SummaryThe western South Tianshan foreland records late Cenozoic deformation associated with the India-Eurasia collision, yet the timing and nature of Miocene kinematic changes remain poorly constrained. Here we present new magnetostratigraphic, paleomagnetic, and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data from a ~12–6 Ma succession in the western Keping fold-and-thrust belt (FTB). Paleomagnetic results from 39 site-mean directions reveal small-magnitude vertical-axis rotations since ~12 Ma, characterized by two distinct rotational phases: an earlier clockwise (CW) rotation (potentially reaching ~8-9° when evaluated relative to a younger counterclockwise (CCW) background) prior to ~10 Ma, followed by a persistent but minor CCW rotation (~4°) from ~10 to 6 Ma. Although the magnitude of rotation is limited, this pattern indicates a subtle change in rotational behavior. Importantly, the persistence of the CCW rotation throughout the younger interval suggests that the observed rotations were not fully acquired during deposition, but may have been modified by deformation younger than ~6 Ma. AMS fabrics show corresponding variations in magnetic anisotropy, indicating a shift from relatively organized tectonic strain to more distributed deformation. We interpret these results as reflecting progressive basinward propagation of thrusting in the South Tianshan foreland, with rotation-related deformation occurring during a relatively late stage. Overall, the dataset highlights the limited magnitude and young timing of rotational deformation within the Keping FTB.
SummaryThis study investigates the crustal and uppermost mantle architecture beneath the São Francisco Craton (SFC), which constitutes the core of the broader São Francisco Paleocontinent (SFP), and its surrounding tectonic provinces through Rayleigh wave tomography, integrating ambient-noise (periods of 6–50 s) and earthquake-derived (periods of 9–180 s) dispersion curves. Two-dimensional phase and group velocity maps were regionalized using adaptive parameterization, with the resolution assessed from checkerboard tests. A pseudo-3D shear-wave velocity (VS) model was generated down to 70 km depth, from which crustal thickness was also derived using the maximum velocity gradient method. Results at shallow depths (2–10 km) identify the Paraná, Parnaíba, and Tucano–Jatobá basins as low-velocity anomalies, while the São Franciscan Basin is not fully resolved because its reduced thickness falls below the model’s resolution limit, despite its broad surface extent. In the middle-to-lower crust (20–40 km) inside SFC, a low VS corridor characterizes the Paramirim Aulacogen, highlighting the role of inherited rift structures and subsequent thermal reworking within the cratonic interior. At greater depths (60–70 km), the Borborema Province exhibits low velocities that contrast with the high velocities of the stable SFC root. The Moho map derived from tomography indicates crustal thickening beneath the Paraná and Parnaíba basins and the Brasília Belt, in good agreement with receiver-function estimates. Overall, the VS anomalies and Moho geometry in the regions neighboring the SFC reveal high-velocity corridors with relatively thin crust (32-36 km) extending across the Tocantins, Mantiqueira, and Borborema provinces, and projecting northwestward beneath the Parnaíba Basin. These results demonstrate that the boundaries of the São Francisco Paleocontinent extend significantly beyond its exposed surface limits within the crust and uppermost mantle. These boundaries are clearly discernible mainly at lower crustal depths and likely reach the upper crust. Furthermore, marginal deformations are primarily restricted to shallower levels of the crust, suggesting the preservation of a mechanically strong and continuous cratonic foundation beneath the surrounding orogenic belts and intracratonic basins. The main exception occurs along the southwestern margin, where the absence of a clear seismic boundary between the SFP and the Paranapanema Block suggests deep lithospheric integration or a boundary too narrow to be resolved by the present station geometry.
SummaryAutomated seismic event classification is a critical component of modern earthquake monitoring and network operations, yet many previous studies have been limited by small datasets or binary tasks. This work presents the first systematic benchmark of mainstream deep learning models, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs), Transformer-based architectures, and Capsule Networks (CapsNet), on the large-scale DiTing 2.0 AI seismic dataset, which contains 19,384 labeled three-component waveforms spanning three classes (natural earthquakes, quarry blasts, and mine collapses). Thus, we provide reproducible baselines for the seismic events classifications. Several CapsNet variants optimized for DiTing 2.0 are evaluated, and our results show that the CapsNet+Res model using MFCC representations and data augmentation achieves 91.08% accuracy (weighted F1 = 91.10%) on the held-out test set. The multi-station voting further improves event-level accuracy to 97.52%, while a companion noise-event classifier attains 98.47% accuracy. Functionality testing on demonstration continuous records confirms reliable end-to-end operation within a transferable and user-friendly system, underscoring its feasibility for seismic network applications. Overall, this study bridges methodological development and operational application by providing robust baselines, insights into the interplay of input features and architectures, and a practical platform for automated classification; large-scale continuous-data evaluation, cross-regional transfer validation, and adaptive learning strategies remain important directions for future research.
Researchers have created the first map of a network of subglacial lakes in the Canadian Arctic showing 33 bodies of water under glaciers. Using a decade of ArcticDEM satellite data of Earth's surface height, a team of researchers including the University of Waterloo has developed a method that allowed them to track the draining and filling of active subglacial lakes in unprecedented detail. The team's paper is published in The Cryosphere.
Publication date: Available online 24 March 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research
Author(s): Miguel Alzate Betancur, Santiago Vargas Domínguez, José Iván Campos Rozo, René Restrepo Gómez
Publication date: Available online 22 March 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research
Author(s): Jin Sha, Xiuqing Hu, Bin Yang, Xu Huang, Shuang Li
Slow roiling convection currents deep within Earth's mantle, which are associated with the movements of tectonic plates, also deform the material of the mantle itself. Now, a new study in The Seismic Record confirms that much of this deformation in the lowest level of the mantle occurs where researchers think there may be deeply subducted tectonic slabs.
Some newly published findings from an Idaho State University professor and his colleagues point out how changes to currents an ocean away can impact climates on the other side of the globe. The new paper published in Nature Communications explains how Bruce Finney, professor in the departments of biological sciences and geosciences at ISU, and his collaborators, Lesleigh Anderson, research geologist with the United States Geological Survey, and W. Brad Baxter, Idaho State alum, came to understand how shifts in currents in the Atlantic Ocean led the climate of Alaska to cool, especially in winter, roughly 13,000 years ago.
Researchers at the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA) at the Universitat Politècnica de València have developed an advanced system for seasonal forecasting of meteorological droughts that enables these events to be predicted up to six months in advance, providing a key tool for water management and early warning in semi-arid regions, such as the Júcar river basin.
In the aftermath of the latest bout of extreme rainfall across New Zealand's upper North Island, there were some familiar scenes.
Author(s): Iu. Gagarin and Ph. Korneev
The process of direct laser acceleration of plasma electrons is considered in a strongly magnetized plasmoid with the magnetic field strength allowing for reaching the autoresonance without any special injection conditions. The plasmoid may be optically created by irradiation of specially designed t…
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045204] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026
Author(s): Julien Langlois and Renaud Gueroult
The trajectory of light rays propagating through a nonuniformly moving anisotropic medium is determined by considering the Fresnel drag experienced by the wave at each point along the ray. By showing that symmetries in the velocity field manifest as symmetries in the effective wave index representin…
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045205] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026
Author(s): Daniel Plummer, Pontus Svensson, Wiktor Jasniak, Patrick Hollebon, Sam M. Vinko, and Gianluca Gregori
We develop a wavepacket molecular dynamics framework for modeling the structural properties of partially ionized dense plasmas, based on a chemical model that explicitly includes bound state wave functions. Using hydrogen as a representative system, we compute self-consistent charge state distributi…
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045206] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026
Author(s): Laury Batista, Samuel Marini, Nicolas Chauvin, Antoine Chancé, Didier Uriot, and Phu Anh Phi Nghiem
Beyond beam energy and energy spread, transverse beam parameters are crucial in laser-plasma accelerator projects that aim to deliver a high-quality beam to a user's community. In this article, transverse beam physics is thoroughly studied throughout an entire plasma stage, including a plasma densit…
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 045207] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026
SummarySatellite altimetry technology can recover the marine gravity field by measuring Sea Surface Heights (SSHs) with high precision. However, traditional methods, relying on linearized SSH–gravity relations, fail to capture complex nonlinear characteristics. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the altimeter-only gravity field is often compromised in shallow depth areas due to poor-quality altimetric signals. To address these issues, this study proposes a method for recovering gravity anomalies that combines Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) with multi-source data. The BPNN establishes a nonlinear relationship between gravity and input parameters, including Deflections of the Vertical (DOVs), Seafloor Topography (ST), Vertical Gravity Gradients (VGGs), and Gravity Anomalies (GAs), thereby constructing a gravity anomaly model for the South China Sea. For benchmarking, gravity is also derived with the classical Inverse Vening–Meinesz (IVM) method and validated against independent shipborne gravity which is applied to evaluate the performance of the gravity model. The results demonstrate that the BPNN method outperforms the IVM method, achieving an accuracy improvement of 1.08 mGal overall, and 1.61 mGal in shallow depth areas. Additionally, compared with the reference gravity models (SWOT and DTU17), the gravity model derived by the BPNN method achieves an accuracy improvement of 0.04 mGal and 0.85 mGal, respectively. Power spectra analysis further reveals that the improvements from the BPNN method are most significant in the wavelength range of 5-100 km. The improved accuracy is attributed to the effective incorporation of ST, VGG and prior GA information. The results show that the BPNN method effectively captures nonlinear features and has significant potential for marine gravity field recovery.
A growing network of meltwater lakes at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet is accelerating the flow of major glaciers, potentially increasing the pace of global sea-level rise. Warmer air and sea temperatures have led to the loss of around 264 gigatons of ice every year in Greenland since 2002, causing sea levels to rise by 0.8 millimeters annually. But a new study by the University of Leeds examining glacier behavior across the entire ice sheet has highlighted a lesser-known feature that is amplifying this mass loss—the freshwater lakes forming as the ice retreats.
Rivers are rarely the calm, orderly streams we imagine on maps. Over time, their winding paths—called meanders—shift, bend, and occasionally snap off in sudden "cutoff" events that shorten loops and reshape the landscape. While scientists have long suspected that such cutoffs inject a dose of unpredictability into river evolution, a new study published in Communications Earth & Environment demonstrates that these abrupt events are, by themselves, enough to produce chaos in river channels.
Earth's "gold kitchen" lies deep beneath the seafloor. Island arcs, whose volcanoes form above subduction zones where one oceanic plate sinks beneath another, are often particularly rich in gold. The reasons for this have long been debated.
Researchers have uncovered new evidence that short-lived spikes in ocean phosphorus may have played a major role in two of the most severe marine extinctions in Earth's history. Dr. Matthew Dodd from The University of Western Australia's School of Earth and Oceans is lead author of the study published in Nature Communications, which sheds new light on how nutrient disruption can destabilize life, climate, and ocean chemistry on a global scale.
The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, caused widespread population displacement and infrastructure damage. However, it has also led to an unintended environmental effect with notable changes in the country's landscape, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Among the concerns are the complex impacts of wars on water resources. These repercussions can be direct, such as wastewater pollution and destruction of water infrastructure, or indirect, including increased deforestation, soil erosion, and abrupt cropland losses.
