TerraMosaic Daily Digest: Jan 27, 2026
Daily Summary
This digest synthesizes 101 selected papers and focuses on coastal and submarine hydro-geomechanics, flood generation, routing, and hydroclimatic forcing, landslide process mechanics and slope evolution. Top-ranked studies examine mass-movement initiation and runout dynamics, earthquake-triggered slope response and liquefaction, and cryosphere-driven slope and infrastructure instability.
Across the full set, evidence converges on mechanism-constrained analysis with operational relevance, especially for freeze-thaw and cryosphere-driven instability and seismic source-to-ground response pathways. The strongest contributions pair interpretable process evidence with monitoring or forecasting workflows that support warning design and risk prioritization.
Key Trends
- Coastal and submarine hazards are treated as coupled systems: Wave, mass-transport, and shoreline processes are analyzed together with engineering implications.
- Flood analyses are becoming event-specific and process-based: Papers emphasize precipitation structure, antecedent wetness, and catchment controls rather than static hazard descriptors.
- Landslide studies increasingly resolve process chains: Contributions connect triggering conditions, slope deformation, and mobility outcomes, improving the basis for warning thresholds and scenario testing.
- Cryosphere and freeze-thaw effects remain first-order controls: Studies quantify thaw-related weakening and cold-region instability relevant to hazard evolution and design.
- Seismic hazard research links source behavior to ground response: Recurring topics connect rupture or loading conditions with geotechnical performance and consequence assessment.
Selected Papers
This digest features 101 selected papers from 2097 RSS items analyzed across multiple journals. Each paper has been evaluated for its relevance to landslide and broader geohazard research and includes links to the original publications.
1. Fluxamba: Topology-Aware Anisotropic State Space Models for Geological Lineament Segmentation in Multi-Source Remote Sensing
Core Problem: arXiv:2601.17288v1 Announce Type: new The precise segmentation of geological linear features, spanning from planetary lineaments to terrestrial fractures, demands capturing long-range dependencies across complex anisot…
Key Innovation: To bridge this gap, we propose Fluxamba, a lightweight architecture that introduces a topology-aware feature rectification framework.
2. The Statistical Mechanical Model of Sediment Transport Capacity and Scour-and-Silt volume in Wide and Shallow Rivers
Core Problem: arXiv:2601.17784v1 Announce Type: new This study aims to develop a universal, parameter-free model for sediment transport and riverbed evolution using a rigorous statistical physics framework.
Key Innovation: It seeks to overcome the limitations of traditional deterministic and empirical approaches by establishing formulas with general applicability.
3. DisasterInsight: A Multimodal Benchmark for Function-Aware and Grounded Disaster Assessment
Core Problem: arXiv:2601.18493v1 Announce Type: new Timely interpretation of satellite imagery is critical for disaster response, yet existing vision-language benchmarks for remote sensing largely focus on coarse labels and image-le…
Key Innovation: We introduce DisasterInsight, a multimodal benchmark designed to evaluate vision-language models (VLMs) on realistic disaster analysis tasks.
4. Learning long term climate-resilient transport adaptation pathways under direct and indirect flood impacts using reinforcement learning
Core Problem: arXiv:2601.18586v1 Announce Type: new Climate change is expected to intensify rainfall and other hazards, increasing disruptions in urban transportation systems.
Key Innovation: We propose a generic decision-support framework that couples an integrated assessment model (IAM) with reinforcement learning (RL) to learn adaptive, multi-decade investment pathways under uncertainty.
5. Scale-Aware Self-Supervised Learning for Segmentation of Small and Sparse Structures
Core Problem: arXiv:2601.18619v1 Announce Type: new Self-supervised learning (SSL) has emerged as a powerful strategy for representation learning under limited annotation regimes, yet its effectiveness remains highly sensitive to ma…
Key Innovation: In this work, we propose a scale-aware SSL adaptation that integrates small-window cropping into the augmentation pipeline, zooming in on fine-scale structures during pretraining.
6. Res-MIA: A Training-Free Resolution-Based Membership Inference Attack on Federated Learning Models
Core Problem: arXiv:2601.17378v1 Announce Type: cross Membership inference attacks (MIAs) pose a serious threat to the privacy of machine learning models by allowing adversaries to determine whether a specific data sample was includ…
Key Innovation: In this paper, we introduce Res-MIA, a novel training-free and black-box membership inference attack that exploits the sensitivity of deep models to high-frequency input details.
7. Temperature-dependent behaviour and microstructure of fungus-treated carbonate sand
Core Problem: The temperature dependence of fungal bio-mediated reinforcement in carbonate sand, and its controlling microstructural mechanisms, has been insufficiently quantified.
Key Innovation: Undrained triaxial tests at 20, 35, and 50 °C combined with microstructural analyses show thermal hyphal restructuring, reduced pore complexity, and a transition from bonding-dominated to friction-dominated behavior with improved shear performance.
8. A bounding surface constitutive model for simulating repeated freeze–thaw cycles of saturated soil
Core Problem: Repeated freeze-thaw cycling can progressively degrade saturated soils and induce serviceability problems, yet constitutive representations of this cyclic evolution are limited.
Key Innovation: The work proposes a bounding-surface constitutive model specifically designed to simulate saturated-soil behavior under repeated freeze-thaw cycles and capture the associated cyclic degradation process.
9. Coconut shell fiber for reinforcing lime-stabilized soil: a sustainable approach to improve resilience
Core Problem: Lime-stabilized soils often remain brittle and lose durability under wet-dry and freeze-thaw cycling, limiting resilient ground-improvement performance.
Key Innovation: The study optimizes coconut-shell-fiber dosage and geometry within lime-treated clay and demonstrates, through mechanical, durability, and microstructural tests, marked gains in ductility, retained strength, and environmental-cycle resistance.
10. Membrane Behavior of Exhumed Geosynthetic Clay Liners
Core Problem: Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) containing sodium bentonite (NaB) exhibit semipermeable membrane behavior.
Key Innovation: However, experimental studies to date have evaluated the existence and significance of membrane behavior only of virgin GCLs, and there is no evidence of the persistence of the phenomenon in the field.
11. Analytical model for static behavior of modular floating structures (MFSs) with arbitrary floater numbers and sizes
Core Problem: Floating cities built on modular floating structures (MFSs) offer a promising solution to population growth and land scarcity, particularly in coastal regions.
Key Innovation: Although numerous studies have focused on the hydrodynamic behavior of MFSs through experimentation and simulation, a simple and effective static design model, particularly suitable for the early design stage, is still…
12. Dynamic analysis of the flexible conveying pipe in a new seabed levelling system
Core Problem: Seabed levelling plays as a critical role in coastal bridge and tunnel construction.
Key Innovation: With the growing demand for coastal bridge and tunnel construction in deeper waters, limitations of conventional rubble dumping methods can pose a threat to operational stability and levelling accuracy.
13. A graph neural network model for wave buoy data imputation using spatiotemporal information
Core Problem: Highlights • A GNN-BiGRU model is proposed that captures spatiotemporal dependencies in buoy networks for wave data imputation.
Key Innovation: • Realistic missing patterns are simulated using Gaussian-distributed gaps based on observed data gaps.
14. Evaluation of ERA5 reanalysis wave spectra with observations during seasonal and extreme conditions along the west coast of India
Core Problem: The present study evaluates the accuracy of ERA5 wave spectra off Honnavar for the years 2014 and 2015 by comparing them with measured wave spectra obtained from a directional buoy.
Key Innovation: Two-dimensional wave spectra from the ECMWF database were validated against buoy-derived spectra at daily, monthly, and seasonal scales.
15. Efficient probabilistic damage analysis of pile group foundations in long-span bridges subjected to ship impact
Core Problem: Highlights • A new damage index model based on the maximum curvature of pile sections is proposed.
Key Innovation: • A fiber-based simplified model with computational efficiency and numerical accuracy is developed for ship-pier collision analysis.
16. Optimizing typhoon wave height forecasting with LSTM model using SWAN-BP model output and TCWiSE synthetic typhoons
Core Problem: The coastal region of Fujian is frequently affected by typhoons, and typhoon waves pose severe threats to the ecological environment and coastal safety.
Key Innovation: This paper conducts multi-horizon forecasting of typhoon wave heights using a long short-term memory (LSTM) model developed with the optimized dataset.
17. Wave-induced swaying of <em>Rhizophora mangle</em> saplings and implications for hybrid coastal protection
Core Problem: Understanding the mechanical and morphological adaptation of mangrove seedlings under wave forcing is essential for effective coastal restoration.
Key Innovation: This study investigates the dynamic response and structural integrity of Rhizophora mangle saplings exposed to regular wave forcing (H = 4–10 cm; T = 0.8–1.4 s), both with and without protection by portable reef.
18. Numerical investigation of solitary wave interaction with a vertical elastic submerged plate
Core Problem: Flexible structures offer a cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and easily installable solution for coastal protection.
Key Innovation: This study numerically investigates the interaction between a solitary wave and a submerged vertical elastic plate using a fully coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational solid mechanics (CSM) model.
19. Drastic changes in tidal hydrodynamics following seagrass decline and their seasonal variations in a shallow lagoon
Core Problem: Over the past decades, seagrasses have drastically declined worldwide, reducing their capacity to regulate flow conditions.
Key Innovation: Intertidal species have been particularly affected by this decline, yet there is limited understanding of how intertidal seagrass loss influences hydrodynamics in shallow coastal lagoons.
20. Small-scale groynes as morphodynamic damper in a macrotidal estuary: A SAE-RR assessment framework
Core Problem: Small-scale groyne systems in macrotidal environments can stabilize tidal flats.
Key Innovation: However, their stabilizing performance and functional limits remain poorly quantified.
21. Vegetation layouts influence the spatial uniformity of wave attenuation: Laboratory insights
Core Problem: Coastal vegetation reduces wave energy and improves shoreline stability, yet its effectiveness depends on spatial arrangements.
Key Innovation: This study investigates four vegetation layouts with varied spacing—half vegetated, segmented, staggered, and fully vegetated—using theoretical modeling and laboratory experiments with flexible vegetation models.
22. Modelling sediment dynamics in a high energy coastal embayment
Core Problem: The ability to quantify sediment transport and morphological evolution in coastal environments is essential for informed, adaptive management under changing climate conditions.
Key Innovation: However, predicting sediment dynamics in embayed environments remains challenging.
23. A comprehensive review of the primary sources of uncertainty in stone armor stability
Core Problem: Coastal rubble mound armor stability prediction uncertainty is relatively high in the field of civil engineering.
Key Innovation: The present study aims to provide an in-depth review of the principal sources of stone armor stability uncertainty derived from laboratory experiments.
24. Estimation of wave kinematics of nonlinear multidirectional waves using multiple surface elevation measurements
Core Problem: To correctly assess the wave loading on coastal and offshore structures in physical model testing, it is necessary to relate the wave forces to the wave kinematics.
Key Innovation: In the model, reflection may be present and, if neglected, could result in an incorrect evaluation of the load coefficients.
25. Rising Impact Hours on Sandy Beaches Linked to Total Water Level Variability along U.S. Coastlines
Core Problem: Rising sea levels and changing storms are increasing the frequency of extreme total water levels (TWL), the combination of waves, tides, and nontidal residuals at the coast, amplifying the likelihood of coastal flooding…
Key Innovation: While temporal variations in individual TWL drivers, like relative sea level, storm surge, and waves, are well-documented, how each physical process influences coastal impacts across the United States (U.S.) remains und…
26. A generalized method based on transfer learning and human-in-the-loop for wave-by-wave identification of nearshore wave breaking patterns
Core Problem: Wave breaking is a fundamental process in the nearshore zone.
Key Innovation: Yet, due to its chaotic nature, automatically identifying its spatio-temporal occurrence on a wave-by-wave basis remains a challenge.
27. Erratum to "Conditional probability of surface rupture: a numerical approach for principal faulting"
Core Problem: [Correction/Erratum - No Abstract]
Key Innovation: [Correction/Erratum - No Abstract]
28. Spatiotemporal Evolution of Surface Subsidence in Large-Scale Mining Areas Under Rainfall Influence and Optimization Model Development
Core Problem: Considering the challenges of traditional monitoring methods in achieving large-scale surface subsidence monitoring over mining areas, as well as the difficulties in modeling settlement prediction methods and acquiring…
Key Innovation: This model employs the Arctic Puffin Optimization (APO) to optimize the hyperparameters of a bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) network.
29. Local-Scale Probabilistic Mapping of Spring Thaw Progression in Interior Alaska Using Satellite Radar and Physics-Augmented Deep Learning
Core Problem: Seasonal freeze-thaw (FT) transitions in the Northern high latitudes (NHL) exert a fundamental control on permafrost stability, vegetation phenology and productivity, soil respiration, surface and shallow subsurface hyd…
Key Innovation: To improve our understanding of local-scale (∼100 m) environmental changes over the NHL, probabilistic soil FT dynamics were mapped from Sentinel-1 radar backscatter images for Interior Alaska using a physics-augmented…
30. LESMI: Integrating Linear-Exponential Model, Shapelets, and Multirocket for Wetland Vegetation Inundation Monitoring With Time Series SAR
Core Problem: Accurate monitoring of wetland vegetation inundation is crucial for maintaining regional ecological balance and conserving biodiversity, serving as a fundamental prerequisite for wetland environmental monitoring and pro…
Key Innovation: The complex scattering characteristics of vegetation under different inundation conditions, combined with spatial and seasonal heterogeneity, pose significant challenges to precise vegetation inundation state identifica…
31. Range Image Reconstruction From GM-APD LiDAR Data Based on Neyman–Pearson Criterion
Core Problem: Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode LiDAR suffers from inaccurate range reconstruction under low signal-to-background ratios (SBRs) and sparse echoes.
Key Innovation: To address these challenges, we propose a novel framework integrating three key innovations.
32. Experimental investigation on liquefaction resistance of saturated silty soil: effects of clay content and intergranular void ratio
Core Problem: Soil liquefaction remains a significant threat to infrastructure built on saturated silty deposits.
Key Innovation: To evaluate its key influencing factors, this study investigates the effects of clay content (CC), fines content (FC) and intergranular void ratio ( e i ) on the liquefaction resistance of saturated silty soil.
33. Deformation monitoring and landslide blockage-outburst flood simulations of an unstable slope in the Yigong river valley, southeastern Tibetan Plateau
Core Problem: The eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau is the area of the most active and intense internal and external dynamic action in Chinese mainland, where large unstable slopes are well developed.
Key Innovation: This type of slope instability is prone to form a complex landslide disaster chain.
34. Trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services and their responses to land use change: A Case study from the subtropical hilly region of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces in China
Core Problem: The Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian (GJF) provinces, located in the subtropical region of southeastern China, is one of the national key regions for soil erosion control and ecological restoration.
Key Innovation: This region is characterized by extensive red soil development and high rainfall erosivity, making it a representative landscape for exploring the interactions between land use change (LUC) and ecosystem services (ES).
35. Analysis of the causes of giant landslide clustering in the upper reaches of the Yellow River since the Holocene
Core Problem: Background The Liujiaxia-Manglaxia segment of the upper Yellow River, located at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, has experienced significant clustering of giant landslides since the Holocene, acting as a…
Key Innovation: While tectonic activity and climate change are recognized as primary drivers, the coupling mechanisms triggering landslide clustering during climate transitions remain unclear.
36. Large-scale electromagnetic perturbations triggered during landslide events
Core Problem: Background The occurrence of landslides is considered to be preceded by the instinct of rock breaking and strata failure, which could lead to the emission of electromagnetic radiation.
Key Innovation: Methodology and results We eliminated the influences from solar activities, lightening, artificial noises, and seismogeneric fault to examine the relationship between magnetic perturbations and landslides.
37. Influence of geotextile coverage on vegetation growth and soil slope erosion resistance
Core Problem: Geotextiles and vegetation are often used to mitigate slope degradation caused by soil erosion.
Key Innovation: While their individual effects have been widely studied, geotextile coverage on slope vegetation growth and the erosion resistance of vegetated slopes is less studied.
38. Analysis of long-term seismic records of an irregular building in soft soil over 32 years: structural health monitoring system
Core Problem: The response of a 17-story reinforced concrete building is analyzed considering the seismic events recorded between 1990 and 2022.
Key Innovation: Located in a soft soil zone in Mexico City, this building is one of many structures damaged during the 1985 earthquake (Mw 8.1).
39. Effect of soda residue on Skeleton formation and strength development in soil stabilization
Core Problem: Soda residue, a common industrial by-product, poses risks of land-use conflict and environmental contamination when stockpiled.
Key Innovation: This study evaluates its potential use in three stabilized soil systems: cement–slag red clay, gray sandy soil, and yellow silt soil, together with their alkali-activated variants.
40. Field and numerical investigations of canal damage characteristics and mechanisms under coupled drying-wetting and freezing-thawing cycles
Core Problem: Canals are essential for water transfer in cold and arid regions.
Key Innovation: However, they are vulnerable to damage under drying-wetting and freezing-thawing cycles, with wetting during freezing–thawing periods significantly intensifying frost damage.
41. Interpretable machine learning-based analysis of driving factors for inverted channel morphology in the Qaidam Basin
Core Problem: Inverted fluvial channels serve as important paleoenvironmental indicators and are extensively distributed in arid regions of Earth and on other terrestrial planets such as Mars.
Key Innovation: The Qaidam Basin, which is considered an important analogue environment for Mars, contains abundant inverted channels.
42. Decoding bed armoring: A predictive method for grain size distribution in sand–gravel bed rivers
Core Problem: Sand–gravel riverbeds downstream of hydraulic projects frequently undergo significant bed armoring.
Key Innovation: Accurately predicting the grain-size distribution of the armored layer remains a critical yet complex challenge within the field of fluvial dynamics.
43. Glacial valley erosion controls on subsurface hydrology: Speleogenesis of Stortuvhola cave, sub-Arctic Norway
Core Problem: We use Stortuvhola cave, developed in a narrow Caledonian marble band in sub-Arctic Norway, as an archive to study the interplay between glacial and interglacial hydrological regimes.
Key Innovation: We integrate detailed cave surveying, sedimentological mapping, U-Th dating of a relict flowstone, and high-resolution DTM analysis of the Aspfjordelva basin to reconstruct the cave's evolutionary history and its geomor…
44. Evolving glacier landsystems during Patagonian Ice Sheet recession influenced by a changing topographic setting
Core Problem: In mountain icefield settings, such as the southernmost Andes, topography has a strong influence on the pattern and magnitude of glacier retreat in response to palaeoclimate.
Key Innovation: We investigate the geomorphic signature of the Río Cisnes palaeo-outlet glacier in northeast Patagonia, which retreated over a reverse-bed slope following the local glacial maximum.
45. Switch on tunnel vision: Portable wind tunnels to understand and quantify aeolian processes
Core Problem: A Portable wind tunnel is a highly specialized device capable of examining soil surfaces in their natural state and independently from naturally occurring wind events.
Key Innovation: The field experiments give valuable insights into wind-induced entrainment, transport, redistribution and emission of mineral and organic particles from surfaces in their original state to understand geomorphological, p…
46. Mitigating edge effects in paleoclimate reconstructions: a comprehensive review and bias assessment of soil brGDGT-based temperature reconstructions
Core Problem: Classical paleoclimate reconstructions rely on a space-for-time substitution approach, but past environmental conditions may extend beyond modern analogs.
Key Innovation: This introduces biases in reconstructions, known as the edge effect, stemming from no-analog past conditions, statistical limitations, and eco-physiological effects.
47. The carbon isotope offset between leaf wax C<sub>29</sub> and C<sub>31</sub> <em>n</em>-alkanes as a proxy of precipitation seasonality
Core Problem: The carbon isotope composition of leaf wax long-chain n -alkanes (δ 13 C n -alkanes ) is commonly used to reconstruct the past C₃/C₄ vegetation ratio and associated hydroclimate changes.
Key Innovation: However, the significance of isotopic differences among their homologues remains poorly understood.
48. Deciphering silicate weathering archives registered in the late Quaternary sediments of Asian continent marginal seas
Core Problem: Continental weathering plays a crucial role in maintaining the equilibrium of the carbon cycle and Earth's habitability.
Key Innovation: Interpreting weathering records registered in marginal sea sediments is a key approach to understanding the mechanisms of continental weathering.
49. Plants in the shadows: Bridging the gap in paleoecology and paleoart
Core Problem: Paleoart, long considered peripheral to paleoscience, has become a powerful medium for visualizing extinct life and landscapes.
Key Innovation: Yet its historical trajectory has been dominated by zoocentric traditions, where plants are relegated to vague backdrops despite their central role in Earth system dynamics.
50. Surging glaciers in Svalbard: Observing their distribution, characteristics and evolution
Core Problem: Glacier surges are episodes of significantly increased ice flow due to ice-dynamical feedbacks, and are often repeated in a quasi-periodical manner.
Key Innovation: Ice mass is redistributed during a surge, which leads to surface lowering at high elevation as ice is transferred down-glacier and thickening nearer the terminus.
51. A cost-effective method for mapping land cover at national scale
Core Problem: Timely and accurate national-scale land-cover mapping is essential for resource management.
Key Innovation: We present a cost-effective, scalable methodology for land-cover classification that integrates Sentinel-2 imagery, spectral decision rules, temporal NDVI analysis, and deep learning (U-Net) within a unified, reproducib…
52. Distribution of soil functional genes and enzymes jointly determined by slope positions and latitude in Mollisols belt
Core Problem: Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Abstract The spatial heterogeneity of microbial functional genes (FGs) and the enzymes is highly correlated with nutrient cycling in soils.
Key Innovation: However, it is debated how latitude and topography influence the spatial distribution of microbial function at large scale, especially lacks reports about their interactions.
53. Coupling effects of freeze-thaw action and thawed soil depth on snowmelt erosion under near-surface hydrologic conditions in the Mollisol region of Northeast China
Core Problem: Near-surface hydrologic conditions (NHC), including drainage, saturation, and seepage, are key drivers for summer rainfall-induced erosion.
Key Innovation: Among these, saturation and seepage intensify erosion compared to drainage, with their effects remaining relatively consistent under controlled hydraulic gradients.
54. Unearthing historical pedology: An analysis of soil science concepts in 1200 years of Persian poetry
Core Problem: Literature serves as a cultural repository for enduring knowledge, offering unique insights into the historical evolution of scientific and philosophical thought.
Key Innovation: This study investigates the semantic understanding of soil, from the perspective of pedology, across 1200 years of Persian poetry.
55. Assessing the impacts of economic forest restoration on soil physical quality in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China: A functional perspective
Core Problem: Economic forestry has become a key strategy for vegetation restoration on abandoned cropland due to its ecological and economic benefits.
Key Innovation: However, despite its ongoing expansion, long-term differences in soil quality compared with natural restoration and temporal dynamic remain unclear.
56. Long-term reclamation shifts microbial necromass and its contribution to soil organic matter in two coastal marshes
Core Problem: Reclamation of coastal wetlands decreases soil organic matter (SOM) and changes its composition; however, it remains unclear how reclamation affects microbial necromass and its contribution to SOM.
Key Innovation: We investigated this question at two coastal marshes (Qilihai, seasonally waterlogged; Beidagang, permanently waterlogged) and adjacent reclaimed farmlands (approximately 60 years old) on the coast of Bohai Bay, China.
57. Soil redistribution, weathering and soil organic carbon dynamics in a Mediterranean landscape
Core Problem: Due to climate change and intense land use, soils are highly dynamic in Mediterranean regions.
Key Innovation: Soil redistribution rates (erosion/accumulation) are assumed to be the main factor changing soil evolutional trajectories, weathering and organic carbon dynamics in these landscapes, but their interactions remain poorly…
58. Hydro-thermo-mechanical coupling analysis of freeze-thaw process and optimization of freezing scheme in soft clay stratum
Core Problem: This study addresses the challenges of frost heave and thaw settlement of typical soft clay stratum during Artificial Ground Freezing (AGF) projects through an integrated approach combining laboratory tests, theoretical…
Key Innovation: According to the analysis of freeze-thaw test data of soft clay samples with initial moisture contents of 25 %, 30 %, and 35 %, there is a significant lag effect between thermal response and mechanical response during t…
59. Installation timing and deformation prediction of multi-layer supporting structures for deep-buried and soft-rock tunnels under high geo-stress
Core Problem: Highlights • A rheological solution embedding damage tensor of layered rock mass was proposed.
Key Innovation: • A multi-level deformation prediction model for multi-layer supporting was established.
60. Physics informed kriging convolutional graph attention network for predicting minimum horizontal stress from seismic attributes and finite element simulations
Core Problem: Accurate mapping of minimum horizontal stress (Sh min ) is vital for wellbore stability, hydraulic fracturing design and reservoir management in heterogeneous formations.
Key Innovation: We present a physics informed kriging convolutional graph attention network (PIKCN-GAT) that integrates seismic attributes with stress fields obtained from finite element method (FEM) simulations.
61. Mechanisms of CO<sub>2</sub> phase transition and heat transfer in response to damage-induced permeability in coal: insights from experiment and simulation
Core Problem: Liquid carbon dioxide (LCO 2 ) fracturing is an anhydrous technique developed to enhance coalbed methane (CBM) recovery.
Key Innovation: This study explored the influence of CO 2 phase transitions on the deformation and permeability of coal subjected to LCO 2 fracturing using integrated experimental observations and numerical simulations.
62. Coalescence of a subcritical crack pair in carbonate rocks upon acidizing
Core Problem: For chemically assisted cracking in tight low-permeable carbonate-rich reservoirs, crack growth and coalescence are driven by a complex interplay between stress redistribution, mineral dissolution, elasto-viscoplastic d…
Key Innovation: Albeit that extensive research exists on crack initiation and growth, little has been found focusing on the underlying mechanism of how two adjacent cracks interact and coalesce through their tips - driven by a combined…
63. Structure-constrained semi-supervised segmentation of complex geomaterial CT images
Core Problem: Accurate segmentation of pore–fracture systems in rock CT images remains a fundamental challenge due to the scarcity of annotated data and the morphological complexity of heterogeneous geological materials.
Key Innovation: This study presents a semi-supervised segmentation framework that integrates limited manual annotations, pseudo-labels generated by the Segment Anything Model (SAM), and a multi-task learning strategy guided by physical…
64. Coda of the snowball: combined U-Pb LA-ICPMS dating of calcite-after-aragonite crystal fans and clumped isotope thermometry of Ediacaran cap carbonates
Core Problem: Graphical abstract Abstract Direct dating of sedimentary successions is a main challenge in geochronology, key for the establishment of chronostratigraphic frameworks for both regional and global events.
Key Innovation: We present new U-Pb in-situ LA-ICPMS data for Ediacaran cap carbonate and related successions from Brazil, China and Canada, along with stable carbon, oxygen, and clumped isotope data for the same samples.
65. An integrated geochemical and hydrological approach for the conceptualization of surface-water/groundwater interactions in a transboundary river basin of the western Himalayas
Core Problem: Graphical abstract Highlights • The study presents a conceptualization of SW-GW interactions from the Indus Basin.
Key Innovation: • A regional hydro-geochemical and isotopic framework helps to identify recharge dynamics.
66. Developing a radar-rain gauge hourly blended precipitation dataset for Great Britain using the Gauss Blending Method
Core Problem: Highlights • Developed the Gauss Blending Method (GBM) for radar-gauge rainfall merging.
Key Innovation: • GBM improves RMSE, MAE, MRE and CC over radar-only and standard methods.
67. Semi-analytical modeling of transient flow to a partially penetrating variable-discharge well in a complex aquifer-aquitard system
Core Problem: Highlights • Solutions for drawdown and interfacial leakage in complex anisotropic aquifer systems.
Key Innovation: • The model captures aquitard heterogeneity through depth-dependent K and S s.
68. Biocrusts regulate the phase transition between liquid water and ice within seasonally frozen soils in drylands
Core Problem: Graphical abstract Highlights • Biocrusts are widespread in seasonally frozen soil regions and regulate soil freezing and thawing.
Key Innovation: • Biocrusts retain higher unfrozen water content than bare soil throughout freezing-thawing cycles.
69. The trend and interannual variability in the global terrestrial evapotranspiration are respectively dominated by humid regions and drylands
Core Problem: Highlights • The humid regions contributed the 72.47 ± 5.77 % of the increase in global land ET over 1982–2020.
Key Innovation: • Climate warming and vegetation greening in humid regions have caused the increase in ET of 0.43 ± 0.22 and 0.30 ± 0.13 mm yr −2 , respectively.
70. Effects of moss cover patterns on hydrodynamic parameters and particle size selectivity during karst erosion under rock surface flow
Core Problem: Highlights • First to quantify joint effects of moss cover on rock and slope surfaces on erosion.
Key Innovation: • Moss coverage delays runoff onset and reduces overland flow velocity and intensity.
71. Directionality characteristics of ground motion and sliding-block displacement from the 2022 Luding Ms6.8 earthquake, China
Core Problem: This study investigates the directionality in the 2022 Luding Ms6.8 earthquake with strike-slip faulting in China.
Key Innovation: Both the orientational variations in the ground motion intensity and the Newmark sliding-block displacement ( D ) for different k y /PGA RotD50 ratios (i.e., yield acceleration of slope to the median peak ground accel…
72. Dual role of holes in red sandstone under freeze–thaw and confinement: mechanistic insights and a Hoek–Brown-based predictive model
Core Problem: Highlights • Reveals the regulatory mechanism of holes in rock degradation under FT conditions.
Key Innovation: • NMR reveals that holes alter the pore-structure evolution pattern of FT damage by inducing micropore development.
73. Macro-meso mechanical response of ice-bearing glaciofluvial deposits under thaw–freeze–thaw cycles
Core Problem: Glaciofluvial deposits are widespread in the southeastern Xizang Plateau, and their stability has been increasingly threatened by climate warming and tunnel construction, leading to frequent landslides and debris flows.
Key Innovation: To overcome the challenge of quantifying the highly variable mechanical behavior of ice-bearing glaciofluvial deposits under coupled effects of initial ice content, confining pressure, and thaw–freeze–thaw (TFT) cycling…
74. Water migration in frozen high-speed railway subgrades under traffic vibration: Piston suction versus mud pumping and pot cover effect
Core Problem: Frost heave and thaw settlement in frozen high-speed railway subgrades are governed by coupled water and heat migration in the soil, and may be further intensified by traffic-induced vibration.
Key Innovation: However, the underlying hydro-mechanical processes in frozen, partially saturated subgrades remain poorly quantified, especially when dynamic loading acts concurrently with freeze–thaw cycles.
75. Compressive strength of biopolymer-stabilized residual granitic soil using polybutylene succinate and xanthan gum: A mechanical-microstructural study
Core Problem: The biodegradable polybutylene succinate (PBS) material offers a sustainable solution for a circular economy to address the global issue of marine plastic waste.
Key Innovation: Its cross-linkage with non-biodegradable xanthan gum (XG) biopolymer to ameliorate residual granitic soil (RGS) in arid and semiarid regions can significantly mitigate soil erosion.
76. Sustainable remediation: The role of styrene-butadiene rubber latex and chem-lite CR powder in stabilizing dispersive clay
Core Problem: This article proposes Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) and Chem-lite CR Powder (CCP) as a sustainable solution for dispersive clays, which cause infrastructure damage due to high sodium ions.
Key Innovation: Traditionally utilized stabilizers like lime/cement raise environmental concerns due to their high carbon footprints.
77. Genetic landform classification of the Tibetan Plateau plains using multisource data
Core Problem: With multisource data support, we effectively delineated plains and mountains on the Tibetan Plateau and developed a classification framework for plain genesis types, achieving an overall accuracy exceeds 85%.
Key Innovation: Abstract The Tibetan Plateau, known as the ‘Third Pole’ of the Earth, has become a hotspot for landform classification studies due to its young tectonics, complex terrain and diverse landforms.
78. Evaluating SWOT in the Coastal Zone: Comparisons With Tide Gauge and Airborne LiDAR in the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, UK
Core Problem: Traditional nadir altimeters struggle with coastal water surface elevation (WSE) measurement and fine‐scale river‐estuary interactions, due to land‐water signal interference and their wide inter‐track spacing.
Key Innovation: The wide‐swath Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, using a new Ka‐band radar interferometer, aims to address these issues by delivering 2D WSE measurements with unprecedented spatial resolution, accuracy,…
79. Frozen Ground Induces Seawater Retreat in Coastal Unconfined Aquifers
Core Problem: While seawater intrusion (SWI) in coastal aquifers has been extensively investigated, most studies focused on unfrozen conditions.
Key Innovation: Here, we demonstrate that the formation of frozen ground alters salinity distribution in coastal unconfined aquifers, based on laboratory experiments and numerical simulations.
80. Satellite Data Trace Seasonal Freshwater Dispersion in Hudson and James Bays
Core Problem: Freshwater dispersal controls stratification, circulation, and biogeochemical processes in Hudson and James Bay (HJB); however, limited field observations hinder understanding of how different freshwater types drive cha…
Key Innovation: This study uses Aqua‐Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity‐Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis data to distinguish and map river water (RW) and sea ice melt…
81. Dynamic Boundaries of Antarctic Active Subglacial Lakes Reveal Underestimated Water Volume Change and Overestimated Lakebed Active Area
Core Problem: This study revisited 158 documented active subglacial lakes across Antarctica, applying a height‐change anomaly delineation algorithm to CryoSat‐2 and ICESat‐2 satellite altimetry data to assemble a 14.75‐year (2010.5–2…
Key Innovation: We generated time‐evolving lake outlines at quarter‐year intervals that revealed spatiotemporal variability, including lake expansions and migrations.
82. Contrasting Trends in Cold‐Season Daily Soil Temperature With Climate Warming in Snow‐Affected Settings
Core Problem: Soil temperature is inextricably linked with hydrological and biogeochemical processes.
Key Innovation: This study analyzes the long‐term minimum soil temperature (TSMIN) trends at 526 stations located in snow‐affected regions of CONUS.
83. Glacial Expansion of Deoxygenation in the Arabian Sea
Core Problem: The mechanisms by which ongoing climate change influences ocean Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs) are insufficiently understood, making it essential to examine their long‐term variations under substantial climatic forcing.
Key Innovation: Here, we present the first planktic foraminifera iodine‐to‐calcium records in two Arabian Sea sediment cores: one located within the core of the modern OMZ in the north and other on its southeastern flank, enabling us t…
84. Winter Baseflow Calibration's Critical Role in Hydrological Modeling for the Pamir Region
Core Problem: The Pamir Mountains, a critical water source for Central Asia, require accurate quantification of runoff components for water resource management under climate change.
Key Innovation: Here we show winter baseflow calibration to provide a previously overlooked yet powerful constraint on model parameters, not only constraining baseflow but also enhancing the estimation of snowmelt and glacier runoff th…
85. Hyporheic‐Zone Processes and Stream Oxygen Dynamics: Insights From a Multiscale Reactive Transport Model
Core Problem: Aquatic ecosystem metabolism encapsulates the daily fixation (gross primary production, GPPd $GP{P}_{d}$) and mineralization (ecosystem respiration, ERd $E{R}_{d}$) of organic carbon.
Key Innovation: In fluvial systems, these are commonly estimated by inverse solutions to field observations using a model that describes oxygen concentrations varying in the water column in response to metabolic fluxes and air‐water ga…
86. Ice Phenology and Thickness in Small Arctic Lakes: Field Observations and Mechanistic Controls
Core Problem: The Arctic is the fastest‐warming region globally.
Key Innovation: We present high‐resolution, field camera‐based ice phenology records of 10 small lakes (2–20 ha) in northwest Finnish Lapland spanning low (LE, ∼300 m) and high (HE, 770–1,010 m) elevations over two consecutive seasons.
87. Large discrepancies between event- and response-based compound flood hazard estimates
Core Problem: Conventional event-based compound-flood hazard methods can misestimate risk because they neglect temporal-spatial variability of flood drivers and inland flood-response processes.
Key Innovation: A direct event-based versus response-based comparison for Gloucester City shows that sub-20-year compound events can generate 100-year flood depths, quantifying substantial bias introduced by design-event simplifications.
88. Signal-Domain Guided Deep Learning for Gap-Filling of XCO and XCH4: A Masked Spatio-Temporal Fusion of TROPOMI and GEOS-Chem (2019–2023)
Core Problem: Satellite CO and CH4 columns from TROPOMI contain frequent data gaps, and existing fusion methods struggle to preserve both continuity and accuracy at high spatiotemporal resolution.
Key Innovation: The paper introduces a signal-domain fusion pipeline (3D DCT plus SVD) with a masked spatiotemporal residual U-Net that merges TROPOMI, GEOS-Chem, and meteorological drivers to generate daily gap-free global and regional XCO/XCH4 datasets for 2019–2023.
89. The first 25-year, quarterly 10-m land change map of China's Loess Plateau reveals long-term and substantial soil erosion mitigation
Core Problem: Long-term soil-erosion evolution on the Loess Plateau has remained poorly quantified due to the absence of high-resolution, high-frequency land-change observations over multi-decadal periods.
Key Innovation: Using a cross-temporal consistency-constrained deep-learning framework on >10 TB of Landsat and Sentinel data, the authors produce the first 10 m quarterly wall-to-wall land-change dataset (2000–2024), enabling quarter-scale erosion reconstruction and restoration-effect quantification.
90. An operational global L-band soil moisture and vegetation optical depth dataset from optimized 40° SMOS brightness temperatures
Core Problem: Standard multi-angular SMOS brightness-temperature compositing introduces aliasing and noise that degrade downstream soil-moisture and vegetation-optical-depth retrievals.
Key Innovation: An optimized mono-angular 40° SMOS TB product, combined with L-MEB-based optimization and SMAP-IB inversion, yields a global 25 km SMOS-IB TB/SM/VOD dataset (2010–2024) with improved performance over conventional SMOS products and near-SMAP quality.
91. Modeling Indian Ocean circulation to study marine debris dispersion: insights into high-resolution and wave forcing effects with Symphonie 3.6.6
Core Problem: Modeling Indian Ocean circulation to study marine debris dispersion: insights into high-resolution and wave forcing effects with Symphonie 3.6.6 Lisa Weiss, Marine Herrmann, Patrick Marsaleix, Matthieu Bompoil, and Chri…
Key Innovation: Model Dev., 19, 827–865, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-827-2026, 2026 We developed a high-resolution ocean model to study marine debris dispersion across the Indian Ocean, from coastal scales to the open sea.
92. Zooming in: SCREAM at 100 m using regional refinement over the San Francisco Bay Area
Core Problem: Zooming in: SCREAM at 100 m using regional refinement over the San Francisco Bay Area Jishi Zhang, Peter Bogenschutz, Mark Taylor, and Philip Cameron-Smith Geosci.
Key Innovation: Model Dev., 19, 795–826, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-795-2026, 2026 We pushed a global cloud-resolving model to a novel 100 m setup over the San Francisco Bay Area using a regionally refined mesh.
93. Generating Boundary Conditions for Compound Flood Modeling in a Probabilistic Framework
Core Problem: Probabilistic compound-flood modeling requires large ensembles of physically plausible boundary-condition events, yet generating such ensembles remains a key bottleneck.
Key Innovation: The study proposes a statistical framework that synthesizes storm-tide hydrographs and rainfall fields to populate observed and unobserved event space for dynamic flood models, and quantifies strong flood-depth sensitivity to mean-sea-level anomalies and tidal phase.
94. Author Correction: Relatively warm deep-water formation persisted in the Last Glacial Maximum
Core Problem: Nature, Published online: 27 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10186-3 Author Correction: Relatively warm deep-water formation persisted in the Last Glacial Maximum
Key Innovation: Nature, Published online: 27 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10186-3 Author Correction: Relatively warm deep-water formation persisted in the Last Glacial Maximum
95. Volcanic personality: the man who recognized volcanoes as a planet-shaping force of nature
Core Problem: Nature, Published online: 27 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00191-x Remembering the life and work of the geologist George Poulett Scrope, and salmon stories in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.
Key Innovation: Nature, Published online: 27 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00191-x Remembering the life and work of the geologist George Poulett Scrope, and salmon stories in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.
96. Relatively warm deep-water formation persisted in the Last Glacial Maximum
Core Problem: Nature, Published online: 21 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10012-2 During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2 °C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively…
Key Innovation: Nature, Published online: 21 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10012-2 During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2 °C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively…
97. Tracking space debris from sonic booms
Core Problem: Seismic data reveal the trajectory and break-up of space debris in Earth’s atmosphere
Key Innovation: Seismic data reveal the trajectory and break-up of space debris in Earth’s atmosphere
98. Far-reaching hunter-gatherer networks during the Last Glacial Maximum in Western Europe
Core Problem: Social networking is an essential feature of hunter-gatherer societies.
Key Innovation: It fosters the circulation of goods and information and enables kinship ties across different scales, including long-distance contacts.
99. Adaptation and coping mechanisms of flood-affected households in Teesta River Basin
Core Problem: The research intends to examine the adaptation and coping mechanisms of flood-affected households in the Teesta River Basin.
Key Innovation: A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining structured questionnaires, geographic information system, Pearson correlation, and a logistic regression model to examine the associations between socioeconomic character…
100. High-Resolution Satellite-Driven Estimation of Photosynthetic Carbon Sequestration in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, Bangladesh
Core Problem: Remote Sensing, Vol.
Key Innovation: 18, Pages 401: High-Resolution Satellite-Driven Estimation of Photosynthetic Carbon Sequestration in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, Bangladesh Remote Sensing doi: 10.3390/rs18030401 Authors: Nur Hussain Md Adnan Rahman…
101. TPC-Tracker: A Tracker-Predictor Correlation Framework for Latency Compensation in Aerial Tracking
Core Problem: Remote Sensing, Vol.
Key Innovation: 18, Pages 328: TPC-Tracker: A Tracker-Predictor Correlation Framework for Latency Compensation in Aerial Tracking Remote Sensing doi: 10.3390/rs18020328 Authors: Xuqi Yang Yulong Xu Renwu Sun Tong Wang Ning Zhang Online…