A new study in Chile shows how small differences in rock type can drive large differences in erosion, vegetation, and river networks, illuminating the role of mineralogy in shaping landscapes.
erosion & weathering
A Seychelles Shoreline Resists the Rising Seas
The geomorphology of a protected atoll likely contributed to its ability to maintain its shoreline over a turbulent half-century.
Buried Tree Stumps Show Shoreline Shifts of the Outer Banks
Storms are unburying centuries-old stumps on North Carolina’s barrier islands. Researchers hope these long-gone forests can help land managers plan for the future.
Elementary, My Dear: Al & Be Give Evidence of Past Climate Change
10Be and 26Al concentrations in river sand reveal an increase in erosion rate in the Brazilian Highlands consistent with the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, a major climatic shift that occurred about 1 million years ago.
Structural Inversion of an Intracratonic Rift System in Deep Time
A new study reconstructs how an ancient North American rift system was uplifted in space and time due to subsequent continent-continent collision.
Torrents of Sediment-Laden Water Worsened Disastrous Libyan Floods
Drought followed by torrential rain can unleash deadly floods in arid regions, like those that affected Libya in 2023.
On the Wisconsin-Iowa Border, the Mississippi River Is Eroding Sacred Indigenous Mounds
A multimillion-dollar bank stabilization project could protect historic sites dating back thousands of years.
Down in the Slumps: Tracing Erosion Cycles in Arctic Permafrost
Climate change is altering permafrost thaw cycles and leading to unique Arctic erosional problems.
California Wildfires and Weather Are Changing Erosion Patterns
Sediment runoff from the state’s increasingly severe wildfires and heavy rain events may affect ecosystems and water resources downstream.
Sediment Dampens the Impact of Glaciation on Cenozoic Denudation
Rates of continental-scale sediment flux and denudation are similar between glacial and interglacial periods when the aggradation of glacier-eroded sediment inhibits fluvial erosion downstream.