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Kinetic decoupling in electron-beam-driven dusty plasma: Microscopic randomization coexisting with collective flow stability

Physical Review E (Plasma physics) - Fri, 05/29/2026 - 10:00

Author(s): Adrian Scurtu, Dorina Ticoş, Nicoleta Udrea, Maria L. Mitu, Beatrice Paraschiv, and Cătălin M. Ticoş

Energy injection and dissipation in nonequilibrium systems typically lock microscopic motion and collective flow into a coupled evolution. Our observations in electron-beam-driven dusty plasma reveal a distinct “kinetic decoupling” regime where this synchrony breaks down. While microscopic and colle…

[Phys. Rev. E 113, 055215] Published Fri May 29, 2026

The 19 July 2025 landslide at Sangneung village in South Korea

EOS - Fri, 05/29/2026 - 09:51

On 19 July 2025, record-breaking rainfall triggered a landslide that destroyed 26 buildings. Plans are now being developed to permanently relocate the community.

On 19 July 2025, parts of South Korea suffered record-breaking rainfall. Flooding and landslides were the inevitable outcome. One location that was particularly severely impacted was a small rural village called Sangneung, which is located in Saengbi-riang-myeon, Sangcheong. It is incredibly difficult to track down village locations in South Korea, but after a lot of work I think it is at [35.38269, 128.05740].

This landslide has attracted considerable attemtion because of the damage it has inflicted. There is a good news report that includes a drone video of the site on Youtube:-

The drone footage starts at 00:33.

This image, released by the local government, also shows the site:-

The aftermath of the 19 July 2025 landslide at Sangneung village. Image released by Sancheong County.

There is a good reflective piece on the plight of the inhabitants of Sancheong, outlining why the village is now longer viable. A decision has now been taken to permanently relocate the village, and detailed plans are being developed.

This is an unusual intervention, but it is hard to argue that it is not the correct one.

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

MIZ-ing in action: How much of Antarctic sea ice is affected by waves?

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 21:20

Using old satellite radar techniques, scientists have developed a new way of measuring the true extent of an understudied and crucial region of the Antarctic sea-ice system for the first time. The Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) around Antarctica is the "outer edge" of the sea ice, forming a nearly 200-kilometer-wide ring of ice floes affected by waves from the extremely rough Southern Ocean.

Sensitivity of Antarctic ice to climate change sharply increased after ice age shift, study shows

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 19:20

A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience by researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea shows that the Antarctic ice sheet became more sensitive to climate forcing following a major shift in Earth's ice age cycles about one million years ago, providing new insight into how ice sheets respond to long-term climate change.

Hailstorms could grow more dangerous and damaging with climate change

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 17:40

Hailstorms can be incredibly dangerous, posing risks to life and property. Then there's the economic damage to cars, crops, and infrastructure caused by large balls of ice falling at high speed from the sky. And the problems could worsen as our planet heats up.

From the seabed to Mars: Why geological maps matter

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 16:40

From Australia's remote deserts to the surface of Mars, geological mapping underpins how we understand landscapes, natural resources, and the processes that shape our planet and others beyond it.

Deep beneath Utah, rare mantle earthquakes reshape seismic hazard questions

Phys.org: Earth science - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 16:20

Nearly 50 years ago, a puzzling earthquake beneath northern Utah jolted scientists' understanding of how Earth works. Now, research from the University of Utah confirms that the mysterious event was real, and part of a rare class of earthquakes occurring far deeper beneath the continental crust than scientists once believed possible.

Carbon-Rich Rocks May Have Cooled the Ancient Martian Atmosphere

EOS - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 13:12

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

Orbital imaging has hinted that Mars may have carbon-containing rocks called carbonates on its surface. Carbonates on Mars could offer new insights into how water interacted with rock on the Red Planet, helping scientists learn more about its past. In addition, because carbonates on Earth are primarily produced by living organisms, these rocks are high-value targets in the search for signatures of past life on Mars.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been traversing Mars since 2021, covering more than 41 kilometers, much of it within Jezero Crater in the Nili Fossae region. Previous orbital data indicated the crater contains carbonates, as well as abundant olivine, which can change to carbonate in the presence of water and carbon dioxide. Now Clavé et al. have analyzed spectroscopic data from Perseverance’s SuperCam instrument suite from multiple locations within Jezero Crater, providing clear evidence of carbonates on Mars, as well as detailed information on how the mineralogy varies between locations.

The authors confirmed the presence of both carbonates and olivine-bearing rocks throughout Jezero Crater and found a generally inverse relationship between the two minerals. By contrast, carbonates were generally positively correlated with the presence of hydrated silica. The researchers hypothesize that an ancient lake in the crater, along with potential hydrothermal activity, played a role in transforming olivine to carbonate. The varying amounts of carbonate and different alteration states seen today may have been caused by changing lake levels on Mars billions of years ago, the researchers suggest.

Amounts of carbonate by weight vary between locations, from 1%–3% in the Séítah unit to 6%–16% in the Eastern Margin Unit. Extrapolating to the entire regional olivine-rich unit, the researchers calculated it could contain as much as 1.1 × 1014 kilograms of carbon, or up to 0.4% of the current total mass of the Martian atmosphere. Overall, Mars’s crust could contain significant amounts of carbon, implying that widespread carbon sequestration may have cooled the planet significantly in the past. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JE009107, 2026)

—Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp), Science Writer

Citation: Scharping, N. (2026), Carbon-rich rocks may have cooled the ancient Martian atmosphere, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260170. Published on 28 May 2026. Text © 2026. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Seismic ambient noise imaging along the fiber-optic cable of the offshore CASTOR gas storage field

Geophysical Journal International - Thu, 05/28/2026 - 00:00

SummaryContinuous, high-density strain and strain-rate distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) recordings are valuable for resolving the shallow Earth’s structure at a low cost, especially in environments that are otherwise difficult to access, such as continental shelves and near-coastal oceanic crust. In this study, we apply seismic ambient-noise methods to extract high-quality empirical Green’s functions (EGFs) from natural noise sources and model the velocity structure along a 30-km-long dark fiber-optic cable connecting the offshore CASTOR gas storage field in the Gulf of Valencia (Spain) with the associated land facility. We extract broadband EGFs containing a rich variety of seismic waves using wavelet phase cross-correlation and time-scale phase-weighted stacking methods. In the common-source EGF gathers, clean fundamental and first-overtone Scholte waves dominate the marine channel pairs, while the fundamental Rayleigh mode appears in the land channel pairs. In addition, weak wavefields reflected from the basin edge follow the main surface waves. We then construct a 2-D Vs model from local phase-velocity observations of the fundamental and first-overtone Scholte waves by solving pointwise depth inversions using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The model resolves the marine sedimentary basin from very shallow water-saturated sediments to depths exceeding 1 km, identifying the Amposta Central Fault and the basement bedrock west of this fault at roughly 1 km depth. These results help refine the offshore velocity model along the cable in a region where induced seismic activity has been observed, improving the accuracy of seismic monitoring and seismic hazard characterization.

How the greenhouse effect governs temperature changes across Antarctica

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 23:40

A decade ago, Bradley Markle, an assistant professor at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder, noticed an odd pattern while sifting through temperature records from the end of the last ice age in Antarctica. The records seemed to defy prevailing theories of how temperatures vary across the Antarctic continent.

Corn Belt groundwater and irrigation boost thunderstorm complexes by 24–35%, simulations show

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 21:00

An international team of scientists has demonstrated how powerful thunderstorm complexes over the U.S. Corn Belt are fueled by moisture rising from the region's fertile fields or just beneath them. The findings can lead to better and longer-term weather forecasts for this critical farming area as well as giving researchers new insights into improving computer models needed to better understand atmospheric processes.