Coincidently, I had a paper published in Science last week (coincidently using NASA facilities, but do note that I am not based in the US). Science allowed me to put a copy of the paper on the free-to-access preprint site, arxiv.org. This wasn't the final typeset and corrected version of the paper, but a version of the submitted proof.
These authors could have done something similar, though there are some differences in practices between the different scientific sub-communities. In some subjects, virtually every paper is posted to arxiv.org. Earth sciences appears to be one of those subjects where they don't do that.
These authors could have done something similar, though there are some differences in practices between the different scientific sub-communities. In some subjects, virtually every paper is posted to arxiv.org. Earth sciences appears to be one of those subjects where they don't do that.