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AI reveals new insights into the flow of Antarctic ice

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 18:00

As the planet warms, Antarctica's ice sheet is melting and contributing to sea-level rise around the globe. Antarctica holds enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by 190 feet, so precisely predicting how it will move and melt now and in the future is vital for protecting coastal areas.

Everything flows: Refining the laws of friction in a 'seismological wind tunnel'

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 17:43

Imagine a heavy book resting on a table. If you try to gently push the book across the table with the tip of your finger, it may first appear to remain motionless—it needs a lot more force to start sliding visibly. Similarly, if you slowly start tilting the table upward, the book still appears to remain motionless, sticking to the table through friction until the table's tilt reaches some critical angle and the book suddenly slides down. This transition from apparent stillness to sudden movement under large forces is seen in earthquakes and landslides.

New map of landscape beneath Antarctica unveiled

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 14:27

The most detailed map yet of the landscape beneath Antarctica's ice sheet has been assembled by a team of international scientists led from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

High-frequency monitoring reveals complex infiltration-preferential flow processes in karst hillslopes

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 13:05

A study led by Prof. Chen Hongsong from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has unveiled the mechanistic influence of soil thickness (as a representative litho-structural factor) on water movement dynamics.

ENSO's impact on Antarctic sea ice predictability: A study on linear and nonlinear dynamics

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 11:00

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the most prominent interannual climate variability signal, has been widely studied for its teleconnections with Antarctic sea ice variability. However, its influence on the predictability of Antarctic sea ice remains poorly understood, hindering the development of accurate sea ice prediction models.

Modulation instability of the ion-acoustic soliton in spin-polarized plasma under Bohm potential

Physical Review E (Plasma physics) - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 10:00

Author(s): A. Rezvani, S. Miraboutalebi, L. Rajaei, and M. R. Sharifian

The existence and stability criteria of one-dimensional ion-acoustic solitons in a quantum cold, over-dense plasma are investigated through theoretical and numerical analyses. Within the quantum magnetohydrodynamic dominant regime, distinct governing equations are employed for spin-up and spin-down …

[Phys. Rev. E 111, 035204] Published Thu Mar 13, 2025

Less mapped than the Moon: Quest to reveal the seabed

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 09:20

It covers nearly three-quarters of our planet but the ocean floor is less mapped than the moon, an astonishing fact driving a global push to build the clearest-ever picture of the seabed.

Climate change intensifies short-duration precipitation events and flooding, more than century's worth of data reveals

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 09:08

Climate change may lead to more precipitation and more intense floods. A new study shows that to understand the details of this relationship, it is important to distinguish between different types of rainfall and flood events—namely, between short-term events that occur on a time scale of hours and longer-term events that last several days. In each case, climate change has a different impact.

Complete resolution of the polar motion equation for the Earth's rotation

Geophysical Journal International - Thu, 03/13/2025 - 00:00

SummaryThe conventional Liouville equation (LE), commonly used to elucidate Earth's polar motion (PM), has subsequently developed into the observable LE (OLE); however, the OLE is not applicable for full-band PM investigations. By integrating the OLE with relationship between the theory and observations of PM, we obtained a comprehensive resolution to the LE, which is referred to as the complete LE (CLE) solution. In the CLE solution, the effects of the incalculable excitation derivative term ${\rm{d}}\psi /{\rm{d}}t$ have been incorporated and can now be easily estimated. Afterwards, we did an extensive review of the geophysical implications of the CLE solution in order to figure out how this excitation derivative term impacts the full-band PM. According to this CLE solution, we have established a solid relationship between the observed PM and the celestial intermediate pole (CIP). Furthermore, we recreated the PM by employing both the simulated and real geophysical fluid excitation series. The simulation example demonstrates the application of the CLE solution for full-band PM examinations with a numerical accuracy of less than 1${\rm{\mu as}}$. Real data reconstructions have shown that the CLE solution outperforms the OLE solution in both low- and high-frequency PM bands, with amplitude enhancements of around hundreds${\rm{\ \mu as}}$ and several${\rm{\ \mu as}}$, respectively. These findings enable us to precisely evaluate the comprehensive PM investigations.