Despite centuries of study and many spacecraft visits, the Red Planet still holds secrets. Here are just a few.
landscape & topography
Posted inEditors' Highlights
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.
Posted inNews
Where the Ground Gives Way
Sinkholes are a significant hazard, but where are they most likely to happen? A new study identifies hot spots in the contiguous United States.
Posted inNews
Groundwater Pumping Is Causing Mexico City to Sink
Researchers say knowing how much water is being extracted is crucial for addressing infrastructure and water supply crises in the capital.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Inductive Approach Reveals Controls on Dissolved Organic Carbon
Machine learning leverages large data sets to reveal hidden patterns explaining when, where, and why dissolved organic carbon moves from hillslopes to streams.
Posted inNews
The Western Great Basin Has an Arsenic Problem—Blame Its Geology
A new study links geological factors such as faulting and geothermal activity to an elevated risk of arsenic contamination in private wells across the Great Basin.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Topography Along the Apennines Reflects Subduction Dynamics
Topography and exhumation vary strongly along the Apennines, reflecting the geometry of the Moho and different geodynamic mechanisms.
Posted inNews
Decoding the Secrets of Shifting Sediments
In the small-scale details of grain shape, researchers have found a new way to understand how sediment flows in a river, a process shaping Earth’s landscapes.
Posted inNews
Roughed-Up Hillsides Reveal Tree-Toppling Winds
Researchers are reading pockmarks in the forest floor to study the uprooting of trees in southern Indiana and estimate how fast winds howled through the forest in the past.
Posted inNews
Scientists EEAGER-ly Track Beavers Across Western United States
Efficiently tracking nature’s engineers—beavers—at the scale of entire watersheds over time is now possible, thanks to a new artificial intelligence–trained model called EEAGER.