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Hillslopes in Arctic regions with frozen soils can host a suite of geometric patterns, from circles and stripes to polygonal patterned ground. They can also have solifluction patterns, or markings left behind when partially thawed permafrost slips and flows down a slope. Solifluction patterns look like pairings of flat, terraced soil—like a big staircase—and rounded lobes of soil at the terrace's base.

Hovering over the volcano, a buzzing drone pauses in front of a laser beam on the crater's edge as researchers test whether the devices can measure gases to predict eruptions.

Geoscientists at the University of Glasgow have helped reveal new evidence about the formation of one of the highest mountainous areas on Earth—the Tibetan Plateau. A study by an international team of Chinese and U.K. geoscientists shows that the unique topography at the summit of the plateau is shaped by processes going on deep in Earth.

A team at the Applied Physics Lab is working to understand the complex science behind predicting invisible threats that can quickly cripple electric grid infrastructure on Earth.

There's nothing like gliding down a snow-covered slope. That is, if you ask the thousands of people who make an annual pilgrimage to our alpine resorts during the Australian winter. But this year, the start to the snow season has been far from spectacular.

A new international study involving scientists from the University of Aberdeen has revealed a critical blind spot in global climate risk assessments—the growing danger posed by small alpine lakes formed by glacier retreat and permafrost thaw. Published in Nature Sustainability, the research highlights how these lakes, which are often too small to appear in conventional hazard databases, can still unleash sudden and destructive floods with little warning.

As sea levels rise and coastlines erode, Australia's legal system is struggling to keep up. Longstanding assumptions about who owns the coast—and who should pay when it disappears—are now at the center of growing disputes.

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

Typhoons are becoming more frequent and more intense as a result of climate change, and scientists are working to understand the transient but impactful changes these storms have on ocean biogeochemistry.

A typhoon stirs up the stratified water of the ocean, redistributing nutrients and organisms, as well as changing the temperature and salinity of the seawater.

Previous research found that this mixing process can change the makeup and activity of bacterioplankton communities and stimulate primary productivity. Those two changes can temporarily alter the water column’s food web and its role as a carbon sink or source.

But that work relied on the field’s relatively scarce opportunities for data collection. Sampling is often performed months apart, for instance, typically in the nontyphoon season and then following a typhoon. It has also traditionally focused mostly on coastal, estuarine, or lagoonal environments. These gaps left open questions about the timeline of change and recovery in the open ocean.

While on a research cruise in 2018 in the East China Sea, Lo et al. were interrupted by the category 5 Typhoon Maria. It was a rare opportunity to, for the first time, sample the bacterioplankton communities throughout the water column immediately before and after a typhoon.

The team collected environmental data and bacterioplankton samples for 3 and 4 days before and after the storm, respectively, at four depths in the water column.

As expected, nutrient concentrations, primary production, and bacterial activity all increased after the storm.

The researchers also documented a shift in community structure. Contrary to their expectations, overall bacterioplankton diversity did not change. But the composition of bacterial communities became more homogeneous between distantly spaced layers of the water column. And copiotrophic taxa that thrive in nutrient-rich conditions increased, while oligotrophic taxa that prefer low-nutrient conditions decreased.

These observations have given scientists novel insights into how typhoons enhance microbially mediated biogeochemical cycling in the ocean, which, as storms increase, could affect whether the ocean acts as a local carbon source or sink.

Fuller analyses of the microbial community’s gene expressions (metatranscriptomics), which may help elucidate metabolic activity and functional responses, would be valuable future work, as would a longer sampling period to reveal the time needed for the community to return to a pretyphoon state, the researchers note. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JC023738, 2026)

—Rebecca Dzombak, Science Writer

Citation: Dzombak, R. (2026), Typhoons mix up bacteria and biochemistry, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260222. Published on 10 July 2026. Text © 2026. AGU. 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.

From geomorphology and marine ecosystems to satellite orbits and planetary motion, the subjects that Earth and space scientists study often span three—or more—dimensions. However, much of the visual analysis and communication of results from this work has traditionally been confined to 2D.

Across disciplines, scientists, engineers, and educators are leveraging this potential for fieldwork planning, data analysis, education, and outreach.

With the evolution and widespread adoption of extended reality (XR) and spatial computing technologies, scientists can now work natively in 3D. Innovative tools offer the ability to access otherwise unreachable environments, gain new perspectives, perform data analysis more naturally and intuitively than ever before, and showcase and explain findings in profoundly new ways.

Across disciplines, scientists, engineers, and educators are leveraging this potential for fieldwork planning, data analysis, education, and outreach. The scientific community has an opportunity to embrace and advance this trend. However, effectively integrating spatial computing technologies into scientific practice and communication first requires determining where XR excels, where it falls short, and how scientists can best support and engage with these technologies.

A variety of XR technologies exist, and we briefly review them here. These technologies offer benefits for and could be integrated into numerous uses across Earth and space science (ESS) research, education, and communication. Doing so will require overcoming challenges, including growing researchers’ fluency with XR and creating opportunities for them to apply it.

We encourage you to examine several interactive examples of 3D models related to ESS in the following embedded viewer.

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You can also scan the QR code below using the XR-capable computer you likely carry in your pocket to view the same examples via augmented reality (AR).

A Spectrum of Immersion To view 3D models in augmented reality, open the QR code (or, on a desktop with a webcam, navigate to https://kcollins.github.io/xr-notes/AR/AR11.html) and grant camera permissions to the page. Then, aim the camera at the markers on this page to view a variety of AR objects. Try making the markers larger or smaller, moving them around, or printing them out and taping them to objects around you to place the virtual objects into your real-world environment.

Visual and spatial analyses of data and information have long been essential in Earth and planetary sciences. Since the early days of mapmaking and modeling, researchers have continually embraced innovative resources to represent and understand spatial relationships and patterns.

Tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and Google Earth, which today are standard for analyzing and disseminating georeferenced data, have greatly improved our ability to assess spatial data qualitatively and quantitatively. However, they remain limited to 2D representations, even when viewed on a globe, because 3D data are still mainly accessed through 2D media such as screens or printed materials.

A growing body of work is transforming this landscape by integrating research products with advanced 3D technologies such as virtual reality (VR), data sonification, and immersive group experiences like planetariums and cave automatic virtual environments (CAVEs) (Table 1). (We use XR as an umbrella term for immersive and augmented reality 3D visualization technologies and their applications.)

Table 1. Extended Reality Technologies and Terminologies, with Associated Hardware Platforms and Notable Examples

TermDefinitionPlatforms and Hardware: Noteworthy ExamplesVirtual reality (VR)A fully immersive, often interactive, experience replacing the real-world environmentVR head-mounted displays (HMDs), haptic controllers: The Lab on Steam Google Earth VR,a OpenBrush (formerly TiltBrush), VR video gamesExtended reality (XR)An umbrella term for all immersive visualization technologiesAll HMDs, smartphones, WebXR: Meta Quest, HTC Vive, XR Elite, Apple Vision ProAugmented reality (AR)An experience that overlays virtual objects onto the real world, usually via a smartphone or tabletAR HMDs, smartphones, tablets: Pokemon Go, Microsoft HoloLens,a Google Glass,a Ray-Ban Meta glasses, Google ARCoreMixed reality (MR)Like AR, but virtual objects are independent of real-world objects; Microsoft’s preferred term, associated with the HoloLensHMDs: Microsoft HoloLens,a Magic Leap, Windows Mixed RealitySpatial computingTerm broadly referring to technologies that facilitate the creation, visualization, and interaction with objects in 3D space, whether on screens, through HMDs, or via augmented reality interfacesHMDs, computers, mobile phones: Apple Vision Pro, ARKit, ARCoreCave automatic virtual environment (CAVE)A room-sized, often highly customized VR space using projection screens, computer graphics, and motion tracking, although technologies varyCustomized projection rooms, such as planetariums: StarCAVE, Iowa State’s C6, CAVE2 at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Lab, Industrial Light and Magic’s StageCraft, KeckCAVES, and many others; often supported by custom software with projection mapping capability, such as OpenSpaceMultiuser virtual environment (MUVE)A shared virtual space where immersed VR users interact; an immersive cyberspaceVRChat, Planetary ParfaitSonificationThe transformation of data into sound for analysis and outreach, often used in concert with other XR technologiesInternational Community for Auditory Display, NASA’s Data Sonification Project, Sonification Handbook, sonification.designHapticsThe use of touch-based feedback, such as vibrations or force responses, to enhance immersion and interaction in virtual environmentsRumble motors in VR hand controllers, force feedback, ultrasonic displays360 VideoVideo recordings in which a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras; can be played back on a spherical or panoramic display or on a flat display where the user controls the viewing direction of the cameraMany examples are available on YouTubeStereoscopy/stereo imagingA range of methods that produce the illusion of 3D depth on a 2D surface using the observer’s binocular vision, sometimes with the aid of 3D glasses; can be used to create limited 3D illustrations in printed media at low cost and can be employed in other media as well, including 3D movies3D glasses (including red/blue anaglyph, ChromaDepth, Pulfrich effect, and others), stereophotographs, autostereograms (Magic Eye)

aLegacy platform or hardware; long-term support is no longer available.

XR uses a variety of digital objects and environments that merge the digital world with the physical world to varying degrees of immersion and interactivity. These environments range from AR, in which digital assets are superimposed on real-world objects, to fully immersive worlds in VR. Between those ends, mixed reality (MR) environments feature digital assets that behave dynamically and interact with the real-world environment surrounding the user.

The user experience of a given XR tool or application is largely determined by where it falls on the spectrum of immersion. Understanding the full scope of XR technologies is crucial to developing and deploying them effectively across platforms and audiences.

How XR Is Used in Earth and Space Sciences

Increasingly, extended reality (XR) is also being used as a storytelling tool, helping to express highly technical scientific findings as engaging narratives.

The use of XR in ESS has advanced significantly from early applications in planetariums and AR-assisted field research to fully interactive 3D models of complex geophysical data describing, for example, groundwater flow, coral reefs, and high-resolution lidar scans. Increasingly, XR is also being used as a storytelling tool, helping to express highly technical scientific findings as engaging narratives that resonate with multiple audiences and influence policymaking.

Bailenson [2019] offers a practical framework for determining how XR can best be used, suggesting it is appropriate for simulating experiences that are dangerous, impossible, counterproductive, or expensive in real life. In a virtual environment, users can engage in activities such as climbing inaccessible areas (dangerous), teleporting through solid rock (impossible), marking features in a landscape (which would be counterproductive in real life if done, for example, with spray paint), or hovering above landscapes like a drone (expensive).

Virtual field trips, classroom exercises, and museum-style VR exhibits are all examples of XR being used in an explanatory capacity in which it not only conveys information but also reduces both risks and costs. For example, a digital, browser-based VR field trip to the Whaleback anticline eliminates the risks and costs of traveling to and hiking around this site in east central Pennsylvania while providing a comprehensive and interactive study of structural geology. VR field trips can also improve the accessibility of nature and science for students with disabilities and those who may otherwise be unable to participate [Bursztyn et al., 2022].

However, researchers have cautioned that such virtual experiences should be designed carefully and intentionally to complement traditional field trips rather than replace them, because virtual experiences cannot replicate all aspects of and insights gained from in-person exploration [Carabajal and Atchison, 2020]. Nonetheless, the educational innovations and potential for scientific storytelling that XR offers can enhance students’ understanding and appreciation of real-world settings.

A user virtually explores Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf through the Inside the Ice Shelf augmented reality experience. The projection of the ice shelf, here superimposed on the photo, was created using lidar and ice-penetrating radar data from the Uncovering the Ross Ocean and Ice Shelf Environment and Tectonic setting Through Aerogeophysical Surveys and Modeling (ROSETTA-Ice) project. Credit: Boghosian et al. [2019], CC BY 4.0

Beyond field trips and education, researchers have developed a variety of XR experiences for scientific data visualization, analysis, and interpretation. Examples include applications for refining interpretations of mantle plume tomographic models [Lu and Rudolph, 2024], analyzing digital models of geologic outcrops to estimate fault characteristics [Seers et al., 2022], displaying and sonifying earthquake data and citizen-based observations, analyzing ice sheet radar and lidar data to understand ice sheet structure and history [Tack et al., 2023; Boghosian et al., 2019], assessing flood risks in New York City [Zhang et al., 2026], and improving weather model analysis [Grubb et al., 2023].

These studies demonstrate XR’s potential for advancing research in specific domains. However, much of the existing literature related to ESS lacks robust user studies to assess the actual impact of XR innovations on scientific discovery and analysis [Gallagher et al., 2022]. The prevalence of these user-focused analyses in computer science offers a good model for other fields to follow. It also suggests a need for interdisciplinary collaboration to help researchers create, test, and use XR tools to further develop the potential of these technologies (see “Building XR Experiences” box).

Benefits for Collaboration, Convergence, and Classrooms

The studies and use cases of XR we’ve encountered in our work and that are discussed in this article support—and, in fact, require—interdisciplinary work. They all combine the tools and perspectives of computer graphics, game design, and human-machine interfaces with domain-specific data and concepts from the field being studied.

XR experiences are scalable and offer potential for widespread collaboration, codesign, and decentralized science.

In addition, XR experiences are scalable and offer potential for widespread collaboration, codesign, and decentralized science. Open VR worlds can allow collaboration in the same way multiplayer online games do—Minecraft is an example—by creating persistent virtual spaces or multiuser virtual environments that change with time and in response to external inputs. Such collaborations can be enabled through “metaverse” platforms such as VRChat.

VR also enables users to perform certain 3D tasks, such as point cloud classification, with greater fidelity, and it can enable people around the world to collaborate virtually in real time—capabilities that can support fieldwork or mission coordination, planning, and execution. Field researchers, when viewing a new location in VR, naturally develop a spatial understanding of the terrain. A geographically distributed field team can therefore use VR to coordinate and rehearse plans before meeting in the field.

Many of these benefits extend to science education, where XR tools used in research can be adapted for authentic STEM learning. In the classroom, taking on the role of a scientist in a virtual world can profoundly affect students’ STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) identities. Dede [2009, p. 67] noted that digital immersion can help lower-performing students “to build confidence in their academic abilities” and to change “their frame of self reference to successful scientist in the virtual context.” Thus, well-designed immersive experiences and instruction “may have the potential to release trapped intelligence and engagement in many learners” [Dede, 2009, p. 67].

XR tools are highly customizable and can be used to cocreate educational experiences that are personally or culturally resonant with the learner. Such authentic learning experiences particularly benefit students who do not otherwise have strong STEM inclinations or identity, in part because they can inspire deep creative engagement with digital tools—a phenomenon that Turkle [2005] called “computer holding power.”

Overcoming Barriers to Advancing XR

We argue that XR technology and applications should be further centered in ESS to benefit research and education. However, working at this interface will raise challenges for new practitioners—as it has for us—including quickly evolving hardware driven by the tech market and the increasingly ubiquitous problem of developing and maintaining high-quality, open-source scientific software.

These two issues are main contributors to what we call the “problem of orphaned demos” in the research community—that is, promising research tools that languish in the demo phase and never reach wide adoption. For example, VR field trips made by and for researchers and educators often end up as “unicorns” (i.e., one of a kind, stand-alone products) frozen in time, whereas industry-developed VR continuously improves as its platforms and approaches rapidly evolve. On top of a steep learning curve to upskill in computer graphics and 3D user interfaces, such challenges may further dissuade researchers from pursuing XR.

Scientific visualization engines such as OpenSpace help address this problem by encouraging standardization, reuse, and sharing of assets in a unified software environment. Communities of practice that bring together researchers, open-source developers, educators, and artists can also be effective for sharing best practices and maintaining longer-term support of scientific XR projects.

Fig. 1. Counts of extended reality- (XR)-related abstracts (gray bars) and total abstracts (blue curve) presented at AGU’s Annual Meeting (formerly Fall Meeting) since 2000 are plotted here. Data were obtained using SciX. The code used is available here. An interactive version of this figure breaking down XR abstracts by AGU section and identifying individual abstracts is available here. Click image for larger version.

Scientific conferences are another key opportunity for learning and information sharing about XR. Interest in XR technologies at AGU’s Annual Meeting (formerly Fall Meeting), for example, has risen over the past 2 decades, as evidenced by an increase in abstracts with relevant keywords (Figure 1). We have also anecdotally observed a small, but growing, trend of presenters bringing head-worn displays to poster sessions, demonstrating a new mode of engagement with scientific data and results.

However, growing interest in XR at ESS meetings doesn’t appear to be fully reflected in the scientific literature yet. A recent literature review of immersive geovisualizations since 2010 found only 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and 6 conference papers when querying multiple databases across geoscience and computer science journals [Gallagher et al., 2022]. And an informal literature meta-analysis we conducted suggests that far more XR-related abstracts have been presented at AGU’s Annual Meeting (Figure 1) in recent decades than XR-related publications have appeared in AGU journals over the same time frame. This trend may be because of a lack of appropriate outlets for reporting scholarly XR use within ESS and because this work is instead reported through other technical societies or through informal channels.

Nathaniel Frissell (left, wearing a Valve Index VR headset) and Jaime Aguilar Guerrero (right, wearing a HoloLens 2 headset) view a 3D point cloud of a coral reef in Vrifier. The live view from the Valve headset is shown on a monitor (left), enabling the wearer to discuss the data with others as they interact with them in virtual reality. Credit: Kristina Collins

We recommend that practical steps be taken to support Earth and space scientists in thoughtfully and productively engaging with XR for research and education. At meetings, organizers can provide physical spaces that are safe for the use of headsets and other XR technology and that have adequate power supplies. Also, new session formats could be designed to facilitate presentations highlighting XR skills, demos, and development workflows.

In addition, professional societies, journal publishers, and scientific funders could develop new avenues to support experimentation with new and emerging media and to help the ESS community build fluency in XR. They could, for example, create opportunities for researchers to publish XR research and data products in new or existing journals. They could provide venues for and support research community-led efforts to share knowledge and training on XR. And they could provide targeted funding opportunities for XR-related research and education projects. Public-private partnerships in particular would be well-positioned to mitigate the orphaned demos challenge that arises in XR-related ESS research.

Each of these approaches would bring needed exposure to the uses and benefits of XR as well as drive innovation. We summarize XR’s potential with the words of futurist Jaron Lanier: You “just realize what you would otherwise have to describe” [Lanier, 2017, p. 294]. Ultimately, XR can bring enhanced spatial awareness to scientific analysis and education and help to close accessibility gaps in science communication through the use of 3D visual, spatial, and haptic representations.

Developing XR tools for widespread adoption by the research community will take time, but the application of 3D technology in scientific fields that are heavily visual and spatial by nature—as the Earth and space sciences are—is a worthy goal.

Building XR Experiences

Do you have data you’d like to visualize or interact with in XR? It’s important first to consider how you can best visualize the data and what benefits XR may have for your application. For example, are you trying to show changes in riverbed morphology, requiring you to render many digital elevation models? Or are you looking at slow geophysical processes, with 3D slices of complex imagery representing your data?

In ESS, creating XR applications involves using scientific data to design 3D experiences that are deployed on one or more hardware platforms. Determining appropriate visualization methods and hardware requires thinking deeply about your specific data and what information or insights you want to glean. Common visualization techniques include 3D slices, extrusions, point clouds, and isosurfaces (Table 2). XR games can also be great sources of inspiration in spatial analyses.

Table 2. XR Visualization Techniques for Volumetric Data Analysis

Visualization Techniques for Volumetric Data AnalysisGood Usage Examples3D slicesDescribing multi-instrument/measurement systems, model couplings, cross-sectional analyses, tomography3D lines and arrowsSatellite tracks, magnetic field lines or field-aligned data, flows and gradientsExtrusionsLayered data and their boundaries, topography and digital elevation modelsIsosurfacesFluids, tomographyPoint clouds (voxels)Fluids, lidar scans, satellite data such as attitude and tracks, satellite point measurements (Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), magnetic fields)Immersive spacePerspective- or scale-sensitive observations such as all-sky imaging, spatially or directionally sensitive systems such as field trips

Before beginning to develop a new XR experience, you must convert your raw data from instruments or simulations into a 3D format. The memory requirements posed by large datasets offer common challenges for such conversions, but they can be addressed by converting data to more portable formats such as GLB and USDZ.

With 3D data in hand, you may want to start visualizing them by using existing XR programs that don’t require additional coding. Free visualizers are available for most standard 3D file formats. Just seeing the data in a 3D environment, even if not a custom one, may offer new perspectives and spark useful conversations. Existing tools enable morphological comparisons, integration of data from multiple datasets, and other capabilities.

If you want to develop a bespoke visualization specific to your data, integrate data processing into your XR application, or visualize something abstract (like a toy model), you will need to build a custom application using a game engine such as Unreal Engine or Unity. With these resources, developers can build interfaces to facilitate interaction with data and with multiple users. Developing a robust user interface is crucial to the success of an XR application, and it is best undertaken in collaboration with colleagues knowledgeable in user interface design.

The process of going from raw data to a full XR application, a research front in its own right, is often nonlinear. Technical challenges in 3D visualization include problems accurately depicting morphologies or scaling, the occurrence of data occlusions or limited fields of view, the creation of ambiguous geometries or unclear intersections among data, and difficulties representing complex systems or dealing with inconsistent data formats. Future developments in XR, to the point where scientists can conduct research in 3D, must address these challenges. Needed advancements include improvements in interactivity (e.g., on-demand geometric transformations and slicing), 3D mathematical analyses (e.g., true 3D filters and spectral analysis), validation (e.g., ensuring clearly discernible geometric relations, scales, and positions), and discovery (e.g., capabilities for identifying patterns, structures, and correlations).

Acknowledgments

We thank our colleagues who have helped us lead XR-themed scientific conference sessions in the past, as well as our collaborators in XR projects, including Nick Hedley, Jaqueline Ryan, Robert LiKamWa, Joe Roberts, Beverly French, Jennifer Hoey, Jared Bendis, Andrew Rossi, Anne Holland, and others. This work is supported by National Science Foundation grant OPP-2218996.

References

Bailenson, J. (2019), Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do, WW Norton, New York, wwnorton.com/books/experience-on-demand/.

Boghosian, A. L., et al. (2019), Inside the ice shelf: Using augmented reality to visualise 3D lidar and radar data of Antarctica, Photogramm. Rec., 34(168), 346–364, https://doi.org/10.1111/phor.12298.

Bursztyn, N., et al. (2022), Virtual strike and dip—Advancing inclusive and accessible field geology, Geosci. Commun., 5(1), 29–53, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-5-29-2022.

Carabajal, I. G., and C. L. Atchison (2020), An investigation of accessible and inclusive instructional field practices in US geoscience departments, Adv. Geosci., 53, 53–63, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-53-53-2020.

Dede, C. (2009), Immersive interfaces for engagement and learning, Science, 323(5910), 66–69, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1167311.

Gallagher, C., S. Turkay, and R. A. Brown (2022), Towards designing immersive geovisualisations: Literature review and recommendations for future research, in OzCHI ’21: Proceedings of the 33rd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 307–326, Assoc. for Comput. Mach., New York, https://doi.org/10.1145/3520495.3520511.

Grubb, T., et al. (2023), Using XR for improving scientific discovery with numerical weather models, in IGARSS 2023 – 2023 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, pp. 1,537–1,540, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS52108.2023.10282886.

Lanier, J. (2017), Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality, Henry Holt, New York, us.macmillan.com/books/9781250097408/dawnoftheneweverything/.

Lu, Q., and M. L. Rudolph (2024), A synoptic view of mantle plume shapes enabled by virtual reality, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 25(6), e2024GC011517, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GC011517.

Seers, T. D., et al. (2022), Virtual outcrop geology comes of age: The application of consumer-grade virtual reality hardware and software to digital outcrop data analysis, Comput. Geosci., 159, 105006, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2021.105006.

Tack, N., et al. (2023), Development and initial testing of XR-based fence diagrams for polar science, in IGARSS 2023 – 2023 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, pp. 1,541–1,544, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS52108.2023.10281776.

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Author Information

Kristina Collins (kvcollins@spacescience.org), Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.; Alexandra Boghosian, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, N.Y.; and Jaime Aguilar Guerrero, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla.

Citation: Collins, K., A. Boghosian, and J. Aguilar Guerrero (2026), Extended reality offers opportunities for scientific show-and-tell, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260221. Published on 10 July 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.

Author(s): Y. G. Chen, Y. Chen, Y. X. Li, H. Wen, and C. Z. Xiao

In plasmas, a Langmuir wave is a bridge connecting external sources with waves or particles, whose properties are mainly determined by the shape, amplitude, dispersion relation, or phase of the Langmuir wave. Here we propose a scheme to generate coherent Langmuir wave trains with width as short as s…

[Phys. Rev. E 114, 015208] Published Fri Jul 10, 2026

A major landslide triggered by monsoon rainfall killed eight people this week. The failure occurred at the site of works for a new road tunnel – there is speculation that poor handling of excavated materials may have been the cause. Imagery suggests that the event might have been slightly more complex, though.

On 7 July 2026, the Kalladi landslide was triggered by heavy rainfall in Wayanad District, Kerala, India. Eight people were killed and ten were injured in a landslide that has attracted considerable attention in India and beyond.

The site of the landslide was the construction site for a major road tunnel project, known as the Wayanad Tunnel or the Anakkampoyil-Kalladi-Meppadi tunnel road (a variety of other names are also used).

The landslide was caught on an extraordinary, dramatic video that is on Youtube:-

The video shows some very lucky escapes, and probably some who were less fortunate. It also shows that the landslide occurred during heavy rainfall and that it was very mobile.

The location of the landslide was [11.52184, 76.13315]. Interestingly, Google Maps has this image of the site before the failure, collected in April of this year:-

Photograph from Google Maps of the site of the 7 July 2026 Kalladi Landslide in India.

Note the reinforced (shotcrete?) wall in the background, with forest on the slopes above, and the large volume of dumped, loose material in the middle distance.

Youtube also has a drone video of the aftermath of the landslide:-

In the media there has been a great deal of speculation that this landslide was caused by poor management of excavated material – in effect, that this is a fill slope type failure. Indeed, the Deccan Herald has this quote:-

“Kerala Minister T Siddique on Tuesday said the incident at the Kalladi tunnel project site was not a natural landslide but a ‘man-made landslide’ caused by the unscientific dumping of excavated earth.”

And there ae solid reports that concerns had been raised abut the handling of excavated materials at the project site.

I do not dispute the notion that this was a manmade disaster, nor that poor management of excavated soil played a role by contributing liquefiable material into the landslide. But I also find this still from the video quite interesting:-

Still from a video posted to Youtube of the site of the site of the 7 July 2026 Kalladi Landslide in India. Video posted by Asianet News.

The remains of the shotcrete wall can be seen on either side of the landslide scar, and pieces of the wall are visible in the debris too. But the crown of the landslide appears to extend beyond the site of the wall, with a planar surface on the left side of the scar. There is also some possible evidence of rotation on the right side of the scar.

I wonder therefore whether this is actually a failure in the slope behind the shotcrete wall perhaps caused by the build up of pore pressure due to poor drainage? The failure of this portion of slope may then have created an undrained loading situation on the excavated materials, driving liquefaction and the high mobility landslide.

The Kalladi landslide needs a proper, forensic investigation – I am only speculating – and once again lessons need to be learnt. I have highlighted on numerous occasions that too many infrastructure projects in the mountains of India involve grossly inadequate slope management.

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SummaryPhase and group velocities along specific ray directions are needed for qP, qSV and SH wave traveltime computation in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media. The phase and group velocities are not unique functions of the ray direction, but of the slowness direction, so efficient computation of the slowness direction from a given ray direction becomes necessary. The eigenvalue method and the generalized method have been proposed to facilitate the computation by formulating governing equations for the phase angle, which requires efficient root-finding algorithms. In this work, we address this problem in two-dimensional (2D) TTI media by applying Newton’s method. For the eigenvalue method, a set of two nonlinear equations for the qP and qSV waves and one nonlinear equation for the SH wave must be solved. For the generalized method, only one nonlinear equation of the phase angle needs to be solved for the qP, qSV and SH waves. Numerical experiments, including phase and group velocity computation and their application in first-arrival traveltime calculation, are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

When people think about geological faults, they usually think about earthquakes. Yet faults do not move only during earthquakes. Sometimes they slip silently, without generating noticeable shaking, releasing stress over hours or days through slow fault movements that remain largely hidden from conventional monitoring systems.

Mud volcanoes are often pictured as dramatic geological phenomena featuring the sudden eruption of large volumes of fiery mud in short, powerful bursts. By examining recent activity at the Lokbatan mud volcano in Azerbaijan, an international team of researchers led by the University of Oslo has found that many eruptions are relatively small and short-lived, producing only modest amounts of material near the crater.

Earth's temperature has been much cooler in the past than previously thought, meaning it could be moving toward the warmest it's ever been.

Permafrost usually hits the news as a hazard, a planetary risk. When this ice-rich ground thaws, it damages roads and building foundations. It drains lakes and tips trees into drunken forests. It releases greenhouse gases that have been locked in carbon-rich soils for thousands of years, amplifying warming and driving further thaw.

body {background-color: #D2D1D5;} Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

Since 2000, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has been responsible for publishing the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on the United States released every four years. 

Now, the program—and the assessment—is headed by Matthew Wielicki, an outspoken climate change denier, self-described “Earth science professor-in-exile,” and former University of Alabama geochemist, according to POLITICO. 

 
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Wielicki frequently casts doubt on established climate science on social media, with one recent post referring to climate change as an “imaginary problem.” He also runs a blog called Irrational Fear, which includes posts in which Wielicki posits that increasing solar radiation, rather than carbon dioxide, is responsible for regional warming signals; argues that the 2009 Endangerment Finding ignored the benefits of climate change for human societies; and casts doubt on the conclusions of the 2000 and 2009 National Climate Assessments.

“For too long, the USGCRP has been used as a vehicle for political agendas instead of sound science,” a White House spokesperson told POLITICO regarding Wielicki’s appointment. “We look forward to restoring the USGCRP and ensuring it fulfills its legal mandate.” 

In a 29 June post on the social media platform X, Wielicki solicited ideas about what readers may want to be included in the Sixth National Climate Assessment. 

What do you want to see in the Sixth National Climate Assessment (NCA6)?

–@usgcrp

— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) June 29, 2026

The Sixth National Climate Assessment was originally scheduled to be published in 2028. However, in April 2025, scientists working on the report were dismissed by the Trump administration. In December 2025, the administration invited a group of researchers known for their climate skepticism to replace the dismissed scientists and begin work on the Sixth National Climate Assessment once again. 

The same group of climate contrarians now working on the Sixth Assessment was responsible for writing a climate report for the Department of Energy last year that was used to justify the rescission of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which concluded that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and require regulation. Multiple reviews from scientists found that the DOE report was misleading and relied on flawed science.

To maintain the momentum of research supporting national and subnational assessments of climate risks and solutions, AGU, along with the American Meteorological Society, plans publish the U.S. Climate Collection, a special collection of climate research papers.

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

These updates are made possible through information from the scientific community. Do you have a story about how changes in law or policy are affecting scientists or research? Send us a tip at eos@agu.org. Text © 2026. AGU. 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.

Following a four-year study, scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography released a new report to determine whether an early warning system could detect a landslide before it happens. The "California Coastal Landslide Early Warning Research" report found that a network of in-ground sensors can provide a reliable warning of impending, dangerous landslides with hours to days' notice, but that more work is needed to formalize the findings into an actionable warning system.

A new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews dates the dramatic collapse of one of the largest glaciers ever documented in the Himalayas. The findings overturn a long-held assumption about what sustains wet-climate (monsoon-dominated) glaciers.

Moderate volcanic eruptions and extreme wildfires since 2005 have led to an increase in the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere, a layer of Earth's atmosphere above the weather-filled troposphere. That's potentially bad news because water vapor here acts like a greenhouse gas that traps heat and changes ozone chemistry.