Land data assimilation advances scientific understanding and serves as an engineering tool for land surface process studies, reflecting the trend of harmonizing theory and data in the big data era.
geomorphology
Sea Otters’ Appetite for Crab Is Helping Strengthen Estuary Banks
Apex predators can have a powerful impact on coastal erosion rates by keeping grazer populations down, but their influence has been largely overlooked.
Postfire Debris Flows Strike in a Puzzling Pattern
California geologists are improving their understanding and forecasting of which slopes in wildfire-burned areas might fail during heavy rainstorms.
A Philippine Island Detective Story
Researchers snorkeled, drilled, profiled, mapped, and interviewed to unlock clues to how an island was born.
Microbe Goo Could Help Guide the Search for Life on Mars
Sticky substances secreted by microbes may help create landforms on Earth. And new research shows that these substances are more preserved in iron-rich sediment. Mars is decidedly iron-rich (it’s the Red Planet, after all), so the new study adds to evidence that microbe goo could help researchers explain landform creation there. “I think this is […]
Seafloor Shapes on the Flanks of Mid-Ocean Ridges Linked to Magma Supply
New research suggests the source of morphologic variation on mid-ocean ridges might be deeper than scientists thought.
Did These Curious Rock Formations Inspire the Great Sphinx?
New research says it’s plausible the Great Sphinx started life as a geomorphological oddity known as a yardang.
Desert Landscape Evolution Controlled by Storm Intensity
A new study in the Negev Desert finds that long-term erosion of a desert escarpment occurs in drier areas where intense storms are most frequent.
Ancient Mars May Have Had a Cyclical Climate
Hexagonal structures in sediments are evidence of repeated wet and dry conditions on the Red Planet.