EOS

On 17 May 2025, a failure occurred in a mine waste facility at the Tawau gold mine in Malaysia. Images suggest that this might have been an overtopping event in a contaminated water storage pond.

On 17 May 2025, there was a failure of a mine waste storage facility at Bukit Mantri in Malaysia. The precise circumstances of this event, and its consequences, are not entirely clear to me. However, it appears that a substantial amount of cyanide has escaped, possibly reaching the Kalumpang River.

The event occurred at a gold mine at Bukit Mantri, which is located at [4.5095, 118.1094]. Reports suggest that a tailings dam or water retention dam failed on 17 May 2025. There is reportedly a video that captured the event, although I have been unable to track this down. The still below, posted in a report by Tuhua Bambangan, reportedly shows the event:-

Image reportedly showing the failure of a mine waste storage facility at the Tawau gold mine in Bukit Mantri, Malaysia. Image from a video, originally posted by Tuhau Bambangan.

If this is indeed the reported failure then it appears to have been an overtopping event. A report in Sabah News Today has an image of the aftermath, which is consistent with the above image, showing a major break in the dam.

The Planet Labs satellite image below shows the mine site at Bukit Mantri, captured two days before the failure on 15 May 2025. I have circled the most likely location of the failure:-

Satellite image of the Bukit Mantri mine site before the mine waste storage facility failure. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 15 May 2025.

The image below was captured on 25 May 2025, eight days after the failure:-

Satellite image of the Bukit Mantri mine site after the mine waste storage facility failure. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 25 May 2025.

And here is a slider to compare the two images:-

Before and after Planet Labs images of the possible location of the Bukit Mantri wine waste failure.

I think the break in the dam is probably just visible, with some sediment deposited on the downstream side, although a higher resolution is needed for certainty.

The operators of the mine have been ordered to cease operations, and there are calls for a proper investigation. Concerns had been raised about this site for a while – for example, Sabah News Today published an article two months ago in which they claimed that:

“A subsidiary of Alumas Resource Berhad has been identified as currently conducting illegal gold mineral mining operations in Bukit Mantri, Balung Tawau.”

I have repeatedly written about mine waste failures over the years. It is depressing that 2025 has, to date, been a bumper year for such events.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to loyal reader Steven for spotting this event, and to Planet Labs for their amazing images.

Planet Team. 2024. Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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.

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.

Climate.gov, NOAA’s portal to the work of their Climate Program Office, will likely soon shut down as most of the staff charged with maintaining it were fired on 31 May, according to The Guardian. The site is funded through a large NOAA contract that also includes other programs. A NOAA manager told now-former employees of a directive “from above” demanding that the contract remove funding for the 10-person climate.gov team.

“It was a very deliberate, targeted attack,” Rebecca Lindsey, the former program manager for climate.gov, told The Guardian. Lindsey was fired in February as part of the government’s purge of probationary employees. She said that the fate of the website had been under debate for months, with political appointees arguing for its removal and career staffers defending it.

“We operated exactly how you would want an independent, non-partisan communications group to operate,” Lindsey said. “It does seem to be part of this sort of slow and quiet way of trying to keep science agencies from providing information to the American public about climate.”

 
Related

•  Major US climate website likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired
•  NOAA Datasets Will Soon Disappear
•  Get Involved: AGU Science Policy Action Center

Another former NOAA employee noted that the climate.gov purge spared two website developers. For some, this raised concerns that the climate.gov site might survive, but host anti-science content and misinformation under the guise of a once-trusted source of climate science.

This move comes amid a slew of other anti-science actions from the Trump Administration, including blocking EPA science funding, halting maintenance of key Arctic data, removing access to longstanding NOAA datasets, proposing to slash NASA’s Earth science funding, and pulling U.S. scientists out of domestic and international climate change reports.

“Hiding the impacts of climate change won’t stop it from happening,” said one former NOAA contractor, “it will just make us far less prepared when it does.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.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 © 2025. 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.

Next time you explore a beach or a desert, look down at the sand. You might spot patches of small ripples just a few centimeters tall. Wind can shape these miniature dunes in less than half an hour and blow them away just as quickly. Unlike the processes that form larger dunes that define desert landscapes and shorelines, those that shape mini dunes have been elusive.

“There have been some observations of such small, meter-scale bedforms, but not many quantitative studies,” said Camille Rambert, a doctoral student at École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris and lead author on the new research. “And there have not been any models to explain their formation.”

Recently, a group of researchers used high-resolution laser scanning in the Namib Desert in Namibia to watch how tiny dunes form. Those scans informed dune formation models, which found that the key factor is how sand grains bounce on smooth versus grainy surfaces.

Blowing in the Wind

Although small sand bedforms are a common phenomenon in most sandy places, their ephemeral nature has made it challenging for geomorphologists to decode what makes a small dune form where only flat, featureless sand exists.

“More sand can be transported on a consolidated surface than on the erodible surface.”

A team of researchers, including Rambert, set out to the Namib Desert in coastal southern Africa seeking to understand how these bedforms take shape. The team used a laser scanner sitting on the surface to collect repeated high-resolution topographic maps of nearby flat areas, roughly 5 meters wide × 5 meters long, nestled between larger dunes. The scanner measured the distance from the laser emitter to the ground and also measured near-surface wind speed and direction. The team could detect vertical changes to the surface of about half a millimeter and horizontal changes of about a centimeter.

“From those measurements, we can deduce how bedforms evolve,” Rambert said. “Do they grow and migrate, or do they shrink?”

They developed a mini dune formation model on the basis of well-established physics governing large dune formation, but with a key twist: The small dunes started on consolidated surfaces like gravel or hard-packed sand rather than on an erodible foundation such as loose sand. That difference altered how far wind could transport a sand grain and how the grain bounced or stuck when it landed.

Researchers created digital elevation maps showing how small dunes form in the Namib Desert using a high-resolution terrestrial laser scanner. Credit: University of Southampton

“This difference in surface materials affects the sand transport,” Rambert said. “More sand can be transported on a consolidated surface than on the erodible surface.”

If a grain wasn’t swept away by the next gust of wind, its presence made the surface a little rougher and more likely to trap the next grain of sand—and the next. The gradual buildup of grains into tiny bumps altered near-surface wind patterns, which helped trap even more sand and created distinctive dune patterns in the bedform.

These patches of mini dunes disappeared when a strong enough wind blew the sand grains off the consolidated surface. If the wind had been gentler, those patches might have continued growing.

The team found that their model observations accurately portrayed what they saw in the laser scans from the Namib. They published these results in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

“This study highlights the importance of bed heterogeneities, such as whether a surface is sand covered or not, in how meter-scale bedforms evolve,” Joel Davis, a planetary geologist at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, wrote in an email. Davis was not involved with the research. “It’s intriguing [that] those small-scale variations in dynamics…could influence whether these small bedforms become a larger dune field, or simply disappear.”

Dunes Beyond Earth

Scientists have discovered dunes on both Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan, but the instruments that have explored those distant worlds are far less advanced than the laser scanners on Earth.

“Studies like these, on the dynamics of Earth dunes, are particularly useful for investigating dunes in a planetary setting, such as on Mars or Titan,” wrote Davis, who studies Martian dunes.

Meter-scale dunes, like this one in Namibia, form because sand grains bounce differently on smooth surfaces than on rough ones. Credit: University of Southampton

Some of Mars’s dunes form inside craters, which presumably trap a lot of loose sand, but they are also found outside the craters in less sandy areas. “We don’t really know why they have formed in these locations, but perhaps bed heterogeneities are a control on this,” Davis wrote. “It would be interesting to see if we could identify any metre-scale bedforms in these expansive interdune areas of Mars…similar to the Namibia examples.”

What’s more, Earth’s dunes tend to be either very short (centimeters) or very long (tens to hundreds of meters). Though hundreds of dunes near Mars’s north pole are the same shape as Earth dunes, most of them are 1–2 meters long. Planetary geologists are still puzzling over this.

“Mars, and also other planetary bodies such as Titan, are, in a way, laboratories where the physical conditions are different than on Earth.”

“This is a hotly debated topic that is rapidly evolving,” wrote Lior Rubanenko in an email. Rubanenko is a planetary surfaces researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., who was not involved with the new research.

“Mars, and also other planetary bodies such as Titan, are, in a way, laboratories where the physical conditions are different than on Earth­—different atmospheric density, different grain size and material type,” Rubanenko wrote. “This allows us to conduct and observe ‘planet-size’ experiments which challenge our current paradigms.”

“Comparing observations of dunes between these planets can help us better understand the mechanisms that govern sand transport and dune formation,” he added.

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Mini dunes form when sand stops bouncing, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250216. Published on 11 June 2025. Text © 2025. 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: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

The surface waters of warm western boundary currents are poor in nutrients. Therefore, intrusions of these nutrient-depleted water into the region are considered to reduce biological production. Although warm waters of the Kuroshio, one of the western boundary currents, often intrude into the South China Sea through the Luzon Strait, their biogeochemical consequences are not well understood.

Li et al. [2025] use data from 20 cruises conducted in the South China Sea between 2004 and 2015, reveal that the Kuroshio intrusion counterintuitively increases the chlorophyll pigments that are contributed by small phytoplankton called picophytoplankton and nanophytoplankton. Previous studies have pointed out that global warming has weakened the Kuroshio intrusion into the South China Sea. Therefore, this study raises concerns that global warming would cause a decrease in primary production in the future.

Schematics of the study showing surface chlorophyll concentration, which is proportional to phytoplankton biomass and abundant in the mixed water property between South China Sea (KI=0%) western Pacific (KI=100%), is intensified with strong Kuroshio intrusion (blue curve) in the South China Sea. Credit: Li et al. [2025], Figure 9

Citation: Li, W., Shang, Y., Li, C., Xu, C., Laws, E. A., Liu, X., & Huang, B. (2025). A stronger Kuroshio intrusion leads to higher chlorophyll a concentration in the northern South China Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130, e2024JC021389. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JC021389

—Takeyoshi Nagai, Editor, JGR: Oceans

Text © 2025. 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.

Later this year I’ll leave the University of Hull to take up the role of Vice-Chancellor and President at Nottingham Trent University.

Nottingham Trent University has about 40,000 students and staff spanning five university sites. It is the fifth largest university in terms of enrolled students in the UK. In recent years it has enjoyed remarkable success, led by its current Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Edward Peck. For example, it has been named University of the Year repeatedly over the last decade (e.g. THE Awards 2017, The Guardian Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023). It has an extraordinary track record in terms of widening participation and it is deeply rooted in its local communities.

A part of the campus at Nottingham Trent University. Image by NTU Credit: Nottingham Trent University

Thus, it is a real honour to have been invited to become NTU’s next Vice-Chancellor and President, a role that I will take up in December 2025. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work with its staff, students and alumni, as well as its many partners across the East Midlands and beyond. To be able to lead such an institution will be an extraordinary priviledge.

Of course, this means that I must step down from my role as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in December. I’ll do so with real sadness – I’ve loved my time at Hull. It’s a wonderful University with exceptionally dedicated staff, inspiring students and deeply engaged alumni. Since I joined the University we have done a considerable amount of work to respond to the major challenges that the sector is facing. The ways in which the community has engaged with this has been amazing, and the trajectory of the University is now steeply upwards. I’m sure that the University has a bright future and that it will thrive in my absence.

Of course, I’ll continue to be Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull for the next six months, and I’ll remain committed to the mission of the institution through this time. There will be many more opportunities to describe the great things that are happening at Hull.

Over the remainder of the year I’ll be extraordinarily fortunate to be able to engage with two amazing academic communities. I’ll do so with a sense of great excitement.

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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.

The USGS has published a preliminary report on landslides triggered across western North Carolina, northern South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and parts of southern Virginia by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Over 2,000 failures were triggered by up to c.700 mm of rainfall in a 72 hour period.

Between 26 and 28 September 2024, the remnants of Hurricane Helene swept across the parts of the USA, triggering extreme rainfall in western North Carolina, northern South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and parts of southern Virginia. In western North Carolina for example, 782 mm of precipitation fell in 72 hours. It has been quite difficult to get accurate information about the resultant landslides.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has now put that right with a preliminary field report (Allstadt et al. 2025) that describes the failures that were triggered by Hurricane Helene. There is also an excellent public-facing page with some images and a detailed archive with many more images stored as a zip file.

The report documents 2,217 landslides triggered by Hurrican Helene across the area investigated, and it provides a map to show the distribution:-

The distribution of landslides triggered by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. From Allstadt et al. (2025).

The team note that the largest landsides occurred where multiple smaller failures converged to create channelised debris flows, in common with similar events that I have described on this blog (for example in Tanzania, Kenya, India and Pakistan). One such example occurred at “Craigtown”, a small community in Fairview, Buncombe County, North Carolina. This is located at [35.558, -82.317] – the Planet Labs image below shows the aftermath of the event, with the marker placed on Craigtown:-

Satellite image showing the channelised debris flow at Craigtown in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 5 October 2024.

Allstadt et al. (2025) provide these images of the aftermath of the landslide at Craigtown:-

Photographs showing the aftermath of the channelised debris flows at Craigtown in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. From Allstadt et al. (2025).

Thirteen people died in the channelised debris flows at Craigtown – eleven in the first event and two responders in a subsequent debris flow. The New York Times has a very powerful article about the impact on the community.

The USGS report is also careful to note that the aftermath of Hurricane Helene could see an elevated level of landslide hazard in the areas that received high rainfall totals. As they put it:

“High-risk landslides may have not yet been identified because of tree cover in areas where field observations have not yet been conducted.”

And finally, the northern hemisphere tropical cyclone season is just warming up. Tropical Depression Wutip has formed in the western Pacific basin and is now expected to travel to the north to make landfall in China. This is not a major storm, but will undoubtedly bring heavy rainfall. There will be many more to come in the coming weeks.

References

Allstadt, K. et al. 2025 Preliminary Field Report of Landslide Hazards Following
Hurricane Helene. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2025–1028.

Planet Team 2025 Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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.

This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Esta es una traducción al español autorizada de un artículo de Eos.

De vez en cuando, algunos árboles parecen necesitar una sacudida. Cuando es alcanzado por un rayo, el frondoso Dipteryx oleifera sufre daños mínimos, mientras que los árboles y enredaderas parásitas de las inmediaciones suelen marchitarse o morir por completo. Los investigadores estiman que la eliminación de la vegetación competidora multiplica casi por quince la producción de semillas de D. oleifera a lo largo de su vida.

Un bosque bien equipado

“Este es el único lugar de la Tierra en el que disponemos de datos precisos de seguimiento de rayos para saber si [un rayo ha caído] en una zona del bosque”.

Panamá suele ser conocida por su canal homónimo. Sin embargo, la Isla de Barro Colorado, en el centro de Panamá, también alberga lo que los investigadores que trabajan en el área llaman “una de las zonas de bosque tropical mejor estudiadas de la Tierra”. Esto se debe a que cámaras y aparatos para medir campos eléctricos vigilan constantemente el bosque desde lo alto de una serie de torres de unos 40 metros de altura. Estos instrumentos pueden revelar, entre otros datos, la ubicación exacta de la caída de rayos. “Este es el único lugar de la Tierra en el que disponemos de datos precisos de seguimiento de rayos para saber si [un rayo ha caído] en una zona del bosque”, explica Evan Gora, ecólogo del Instituto Cary de Estudios de Ecosistemas y del Instituto Smithsoniano de Investigaciones Tropicales.

Según Gabriel Arellano, ecólogo forestal de la Universidad de Michigan en Ann Arbor que no participó en la investigación, este tipo de infraestructura es fundamental para localizar los árboles que han sido alcanzados por un rayo. “Es muy difícil hacer un seguimiento de los rayos y encontrar los árboles concretos que se han visto afectados”.

Esto se debe a que el impacto de un rayo en un árbol tropical rara vez provoca un incendio, explica Gora. Lo más habitual es que los árboles tropicales alcanzados por un rayo parezcan prácticamente intactos, pero mueren lentamente a lo largo de varios meses.

Siguiendo los destellos

Para comprender mejor cómo afectan los rayos a los grandes árboles tropicales, Gora y sus colegas examinaron 94 rayos que cayeron sobre 93 árboles únicos en la isla de Barro Colorado entre 2014 y 2019. En 2021, el equipo viajó a la isla para recopilar imágenes terrestres y aéreas de cada árbol impactado directamente y sus alrededores.

Gora y sus colegas registraron seis parámetros sobre el estado de cada árbol afectado directamente y del grupo de enredaderas leñosas parásitas conocidas como lianas: pérdida de la copa, daños en el tronco y porcentaje de la copa infestada de lianas. Las lianas colonizan las copas de muchos árboles tropicales, usándolas para darse estructura y compitiendo con los árboles por la luz. Piensa en alguien que se sienta a su lado y le arranca la mitad de cada bocado de comida que tomas, dice Gora. “Eso es efectivamente lo que hacen estas lianas”.

El equipo también examinó los árboles que rodeaban a cada uno de los que habían sido alcanzados directamente. La corriente eléctrica de un rayo puede viajar por el aire y atravesar también los árboles cercanos, explica Gora. Cuando las ramas de un árbol alcanzado por u nrayo están cerca de las de sus vecinos, “los extremos de sus ramas y las de sus vecinos mueren”, explica Gora. “Verás docenas de esos lugares”.

Creciendo prosperamente después de un rayo

Los investigadores descubrieron que en promedio una cuarta parte de los árboles alcanzados directamente por un rayo morían. Pero cuando el equipo dividió su muestra por especies de árboles, el D. oleifera (más conocido como almendro o haba tonka) destacó por su asombrosa capacidad para sobrevivir a los rayos. Los nueve árboles D. oleifera de la muestra del equipo sobrevivieron sistemáticamente a los rayos, mientras que a sus lianas y vecinos inmediatos no les fue tan bien. “Hubo daños considerables en la zona, pero no en el árbol directamente afectado”, explica Gora. “Éste nunca murió”.

(Otras diez especies del grupo de árboles de los investigadores tampoco mostraron mortalidad tras ser alcanzadas por un rayo, pero todas esas muestras eran demasiado pequeñas, entre uno o dos individuos, para extraer conclusiones sólidas).

Se muestra un árbol de <em>D. oleífera</em> en Panamá justo después de ser alcanzado por un rayo en 2019 (izquierda) y 2 años después (derecha). El árbol sobrevivió al impacto, pero sus enredaderas parásitas y algunos de sus vecinos no. Crédito: Evan Gora

Gora y sus colaboradores calcularon que los grandes árboles de D. oleifera son alcanzados por un rayo un promedio de cinco veces a lo largo de sus aproximadamente 300 años de vida. El equipo infirió que la capacidad de esta especie para sobrevivir a esos eventos, mientras que las lianas y los árboles vecinos a menudo morían, debería traducirse en una reducción general de la competencia por los nutrientes y la luz solar. Al usar modelos de crecimiento y capacidad reproductiva de los árboles, los investigadores calcularon que D. oleifera obtenía beneficios sustanciales de ser alcanzada por un rayo, sobre todo en lo que respecta a la fecundidad, es decir, el número de semillas producidas a lo largo de la vida de un árbol. “La capacidad de sobrevivir a los rayos multiplica por catorce su fecundidad», afirma Gora.

D. oleifera esté evolucionando para convertirse en un mejor pararrayos.

Los investigadores demostraron además que D. oleifera tendía a ser más alto y ancho en su copa que muchas otras especies de árboles tropicales de la Isla de Barro Colorado. Trabajos anteriores de Gora y sus colegas han demostrado que los árboles más altos corren especial riesgo de ser alcanzados por un rayo. Por tanto, es posible pensar que D. oleifera esté evolucionando para convertirse en un mejor pararrayos, afirma Gora. “Quizá los rayos estén moldeando no sólo la dinámica de nuestros bosques, sino también su evolución”.

Estos resultados fueron publicados en New Phytologist.

Gora y sus colaboradores partieron de la hipótesis de que la fisiología de D. oleifera debe de otorgar cierta protección contra la enorme cantidad de corriente impartida por un rayo. Trabajos anteriores de Gora y otros investigadores han sugerido que el D. oleifera es más conductor que el promedio; niveles más altos de conductividad significan menos resistencia y, por tanto, menos calentamiento interno. “Creemos que el grado de conductividad de un árbol influye mucho en si muere o no”, afirma Gora.

Seguir descubriendo otras especies de árboles resistentes a los rayos será importante para comprender cómo evolucionan los bosques a lo largo del tiempo. Es ahí donde más datos serán útiles, dijo Arellano. “No me sorprendería que encontráramos muchas otras especies”.

—Katherine Kornei (@KatherineKornei), Escritora de ciencia

This translation by Mónica Alejandra Gómez Correa was made possible by a partnership with Planeteando y GeoLatinas. Esta traducción fue posible gracias a una asociación con Planeteando and GeoLatinas.

Text © 2025. 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.

Mississippi River ships and barges carry over 500 million tons of cargo through the Southwest Pass shipping channel at the river’s end to reach major ports that handle 18% of U.S. waterborne commerce. For almost 100 years, levees and other human-made flood control structures have lined the banks of the river, obstructing its land-building silt, sand and clay from naturally rebuilding land along coastal Louisiana.

That sediment is essential to rebuilding—or at this point, maintaining—the fragile coastline that has been receding for decades. Without it, the small towns that dot the lower part of the Louisiana Gulf Coast are left exposed, with no protection against storm surges and hurricane-strength winds. But to reverse coastal erosion, scientists found that they first had to understand where sediment that could be used to rebuild settles instead.

Most of the year, less than 10% of the river’s sediment reaches the critical Bird’s Foot Delta, according to scientists from the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative, known as MissDelta. The bird’s foot—at the southernmost reach of the river system that juts into the Gulf of Mexico—plays a vital role in coastal protection, navigation, fisheries and energy infrastructure.

In 2023, MissDelta launched a $22 million, five-year research project spearheaded by Tulane University and Louisiana State University, and funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The study aims to evaluate the Delta and Southwest Pass, the critical navigation channel, with hopes of finding management approaches that will benefit both the delicate ecosystem and the people who live and work in the delta region, including fisherpeople, charter-boat operators, offshore workers, shipyard builders, mechanics and petrochemical-facility operators.

A team of researchers from Tulane University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette pose for a portrait on a dock in Venice, La., with the PS-200 isokinetic sediment sampler used to collect water samples from the Mississippi River on 23 April 2025. Credit: Stacey Plaisance, Tulane University

During the first year-and-a-half of the study, researchers measured discharge by plunging a 200-pound sampler into the river at various depths. By tracking sediment from the sampler, the team can measure how much settles in the wetlands upriver versus how much exits into the deepwater Gulf, said Claire Kemick, a Tulane graduate student working to collect the samples.

The study’s early findings, announced at Louisiana’s State of the Coast conference, show that the Mississippi River loses substantial amounts of water and sediment above what’s called the Head of Passes, at the mouth of the river, where the Mississippi forms its distinct bird’s foot by branching into three directions: the Southwest Pass shipping channel (west), Pass A Loutre (east) and South Pass (center).

Bird’s Foot Delta is headed toward further degradation, after losing ground for decades.

That means the Bird’s Foot Delta is headed toward further degradation, after losing ground for decades, said Mead Allison, co-lead of MissDelta and a professor in Tulane’s Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering.

Above the Head of Passes, substantial amounts of sediment carried by the Mississippi River are lost through both natural and man-made channels, such as the rapidly expanding Neptune Pass near Buras, Louisiana, in lower Plaquemines Parish. But most is lost well before then.

Using data on sediment movement, the team can calibrate models to predict what will happen to the delta by 2100 under different scenarios, with varied sea-level rise, storm frequency and river-flow fluctuations. Once the researchers develop the models, they will use them to test various interventions that could save the delta, such as closing river exits and changing water-flow patterns.

In the fall, the MissDelta team will return to lower Plaquemines Parish to study the saltwater wedge that creeps up the river during low flow periods. For three years in a row, the wedge of heavy salt water has crept up the river underneath the fresh water, imperiling drinking water in the greater New Orleans area.

The goal is to find management approaches that can help build up this region, which Allison has called one of the most threatened places in the nation, if not on Earth.

But they cannot forge management solutions without an understanding of how the muddy Mississippi carries its load of sandy sediment in the lower delta. “Right now, we don’t know very much about where the sediment is in the Lower Mississippi River,” Kemick said. Further research will help determine where the coarse sand is settling in the riverbed.

“Sand is white gold for Louisiana. We need to keep it.”

Sediment loss is especially high during low or average river flow, when the water is traveling slowly enough to allow the heavy sand particles to sink to the bottom. When the river floods, the faster-moving river brings sand from throughout the drainage basin to Louisiana. But it doesn’t necessarily help to build up the Bird’s Foot area. Instead, it falls out in the channel, creating a need for more dredging to maintain the ship route.

The Mississippi River’s sediment is an important resource for coastal restoration, Allison said. “Sand is white gold for Louisiana. We need to keep it.”

The Louisiana Coastal Master Plan was built upon this principle, with an ambitious plan for a sediment diversion, the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, that would be one of the largest environmental infrastructure projects in the history of the U.S.

But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended the permit to build the keystone project.

On Wednesday, more than 50 Louisiana business and civic leaders sent a letter to Gov. Jeff Landry urging him to resume construction of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion at the size and scale that it was designed and permitted for.

“Delaying or downsizing the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion threatens not just our coast, but our economy, our safety and our credibility as a state.”

“These business and civic leaders are part of the backbone of Louisiana—people who live, work, and invest in this region every day,” said Simone Maloz, campaign director for Restore the Mississippi River Delta. “Delaying or downsizing the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion threatens not just our coast, but our economy, our safety and our credibility as a state.”

Conversations about the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion were absent from this year’s State of the Coast conference, an interdisciplinary forum hosted by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

“In some ways, I feel like Mid-Barataria is kind of haunting this conference,” said Alisha Renfro, a coastal scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. She is hopeful that Louisiana can find a pathway to resume the project, after investing $500 million into planning.

The state is also in danger of losing billions in federal funding if its leaders don’t commit to finishing the construction.

It may be time to look for alternative coastal restoration projects, some scientists say. For Allison, that means not only determining how the Mississippi River sediment moves now but also where dredged sand could best restore coastal wetlands like the Barataria Basin.

Currently, dredge spoil used for coastal restoration remains relatively close to where it came from in the river. In the Barataria Basin, one project to restore approximately 302 acres of brackish marsh known as Bayou Grande Cheniere required nearly eight miles of pipes to move the sediment.

A map of the Bird’s Foot Delta showing underwater depth based on the three distributaries. Credit: USGS

Other solutions might involve closing gaps where sediment leaks out before reaching the Bird’s Foot Delta. The Army Corps is essentially testing this theory now, Allison said, with its plan to reduce the flow at Neptune Pass, a nearby branch in the river that is creating new land in Quarantine Bay.

The plan could boost land-building in the Barataria Basin, Allison said. While the Army Corps proposes using rocks to limit the size of the channel’s entrance and minimize the risk of navigational hazards, the construction at the outflow could reinforce the crevasse’s land-building power, he said.

In addition to building sediment retention structures, the Army Corps could pump sand out of the river and place it directly at the outflow of the channel, allowing the water to redistribute it into a more natural wetland building pattern.

“It’s really encouraging that the Corps is thinking about these forward-looking strategies to better use dredged material,” Allison said.

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.

—Delaney Dryfoos (@delaneydryfoos.bsky.social), The Lens

30 people have been evacuated in Les Epenays and Fregnoley in the Val de Bagnes in Valais due to the threat of debris flows .

As the dust settles on the landslide crisis at Blatten, Swissinfo has published a very nice article highlighting the growing landslide risk in Switzerland. For example, in the canton of Graubünden (which is the focus of the article) alone, 17,000 buildings are located in high natural hazard areas. Over 5,000 of these are residential properties.

Right on cue, another significant landslide crisis has developed in Switzerland, this time in in the upper Val de Bagnes in Valais. Here, an ongoing slope collapse is generating debris flows that are affecting the village of Les Epenays. Thirty people have been evacuated. Blue News has published a nice article that summarises the threat. Parts of another hamlet, Fregnoley, are also at some risk, and two farms have been evacuated there as well.

The evolution of this crisis is best told with a series of Planet Labs satellite images. So, to start, this is the site on 28 June 2024. The marker, which is located at [46.06612, 7.26522], is in the upper part of the catchment that is causing the problems.

Satellite image of site of the debris flows at Val de Bagnes in Switzerland in late June 2024. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 28 June 2024.

This is a typical alpine subcatchment, with steep upper slopes and some incision. How let’s jump forward a week to 5 July 2024:-

Satellite image of the debris flows at Val de Bagnes in Switzerland in July 2024. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 5 July 2024.

The site had dramatically changed, the result of intense rainfall. In the upper part of this subcatchment, slope failure had occurred. Lower down the slope a large alluvial fan has developed, and the image shows that the road has been inundated. Further debris flows occurred through summer 2024.

In the last week, storms have further exacerbated the issues. This is an image collected on 8 June 2025:-

Satellite image of the debris flows at Val de Bagnes in Switzerland in June 2025. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Image dated 8 June 20245

Note the dramatic increase in instability in the upper portions of the catchment (especially in the area of the marker) and the huge area inundated by the debris flows downstream. This acceleration in activity was driven by a storm on 1 June 2025.

It is interesting to compare the June 2024 and June 2025 images:-

What a difference a year makes!

The Commune of Val de Bagnes has also released this image of the impact of the debris flows on the road:-

The impact of the debris flows on the road at Val de Bagnes in Switzerland. Image released by the Commune de Val de Bagnes.

The Commune of Val de Bagnes is publishing daily updates. The bulletin published yesterday highlighted that the slopes in the upper catchment that are generating these debris flows are currently moving at up to 2 metres per day.

Clearly, this issue is less acute than the one at Blatten, but it is serious headache nonetheless. The Alps are prone to thunderstorms with intense rainfall in the summer months, so this could be a trying period for the local community and for the authorities in Vallais.

Acknowledgement and reference

Thanks to loyal reader Alasdair MacKenzie for highlighting the article on landslide risk in Graubünden. And thanks also to Planet Labs for their wonderful imagery, again.

Planet Team 2025. Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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.

Source: AGU Advances

As the global climate continues to warm, fire seasons have intensified, and large-scale wildfires have become more frequent in many parts of the world. Factors such as vegetation type, land use patterns, and human activity all affect the likelihood of ignition, but wildfire proliferation ultimately depends on two factors: climate and fuel availability.

Kampf et al. studied relationships between fire, fuel, and climate in temperate regions around the world, focusing specifically on western North America, western and central Europe, and southwestern South America. Each of the three regions includes desert, shrub, and forest areas, as well as local climates ranging from arid to humid.

The researchers pulled information on total burned area and wildfire frequency in these regions between 2002 and 2021 from the GlobFire database, and they sourced data on land cover and biomass during the same period from NASA’s Global Land Cover Mapping and Estimation (GLanCE). They also used precipitation and evapotranspiration data from TerraClimate to calculate the mean annual aridity index (mean annual precipitation divided by mean annual evapotranspiration) for each region.

The researchers found that over the 20-year study period and across all three regions, fires burned smaller areas of land in zones with either very dry climates or very wet climates compared with zones of intermediate aridity. They suggest that this trend is explained by the lack of vegetation sufficient to fuel widespread fires in dry zones and, in wet zones, by weather conditions that dampen the likelihood of fires. In contrast, burned areas were larger in the intermediate zones where biomass abundance and weather conditions are more conducive to fueling fires.

Of the three regions studied, North America had the largest total burned area, fraction of area burned, and fire sizes. The researchers note that the fragmentation of vegetated areas in South America (by the Andes Mountains) and in Europe (because of extensive land use) has likely limited the sizes of fires and burned areas in those regions. They also point out that rising temperatures and aridity are increasing the risk of large wildfires in all three regions, suggesting that fire managers need to be flexible and responsive to local changes. (AGU Advances, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001628, 2025)

—Sarah Derouin (@sarahderouin.com), Science Writer

Citation: Derouin, S. (2025), The Goldilocks conditions for wildfires, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250215. Published on 9 June 2025. Text © 2025. 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.

Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.

A recent article in Reviews of Geophysics explores land subsidence drivers, rates, and impacts across the globe. It also discusses the need for improved process representations and the inclusion of the interplay among land subsidence and climatic extremes, including their effects in models and risk assessments. Here, we asked the lead author to explain the concept of land subsidence, its impacts, and future directions needed for improved mitigation.

What is land subsidence? 

Land subsidence (LS) refers to the relative sinking or lowering of the Earth’s land surface. LS is a pressing global issue that warrants action since subsidence can adversely impact infrastructure, humans, and the environment across various landscapes and climates (Figure 1). It may be driven by one or more natural processes and/or human activities that compound to cause localized or expansive ground deformation. Differential LS causes structures and roadways to crack and buckle. LS can also reduce the water storage capacity of aquifers. Notably, LS can be recoverable (e.g., natural variations in groundwater levels) or permanent (e.g., overdraft causing irreversible compaction).  

Figure 1. Reported LS rates and drivers around the world based on literature. (a) Map of primary LS drivers (colors) indicating mean (circles) and maximum (triangles) rates (shape sizes). A shared color scheme (shown in (b)) demarcates the main causes of LS in (a) and (b). (b) 50 largest mean LS rates for global locations (numbered along x-axis and listed above). LS rates are often nonlinear, temporally dependent, and occur at various time scales. Rates shown were not all observed or estimated over the same time period. Credit: Huning et al. [2024], Figure 1.

Why is it important to understand and monitor land subsidence? 

Various LS drivers and physical processes exist and interact with one another (Figure 1). LS is often closely related to natural resources demand, which increases with growing urbanization and megacities. The proximity of LS to critical infrastructure like water conveyance, transportation, and utility systems is a significant concern since LS could cause catastrophic lifeline failures, outages, and/or loss of life. Also, feedbacks between climatic extremes (e.g., droughts, floods, wildfires, heatwaves) and LS impacts exist, but are not fully understood.

Although a chronic hazard, LS may initially go unnoticed as sinking typically occurs slowly. This influences perceived risk and contributes to reactive policies, regulations, and mitigation steps targeting LS and its implications rather than proactive measures. Furthermore, the compounding effects of extreme events and their impacts can exacerbate LS. More pronounced interactions are likely with projected rises in climate extremes.

How do scientists monitor and measure land subsidence across the globe? 

Scientists use various techniques and technologies to measure LS, including ground-based surveys, subsurface instrumentation, and satellite-based observations. Satellite-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has revolutionized LS monitoring and mapping. It is an active remote sensing system that emits microwave pulses and receives echoes. Such systems can operate under various conditions (e.g., day and night, in cloudy skies) and produce high-resolution imagery. With SAR-based information, scientists can infer surface deformation by computing phase differences between SAR snapshots over a region using techniques like interferometric SAR (InSAR). SAR-based observations commonly inform impact assessments for agriculture, structural health, and resource management.

What are the major natural and anthropogenic drivers of land subsidence? 

Naturally-occurring processes and human activities can independently drive LS or enhance existing LS rates (Figure 2). Some examples of natural drivers of LS include: natural consolidation, volcanic or tectonic activity, seasonal groundwater level variations, and soil organic material decomposition. Extraction of natural resources (e.g., fossil fuels, groundwater), removal of wetlands and peatlands, and loading from rapid urbanization serve as examples of human-related activities contributing to LS. Natural resource extraction is a leading anthropogenic driver of LS (Figure 1), which often rises with increasing population. Also, extreme events such as wildfires or heatwaves can trigger LS in permafrost areas by thawing the permafrost layer, altering the soil structure, and releasing greenhouse gases that accelerate warming.

Figure 2. Schematic illustrating feedbacks and effects of land subsidence, extreme events, and human activities. Credit: Huning et al. [2024], Figure 3.

How is land subsidence projected to change in the future? 

Estimating future LS rates is challenging. Projecting human activities driving LS and the effectiveness of restoration and mitigation efforts is complicated, uncertain, and variable. LS projections also depend on other factors (e.g., infrastructure investments, land use-land cover changes). They are further complicated by uncertain projected hydrologic variables like precipitation. Yet, more people are expected to be exposed to LS with greater economic losses anticipated in the future.

Sea level rise (SLR), rising temperatures, and extreme events often compound LS. Subsiding coastal areas and deltas face higher inundation risk from the compounding effect of SLR. Extreme events and LS impacts are expected to increasingly affect one another (Figures 2-3) as extremes (e.g., drought) intensify with warming. Amidst drought, groundwater levels drop through decreased recharge and increased pumping, often leading to soil compaction and LS. As soils dry and crack, heightened microbial processes decompose soil organic matter and release carbon. Such processes can enhance warming while triggering LS and feedbacks. As temperatures rise, permafrost thaw-driven LS is also expected to expand, increasing the infrastructure at risk for damage and failure.

Figure 3. Example feedback loops involving land subsidence, climatic trends, extreme events, infrastructure, and cascading hazards. (a) Peatland‐carbon, (b) permafrost‐carbon, and (c) salinization‐subsidence feedbacks and (d) infrastructure‐subsidence, (e) flood‐subsidence, and (f) drought‐subsidence cascading hazards. Black (orange) arrows denote a positive feedback (strengthening of impacts). Credit: Huning et al. [2024], Figure 4.

What additional research, data, or modeling is needed to help track and mitigate land subsidence and its impacts? 

Integrated models incorporating multiple LS drivers and processes are necessary for better estimating LS rates, extent, and ramifications at the spatiotemporal resolutions essential for mitigation, adaptation, and policy. Additional data and research are needed to understand the interplay of extreme events, infrastructure, climatic trends, and human activities with LS dynamics and effects (Figure 3), and inform LS mitigation efforts.

Improved climate modeling, management practices, and risk assessments require better representations of LS feedbacks, carbon emissions, and LS processes. Such advancements necessitate accurate, longer, and spatial observations and analyses with improved process understandings. Global adoption of consistent monitoring and reporting frameworks will also support such efforts by leading to new insight into LS observations and regions at-risk for LS, LS-enhanced flooding, etc. Interdisciplinary efforts will help transform science into action focused on LS hazard and risk mitigation.

—Laurie S. Huning (laurie.huning@csulb.edu, 0000-0002-0296-4255), California State University, Long Beach, United States

Editor’s Note: It is the policy of AGU Publications to invite the authors of articles published in Reviews of Geophysics to write a summary for Eos Editors’ Vox.

Citation: Huning, L. S. (2025), Rising concerns of climate extremes and land subsidence impacts, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO255019. Published on 9 June 2025. This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s). Text © 2025. 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.

A new paper in the journal Landslides has presented a review of a large landslide that killed 29 people in Sichuan Province.

On 8 February 2025, a large rock avalanche occurred in Junlian County in Sichuan Province, China. I wrote about this event, now known as the Junlian rock avalanche, at the time. With remarkable and commendable pace, Bo Zhao and colleagues have published an initial review of the event (Zhao et al. 2025) in the journal Landslides. Whilst the paper is behind a paywall, this link should allow readers to access the full text.

The landslide is located at [27.99885, 104.60801]. The Google Earth image below shows the site in 2020 – the marker is on the source area of the Junlian rock avalanche:-

Google Earth image of the site of the 8 February 2025 Junlian rock avalanche, China.

The image below, published by Xinhua, shows the aftermath of the landslide:-

The aftermath of the 8 February 2025 Junlian rock avalanche in Sichuan, China. Image by Xinhua.

Zhao et al. (2025) have determined the key statistics for this landslide. The initial failure was 370,000 m3, increasing to 600,000 m3 through entrainment. The landslide had a runout distance of 1,180 metres and a vertical elevation change of 440 m, giving a landslide mobility index of 0.37. This is a typical value for a rock avalanche of this volume.

Zhao et al. (2025) show that the initial failure was structurally controlled, which is no surprise. It occurred in a Triassic interbedded sandstone and mudstone formation. They estimate that the average velocity was 19.3 m/second.

The authors consider in some detail the triggering event. The site experienced 10 days of low intensity rainfall prior to the failure. Zhao et al. (2025) suggest that this led to the build up of pore water pressure, initiating the failure. Total rainfall in the month proceeding the collapse was in the order of 85 mm. This rainfall seems somewhat unexceptional, suggesting to me that a progressive failure mechanism was in play.

The Junlian rock avalanche killed 29 people and left two people injured. It is a fascinating example of a major failure with high consequences in a remote mountainous area. Anticipating such events remains a major challenge in landsldie research. Many thanks to the authors for providing such a rapid description of this event.

Reference

Zhao, B., Zhang, Q., Wang, L. et al. 2025. Preliminary analysis of failure characteristics of the 2025 Junlian rock avalanche, China. Landslides. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-025-02556-1.

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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.

On 10–11 May 2024, the strongest solar storm since 2003 hit Earth. The storm caused spectacular aurorae around the world, including as far south as Kansas in the midwestern United States. Unfortunately, it also had negative effects, such as days-long disruptions in GPS signals needed by farm tractors that, in turn, caused delays in planting operations at a critical time in the spring.

Solar storms, which throw torrents of protons, neutrons, and other particles at our planet, have had severe effects in decades past. A massive storm in May 1967, for example, significantly disrupted military communications (and ultimately led the United States to strengthen its space weather capacity) [Knipp et al., 2016]. Another, in March 1989, disabled power grids, hitting Quebec, Canada, especially hard [Boteler, 2019].

The biggest recorded modern event took place in February 1956. Were it to be repeated today, such an event could disrupt aircraft electronics and expose passengers to substantially elevated radiation doses.

The largest known solar event in history, 50–100 times larger than the one that happened in 1956, occurred in 774 CE [Miyake et al., 2012]. An event on par with the 774 storm is considered a worst-case scenario for modern aviation [Mishev et al., 2023].

With the 11-year solar cycle approaching its maximum in 2025, we are in a time of heightened potential for such events to disrupt daily life.

Fortunately, technology for observing solar storms and the particle showers they rain down on Earth has developed significantly over the past several decades. Both ground-based and satellite observations are critical for measuring solar storms and their effects [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024] and for generating space weather forecasts (e.g., by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC)). The global aviation sector, for example, uses these forecasts to predict solar radiation storm warning levels and radiation dosage levels to help keep flights safe.

The small number of high-energy neutron monitoring stations used to observe the effects of solar events at Earth’s surface limits data availability and thus the accuracy and spatial resolution of forecasts.

Good predictions rely on the availability of high-quality and comprehensive data. However, the small number of high-energy neutron monitoring stations currently used to observe the effects of solar events at Earth’s surface limits data availability and thus the accuracy and spatial resolution of forecasts. But solutions are within reach.

In addition to space weather scientists, hydrologists use data from these monitoring stations, albeit for a different purpose: They rely on the high-energy neutron detections to calibrate the low-energy neutron detectors they use as one way to collect snow cover and soil moisture measurements that are important for hydrological modeling and agricultural applications. Recent studies showed that the larger networks of low-energy neutron detectors used by hydrologists can supplement and effectively increase the coverage of the smaller network of high-energy neutron monitors [Baird, 2024]. Now, scientists are devising a strategy to combine forces for their mutual benefit.

Wanted: Better Observational Capabilities

Massive lead-lined neutron monitors (NMs) are typically used to monitor the arrival of cosmic ray particles at Earth’s surface. These particles include high-energy secondary neutrons (carrying energies of ~50–100 megaelectron volts) that are generated by collisions of primary solar and galactic cosmic rays with other particles in the atmosphere, a process that can be reconstructed using NM data and numerical models [Mishev et al., 2014].

This 18-tube neutron monitor is housed in a Quonset hut on the campus of the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Credit: James Ryan, University of New Hampshire

Satellites, including those in the GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) system, also provide operational data about primary cosmic rays in real time, but they cannot resolve particle energies in the detail required for estimating radiation doses affecting aviation or for modeling solar particle energy spectra [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024].

A global network of NMs, each run by different universities or other entities, has been in operation for the past 7 decades [Väisänen et al., 2021]. Unfortunately, today, only 20 NM sites around the globe provide real-time data; another roughly 30 NMs have been shut down because of a lack of long-term funding to maintain them. Geopolitical factors and closed data policies in some parts of the world additionally limit data quality and access internationally.

The U.S. Senate’s 2020 Space Weather Research and Forecasting Act emphasized the need for better observational capabilities to address this crisis of critical infrastructure. The 2020 PROSWIFT Act and the most recent National Academies’ solar and space physics decadal survey [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024] further underscored the challenges and need for supporting long-term operational NM networks.

Hydrologists Have Their Own Networks

Hydrologists have, in the past 15 years, deployed networks of detectors similar to neutron monitors (NMs) to measure snow and soil moisture.

Applying methods developed beginning several decades ago [e.g., Kodama et al., 1979], hydrologists have, in the past 15 years, deployed networks of detectors similar to NMs to measure snow and soil moisture [Zreda et al., 2012]. These cosmic ray neutron sensors (CRNSs) are, however, much smaller than NMs, and they are sensitive to much lower neutron energies (~0.025 to 100 kiloelectron volts).

At these lower energies, the number of detected neutrons depends not only on incoming secondary cosmic rays but also on the abundance of hydrogen in the surrounding environment (e.g., in the form of snow or soil moisture). In soil, for example, cosmic ray neutrons collide with hydrogen atoms, lose energy in the process, and become thermalized (i.e., they slow down). CRNSs are designed to count these water-sensitive neutrons.

The sensors can measure these low-energy neutrons within a roughly 20-hectare circular area and up to about 30 centimeters above the ground surface, an extraordinarily large volume relative to their size. Figure 1 shows how example CRNS measurements of neutron counts and soil water content from central Nebraska clearly respond to rainfall, as measured by the local Mesonet station, and match potential evapotranspiration data well.

Fig. 1. Neutron counts (corrected for variations in air pressure, water vapor, and high-energy neutron intensity, top left) and estimates of soil water content (bottom left) from 4 April to 2 May 2021 collected from a cosmic ray neutron sensor (CRNS) in central Nebraska are shown. Rainfall data from a local Nebraska Mesonet station (top right) and potential evapotranspiration (ET) data (bottom right) over the same period match the soil water content changes measured by the CRNS.

Area-averaged estimates of snow and soil moisture like this match scales relevant for hydrological modeling and agricultural management (e.g., irrigation and fertilizer application, crop yield prediction), providing a big advantage compared with estimates from point-scale measurements, given the high spatial variability that naturally exists from one meter to another. CRNS detectors offer other benefits as well. Their measurements, collected roughly hourly, are nondestructive; they have extremely low maintenance costs; and they can be deployed outdoors for long-term environmental monitoring.

Today, more than 300 CRNS instruments are operating across all seven continents, with networks in Australia, China, Europe, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These networks have led to exciting advances in hydrology.

A CRNS measures soil moisture and snow water equivalent at a study site in eastern Nebraska. Graduate students Sophia Becker and Tanessa Morris are collecting soil samples for calibration. Credit: Trenton Franz, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

For example, CRNSs have been shown to be excellent sources of ground validation data for remote sensing soil moisture data products like SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) that support weather and agricultural forecasting efforts, among other applications [Montzka et al., 2017]. CRNS data have also been shown to significantly improve predictions of streamflow by catchment models by improving estimates of near-surface water storage [Dimitrova-Petrova et al., 2020]. Mobile CRNSs have also been deployed on commuter trains in Europe, providing soil moisture and snow observations across unprecedented scales [Schrön et al., 2021].

Despite their clear utility, CRNS networks, like the global NM network, often lack long-term funding. Moreover, in the United States, no single federal agency is mandated to monitor soil moisture, a void that hinders the development of a national coordinated soil moisture monitoring network.

An Exciting Opportunity

The CRNS research community has been highly dependent on the NM network because real-time reference data are required to correct CRNS measurements for variations in incoming cosmic radiation. In a recent advance bridging the two neutron monitoring communities, Baird [2024] showed that potential benefits also extend in the other direction.

He used 50 CRNS stations in the United Kingdom to investigate whether they can inform space weather monitoring, concluding that they “can identify persistent space weather periodicities, transient space weather periodicities, and transient aperiodic space weather signals” and that these capabilities are “largely unaffected by the influence of soil moisture in the data.” Although these identifications are not as reliable as those from neutron monitors, the much larger number of CRNSs compared with NMs offers promise for expanding data collection.

Baird also found that the CRNS data recorded some medium to large solar events, such as Forbush decreases (FDs), which are decreases in galactic cosmic rays reaching Earth following solar coronal mass ejections. The CRNSs detected 4 out of 28 FDs that had been identified by NMs between 2014 and 2022.

An exciting opportunity exists to use cosmic ray neutron sensor (CRNS) networks globally to augment the roughly 20-station NM network.

CRNS data have also been used to simulate ground level enhancements (GLEs) of radiation levels at Earth’s surface caused by bombardments of intense solar cosmic rays. These emitted particles, primarily protons, are accelerated to high energies during solar flares or coronal mass ejections. GLEs are rarer than FDs, occurring once per year on average, but are more detrimental to humans and aviation. GLEs are also nearly impossible to predict and prepare for because they arrive at Earth only minutes after a solar flare or coronal mass ejection occurs, whereas FDs take several days to arrive.

Given the newfound connection between low-energy neutron observations and space weather phenomena, an exciting opportunity exists to use CRNS networks globally to augment the roughly 20-station NM network. This ability would offer an unprecedented number of ground monitors to help researchers understand and analyze larger FD and GLE events and their impacts all around Earth.

Two Communities Join Forces

The hydrology and space weather communities have worked together informally since the 2010 launch of the Cosmic-Ray Soil Moisture Observing System in the United States [Zreda et al., 2012]. But the need for additional collaboration has been identified in the literature and during joint sessions at AGU and European Geoscience Union meetings.

In response to this increased interest, the first Coordinated Cosmic-Ray Observation System Conference was held in October 2024 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The hybrid event gathered 50 experts from academia, government, and industry to explore both the scientific potential of ground-based neutron monitoring across energy spectra and opportunities for productive cross-disciplinary partnerships.

Conference participants produced a concept paper identifying key issues on which the participating communities can work together. These issues involve critical needs for improved infrastructure and enhanced data accessibility.

Documenting soil moisture conditions more comprehensively and meeting data needs for environmental modeling and operational products, for example, require the deployment of additional CRNS stations globally—ideally, 30 stations per 1 million square kilometers. In the United States, this level of coverage equates to about 250 stations spread across the country’s roughly 8 million square kilometers.

With respect to space weather, NOAA’s SWPC has stated a need for real-time NM data (1-minute resolution with 5-minute latency) and additional NM monitoring sites to improve the spatial resolution of aviation forecasts. More NM sites are also needed to better understand the anisotropy (uneven distribution) of incoming cosmic ray particles globally, particularly during GLEs and other perturbed geomagnetic conditions, and how it may influence space weather impacts experienced around the planet.

By collaboratively addressing these and other gaps in the neutron-detecting networks used for space weather and soil moisture monitoring, we can advance scientific understanding of critical environmental and planetary processes and better serve the needs of operational systems designed to foster safety and prosperity.

References

Baird, F. (2024), The potential use of hydrological neutron sensor networks for space weather monitoring, Ph.D. thesis, University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K., https://doi.org/10.15126/thesis.901065.

Boteler, D. H. (2019), A 21st century view of the March 1989 magnetic storm, Space Weather, 17(10), 1,427–1,441, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019SW002278.

Dimitrova-Petrova, K., et al. (2020), Opportunities and challenges in using catchment-scale storage estimates from cosmic ray neutron sensors for rainfall-runoff modelling, J. Hydrol., 586, 124878, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124878.

Knipp, D. J., et al. (2016), The May 1967 great storm and radio disruption event: Extreme space weather and extraordinary responses, Space Weather, 14(9), 614–633, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016SW001423.

Kodama, M., et al. (1979), An application of cosmic-ray neutron measurements to the determination of the snow-water equivalent, J. Hydrol., 41(1–2), 85–92, https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(79)90107-0.

Mishev, A. L., L. G. Kocharov, and I. G. Usoskin (2014), Analysis of the ground level enhancement on 17 May 2012 using data from the global neutron monitor network, J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys., 119(2), 670–679, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JA019253.

Mishev, A., S. Panovska, and I. Usoskin (2023), Assessment of the radiation risk at flight altitudes for an extreme solar particle storm of 774 AD, J. Space Weather Space Clim., 13, 22, https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2023020.

Miyake, F., et al. (2012), A signature of cosmic-ray increase in AD 774–775 from tree rings in Japan, Nature, 486, 240–242, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11123.

Montzka, C., et al. (2017), Validation of spaceborne and modelled surface soil moisture products with cosmic-ray neutron probes, Remote Sens., 9(2), 103, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9020103.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2024), The Next Decade of Discovery in Solar and Space Physics: Exploring and Safeguarding Humanity’s Home in Space, Natl. Acad. Press, Washington, D.C., https://doi.org/10.17226/27938.

Schrön, M., et al. (2021), Neutrons on rails: Transregional monitoring of soil moisture and snow water equivalent, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48(24), e2021GL093924, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093924.

Väisänen, P., I. Usoskin, and K. Mursula (2021), Seven decades of neutron monitors (1951–2019): Overview and evaluation of data sources, J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys., 126(5), e2020JA028941, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028941.

Zreda, M., et al. (2012), COSMOS: The Cosmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4,079–4,099, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-4079-2012.

Author Information

Trenton Franz (tfranz2@unl.edu), School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Darin Desilets, Hydroinnova LLC, Albuquerque, N.M.; Martin Schrön, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, Leipzig, Germany; Fraser Baird, University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K.; and David McJannet, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Australia

Citation: Franz, T., D. Desilets, M. Schrön, F. Baird, and D. McJannet (2025), Two neutron-monitoring networks are better than one, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250212. Published on 6 June 2025. Text © 2025. 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.

Source: GeoHealth

Wildfires are creeping into urban environments with alarming frequency, and they are connected to health problems ranging from respiratory illnesses to hypertension to anxiety. Studying the links between wildfires in these areas and health is challenging because wildfire smoke and ash contain a mix of chemicals from buildings, cars, and electronics, leaving researchers and communities with many unanswered questions.

Barkoski et al. recently published the GeoHealth Framework for Wildland Urban Interface Fires to help researchers quickly visualize the relationships between urban wildfires and health outcomes, as well as identify data gaps and future research priorities. It also aims to improve the coordination among different groups working to support wildfire preparedness, response, and recovery. The researchers built the framework using the example of the 2020 Walbridge Fire, which burned more than 55,000 acres (about 22,258 hectares) in Sonoma County, California. This example helped them understand the types of geoscience and health data that are available and that are needed after a wildland-urban interface fire.

To apply the framework, users define a question and then map various wildfire and health factors and the ways they are connected. For example, they may select environmental factors preceding a specific fire, such as land use and recent weather patterns; characteristics of the fire, including its size and the kinds of materials it burned; and factors that influenced its spread, such as firefighter response, wind, and topography. The team suggests pulling data from sources such as the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA, NOAA, EPA, electronic health records, and public surveys.

These inputs and the known and hypothesized connections among them help users to identify which pollutants a fire may generate, how humans may encounter these pollutants (such as through the air or drinking water), and how these encounters may affect the likelihood of physical or mental health consequences.

The researchers also note that the framework can be expanded and adapted to apply to new research questions. For instance, if researchers want to better understand how wildfire exposure affects the biological mechanisms of disease, they could incorporate epidemiological, toxicological, and clinical research studies into the framework. These studies might include more detailed information about how wildfire smoke harms health, such as gene variants that predispose people to asthma. (GeoHealth, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GH001380, 2025)

—Saima May Sidik (@saimamay.bsky.social), Science Writer

Citation: Sidik, S. M. (2025), Charting a path from fire features to health outcomes, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250214. Published on 5 June 2025. Text © 2025. 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.

Source: Geophysical Research Letters

This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. 本文是Eos文章的授权翻译。

土壤湿度是温度和湿度的关键调节器，易受气候变化的显著影响。尽管土壤湿度至关重要，但其建模工作涉及数十个约束不充分的参数，而且不同的模型对土壤湿度水平在全球变暖背景下的变化往往存在分歧。

Gallagher 和 McColl 采取了一种“极其简化”的方法，仅根据降水量和地表净辐射来模拟土壤湿度。该模型在使用欧洲中期天气预报中心第五代大气再分析数据(ERA5) 和第六次耦合模式比较计划(CMIP6) 气候数据集进行测试时，效果良好。

研究人员表示，这令人惊讶，因为这个简单的模型排除了近期许多文献关注的测量数据：水汽压差（空气能够容纳的水分量与实际容纳的水分量之间的差值）和大气二氧化碳 (CO2) 水平。预计这两者都将随着温室气体排放的增加而上升。

研究人员认为，他们的模型之所以仍然有效，是因为水汽压差无法准确衡量大气对水的需求；而模型中包含的地表净辐射才是更佳的衡量指标。关于二氧化碳，研究人员表示，之前的一些研究高估了这种气体的作用。

这个简单的模型为两个关于土壤湿度的基本问题提供了可能的答案：(1)为什么土壤湿度呈W型纵向剖面，赤道和两极的湿度高，两极之间的湿度低；(2)为什么土壤湿度在某些地区随温度升高而增加，而在另一些地区则降低？

W型分布可能是降水率和辐射强度共同作用的结果。赤道附近的高降水量在模型中占主导地位，并导致高土壤湿度。中纬度地区和两极地区的降水量都处于中等水平。但中纬度地区比两极地区接收到更强烈的辐射，导致中纬度地区的土壤相对干燥。

至于第二个问题，研究人员认为，气候变暖可能对土壤湿度有不同的影响，因为气候变暖既可能伴随降水增加（导致土壤湿度升高），也可能伴随地表净辐射增加（导致土壤湿度降低）。这两个变量在不同地区会以不同的程度相互抵消，这意味着气候变暖有时会提高土壤湿度，有时则会降低土壤湿度。(Geophysical Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL115044, 2025)

—科学撰稿人Saima May Sidik (@saimamay.bsky.social)

This translation was made by Wiley. 本文翻译由Wiley提供。

Read this article on WeChat. 在微信上阅读本文。

Text © 2025. 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.

Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a natural climate phenomenon driven by interactions between the ocean and atmosphere in the tropical Pacific. In recent decades, major advances in observing and modeling ENSO have greatly improved our understanding, yet important challenges remain.

A recent article in Reviews of Geophysics highlights the recharge oscillator (RO) conceptual model, a simple mathematical representation of ENSO fundamental mechanisms. Here, we asked the lead author to provide an overview of ENSO, discuss the strengths and limitations of the RO model, and outline key open questions.

Why is the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) important to understand? 

ENSO events typically last around a year and occur in two phases: El Niño, when the central and eastern Pacific Ocean becomes unusually warm, and La Niña, when it becomes cooler than normal. These temperature shifts disrupt wind patterns and rainfall, triggering anomalies such as droughts, floods, tropical cyclones, and marine or terrestrial heatwaves. These impacts strongly affect ecosystems, agriculture, and economies around the world.

Although ENSO originates in the tropical Pacific, its influence extends globally.

Although ENSO originates in the tropical Pacific, its influence extends globally through atmospheric “teleconnections.” Because of its widespread effects, understanding and predicting ENSO is essential. Today, coupled ocean–atmosphere models and statistical methods allow scientists to forecast ENSO events up to a year in advance, making ENSO a key pillar of global seasonal climate prediction.

Over the past few decades, what advances have been made in observing and modeling ENSO?

Two major breakthroughs in the 1990s greatly advanced our ability to observe and model ENSO. First, on the observational side, the TAO mooring array across the equatorial Pacific and satellite altimetry provided continuous measurements of surface meteorological and subsurface ocean conditions—key data for understanding ENSO dynamics. Second, modeling evolved from simplified “intermediate” coupled models of the 1980s to more sophisticated coupled general circulation models (CGCMs), which simulate the full complexity of ocean–atmosphere interactions.

These advances provided deeper insight into the mechanisms driving ENSO. Importantly, subsurface observations also became essential for initializing ENSO forecasts improving their accuracy. Together, these observational and modeling tools laid the groundwork for modern ENSO research and prediction systems.

What are the benefits of using conceptual models to understand ENSO compared to other modeling methods?

Conceptual models of ENSO are simple mathematical representations that distill the phenomenon into just a few key variables—such as sea surface temperature in the central Pacific or equatorial ocean heat content. These models use basic equations to capture the core dynamics of ENSO, including the Bjerknes feedback (a positive loop that amplifies temperature anomalies) and slower equatorial ocean adjustment processes that help shift ENSO from one phase to another.

Conceptual models offer clarity and insight that complement the realism of full-scale simulations.

Because they focus on essential mechanisms, conceptual models are powerful tools for teaching and for gaining physical intuition. They also allow researchers to test hypotheses about ENSO dynamics in a controlled, simplified setting. Despite their simplicity, they can make useful quantitative predictions about ENSO features like amplitude or period, and are often used to diagnose biases in more complex climate models. In short, conceptual models offer clarity and insight that complement the realism of full-scale simulations.

What is the “recharge oscillator” model and why did you choose to focus on it?

The Recharge Oscillator (RO) is a conceptual model of ENSO introduced in the mid-1990s by Fei-Fei Jin. Unlike earlier models, it includes an explicit equation for subsurface ocean heat content, capturing ENSO’s “memory.” Its flexible mathematical structure has allowed researchers to gradually increase its realism while preserving simplicity and interpretability.

In our review, we show that the RO can now reproduce key ENSO characteristics, including its amplitude, dominant period, seasonal synchronization, and the tendency for El Niño events to be stronger than La Niña events. Remarkably, recent studies show that it can even rival complex dynamical models in terms of forecast skill. Thanks to its clarity, predictive power, and widespread use in the research community, the Recharge Oscillator was a natural focus for a dedicated review.

How does the recharge oscillator model aid in understanding ENSO response to climate change?

Climate models generally project increased near-surface ocean stratification under climate change. Most predict a weakening of the equatorial Pacific trade winds, though some show a strengthening—closer to observed trends in recent decades. These shifts in the background mean state can significantly affect ENSO behavior.

The Recharge Oscillator (RO) helps explore these effects by providing quantitative links between the mean state and ENSO characteristics such as amplitude, period, and asymmetry. This makes the RO a useful tool for understanding how future changes in stratification or winds might influence ENSO—and why model projections sometimes disagree. However, using the RO to study climate change impacts is still a developing field, partly because the way mean state changes affect RO parameters is not yet fully understood. Addressing this gap is highlighted in our review as a key direction for future research.

What are the primary challenges or limitations of the recharge oscillator model?

Klaus Wyrtki famously noted that “no two El Niño events are alike.” This insight underpins the challenge of ENSO diversity—the fact that some events peak in the eastern Pacific, while others peak farther west, with differing global impacts. Capturing this diversity remains a key limitation of the RO. While recent studies have proposed promising ways to represent these variations within the RO framework, more work is needed to develop a community consensus on a physically consistent approach.

Overcoming these limitations will strengthen the Recharge Oscillator’s relevance for studying both ENSO diversity and its links to broader climate variability.

Another challenge lies in modeling two-way interactions between ENSO and other climate modes, such as the Indian Ocean Dipole or Atlantic variability, which can influence ENSO through atmospheric teleconnections. These interactions are not accounted for in the RO. However, recent work introducing an extended Recharge Oscillator (XRO) offers a promising path forward. Overcoming these limitations will strengthen the RO’s relevance for studying both ENSO diversity and its links to broader climate variability.

What are some of the remaining questions where additional modeling, data, or research efforts are needed? 

In our review, we highlight 10 open research questions—many of which are well-suited for PhD or postdoctoral projects—centered on improving the RO and using it to explore broader ENSO dynamics. These include previously mentioned challenges such as understanding ENSO behavior in a warming climate, accounting for ENSO diversity, and modeling interactions with other climate modes. Several of these topics are already being actively explored, reflecting the vitality of the field.

To support future research, we will soon release open-source Python and Matlab versions of the RO, accompanied by a technical article detailing its numerical implementation and parameter fitting methods. This will make it easier for researchers to use and extend the RO framework to address today’s pressing ENSO questions—ultimately helping bridge conceptual models and complex Earth system simulations.

—Jérôme Vialard (jerome.vialard@ird.fr, 0000-0001-6876-3766), LOCEAN-IPSL, IRD-CNRS-MNHN-Sorbonne Universités, France; with feedback provided by review co-authors.

Editor’s Note: It is the policy of AGU Publications to invite the authors of articles published in Reviews of Geophysics to write a summary for Eos Editors’ Vox.

Citation: Vialard, J. (2025), Two equations that unlock El Niño, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO255018. Published on 5 June 2025. This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s). Text © 2025. 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.

A recent Facebook post has highlighted a reasonably large slump landslide in a remote area of Alaska. Satellite images suggest that this occurred in late October or early November 2024.

Loyal reader Andrew McNown kindly highlighted a recent Facebook post that provided some images of a landslide that has partially blocked the Lakina River in Alaska. This is one of the images, posted by John Matthews:-

The landslide on the Lakina River in Alaska. Photograph posted to Facebook by John Matthews.

This image provides a more detailed view:-

The landslide on the Lakina River in Alaska. Photograph posted to Facebook by John Matthews.

A quick review of the Planet image catalogue suggests that the location of the landslide is [61.46578, -143.27085]:-

Satellite image of the landslide on the Lakina River in Alaska. Image copyright Planet, used with permission. Image dated 19 May 2025.

The landslide is about 350 m from crest to toe and 300 m wide, with a surface area of about 0.085 km2. From the images, it appears to be a rotational slump in fine-graimed (presumably) glacial materials. The event blocked the river but has breached; a small lake remains on the upstream side.

In terms of timing of the event, the landslide appears to be present on a Planet image dated 4 November 2024, but it appears to be absent on one dated 24 October 2024, so it occurred sometime in that window. The trigger is unclear – this seems to be an unusual time for a landslide of this type, but perhaps there was a rapid snowmelt event.

There is a large displaced rotational block in the images in which there is erosion of the toe. This provides some potential for a further valley-blocking landslide, although this is far from inevitable. Fortunately, there are few assets at risk in the immediate downstream area, but there could be some threat to groups using or camping beside the Lakina River.

Reference

Planet Team 2025. Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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

Mountain landscapes are as much a product of erosion as they are of uplift. It is certainly true that glaciers can carve uplifted regions, increasing their topographic relief.

Using numerical modeling that integrates both river and glacial erosion across a time span that includes glacial-interglacial cycles, Bernard et al. [2025] flip the script on how we think glaciers shape mountains. The authors show that a “glacial sheltering” effect can lead to the development of extensive low-relief surfaces at moderate elevations, and they review the existence of candidate surfaces in Scandinavia and other locations.

A key finding is that such surfaces can not only be preserved by glaciation, but they can also emerge from it, and at variable elevations that are a function of ice volume. This is significant not just because humans are inspired by mountains and their topography: flat or low-relief surfaces play a large role as a reference elevation in explaining landscape evolution and in tectonic studies of uplift that make assumptions about where, when, and how such surfaces originated.

Citation: Bernard, M., van der Beek, P. A., Pedersen, V. K., & Colleps, C. (2025). Production and preservation of elevated low-relief surfaces in mountainous landscapes by Pliocene-Quaternary glaciations. AGU Advances, 6, e2024AV001610.  https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001610

—Peter Zeitler, Editor, AGU Advances

Text © 2025. 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.

Source: AGU Advances

Shortly after President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he nominated Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, then a biogeochemist at the University of California, Merced, to oversee the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science. After a 15-month vetting process involving interviews, a mountain of paperwork, and, ultimately, a Senate confirmation, the AGU medalist became the first person of color and the first Earth scientist to hold the position. She served in the position for just under 2 years.

Now, with science and diversity programs under attack, she reflects on her path to leadership in a new commentary in AGU Advances. Berhe became familiar with DOE’s science program as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. She later went on to receive DOE funding, collaborate with researchers from various national laboratories, and mentor scientists who went on to secure DOE positions. She says that combined with guidance from her mentors, these experiences helped her develop the skills she needed for her DOE appointment, not only in science but in managing, accounting, mediation, and ethical guidance.

Berhe, who was born in Eritrea and was one of only a few undergraduate women at Asmara University studying soil science, prioritized basic research, robust science communication, and promoting diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in her DOE role. Providing opportunities in STEM for people from all walks of life starts with equalizing the distribution of funding, she writes. She cited an American Physical Society report that found, in 2018, 90% of federal research funding went to the top 22% of institutions, even though the vast majority of students—especially those from low-income backgrounds—attend other schools. Under Berhe’s tenure, the DOE began asking grant applicants to demonstrate plans for collaborating with schools less likely to receive funding, enabling scholars from diverse backgrounds to access DOE resources.

Berhe thinks recent efforts by some politicians to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are partly because of a misconception around what DEI means. These programs are often misconstrued as serving only gender or racial minorities from urban environments, when, in fact, many are intended to serve a much wider range of Americans, she writes.

Today’s political climate sometimes leaves Berhe with feelings of despair. But she remains hopeful that with time, the next generation of scientists will benefit from opportunities like those she’s had. “Together, we will weather this storm,” she writes. (AGU Advances, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV001757, 2025)

—Saima May Sidik (@saimamay.bsky.social), Science Writer

Citation: Sidik, S. M. (2025), Former Department of Energy leader reflects on a changing landscape, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250211. Published on 4 June 2025. Text © 2025. 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.

What’s Next for Science?

A 200,000 cubic metre rockslide in a remote area of Tibet on Sunday has left ten people dead or missing.

On 1 June 2025 a large rockslide occurred in Muta township in Chamdo (Qamdo) metropolitan area in Tibet. Note that Chinese media sources call this area Xizang Autonomous Region, but it is what most of us know as Tibet. Chinese media reports, which can be unreliable from Tibet, indicate that three people are confirmed to have been killed with a further seven reported to be missing. Two people were injured.

CGTN has a video online showing the landslide, which includes drone footage. The area has a dusting of snow, which makes interpretation difficult. CCTV also has the same footage posted to Youtube:-

This video includes imagery of the head scarp of the landslide:-

The head scarp of the 1 June 2025 rockslide at Muta in Tibet. Image from a video posted to Youtube by CCTV.

There is also a good image of the full length of the rockslide:-

The full extent of the 1 June 2025 rockslide at Muta in Tibet. Image from a video posted to Youtube by CCTV.

This landslide has a slightly unusual morphology, with much of the material from the upper portion of the slope stalled on the hillside. However, the mass of material in the valley floor is large, as this image shows:-

The lower portion of the 1 June 2025 rockslide at Muta in Tibet. Image from a video posted to Youtube by CCTV.

The landslide has blocked the valley and a small lake has started to develop. This will need to be managed. Note the run up of the landslide deposit on the opposite slope, which indicates that the mass was moving comparatively quickly. There are two people on the left of the image for scale.

The CGTN video suggests that the landslide was about 200,000 m3, which would be around 500,000 tonnes.

The precise location of this event is unclear to me. Chamdo is a large area centred on [31.1362, 97.2359]. A report by Xinhua suggests that the landslide occurred in Dengqen County (Dêngqên County), which is in the northwest of Chamdo, centred on [31.5396, 95.4156]. Wikidata indicates that Muta is located at [32.30957, 95.09376], and Google maps has this location as “Mutaxiang”, with “Muta town” a little to the west, so this is credible. We shall have to wait for a clear day to obtain satellite imagery to confirm this – given the limited loss of life, the landslide has probably not struck Muta itself.

As usual for China, especially when it comes to Tibet, the media footage includes lots of images of the response of the authorities to the disaster. Sadly, the likelihood of the missing people being recovered alive is very low.

Return to The Landslide Blog homepage Text © 2023. 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.