Preprints
There are 6976 Preprints listed.
The Volcanic & Magmatic Studies Group Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2020
Published: 2020-07-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
The Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG) takes equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) seriously and we recognise that the under-representation and/or unconscious marginalisation of any group impacts on our ability to fulfill our mission to serve the volcanology, petrology and geochemistry community. The following report summarises the findings from both the 2016-2020 VMSG annual meetings [...]
Estimating survival probability using the terrestrial extinction history for the search for extraterrestrial life
Published: 2020-07-22
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Several exoplanets have been discovered to date, and the next step is the search for extraterrestrial life. However, it is difficult to estimate the number of life-bearing exoplanets because our only template is based on life on Earth. In this paper, a new approach is introduced to estimate the probability that life on Earth has survived from birth to the present based on its terrestrial [...]
A general expression for wave-induced sediment bypassing of an isolated headland
Published: 2020-07-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Accurate knowledge of the sediment budget of a coastal cell is necessary for coastal management and predicting long-term coastal change. An important component in the sediment budget of many wave-dominated embayed coastlines is the amount of sediment that bypasses rocky headlands, which present partial barriers to alongshore transport. Despite a recent surge in research interest in headland [...]
Magma pathways in sill-complexes
Published: 2021-03-09
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Loch Scridain Sill-complex on the Isle of Mull affords an opportunity to examine how magma moves through and builds sill-complexes (Holness & Humphreys 2003). For example, field and petrological evidence indicates the Tràigh Bhàn na Sgùrra Sill is segmented and comprised several thick channels, separated by thin sill portions, that facilitated longer-lived magma flow (Holness & Humphreys [...]
Navigating groundwater model uncertainty analysis
Published: 2020-07-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The design of a groundwater model is based on the model objective, the management or research question that the model seeks to address. Designing the uncertainty analysis of a groundwater models likewise needs to consider the objective of the uncertainty analysis; how the uncertainty in model predictions will be used. In this paper a framework is presented to consider the various dimensions of [...]
pipedream: an interactive digital twin model for urban drainage networks
Published: 2020-07-18
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Faced with growing water infrastructure challenges, many cities are now seeking to build digital twins of urban stormwater systems that combine sensor data with online models in order to better understand and control system dynamics. Towards this goal, this study presents pipedream—an end-to-end software toolkit for real-time modeling and state estimation in urban stormwater networks. The toolkit [...]
Stress perturbations from hydrological and industrial loads and seismicity in the Salt Lake City region
Published: 2020-07-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The March 18, 2020 M5.7 Magna earthquake awakened people from decades of seismic quiescence in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event occurred just east of a mine tailings impoundment that receives ~60 million tons/yr of ore waste products since the early 1900s. Here we investigate elastic loading effects due to the anthropogenic mass transfer and various natural hydrological loads. We note a possible [...]
Transgressive sills and lateral lava flows: On the visual observation of igneous sheets in rugged terrains and the optical illusion factor
Published: 2020-07-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Abstract Transgressive sills are of common occurrences in rift-related offshore and onshore sedimentary settings worldwide and have been reported in onshore volcanic settings in e.g. flood basalt provinces as well. General geometries of individual sills and of entire sill complexes too are well documented from seismic images in many offshore sedimentary settings of exploration interest, but [...]
Adopting deep learning methods for airborne RGB fluvial scene classification.
Published: 2020-07-18
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
River environments are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Enabled by the rapid development of drone technology, hyperspatial resolution (<10 cm) images of fluvial scenes are now a common data source used to better understand these sensitive habitats. However, the task of image classification remains challenging for this type of imagery and the application of traditional [...]
An Eddy-Zonal Flow Feedback Model for Propagating Annular Modes
Published: 2020-07-21
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The variability of the zonal-mean large-scale extratropical circulation is often studied using individual modes obtained from empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses. The prevailing reduced-order model of the leading EOF (EOF1) of zonal-mean zonal wind, called the annular mode, consists of an eddy-mean flow interaction mechanism that results in a positive feedback of EOF1 onto itself. [...]
Contributions of paleoecology to Easter Island’s prehistory: a thorough review
Published: 2020-07-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Sustainability
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is well known for the enigmas surrounding its unique megalithic statues, the moai, and the prehistoric (i.e., pre-European contact) Rapanui society that built them. These enigmas include, among others, the time of the island’s settlement, the geographical origin of the first settlers, the technology associated with moai transportation and emplacement, the occurrence (or [...]
The Anthropozoic era revisited
Published: 2020-07-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Stratigraphy
This paper explains in some detail the poorly known proposal of Stoppani (1873) regarding the Anthropozoic era, whose beginning was defined by the first traces of human presence on Earth. This author set the stratigraphic bases for the definition of the “human era”, but the proposal had two main weaknesses: the dismissal of biological evolution and the lack of an absolute chronology. Further [...]
Principles of Shortening in Salt Basins Containing Isolated Minibasins
Published: 2020-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Shortening styles in salt-influenced basins can vary markedly, with the volume and distribution of salt prior to shortening being a key control. Here we use a suite of physical models to examine styles of thin-skinned regional shortening in settings where the pre-shortening structure comprised minibasins surrounded by salt (‘isolated-minibasin’ provinces). Our models show that the high volume of [...]
Frequent Mass Movements from Glacial and Lahar Terraces, Controlled by Both Hillslope Characteristics and Fluvial Erosion, are an Important Sediment Source to Puget Sound Rivers
Published: 2020-07-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mass movements from glacial and lahar terraces in the middle and lower reaches of rivers draining the Washington Cascade Range to Puget Sound may represent a substantial portion of those rivers’ sediment supply and pose significant mass movement hazards. However, the quantitative importance of this sediment source is unknown, and the magnitudes, spatial distribution, styles, and controls of these [...]
Non-linear multiphase flow in hydrophobic porous media
Published: 2021-11-08
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Multiphase flow in porous materials is conventionally described by an empirical extension to Darcy’s law which assumes that the pressure gradient is proportional to flow rate. Through a series of two-phase flow experiments, we demonstrate that even when capillary forces are dominant at the pore scale, there is a non-linear intermittent flow regime with a power-law dependence between pressure gradient [...]