Universal discontinuous percolation transition in the Earth's terrestrial topography

TL;DR

This study reveals a universal discontinuous phase transition in Earth's topography-related water percolation, highlighting the role of long-range correlations and self-organized criticality in natural lake formation.

Contribution

It uncovers a universal discontinuous percolation transition in Earth's land surface water flow, linked to topographic features and self-organized criticality.

Findings

Discovered a critical TWI threshold of 0.671 for percolation

Identified a discontinuous phase transition across scales

Linked criticality to natural lake development

Abstract

Based on the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), we studied the percolation process of water on the Earth's land surface and discovered a universal discontinuous phase transition across scales, with a critical TWI threshold of 0.671 (0.054). The discontinuity is attributed to the long-range correlation and directionality of the percolation process. Furthermore, the criticality is shown to extend from the critical point to a region corresponding to the Griffiths phase, where natural lake systems are found to develop, indicating the governess of self-organized criticality within the Earth system.