
Subjects: Environmental Engineering
Floods often have a catastrophic impact on human life in terms of economic loss, infrastructure damage, and loss of life. Transportation network resilience is one of the critical aspects of supply lines for delivering goods and services during and after disaster events. Understanding vulnerable transportation segments is critical to addressing potential disruptions that may be caused by a flood [...]
Field testing autogenic storage thresholds for environmental signals in the strata of the Mississippi River Delta, U.S.A.
Published: 2023-12-19
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Sediments transported from source terrains to depositional sinks carry environmental signals, which may or may not be preserved in stratigraphy. Recently developed theory suggests storage thresholds for environmental signals are set by the internal dynamics of sediment transport systems. For the first time, we explore this theory by testing whether changes in relative sea level (RSL) of various [...]