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Conflict-driven farmland abandonment in Syria leads to land uplift, study finds

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 04/01/2026 - 15:40

The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, caused widespread population displacement and infrastructure damage. However, it has also led to an unintended environmental effect with notable changes in the country's landscape, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Among the concerns are the complex impacts of wars on water resources. These repercussions can be direct, such as wastewater pollution and destruction of water infrastructure, or indirect, including increased deforestation, soil erosion, and abrupt cropland losses.

Wisconsin-sized chunk of Alaskan permafrost is thawing: Geoscientists say climate may never be the same

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 04/01/2026 - 13:00

In a first-of-its-kind study, a team of researchers led by geoscientist Michael Rawlins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown in fine-grained detail what happens when Arctic permafrost thaws. Focusing on a Wisconsin-sized area of Alaska's North Slope containing hundreds of rivers and streams flowing into the Beaufort Sea, the team analyzed 44 years of model data at one-kilometer grid resolution, revealing how massively runoff is increasing, the increased loads of previously frozen carbon flowing through northern Alaska's rivers and how the thawing season has extended into late-summer and fall.

Quantitative analysis of zonal flow influence on turbulent plasmas driven by trapped electrons

Physical Review E (Plasma physics) - Wed, 04/01/2026 - 10:00

Author(s): Jiheon Song, Jeff Candy, Emily Belli, and Jungpyo Lee

The role of zonal flow (ZF) in the turbulence saturation of trapped electron modes (TEM) in magnetically confined plasmas is revisited. In this study, we examine ZF excitation and saturation mechanisms in TEM turbulence using detailed free-energy transfer diagnostics from nonlinear gyrokinetic simul…

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045201] Published Wed Apr 01, 2026

Characterization of time-dependent x-ray drive at the center of a cylindrical hohlraum

Physical Review E (Plasma physics) - Wed, 04/01/2026 - 10:00

Author(s): Xufei Xie et al.

Detailed investigation of the x-ray drive on the capsule at the center of the hohlraum is crucial to solve the “drive deficit” problem in inertial confinement fusion. A pioneering work for probing the drive flux at the hohlraum center by simultaneously measuring the re-emitted flux and shock velocit…

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045202] Published Wed Apr 01, 2026

Linear stability analysis of radiative effects on compressible Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Physical Review E (Plasma physics) - Wed, 04/01/2026 - 10:00

Author(s): Cunbo Zhang, Zongqiang Ma, Yang Song, Cheng-quan Fu, Zhengfeng Fan, Anmin He, and Pei Wang

Within the equilibrium-diffusion approximation for radiation, we perform a linear stability analysis of the compressible Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a stratified, isothermal background. Radiation alters the growth rate by modulating the fluid's effective compressibility. Radiative diffusion enhan…

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045203] Published Wed Apr 01, 2026

Characterization of icequake mechanisms on the Argentiére glacier by 3D elastic full waveform inversion

Geophysical Journal International - Wed, 04/01/2026 - 00:00

SummaryGlaciers are key components of the global climate system and sensitive indicators of environmental change. Their dynamics generate diverse seismic signals, whose source mechanisms offer valuable insights into their internal stress conditions. While moment tensor inversion has been applied to icequakes on a few alpine and polar glaciers, it had not yet been implemented on the ArgentiÃ¨re Glacier (French Alps). In this study, we conduct a systematic characterization of icequake source mechanisms based on a dense dataset of 14 057 near-surface events recorded by 98 3-component sensors deployed at the surface of the glacier during the RESOLVE project. We apply a full waveform inversion method to jointly reconstruct the moment tensor and the source time wavelet for each event. The moment tensor Green’s functions used in the inversion are computed through numerical modeling of elastic wave propagation in a 3D medium, incorporating real surface topography. This approach allows us to exploit the full complexity of the recorded seismic signals and to move beyond previous analysis based on simplified models and single-component data. The results reveal a clear dominance of opening-type (tensile crack) mechanisms, consistent with extensional stress regimes at the crevasse locations, with principal stress direction almost perpendicular to the local crevasse orientations. The exceptional size of the catalog enables a detailed investigation of spatial patterns in source mechanisms, particularly highlighting structural complexity in the heavily crevassed downstream zone. The distribution of extensional and compressional mechanisms further indicates a highly heterogeneous stress field at the glacier surface, influenced by local crevasse geometry. Depth-dependent variations in the reconstructed moment tensors suggest that deeper events tend to involve more isotropic components, likely reflecting pressure-driven failure under overburden stress. These findings demonstrate the potential of full waveform inversion to characterize the source mechanisms associated with the icequakes on a glacier. This work represents a significant step toward integrating seismological modeling with glaciological interpretation in alpine environments.

Reservoirs are changing: What Landsat data reveal about water loss and gain

Phys.org: Earth science - Tue, 03/31/2026 - 21:40

Communities worldwide rely on reservoirs for drinking water, hydroelectric power, irrigation, and more. These critical freshwater resources are affected by seasonal and long-term changes; water levels in reservoirs can dip during hot summer months or due to prolonged drought, or can flood after a particularly strong storm. Despite their importance, there are key gaps in our knowledge of reservoir structure and dynamics. Two recent papers published in Scientific Data use Landsat data to help fill in those gaps.