Abstract
Abstract. Paleo-bathymetric reconstructions provide boundary conditions to numerical models of ice sheet evolution and ocean circulation that are critical to understanding their evolution through time. The geological community lacks a complex open-source tool that allows for community implementations and strengthens research synergies. To fill this gap, we present PALEOSTRIPv1.0, a MATLAB open-source software designed to perform 1D, 2D, and 3D backtracking of paleo-bathymetries. PALEOSTRIP comes with a graphical user interface (GUI) to facilitate computation of sensitivity tests and to allow the users to switch all the different processes on and off and thus separate the various aspects of backtracking. As such, all physical parameters can be modified from the GUI. It includes 3D flexural isostasy, 1D thermal subsidence, and possibilities to correct for prescribed sea level and dynamical topography changes. In the following, we detail the physics embedded within PALEOSTRIP, and we show its application using a drilling site (1D), a transect (2D), and a map (3D), taking the Ross Sea (Antarctica) as a case study. PALEOSTRIP has been designed to be modular and to allow users to insert their own implementations.
Highlights
Ongoing climate changes are urging the scientific community to project future climate evolution in response to carbon emission trajectories
We present PALEOSTRIPv1.0, a MATLAB open-source software designed to perform 1D, 2D, and 3D backtracking of paleo-bathymetries
PALEOSTRIP comes with a graphical user interface (GUI) to facilitate computation of sensitivity tests and to allow the users to switch all the different processes on and off and separate the various aspects of backtracking
Summary
Ongoing climate changes are urging the scientific community to project future climate evolution in response to carbon emission trajectories (e.g. the Shared Socio-economical Pathways by Riahi et al, 2017). PyBacktrack is a 1D backtracking and backstripping open-source code (Müller et al, 2018b) aimed at reconstructing paleo-bathymetries It allows the processing of drilling sites both on oceanic and continental crust; can be connected to the suite of geodynamical open-source software. DeCompactionTool (Hölzel et al, 2008) proposes a similar approach to pybacktrack ( in 1D) but allows for the performing of a Monte Carlo style analysis, i.e. performing a large number of 1D runs based on a possible range of main physical parameters defined by admissible minimum and maximum values to provide a quantitative estimate of the backstripping error Both 3D flexural backstripping and backtracking are needed to reconstruct basin-wide or continental-wide areas that will be prescribed as boundary conditions within climate and ice sheet models. We detail the physics embedded within PALEOSTRIP and show a few applications for a drilling site (1D), a transect (2D), and a map (3D), taking the Ross Sea (Antarctica) as a case study
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