A Framework for Signal Shredding and Signal Detection Using a Physical Avalanching Rice Pile

Abstract

Tectonic, climatic, and anthropogenic forcing generate sediment flux signals that propagate across the Earth’s surface. Some of these signals get stored in strata but autogenic processes in operation at the Earth's surface can shred (i.e. degrade) and obscure many signals of environmental change prior to stratigraphic storage. Here we advance on earlier seminal work and use a physical rice pile to identify critical autogenic timescales and establish autogenic thresholds that can be used to understand of how a signal of a given period or magnitude is manifested in an efflux time series and whether or not a signal is shredded or obscured by autogenic noise. Time-permitting there will be a more general discussion on how this applies to landscapes and strata.