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Publication date: Available online 27 October 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research

Author(s): Abhishek Verma, Virender Ranga, Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma

Publication date: Available online 27 October 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research

Author(s): Taibin Liu, Xiaohui Ba, Dongwei Hu, Baigen Cai, Jian Wang, Jiang Liu, Wei Jiang, Debiao Lu, Kun Liang, Linguo Chai

Publication date: Available online 24 October 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research

Author(s): Feifei Chen, Xue Rui, Hehua Ju

Publication date: Available online 24 October 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research

Author(s): Mehdi Akhoondzadeh

Publication date: Available online 24 October 2025

Source: Advances in Space Research

Author(s): Jonghee Bae, Jun Bang, SeungBum Hong, Young-Joo Song

A UCLA-led team of scientists has uncovered how the devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar in March 2025 produced one of the longest and fastest-moving ruptures ever recorded on land.

Nitrogen is an important component of the global environment, affecting agriculture, climate, human health, and ecosystems. The role of the nitrogen cycle has become more widely appreciated, yet Earth system models (ESMs) used to predict global environmental change still do not fully incorporate it.

A study published today found that while ice shelves in West Antarctica melt year-round, those in East Antarctica experience summer melting spikes, when sea ice retreats and warm ocean water flows beneath—a process known as basal melting.

The impact of an earthquake on people and property depends not only on the earthquake's characteristics like magnitude and depth, but also on local soil conditions, which contribute to the so-called "site effect." Mapping the site effect at a high spatial resolution in an urban context is crucial for understanding which areas and buildings are at higher risk or under greater stress during subsequent seismic events.

SINKER is an innovative new instrument equipped with advanced microscopes and cameras to collect detailed data about carbon sinking in marine snow.

A large group of ANSTO environmental scientists and collaborators have produced the first groundwater stable isotopes, "isoscapes," intuitive maps with grid data, across NSW combining new and pre-existing isotope measurements.

Up to 59% of Antarctic ice shelves may be at risk of disappearing under high-emission scenarios by 2300, according to a comprehensive analysis of the effect of ocean warming published in Nature. This could result in up to 10 m of global sea-level rise. The modeling suggests that ice sheet losses would be much lower under a scenario in which warming remains below 2°C, which underscores the urgency of pursuing low emissions to safeguard Antarctic ice shelves and coastal regions.

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences

Nitrogen is an important component of the global environment, affecting agriculture, climate, human health, and ecosystems. The role of the nitrogen cycle has become more widely appreciated, yet the Earth system models (ESMs) used to predict global environmental change still do not fully incorporate it.

Kou-Giesbrecht argues for the inclusion of a fully interactive nitrogen cycle in ESMs, which would account for the complex and interconnected ways nitrogen moves between the land, oceans, and atmosphere. Nitrogen has only recently been incorporated into the land components of some ESMs and only as a limiting factor of primary productivity.

Nitrogen has roles far beyond plant growth, including as a potent greenhouse gas and a driver of ozone formation and aerosol components. Wildfires release nitrogen oxides and ammonia that contribute to particulate matter concentrations, while marine microorganisms both take up and release nitrogen. Nitrogen export to the oceans influences both ocean primary productivity and ocean nitrogen emissions, and excess nitrogen in marine waters leads to eutrophication, or excessive nutrient levels that can cause harmful algal blooms.

Though globally important, many components of the nitrogen cycle in ESMs are not fully interactive, if they are included at all; rather, they are static inputs to the models. Adding dynamic representations of nitrogen cycling between the land, oceans, and atmosphere would close a significant gap in our understanding of how Earth’s climate and environment will evolve in the near future, the author argues.

To achieve this goal, more observations to better benchmark models of terrestrial nitrogen cycling are needed, as well as experimental manipulations to provide empirical constraints on nitrogen-related processes. These advances could help us understand and meet the goals of the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management to halve nitrogen waste by 2030, which could save $100 billion per year and help mitigate climate change and improve biodiversity, food security, and public health, the author says. (Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JG009209, 2025)

—Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp), Science Writer

Citation: Scharping, N. (2025), Global climate models need the nitrogen cycle—all of it, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250401. Published on 30 October 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.

Managing fires in tropical forests can be a daunting task: Loggers and arsonists often move faster than first responders, resources are scarce, and the territory is immense. In the Brazilian Amazon, these obstacles strain a chronically underfunded environmental sector whose field agents face threats from farmers and, increasingly, organized crime.

In 2024, fires consumed 30.8 million hectares across Brazil—79% more than in 2023. More than 80% of the total burned area was inside the Legal Amazon, according to the environmental data platform MapBiomas. (The Legal Amazon is a government-designated region consisting of all nine of Brazil’s states in the Amazon basin.) Because of the scale of the fires, in August 2024, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) increased its fire patrols to 2,227 brigadiers (firefighters), with 1,239 of them—more than half—stationed in the Legal Amazon.

Millions of Hectares in Acre

Acre is Brazil’s westernmost state, borders Peru and Bolivia, and is part of the Legal Amazon. In Acre, four professional fire brigades with 68 full-time firefighters operate in three municipalities and one protected area. A volunteer brigade also works near the state’s capital and largest city, Rio Branco.

With about 14 million hectares of forest to patrol, these forces can cover only a fraction of Acre’s territory.

Science, it turns out, has been an important tool to close that gap, because the challenge of firefighting in Acre is not just a shortage of squads on the ground; it’s also related to data access. Brazil’s environmental information is scattered across myriad agencies: the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), federal environmental agencies like IBAMA and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, the National Water Agency (ANA), and Brazil’s National Center for Monitoring and Alerts for Natural Disasters, as well as individual state secretariats, each working with its own priorities and cadences.

Without data in compatible formats, crucial information can overlap or contradict. “To know where to act, we need qualified information—land tenure, zoning, fire hot spots. Without that, any public policy for fires or deforestation will be ineffective in the Amazon,” said Claudio Cavalcante, chief at the Center for Environmental Geoprocessing (CIGMA), the geospatial hub Acre created within its Environmental Secretariat in 2020 to connect deforestation and fire monitoring with policy response.

CIGMA has made efforts to integrate data from across Brazil’s federal and state agencies to inform agents on the ground. “We have worked with data stratification: deforestation [in areas] from 1 to 5 hectares, then areas from 5 to 10 hectares, and then from 10 to 50. Automating some data fluxes has been a really complex and labor-intensive process,” added Cavalcante, who took part in a meeting with researchers, communicators, and policy experts at CIGMA’s headquarters in July.

Eyes on the Data

All that integration takes place in CIGMA’s Situation Room, where scientists and analysts assess live feeds of fire alerts, air quality, river levels, rainfall, drought indices, and a host of other data.

“All the maps for action on the ground are developed here. We also prepare the monthly deforestation reports and technical notes,” said Quelyson Souza, who coordinates Acre’s Environmental Secretariat’s Environmental Command and Control Group.

Quelyson Souza, who coordinates the Environmental Command and Control Group in Acre, explains how logging alerts work and how those data might be integrated into regional firefighting responses. Credit: Bibiana Garrido/IPAM Amazonia

CIGMA’s system merges INPE fire alerts with land tenure and zoning data to identify potential violators. Hydrological data from ANA, the water agency, updates every 15 minutes and feeds data to the state’s Civil Defense and Fire Department. Air quality sensors detect smoke coming from forests within or beyond Brazil’s borders.

To the coordinator of Environmental Protection Operations of Acre’s Firefighting Corps, Major Freitas Filho, the scientific data his corps has access to on the ground “is essential to optimize and refine the use of operational resources.” Acre’s fire department leads the Controlled Fire Operation, which focuses on integrating teams of military and environmental agents to fight fires during the dry season, which spans the second half of the year.

According to a report on fire management in the Amazon forest released earlier this month by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM Amazônia), Acre has a very effective model of linking data and governance that recommends early-warning systems and open data sharing so municipalities and communities can act quickly.

Lessons from Acre

Despite the challenges, Acre stands out as one of the few Amazonian states where scientists, firefighters, and policymakers share the same room.

“It’s inspiring to see the evolution of Acre’s Situation Room. I’ve used it as a national example because action happens on the ground, even across borders,” said Liana Anderson, a remote sensing researcher at INPE.

“It’s much harder to be fooled by offenders who try to get away with their environmental wrongdoing. It’s like lifting the blindfold over one eye when you’re playing blindman’s buff.”

As Brazil prepares to host COP30 (the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Belém, scientists and policymakers hope Acre’s experience can be an example of science-focused environmental management: Unified datasets, shared dashboards, and collaboration can turn information into planning and action.

“When we get to a cleared area with the information we now have access to, it’s much harder to be fooled by offenders who try to get away with their environmental wrongdoing,” Souza said. “It’s like lifting the blindfold over one eye when you’re playing blindman’s buff.”

—Meghie Rodrigues (@meghier.bsky.social), Science Writer

Meghie Rodrigues visited CIGMA’s headquarters in Acre as part of a press trip organized by IPAM Amazônia.

Citation: Rodrigues, M. (2025), In parts of the Brazilian Amazon, science leads the fight against forest fire, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250406. Published on 30 October 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.

To someday allow scientists to stay underwater conducting research for days on end, the UK-based company DEEP has designed Vanguard, a "subsea human habitat."

A c1.4 million cubic metre landslide, triggered by intense rainfall, killed 19 people.

On 22 May 2025, the large Qingyang landslide occurred in Dafang County, Guizhou Province, China. This landslide was widely reported to have “trapped” 19 people.

In a paper in the journal Landslides, Wen et al. (2025) provide an initial but very helpful description of this failure. It confirms that 19 people were indeed killed in the event.

In the aftermath of the landslide, Xinhua published this image of the failure:-

A drone photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows the site where the Qingyang landslide occured in Dafang County, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Image by Xinhua.

The crown of the landslide is at [27.52004, 105.83551]. There is some drone footage of the landslide on Youtube:-

Wen et al. (2025) have calculated that the landslide had a total volume (including material entrained from the lower part of the slope) of 1.388 million m3. Based upon imagery on Planet, it had a total runout distance from rear scarp to toe of 1.35 km.

The authors note two key causal factors for this landslide. First, the Qingyang landslide is a bedding-plane failure, occurring on the interface between a sandstone layer that overlaid a limestone layer (this is visible in the upper part of the images above). The geological units were orientated parallel to the slope, a condition that frequently promotes instability. Second, the toe of the slope had been eroded by the river, undermining the stability of the mass.

The final failure was triggered by heavy rainfall. Wen et al. (2025) report that nearby rain gauges recorded over 200 mm of rainfall between 19:00 on 21 May and 06:00 on 22 May. A rain gauge located 1.4 km from the Qingyang landslide recorded 98.9 mm of rainfall in a three hour period.

Warnings were in place for this rainfall, but of course a slope failure of this type had not been anticipated. Other, smaller, failures also occurred in the local area.

China is able to respond rapidly to these types of events – probably more so than in most other places – but of course the likelihood of survival for those caught in such a landslide is low.

The challenge remains as to how such failures can be anticipated given the complexity of the topography and the geological conditions. The combination of an adverse geological structure and toe erosion is probably replicated widely across this area, but the vast majority of such slopes did not fail in this rainfall event.

Reference

Wen, H., Zhou, X., Xia, Z. et al. 2025. Preliminary reports of a catastrophic bedding-plane landslide in Qingyang Village, Dafang County, Guizhou Province, China, on May 22, 2025. Landslides https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-025-02641-5

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.

SummaryThe probability that any given time interval of duration τ is occupied by one earthquake, or more, characterizes the temporal statistics of seismic sequences and, therefore, the temporal clustering of events. The occupation probability reveals the fractal behaviour of seismic sequences, $\Phi (\tau ) \sim \tau ^{1 - D_\tau }$, at short times, defining a temporal fractal dimension, Dτ, for seismic events. We introduce an empirical model of the occupation probability, parametrized by the fractal dimension and two other parameters. We use the mathematical relationship between the occupation probability and the inter-event time probability density to develop intuition about the model parameters and to compare the proposed model with the conventional gamma model for inter-event times. Our model captures the statistical properties of a wide range of seismic sequences where the gamma model fails, from slow-slip driven swarms to burst-like episodes at the bottom of the seismogenic zone and low-frequency earthquakes. Using real and synthetic catalogues, we find that the model parameters are related to the degree of intermittency of the seismic activity, the characteristics of the bursts and the time scale of the quiescent periods. Measuring and modelling the occupation probability constitutes a valuable tool to categorize seismic sequences over a wide spectrum of seismic occurrence patterns. When applied to the new generation of earthquake catalogues, this empirical method highlights intermittency and fractal bursts, challenging conventional seismicity models and emphasizing the need to refine them to better capture these key features.

SummaryNowadays, many joint inversions are carried out to understand the earthquake source process. In the joint inversion analysis, we have to determine the relative weights among different datasets in addition to the regularization term, such as smoothing. Akaike’s Bayesian Information Criterion (ABIC) is known to be useful to find the appropriate values of such hyperparameters. This study proposes a method to jointly invert tsunami, GNSS, and SAR data using ABIC to construct a finite fault model. We demonstrate our inversion scheme in the case of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, whose fault geometry is still under discussion. Since the dip angle of the fault can also be considered as a hyperparameter, we evaluate three types of dip angles and estimate an appropriate value based on ABIC. In other words, our inversion scheme utilizes ABIC to determine the dip angle, the weights among datasets, and the spatial smoothness of fault slip. Our fault model indicates that (1) listric fault, varying the dip angle with depth, is the most appropriate among the ones we proposed, (2) the largest slip is on the fault under the northwestern corner of the peninsula, and (3) coseismic fault slip extends to offshore faults east of the peninsula. In the case of the listric fault, ABIC values GNSS and SAR data, which improves the agreement of the on-land coseismic displacement while also reproducing tsunami data. We also find that analyzing tsunami records in the frequency domain helps to obtain a robust inversion result when employing ABIC.

SummaryThe elastic deformation of Earth’s surface caused by internal mass distribution varies significantly across loading models, especially in high-precision applications. Although several studies have applied loading corrections to Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) time series in mainland China, discrepancies between models, particularly those involving Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data and its downscaled derivatives, remain insufficiently explored. Moreover, previous research has not comprehensively assessed vertical crustal deformation after applying different environmental loading corrections. This study systematically evaluates the correction effects of various environmental loading models on GNSS vertical displacements across mainland China, generating vertical velocity maps along with their associated uncertainties. The results show that hydrological loading (HYDL) has the most significant impact on GNSS vertical displacements, whereas non-tidal oceanic loading (NTOL) has the least effect. Substantial differences exist between various HYDL models, while discrepancies between non-tidal atmospheric loading (NTAL) and NTOL models are relatively minor. A comparison of correction effects between the HYDL model and GRACE data reveals that the HYDL model offers more accurate corrections, whereas downscaled GRACE data demonstrates improved performance, underscoring its potential advantages. After applying loading corrections and filtering common mode error (CME), the uncertainty in GNSS vertical velocity is notably reduced, although velocity variation remains small. This effect is also evident in seasonal variations. Furthermore, a comparison of vertical land motion (VLM) constrained by different HYDL models and downscaled GRACE data with VLM constrained by an independent land-water fusion model reveals higher consistency between the downscaled GRACE data and the independent model in the North China and northwestern Tianshan regions, suggesting that VLM derived from downscaled GRACE data may be more reliable. We also quantify the combined impact of geocenter motion and glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) on the VLM trend across mainland China, estimated it at approximately 0.13 mm/yr. While the spatial characteristics of the VLM trend show minimal changes after correction, its intensity is significantly affected. This study provides crucial insights into the correcting of environmental loading effects in GNSS vertical displacements and contributes the latest observational results on vertical crustal deformation in mainland China.

A team of researchers at The University of New Mexico has uncovered how a peculiar, prehistoric plant might unlock new ways to reconstruct Earth's ancient climate.