Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xinyu Liu, Xianwei Zhang, Lingwei Kong, Gang Wang, Honghu Liu
Summary: Chemical weathering reduces the strength and stability of granite regolith and increases its water sensitivity. Understanding the correlation between chemical weathering and mechanical properties of regolith is crucial for assessing gully erosion. This study investigates the chemical weathering of granite and evaluates the appropriateness of previous chemical weathering indices, providing a comprehensive dataset on the properties of granite regolith and enhancing the understanding of chemical weathering.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xinyu Liu, Xianwei Zhang, Lingwei Kong, Gang Wang, Honghu Liu
Summary: Chemical weathering significantly affects the strength and stability of granite regolith, and studying the correlation between chemical weathering degree and mechanical properties can enhance understanding of geomorphological evolution.
Article
Soil Science
Richard Huggett
Summary: There are different definitions of soil and regolith, with the traditional view seeing soil as the top part of the regolith. However, some research suggests that soil and regolith are the same and the regolith should be included in soil classification schemes. The connections between soil and regolith are also important in the contexts of the Earth System and the Critical Zone.
Article
Geography, Physical
Ruohong Jiao, Jean Braun, Antoine Delaunay, Cecile Robin, Francois Guillocheau
Summary: This study estimates the landscape history of Madagascar since the Late Cretaceous by establishing a volume balance between onshore erosion and offshore deposition. The results show that most of the high topography of the island was constructed during the middle to late Miocene, and erosion has not reached equilibrium with uplift rates in the late Cenozoic.
EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ci-Jian Yang, Jens M. Turowski, Niels Hovius, Jiun-Chuan Lin, Kuo-Jen Chang
Summary: The study found that individual rainfall events in the badlands of SW Taiwan caused quantifiable landscape changes, with typhoon rain reducing hillslope gradients and lower-intensity precipitation either steepening or flattening the landscape. The observed steep topography may be due to the 2016 earthquake.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Martin Yan Hei Li, Hiu Tung Kwong, Anthony E. Williams-Jones, Mei-Fu Zhou
Summary: Rare earth elements exhibit characteristics of migration, fractionation, and redistribution during supergene processes, which provide a powerful tool for quantifying the effects of chemical weathering. Understanding the supergene behavior of rare earth elements is an important first step in utilizing them as a geochemical tool and meeting the growing global demand for these elements.
GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA
(2022)
Article
Geology
Tsing Bohu, Ravi R. Anand, Anna H. Kaksonen, Ignacio Gonzalez-Alvarez, Anais Pages, Ryan R. P. Noble, Melvyn J. Lintern, Samuel C. Spinks, Xuliang Zhuang
Summary: Fungi play a crucial role in metals biomineralization and biogeochemical cycling, affecting essential pedogenic processes. Geomycology, the study of fungal contributions to geological processes, has the potential to develop new approaches for mineral exploration. This study provides an overview of geomycology on supergene Au and transition metals, discussing mechanisms and potential applications in efficient mineral probing.
ORE GEOLOGY REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Neil S. Davies, William J. McMahon
Summary: This comment focuses on how the sedimentary-stratigraphic record can reveal the influence of ancient land plants on erosion rates, and demonstrates that the intensive properties of the SSR support the hypothesis that vegetation evolution has slowed down global erosion rates.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Eric Deal, Gunther Prasicek
Summary: The study introduces a new model for glacial erosion that is similar to the model for river erosion, allowing for efficient prediction of key relationships in glacial landscape evolution. The similarities between the models for river and glacial erosion provide significant theoretical implications and allow for important results from rivers to be applied to glaciers in mountain ranges.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
P. O'Brien, S. Byrne
Summary: A novel three-dimensional landscape model was developed to study the space weathering processes of lunar regolith, revealing that materials typically spend only a few million years on the lunar surface due to vigorous mixing by small-scale impacts. By comparing modeled surface residence times with measurements of space weathering maturity, the rate of space weathering and the timescale for regolith to reach maturity on the lunar mare were estimated.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Haowei Mei, Xing Jian, Wei Zhang, Hanjing Fu, Shuo Zhang
Summary: Continental weathering is essential in connecting Earth's spheres, shaping landscapes, and regulating chemical cycles and global climate. A study in southeast China on granitic regolith profiles reveals intensive chemical weathering in top-soil samples, with depletion of plagioclase and K-feldspar and formation of kaolinite. The underlying oxidized-soil samples show higher chemical index of alteration values and enrichment of certain elements, indicating the importance of petrographic and mineralogical proxies in evaluating weathering intensity for regolith profiles.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Neil Ross, Guy J. G. Paxman, Fiona J. Clubb, Duncan A. Young, Shuai Yan, Jamin Greenbaum, Donald D. Blankenship, Martin J. Siegert
Summary: This study reveals the existence of a large relic pre-glacial landscape preserved beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet for approximately 34 million years. The discovery of this ancient landscape provides valuable insights into the history and evolution of the ice sheet.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tristan Salles, Laurent Husson, Patrice Rey, Claire Mallard, Sabin Zahirovic, Beatriz Hadler Boggiani, Nicolas Coltice, Maelis Arnould
Summary: Our study utilizes a global-scale landscape evolution model to reconstruct past landscapes and geological processes, incorporating paleoelevation and paleoclimate reconstructions. This model provides continuous quantification of critical metrics for understanding Earth's system, such as global physiography and sediment flux. We reevaluate the role of surface processes in controlling sediment delivery to the oceans and identify stable sedimentation rates during the Cenozoic period with distinct phases of sediment transfer from land to marine basins. Our simulation serves as a tool for identifying inconsistencies in previous interpretations of the geological record and available paleoelevation and paleoclimatic reconstructions.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bruce Hapke
Summary: Theoretical modeling suggests that charged solar energetic particles on the lunar regolith can create electric fields strong enough to cause dielectric breakdown, but taking into account the structures of the regolith, it is unlikely that such breakdowns will actually occur.
Article
Geography, Physical
Nadav Peleg, Chris Skinner, Jorge Alberto Ramirez, Peter Molnar
Summary: Catchment hydro-morphological response is significantly impacted by the spatial structure of rainfall, with increased rainfall spatial heterogeneity leading to higher erosion and deposition rates, as well as more complex gully morphology. This suggests that rainfall spatial patterns may play a greater role in shaping catchment morphology over long time scales than previously thought.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Adam N. Wlostowski, Noah Molotch, Suzanne P. Anderson, Susan L. Brantley, Jon Chorover, David Dralle, Praveen Kumar, Li Li, Kathleen A. Lohse, John M. Mallard, Jennifer C. McIntosh, Sheila F. Murphy, Eric Parrish, Mohammad Safeeq, Mark Seyfried, Yuning Shi, Ciaran Harman
Summary: This study characterizes the hydrologic dynamics of 15 catchments in the U.S. Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) network, finding links between precipitation form, soil structure, and hydrologic characteristics.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Caroline Martin, Stephanie K. Kampf, John C. Hammond, Codie Wilson, Suzanne P. Anderson
Summary: This study investigated streamflow locations in three semiarid catchments across an elevation gradient in the Colorado Front Range. Field surveys were conducted and compared to existing data sets, revealing that active drainage densities declined with elevation and snow persistence. Geologic structures influenced flow locations, with multiple flow heads initiated along faults and some tributaries following fault lines or lithologic contacts.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
A. A. Hurst, R. S. Anderson, J. P. Crimaldi
Summary: The researchers re-formulated the block entrainment problem and found that the pressure difference between upstream and downstream block faces had a significant impact on force and torque balances. This pressure difference scales with the block Reynolds number squared, and dramatically increases if the block protrudes above the plane of the upstream ledge, lowering the threshold for plucking.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
M. Rush, H. Rajaram, R. S. Anderson, S. P. Anderson
Summary: The seasonal evolution of ground thermal regime in cold regions has significant impacts on hydrologic flow paths, soil biogeochemistry, and hillslope geomorphology, especially in mountain environments. Coupling a thermo-hydrologic model with observational data reveals the strong aspect-controlled differences in soil temperature and snow depth, highlighting the significant insulating effects of snow on soil temperature.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
(2021)
Article
Geography, Physical
Nadine G. Reitman, Karl J. Mueller, Gregory E. Tucker
Summary: In this study, the effects of interpretation error on apparent short-wavelength variability in surface slip distributions were examined. The results show that both inherent variability in the rupture process and interpretation error contribute to the observed variability in slip distributions.
EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
David G. Litwin, Gregory E. Tucker, Katherine R. Barnhart, Ciaran J. Harman
Summary: This study developed a new model to explore how runoff generation affects long-term catchment evolution, focusing on hydrologic processes dominating in humid climates. The results showed the interplay between surface and subsurface water, with implications on landscape evolution and runoff generation.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
J. D. Jansen, M. Sandiford, T. Fujioka, T. J. Cohen, M. Struck, S. P. Anderson, R. S. Anderson, K. Wilcken, D. L. Egholm
Summary: The study of the Finke River in central Australia reveals how the landscape has been shaped by tectonic and sub-lithospheric processes over geological timescales. Analysis of gravel samples suggests that the nuclide memory in sediment was erased over millions of years, contributing to the formation of the unique intertwined bedrock gorges in the Finke River.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Benjamin Campforts, Charles M. Shobe, Irina Overeem, Gregory E. Tucker
Summary: This article investigates the impact of bedrock landslides on topography and sediment dynamics, highlighting the significance of interactions between landslides and sediment dynamics for landscape evolution and response to environmental change.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
C. Michael Barton, Allen Lee, Marco A. Janssen, Sander van der Leeuw, Gregory E. Tucker, Cheryl Porter, Joshua Greenberg, Laura Swantek, Karin Frank, Min Chenk, H. R. Albert Jagers
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Editorial Material
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
David G. Litwin, Gregory E. Tucker, Katherine R. Barnhart, Ciaran J. Harman
Summary: This article discusses the importance of domain size in a simple landscape evolution model and shows that it has little impact on the results in the examined parameter space. The authors also demonstrate that using landscape evolution process rates rather than domain size for nondimensionalization allows for a clearer understanding of the intrinsic features of the results.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Claudia R. Corona, Shemin Ge, Suzanne P. Anderson
Summary: Extreme precipitation events have a significant impact on soil-water and groundwater storage globally. In this study, we examined the response of water-table depth to extreme precipitation events for 17 representative cases across the United States. Our results showed that the displacement of water-table depth was not directly controlled by the amount of extreme precipitation, but rather inversely related to available porosity. Additionally, the recession time of water-table was found to be inversely related to hydraulic diffusivity.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Sai S. Nudurupati, Erkan Istanbulluoglu, Gregory E. Tucker, Nicole M. Gasparini, Daniel E. J. Hobley, Eric W. H. Hutton, Katherine R. Barnhart, Jordan M. Adams
Summary: Projecting the response of arid and semi-arid ecosystems to global change involves integrating various analytical and numerical models. This study used the Landlab earth surface modeling toolkit to investigate the controls of exogenous drivers and endogenous grass-fire feedback mechanisms in New Mexico. The simulations showed that shrubs occupy cooler slopes in dry conditions and shift to warmer slopes as regional moisture increases. The expansion of woody plant encroachment is predicted to occur in three phases, with the second phase requiring the removal of positive grass-fire feedback by grazing or fire suppression.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Gregory E. Tucker, Eric W. H. Hutton, Mark D. Piper, Benjamin Campforts, Tian Gan, Katherine R. Barnhart, Albert J. Kettner, Irina Overeem, Scott D. Peckham, Lynn McCready, Jaia Syvitski
Summary: Computational modeling plays a unique role in Earth and environmental sciences, serving as both scientific technology and infrastructure and as containers of the scientific community's understanding. To promote a flexible, interoperable, and ever-improving research software ecosystem, the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) has developed design principles, protocols, and tools.
GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT
(2022)
Article
Geography, Physical
Leif S. Anderson, William H. Armstrong, Robert S. Anderson, Pascal Buri
Summary: The study quantified the melt across the debris-covered tongue of Kennicott Glacier, revealing that ice cliffs contribute 26% of total melt across the glacier tongue. Despite the significant importance of ice cliffs to area-average melt, the absolute area-averaged melt is dominated by debris.
