EOS

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: AGU Advances

The study of tectonic modifications is essential to understand how Earth’s surface changes over time, shaping mountains, oceans, and continents. It is also crucial for predicting natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes. The lithosphere of cratons – ancient and stable continental regions – carry a long history of tectonic modifications that are revealed by increasingly available Earth observations.

Yang et al. [2026] use ambient noise tomography to reveal deep (about 60 kilometers) seismic low velocity anomalies beneath the Illinois and Michigan basins. These perturbations are attributed to lithospheric modifications leading to an uplift of the terrestrial crust of about 3.5 kilometers in the late Paleozoic to the early Mesozoic. The findings present links between geodynamic drivers and geological records and offer implication to improve our understanding of how deep Earth processes shape the surface environment and therefore landscape evolution.

Citation: Yang, X., Peng, L., Stevens Goddard, A., & Liu, L. (2026). Lithospheric delamination below the North American midcontinent ceased subsidence in cratonic basins. AGU Advances, 7, e2025AV002051. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV002051

—Alberto Montanari, Editor-in-Chief, AGU Advances

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

An occupied vehicle was crushed, but the person in the car escaped unhurt.

On 1 March 2026, a very dramatic rockfall occurred in Fjæra in Etne in Vestland county, Norway. The rockfall, which originated on a steep rock slope on the flanks of Åkrafjorden, did not kill anyone, but it crushed a pick-up truck (see below). This event is a near-miss in terms of fatalities.

The rockfall was captured on video from the other side of the fjord. This has been posted to media sites and to Reddit:-

Rockfall in Norway crushing a road, a car, and then some
byu/SjalabaisWoWS inWTF

The aftermath was captured in a photo that has been released by the owner of the vehicle, Frode Mæland:-

The aftermath of the 1 March 2026 rockfall Fjæra in Etne in Norway. Image released by Frode Mæland.

Unbelievably, the car was occupied at the time of the rockfall, but the person (Christian Lee) was unharmed.

It appears that the location of this event at Fjæra is [59.87357, 6.38121], although this is unconfirmed.

The road is now closed for further investigation.

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In the summers of 2016 and 2017, a small research team endured harsh conditions on the Greenland Ice Sheet to gather data about the aerosols above it. These tiny particles carry crucial information about the elements that contribute to glacial ice loss, making them invaluable in the fight against climate change.

In a new study published in Environmental Science and Technology, this team reported that aerosols contain significant amounts of mineral dust, which can feed phosphorus to hungry, ice-melting algae.

“This study’s findings are important,” said Jasper Kok, an atmospheric physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved with the research. “The Arctic is warming several times faster than the global average,” he explained, and this warming exposes more bare soils that will only increase dust emissions.

Dusty Fieldwork

Prior research found that mineral dust contains significant quantities of phosphorus, a key growth factor for many species of dark-colored algae. Because dark-colored algae infiltrate snow and glaciers, decreasing their albedo and forcing them to absorb more sunshine, understanding the mechanics of dust delivery is imperative for accurately measuring glacial melt and estimating the impact of ongoing climate change.

“Most climate models omit this high-latitude dust,” said Kok.

To better understand how mineral dust affects the Greenland Ice Sheet, researchers captured aerosols and took measurements from ice cores and snow samples at a location north of Kangerlussuaq in southwest Greenland.

“To my knowledge, this is the first study to conduct real-time aerosol measurements on the Greenland Ice Sheet and connect those results to the algal blooms forming on the ice.”

“We were in a tent camp approximately 35 to 100 kilometers into the Greenland Ice Sheet,” said Liane Benning, a biogeochemist at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany and coauthor of the study. “We were there for up to 5 to 6 weeks to get these samples.”

The collected materials enabled the researchers to scrutinize dust above and within the glacier, which would, in turn, allow them to determine the dust’s origin, composition, and how many algae it could feed.

Scanning electron microscopes revealed the aerosols were primarily composed of mineral dust from the southern end of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which aligns with past research showing that area is a great producer of dust emissions. The quantity within the aerosols suggests the dust contains enough phosphorus to fuel massive algal blooms within the ice sheet.

“To my knowledge this is the first study to conduct real-time aerosol measurements on the Greenland Ice Sheet and connect those results to the algal blooms forming on the ice,” said Jenine McCutcheon, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Waterloo in Canada and lead author of the study. “Local Greenlandic locations near the coast are the most likely source, which matches our geochemical analyses.”

Microbes on the Move

But the results also revealed something else. In addition to mineral dust, the aerosols contained soot, fungi, and different species of algae specialized to living in ice and snow. The researchers detected one species of glacial ice algae, Ancylonema nordenskioeldii, that is well-known to reduce glacial albedo and increase melting.

The study suggests ice-melting microbes may be blown across the ice sheet, allowing them to penetrate areas previously unexposed to microbes. “These organisms can be picked up by wind,” explained McCutcheon, “which may provide a means for these algae to be transported to new locations on the ice.”

New research finds that phosphorus (P), along with other minerals, is transported to the Greenland Ice Sheet from bare soil downwind. Credit: McCutcheon et al., 2026, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c13873, CC BY 4.0

Because other high-latitude environments are similarly pilloried by nutrient-rich dust, the study has wider implications for the Arctic, said Kok. “This study underscores the need to include this dust for more accurate predictions of how the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the Arctic more broadly, will evolve in the future.”

McCutcheon agreed. “While these results won’t stop ice mass loss, they will help us better understand how melting will progress in the future,” she said.

—Taylor Mitchell Brown (@tmitchellbrown.bsky.social), Science Writer

Citation: Brown, T. M. (2026), Greenland dust delivers nutrients to ice-melting algae, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260069. Published on 27 February 2026. Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

More than 2 billion people live within 50 kilometers of a coastline and are extremely vulnerable to climate hazards such as excessive rainfall and flooding.

A new study in Nature Communications shows how marine heat waves can worsen excess rainfall in coastal areas, potentially exacerbating flooding and its associated losses, including of human lives. Researchers found that from 1982 to 2022, between 5% and 25% of extreme rainfall events in coastal areas occurred downwind of nearby marine heat waves. Compared to events that weren’t downwind of marine heat waves, these rainfall events saw about 20%–30% more rain on average, as well as a 30% increase in fatalities.

“This is a serious concern because marine heatwaves not only intensify general rainfall but also exacerbate extreme rainfall events,” said Zhengguang Zhang, corresponding author of the new study and a climate scientist at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, via email. Marine heat waves are happening more often and lasting longer, increasing the possibility that coastal rainfall and weather may be affected even more dramatically as the climate changes.

New Insights from Existing Data

In the study, the researchers define marine heat waves as those occurring when the sea surface temperature of an area exceeds 90% of the average value recorded over several decades for a period longer than 5 days. These heat waves can devastate marine ecosystems, and the ecological damage can have knock-on effects, causing massive losses to people and economies that depend on the ocean.

“This study beautifully reframes existing information [such as satellite data] in the context of marine heat waves and shows that coastal rainfall can clearly be impacted by these heat waves.”

The researchers combed through various long-term satellite and climate databases, such as NOAA’s Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature dataset, to build global maps of sea surface temperatures. They used these sea surface temperature maps to locate marine heat waves and linked them to excessive rainfall events in land areas as far as hundreds of kilometers downwind.

“This study beautifully reframes existing information in the context of marine heat waves and shows that coastal rainfall can clearly be impacted by these heat waves,” said Alex Sen Gupta, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who was not involved in the study.

From Hot Water to Excess Rain

Marine heat waves can vary widely in both their temperature and spatial extent, ranging from roughly 100,000 square kilometers—about the size of Iceland—to several million square kilometers or more. To compare heat waves with such different sizes, shapes, and characteristics, the researchers turned to mathematics.

“Marine heatwaves are characterized by a warm core with temperatures decreasing gradually outward, and Gaussian functions (a common mathematical tool) are often used to describe this kind of heat diffusion,” said Zhang. Using a Gaussian fit allowed the researchers to summarize and extract robust measures of scale and temperature gradients from noisy observational data and compare many marine heat waves and their effects on wind and rainfall.

“We found that marine heatwaves have the ability to influence the atmosphere above them and enhance rainfall downwind,” Zhang said. Areas downwind of marine heat waves experienced more frequent and more intense extreme rainfall, which the study defined as rain events that ranked among the wettest 1% of all rainy days in a particular land area. These extreme rain events peaked within the radius of the heat wave, which could sometimes stretch for hundreds of kilometers, and usually within 1–3 days of the heat wave forming.

The study analyses also yielded clues about how marine heat waves may be causing excess rain in downwind areas. The warm waters of a marine heat wave force the air above to mix violently, increasing atmospheric turbulence and strengthening winds. As these warm, wet winds move through and away from the marine heat wave, they collide with existing air and are forced upward, carrying their extra moisture with them. The rising, moisture-rich air then produces heavy rainfall, often over land downwind of the marine heat waves.

Connections Made, but Uncertainties Remain

Though the study clearly connects marine heat waves and downwind precipitation, the precise physical pathways involved may be more varied than they first appear, according to Sen Gupta.

“I don’t think the analysis necessarily distinguishes between different mechanisms as to how marine heat waves are impacting extreme rainfall events on land,” he said. For example, Sen Gupta noted that the study emphasized the importance of temperature gradients within marine heat waves as a key driver of rainfall downwind. “But temperature maximums within the heat waves may influence downwind rainfall just as much as temperature gradients.”

“Almost all the marine heatwave-related flood events that killed over a hundred people occurred in developing countries.”

Although the study builds a connection between marine heat waves and extreme rainfall, it does not establish a causal link between the heat waves and floods. “Establishing a direct connection is highly challenging due to the complexity of flooding, which is influenced by a lot of factors including topography, surface runoff, and even groundwater,” Zhang said. However, 10%–30% of flood events during the period covered in the study occurred downwind of a marine heat wave.

“Also, what we do not show in the paper is that, almost all the marine heatwave-related flood events that killed over a hundred people occurred in developing countries,” said Zhang. “Coastal communities, especially in developing countries, should incorporate marine conditions into their forecasts of extreme events, which may allow for a more accurate assessment of the severity of extreme rainfall or floods.”

—Adityarup Chakravorty (chakravo@gmail.com), Science Writer

Citation: Chakravorty, A. (2026), Marine heat waves can increase coastal rainfall, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260068. Published on 27 February 2026. Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: AGU Advances

In January 2025, a series of devastating wildfires swept through Los Angeles, causing widespread and catastrophic damage to critical infrastructure, displacing entire communities, and inflicting severe harm on the surrounding environment.

Landsat image of the Eaton fire on 14 January 2025. Brown and red colors display burned areas. Credit: Li et al. [2026], Figure 1e

By leveraging fire and emissions observations from remote satellites, Li et al. [2026] document the fire spread thus revealing how the fire moved after ignition and reached the urban settlements. In particular, the timing of the fire spread provides innovative information and supports the development of management strategies to cope with analogous future events. Interestingly, the authors found that residential fires released less carbon monoxide (CO) emissions per unit of radiative energy with respect to vegetation fires. The authors conclude that the observed dynamics of fire emissions and their linkage to fire intensity by new satellites open new opportunities to improve air quality forecasting.  

Citation: Li, F., Zhang, X., Cochrane, M., Kondragunta, S., & An, S. (2026). Fire spread, intensity, and emissions observations by multiple satellites: The southern California wildfires of January 2025. AGU Advances, 7, e2025AV002064. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV002064

—Alberto Montanari, Editor-in-Chief, AGU Advances

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Heavy rainfall in the Zona da Mata area of Brazil has triggered multiple landslides. Over 50 people have been killed.

Over the period of 23 and 24 February 2026, extremely intense rainfall struck the Zona da Mata area of Minas Gerais (MG), Brazil, triggering landslides and flooding. The most seriously affected area was the city of Juiz de Fora, but Uba also suffered extensive flooding.

It is clear that the majority of fatalities occurred as a consequence of landslides, although the mainstream media persists in describing the event as flooding. Reports suggest that 54 people have been killed with a further 14 still missing.

Poder360 has posted some drone footage of the aftermath of this disaster to Youtube:-

This footage includes two damaging landslide sites. This is the first:-

The aftermath of one of the landslides triggered by the 23 – 24 February 2026 rainfall event in Juiz de Fora, Brazil. Still from a video captured by Viory and posted to Youtube by Poder360.

There are three landslides here, all in close proximity. The crown of the landslides appears to be in less steep, deforested terrain. The landslides appear to be in deeply weathered soil, and they are shallow in nature. The proximity of the houses to the foot of the slope is notable – and there are many other houses built on the slope.

The second site is somewhat different:-

The aftermath of another of the landslides triggered by the 23 – 24 February 2026 rainfall event in Juiz da Fore, Brazil. Still from a video captured by Viory and posted to Youtube by Poder360.

In this case, it appears that a flow down a gully on the upper slope has expanded onto the lower slope, entraining a large amount of material to form a significant landslide. Again, the landslide appears to involve a considerable volume of weathered material.

Judging by media images, there are many more landslides across the city.

That there is a high level of landslide risk in Juiz de Fora is well established. Indeed, in 2021 the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM) published a report (in Portugese) whose translated title is “Diagnosis of the population in areas of geological risk,  Juiz de Fora“. This identified 304 locations of high or very high landslide risk, comprising 16,436 households.

Given that the rainfall on 23-24 February 2026 was at a record level, the disaster was all but inevitable.

Reference

Lana, J.C and Marcussi, M.C.R. 2021. “Diagnóstico da população em áreas de risco geológico, Juiz de Fora, MG”. Publicação do Serviço Geológico do Brasil – CPRM. 15 pp.

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