Names of mountains, plains, valleys, and craters honor human and technological pioneers, Pluto scientists, and underworld mythology from around the world.
landscape & topography
Posted inResearch Spotlights
The Competing Climate Effects of Elevation and Albedo
Variations in surface reflectivity are as important as surface elevation changes in determining regional climate at nonpolar latitudes, according to a new modeling study.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Cosmic Muons Reveal the Land Hidden Under Ice
Scientists accurately map the shape of the bedrock beneath a glacier using a new technique.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Tool for Understanding Landscape Evolution in Drylands
Combining vegetation distribution models and sediment transport models offers a better understanding of how dryland environments change in response to different factors.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Lab Tests Probe the Secrets of Steep and Rocky Mountain Streams
Researchers built a glass-encased test environment that helps them assess streamflow without the confounding factors introduced by bed forms.
Posted inScience Updates
Seeking Signs of Life and More: NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission
The next Mars rover will be able to land near rugged terrain, giving scientists access to diverse landscapes. It will also cache core samples, a first step in the quest to return samples to Earth.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Boulders Limit Transport of Sand and Gravel in Steep Rivers
Mountain rivers and streams actively reshape landscapes by eroding material from uplands and depositing it in lowlands. Scientists can now predict this transport in very steep streams.
Posted inNews
Scientists Offer New Explanation for Island's Unexpected Uplift
Researchers developed a new timeline for the rise, fall, and rise again of a puzzling island in the Azores.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Unprecedented Views of Mercury Constrain Hollow Formation
The consistently shallow depths of the depressions scattered across Mercury's surface suggest their morphology is not determined by the thickness of a volatile-rich outer layer.
Posted inAGU News
Harman Receives 2016 Early Career Hydrologic Science Award
Ciaran Harman will receive the 2016 Early Career Hydrologic Science Award at the 2016 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 12–16 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is for significant early-career contributions to hydrologic science.