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At least 1,783 records · Page 99
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Seismic Velocity Change Patterns Along the San Jacinto Fault Zone Following the 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor–Cucapah and M 5.4 Collins Valley Earthquakes

We study temporal changes of seismic velocity (d v /v ) in the crust around the central section of the San Jacinto fault zone (SJFZ), Southern California. Focusing on a 200-day-long period around April 2010, our analysis resolves two tens-of-days-long successive episodes of reduced velocities that are compatible with signals from the long base strainmeter at the Piñon Flat Observatory. The imaged d v /v sequences are proxies for evolving material properties in the crust surrounding the SJFZ. The temporal and the spatial coincidence of the observed d v /v patterns with the occurrence of two proposed creep episodes suggest that the relative velocity changes reflect the response to deep creep events that follow the M 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake and the M 5.4 Collins Valley earthquake that occurred 94 days later on the San Jacinto fault. The main slip during the creep events was proposed to occur below 10-km depth. Wavefield properties suggest sensitivity to medium changes above this source zone, in the top 10 km. The distribution of the obtained d v /v reductions shows a strong difference between large values to the west of the SJFZ and significantly smaller amplitudes to the east. The similarity to the seasonal velocity change pattern implies that the results are likely controlled by the contrast of mechanical properties across the fault, such as fault-perpendicular shear modulus variations. Our analysis extends the spectrum of methods that can be used to study earthquake interaction, fault zone rheology and dynamics, triggering, and the interplay between creep episodes and earthquakes.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

SiO 2 –SiC Mixtures at High Pressures and Temperatures: Implications for Planetary Bodies Containing SiC

We present results from high–pressure and high–temperature experiments on mixtures of SiC and SiO 2 to explore the stability of SiC in the presence of oxygen–rich silicates at planetary mantle conditions. We observe no evidence of the ambient pressure predicted oxidation products, CO or SiO, resulting from oxidation reactions between SiC and SiO 2 at pressures up to ~40 GPa and temperatures up to ~2500 K. We observe the decomposition of SiC through releasing C, resulting in vacancies in the SiC lattice and consequently the contracted SiC ambient volume V0 observed in the heated regions of sample. The decomposition is further supported by the observations of diamond formation and the expanded SiO 2 V0 in the heated regions of samples indicating the incorporation of C into SiO2 stishovite. We provide a new interpretation of SiC decomposition on laboratory timescales, in which kinetics prevent the reaction from reaching equilibrium. We consider how the equilibrium decomposition reaction of SiC will influence the differentiation of a SiC–containing body on planetary timescales and find that the decomposition products may become isolated during early planetary differentiation. Here, the resulting presence of elemental Si and C within a planetary body may have important consequences for the compositions of the mantles and atmospheres of such planets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Modeling Transient Soil Moisture Limitations on Microbial Carbon Respiration

Soil microorganisms are known to survive periods of aridity and to recover rapidly after wetting events, with the ability to transition between a dormant state in dry conditions and an active state in wet conditions. While this dynamic behavior has been previously incorporated into soil carbon respiration modeling frameworks, a direct comparison between this active-dormant transition mechanism and a more simplified first-order model has yet to be made. Here, we demonstrate the necessary extent of model complexity needed to reproduce transient carbon respiration rates obtained from a set of soil incubation experiments implemented over a range of soil depths and time intervals. Two approaches are tested, one uses simplified first-order kinetics, whereas the other employs a transition between active and dormant biomass. The performance of each model is evaluated using an Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) based on the accuracy with which they reproduce an experimental dataset consisting of two sets of time series soil incubations collected across a range of time and depth resolutions. Based on the AIC evaluation and model-data comparison, we conclude that a dormancy-enabled model featuring two distinct microbial strategists performs best for the majority of the soil profile (above 108 cm) for both high and low depth resolution and sampling frequency, despite the added parameters required. In contrast, the first-order model achieves better AIC scores when simulating our deepest soils (112–165 cm), where moisture fluctuations are expected to be less prevalent. These findings guide how and where we choose to apply more cost intensive models.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Long-Term Measurements of Methane Ebullition From Thaw Ponds

Arctic regions are experiencing rapid warming, leading to permafrost thaw and formation of numerous water bodies. Although small ponds in particular are considered hot spots for methane (CH 4 ) release, long-term studies of CH 4 efflux from these surfaces are rare. We have collected an extensive data set of CH 4 ebullition (bubbling) measurements from eight small thaw ponds (<0.001 km 2 ) with different physical and hydrological characteristics over four summer seasons, the longest set of observations from thaw ponds to date. The measured fluxes were highly variable with an average of 20.0 mg CH 4 · m -2 · day -1 (median: 4.1 mg CH 4 · m -2 · day -1 , n = 2,063) which is higher than that of most nearby lakes. The ponds were categorized into four types based on clear and significant differences in bubble flux. We found that the amount of CH 4 released as bubbles from ponds was very weakly correlated with environmental variables, like air temperature and atmospheric pressure, and was potentially more related to differences in physical characteristics of the ponds. Using our measured average daily bubble flux plus the available literature, we estimate circumpolar thaw ponds <0.001 km 2 in size to emit between 0.2 and 1.0 Tg of CH 4 through ebullition. Our findings exemplify the importance of high-frequency measurements over long study periods in order to adequately capture the variability of these water bodies. Through the expansion of current spatial and temporal monitoring efforts, we can increase our ability to estimate CH 4 emissions from permafrost pond ecosystems now and in the future.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Quantifying Soil Phosphorus Dynamics: A Data Assimilation Approach

The dynamics of soil phosphorus (P) control its bioavailability. Yet it remains a challenge to quantify soil P dynamics. In this work we developed a soil P dynamics (SPD) model. We then assimilated eight data sets of 426-day changes in Hedley P fractions into the SPD model, to quantify the dynamics of six major P pools in eight soil samples that are representative of a wide type of soils. The performance of our SPD model was better for labile P, secondary mineral P, and occluded P than for nonoccluded organic P (Po) and primary mineral P. All parameters describing soil P dynamics were approximately constrained by the data sets. The average turnover rates were labile P 0.040 g g -1 day-1, nonoccluded Po 0.051 g g -1 day -1 , secondary mineral P 0.023 g g -1 day -1 , primary mineral P 0.00088 g g -1 day -1 , occluded Po 0.0066 g g -1 day -1 , and occluded inorganic P 0.0065 g g -1 day -1 , in the greenhouse environment studied. Labile P was transferred on average more to nonoccluded Po (transfer coefficient of 0.42) and secondary mineral P (0.38) than to plants (0.20). Soil pH and organic C concentration were the key soil properties regulating the competition for P between plants and soil secondary minerals. The turnover rate of labile P was positively correlated with that of nonoccluded Po and secondary mineral P. The pool size of labile P was most sensitive to its turnover rate. Overall, we suggest data assimilation can contribute significantly to an improved understanding of soil P dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Representing Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Carbon Interactions in the E3SM Land Model: Development and Global Benchmarking

Over the past several decades, the land modeling community has recognized the importance of nutrient regulation on the global terrestrial carbon cycle. Implementations of nutrient limitation in land models are diverse, varying from applying simple empirical down–regulation of potential gross primary productivity under nutrient deficit conditions to more mechanistic treatments. In this study, we introduce a new approach to model multinutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) limitations in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model version 1 (ELMv1–ECA). The development is grounded on (1) advances in representing multiple–consumer, multiple–nutrient competition; (2) a generic dynamic allocation scheme based on water, N, P, and light availability; (3) flexible plant CNP stoichiometry; (4) prognostic treatment of N and P constraints on several carbon cycle processes; and (5) global data sets of plant physiological traits. Through benchmarking the model against best knowledge of global plant and soil carbon pools and fluxes, we show that our implementation of nutrient constraints on the present–day carbon cycle is robust at the global scale. Compared with predecessor versions, ELMv1–ECA better predicts global–scale gross primary productivity, ecosystem respiration, leaf area index, vegetation biomass, soil carbon stocks, evapotranspiration, N2O emissions, and NO3– leaching. Factorial experiments imply that representing the phosphorus cycle improves modeled carbon fluxes, while considering dynamic allocation improves modeled carbon stock density. We also illustrate the value of using the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) package to evaluate and document performance during model development.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Community Land Model Version 5: Description of New Features, Benchmarking, and Impact of Forcing Uncertainty

The Community Land Model (CLM) is the land component of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and is used in several global and regional modeling systems. In this paper, we introduce model developments included in CLM version 5 (CLM5), which is the default land component for CESM2. We assess an ensemble of simulations, including prescribed and prognostic vegetation state, multiple forcing data sets, and CLM4, CLM4.5, and CLM5, against a range of metrics including from the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMBv2) package. CLM5 includes new and updated processes and parameterizations: (1) dynamic land units, (2) updated parameterizations and structure for hydrology and snow (spatially explicit soil depth, dry surface layer, revised groundwater scheme, revised canopy interception and canopy snow processes, updated fresh snow density, simple firn model, and Model for Scale Adaptive River Transport), (3) plant hydraulics and hydraulic redistribution, (4) revised nitrogen cycling (flexible leaf stoichiometry, leaf N optimization for photosynthesis, and carbon costs for plant nitrogen uptake), (5) global crop model with six crop types and time-evolving irrigated areas and fertilization rates, (6) updated urban building energy, (7) carbon isotopes, and (8) updated stomatal physiology. New optional features include demographically structured dynamic vegetation model (Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator), ozone damage to plants, and fire trace gas emissions coupling to the atmosphere. Conclusive establishment of improvement or degradation of individual variables or metrics is challenged by forcing uncertainty, parametric uncertainty, and model structural complexity, but the multivariate metrics presented here suggest a general broad improvement from CLM4 to CLM5.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Mechanisms of Methane Hydrate Formation in Geological Systems

Natural gas hydrate is ice-like mixture of gas (mostly methane) and water that is widely found in sediments along the world's continental margins and within and beneath permafrost and glaciers in a near-surface depth interval where the pressure is sufficiently high and temperature sufficiently low for gas hydrate to be stable. We categorize the myriad of geological gas hydrate deposits into five characteristic types. We then review the multiple quantitative models that have proposed to describe the genesis of these deposits and describe how each may have formed. We emphasize the importance of coupling multiphase flow (free gas and liquid water) and multicomponent reactive transport with geological history to describe the dynamical processes of gas hydrate formation and evolution in geological systems. A better insight into the kinetics of methane formation from microbial biogenesis and the processes of multiphase flow at the pore scale will advance our knowledge of how these systems form. By understanding the generation and evolution of gas hydrate through time, we will better decipher the role of gas hydrate in the carbon cycle, its potential to contribute to climate change and geohazards, and how to design optimal strategies for gas production from hydrate reservoirs.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ripple Effects: Bed Form Morphodynamics Cascading Into Hyporheic Zone Biogeochemistry

The water quality and ecosystem health of river corridors depend on the biogeochemical processes occurring in the hyporheic zones (HZs) of the beds and banks of rivers. HZs in riverbeds often form because of bed forms. Despite widespread and persistent variation in river flow, how the discharge- and grain size-dependent geometry of bed forms and how bed form migration collectively and systematically affects hyporheic exchange flux, solute transport, and biogeochemical reaction rates are unknown. As such, we investigated these linked processes through morphodynamically consistent multiphysics numerical simulation experiments. Several realistic ripple geometries based on bed form stability criteria using mean river flow velocity and median sediment grain size were designed. Ripple migration rates were estimated based primarily on the river velocity. The ripple geometries and migration rates were used to drive hyporheic flow and reactive transport models which quantified HZ nitrogen transformation. Results from fixed bed form simulations were compared with matching migrating bed form scenarios. We found that the turnover exchange due to ripple migration has a large impact on reactant supply and reaction rates. The nitrate removal efficiency increased asymptotically with Damköhler number for both mobile and immobile ripples, but the immobile ripple always had a higher nitrate removal efficiency. Since moving ripples remove less nitrogen, and may even be net nitrifying at times, consideration for bed form morphodynamics may therefore lead to reduction of model-based estimates of denitrification. The connection between nitrate removal efficiency and Damköhler number can be integrated into frameworks for quantifying transient, network-scale, HZ nitrate dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Landscape Age as a Major Control on the Geography of Soil Weathering

Global-scale models of rock-derived nutrient availability often assume that physical erosion drives soils toward an approximate “steady state” over geologic timescales. By definition, steady-state models do not represent landscape age—that is, the time elapsed since soil formation is initiated by major erosional or depositional events. We hypothesize that this steady-state assumption has large consequences on estimates of soil fertility because landscape age can mediate the retention of mobile elements in soil, particularly in low-relief landscapes and humid climates. We quantified the effect of landscape age on soil fertility by estimating Na retention in soils across the United States and explicitly resolving landscape age in regions that experienced significant deposition or glacial retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We then used a simple one-compartment model to simulate soil formation and weathering, comparing predictions that incorporated landscape age with those based on the steady-state assumption. We found that soils formed in LGM deposits in low-relief, humid settings generally retain 10 times more Na than soils formed outside of LGM deposits. Furthermore, the model that accounted for landscape age outperformed a steady-state model across the United States and increased globally averaged estimates of Na retention by 17%. These results reinforce the idea that landscape age is a major control on weathering and should not be ignored in simulations of nutrient cycling.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Authigenic Mineral Texture in Submarine 1979 Basalt Drill Core, Surtsey Volcano, Iceland

Micrometer-scale maps of authigenic microstructures in submarine basaltic tuff from a 1979 Surtsey volcano, Iceland, drill core acquired 15 years after eruptions terminated describe the initial alteration of oceanic basalt in a low-temperature hydrothermal system. An integrative investigative approach uses synchrotron source X-ray microdiffraction, microfluoresence, micro-computed tomography, and scanning transmission electron microscopy coupled with Raman spectroscopy to create finely resolved spatial frameworks that record a continuum of alteration in glass and olivine. Microanalytical maps of vesicular and fractured lapilli in specimens from 157.1-, 137.9-, and 102.6-m depths and borehole temperatures of 83, 93.9, and 141.3 °C measured in 1980, respectively, describe the production of nanocrystalline clay mineral, zeolites, and Al-tobermorite in diverse microenvironments. Irregular alteration fronts at 157.1-m depth resemble microchannels associated with biological activity in older basalts. By contrast, linear microstructures with little resemblance to previously described alteration features have nanocrystalline clay mineral (nontronite) and zeolite (amicite) texture. The crystallographic preferred orientation rotates around an axis parallel to the linear feature. Raman spectra indicating degraded and poorly ordered carbonaceous matter of possible biological origin are associated with nanocrystalline clay mineral in a crystallographically oriented linear microstructure in altered olivine at 102.6 m and with subcircular nanoscale cavities in altered glass at 137.9-m depth. Although evidence for biotic processes is inconclusive, the integrated analyses describe the complex organization of previously unrecognized mineral texture in very young basalt. In conclusion, they provide a foundational mineralogical reference for longitudinal, time-lapse characterizations of palagonitized basalt in oceanic environments.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Hydrate-filled Fracture Formation at Keathley Canyon 151, Gulf of Mexico, and Implications for Non-vent Sites

Near-vertical hydrate-filled fractures are found in subseafloor marine muds, at both advective methane vent sites and at sites without obvious methane and fluid advection (non-vent sites). At non-vent sites, the mechanisms that transport methane to the fractures and control how hydrate-filled fractures form are not well understood. However, these mechanisms are important to establish, as most of Earth's natural gas hydrate is likely bound in marine mud systems. In this work, we focus on understanding the origin of hydrate and how fracture form at non-vent sites by examining previously hydrate-bearing fractures in conventional cores taken from Keathley Canyon 151, U.S. northern Gulf of Mexico, drilled by the Gas Hydrate Joint Industry Project in 2005. We combine information from well logs, sediment cores, and science party results and add new X-ray computed tomography of archival sections and scanning electron microcopy of core samples to develop a conceptual model. We propose that locally generated microbial methane is transported via diffusion from small pores in marine mud into biomineralized burrows with larger pore size in a process called short-range migration. Hydrate forms in burrows once the methane diffuses into them and the dissolved methane concentration exceeds the solubility threshold. When hydrate fills a burrow, heave from additional hydrate growth places stress on the burrow edges, expands the fracture, and creates additional void space in which methane can diffuse and continue forming hydrate. Fractures slowly propagate in the direction of maximum principal stress.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Sensitivity of Joint Inversions of Seismic and Geodynamic Data to Mantle Viscosity

Seismic tomography has revealed the existence of large-scale velocity heterogeneities in the mantle. The interpretation of seismic velocity anomalies in terms of temperature and chemical composition is nonunique. We use geodynamic observations including gravity, plate motions, dynamic topography, and excess ellipticity of the core-mantle boundary combined with seismic observations to investigate the thermo-chemical structure of the mantle through joint inversions. An outstanding issue, however, is the physical connection between mantle density anomalies and the surface geodynamic observations, which requires knowledge of the mantle viscosity structure. Here we perform joint inversions assuming different viscosity profiles and examine the dependence of the results on the viscosity. We first assume that mantle heterogeneity is due to thermal variations, which places a constraint on the relation between seismic velocity and density, and we subsequently relax the constraint to allow for potential nonthermal effects. In all of our joint inversions, a nonthermal origin of density anomalies is required to explain the geodynamic data, though the amount varies with the assumed viscosity structure. A common observation is a high-density chemical signal in the center of the large low-shear-velocity provinces at the base of the mantle resulting in a near neutral or slightly dense overall buoyancy there. Using the derived density models and their corresponding viscosity profiles, we also calculate instantaneous mantle flow fields. The predicted flow fields derived from joint inversions are generally similar but are quite different from flow fields using density models derived from a posteriori scaling of pure seismic tomography models.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Underestimating Internal Variability Leads to Narrow Estimates of Climate System Properties

Probabilistic estimates of climate system properties often rely on the comparison of model simulations to observed temperature records and an estimate of the internal climate variability. In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of probability distributions for climate system properties in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Earth System Model to the internal variability estimate. In particular, we derive probability distributions using the internal variability extracted from 25 different Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models. We further test the sensitivity by pooling variability estimates from models with similar characteristics. We find the distributions to be highly sensitive when estimating the internal variability from a single model. When merging the variability estimates across multiple models, the distributions tend to converge to a wider distribution for all properties. This suggests that using a single model to approximate the internal climate variability produces distributions that are too narrow and do not fully represent the uncertainty in the climate system property estimates.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Polar Stratosphere as an Arbiter of the Projected Tropical Versus Polar Tug of War

This study explores the “tug of war” between the effects of Arctic amplification (“AA”) and upper-troposphere tropical warming (“UTW”) on the response of the future North Atlantic atmospheric circulation. The late 21st century AA and UTW temperature anomalies are imposed in a high-top atmospheric model by nudging the temperature. Two sets of experiments are performed, with and without feedback of the polar stratosphere to highlight its role in the response to UTW, AA, and both combined. With interactive polar stratosphere, UTW forces an equatorward shift of the eddy-driven jet that reinforces the response to AA. However, when the polar stratosphere feedback is suppressed, the response to UTW is opposite and reflects the previously identified tug of war between the effects of UTW and AA in midlatitudes. This study highlights that the polar stratosphere is a key component for future changes in the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation and that it must be accurately represented in climate change scenarios.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Machine Learning Reveals the State of Intermittent Frictional Dynamics in a Sheared Granular Fault

Seismogenic plate boundaries are posited to behave in a similar manner to a densely packed granular medium, where fault and block systems rapidly rearrange the distribution of forces within themselves, as particles do in slowly sheared granular systems. Machine learning is used to show that statistical features of velocity signals from individual particles in a simulated sheared granular fault contain information regarding the instantaneous global state of intermittent frictional stick-slip dynamics. We demonstrate that combining features built from the signals of more particles can improve the accuracy of the global model and discuss the physical basis behind the decrease in error. We show that the statistical features such as median and higher moments of the signals that represent the particle displacement in the direction of shearing are among the best predictive features. We demonstrate here novel insights into the applications of machine learning in studying frictional processes occurring in geophysical systems.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗