Geology Today最新文献

The city of Oxford, in south-central England, is partly surrounded by hills on which coral-rich limestones crop out. The coral developments constitute small reefs and formed during a widely documented Late Jurassic (mid-Oxfordian) warming episode, near the northern limit of reef growth at that time. Given its ready availability, the coral rock and associated detrital limestone were dug as building stone for 900 years or more and used extensively within Oxford until the beginning of the twentieth century. William Joscelyn Arkell (1904–1958) was a leading twentieth century expert on Jurassic geology and had wide-ranging interests in these strata. In particular, his observations on Oxfordian reef palaeoecology, climatic significance and structural context have provided the foundations of our modern understanding of these fascinating rocks, which are poorly exposed at the present day.

Can a beachcomber be a geologist in the absence of in situ rock exposures? I say yes, particularly for those of us with a fondness for Aktuo Paläontologie, the interpretation of modern shell remains as if they are fossils. Modern dead shells can provide a wealth of thought-provoking information, confirming that the present is, indeed, the key to the past.

Rapid atmospheric warming, especially at high altitude, leads to alpine mountain landscapes becoming more vulnerable to mass movements and consequently unstable. For example, decay of mountain permafrost contributes to rockfalls, landslides and debris flows; glaciers are retreating and losing mass at alarming rates, exposing unstable slopes that are more likely to fail; and meltwater, which collects in a growing number of glacial lakes, can pose an outburst flood hazard, putting communities and infrastructure downstream at risk of damage. Occurring now with increasing frequency, these natural phenomena often combine to create complex multi-hazard cascades that are more powerful and have a greater reach down-valley than a singular isolated event. Combined with increasing population and infrastructure and economic activity in high mountains, there is therefore increased vulnerability of society to natural hazards in high alpine mountains, as has been experienced in the Swiss Alps in 2025, with the collapse of the Birch Glacier and the destruction of the alpine village of Blatten. Here, we review the physical processes of this recent event, their impact on environment, people and economy, and consider what can be learned from them.

The Thistle landslide was a slow-moving mass of debris that, during 1983, created a dam within a major valley in Utah, USA. It proved to be the most expensive landslide in American history, requiring huge and rapid engineering works to stabilize the debris dam, build a new railway and road and drain the lake; though not before the small town of Thistle was drowned and destroyed.

Long-term preservation of landforms produces a geological record that can be used to unravel past Earth surface processes in space and time. Identification and analysis of landforms has been revolutionized by the availability of high-resolution (metre-scale) topographic survey data covering extensive areas, using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Airborne LiDAR has been in widespread use for over two decades; but due to increasing availability of data, some regions are only just beginning to be ‘explored’ in this way. In this article, we showcase high-resolution topography derived from airborne LiDAR survey data across South Island, New Zealand. We evidence a variety of tectonic, glacial, fluvial, hillslope and other landforms hitherto undetected within mountainous areas and beneath forests. We discuss how the characteristics of shape, size, position and association can differentiate landforms from one another, and how combinations of landforms enable landsystems to be identified that are diagnostic of past environmental conditions.

The evolving landscape of military geoscience demands the integration of advanced geospatial technologies to enhance situational awareness, decision-making and operational efficiency in military operations. This article focuses on the critical role of geographical information systems, remote sensing, artificial intelligence and drones in modern warfare, particularly in urban environments, such as those seen in current conflicts. These technologies are essential for navigating the complexities of contemporary warfare, especially when civilian protection and infrastructure preservation are key concerns. Additionally, the growing reliance on real-time geospatial data raises challenges related to data management, disinformation and ethical and cybersecurity concerns, particularly through the media and social platforms. As military operations continue to evolve, future success will depend on the seamless integration of these technologies across multiple domains. However, achieving this requires not only technological innovation but also a strong commitment to ethical standards and robust security measures to safeguard their application in conflict zones.

Complementing earlier articles in Geology Today that have featured military applications of geology during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this article helps to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 2025. It shows that ‘military geologists’ sometimes helped to initiate national geological mapping and that, as a wartime imperative, they notably adapted geological maps to create innovative hydrogeological, engineering geological and terrain assessment maps for military use. Examples come from work by British, German and US’ military geologists—primarily from the 1939–1945 war.

At Trinity—the world's first nuclear weapons testing site—large quantities of soil were drawn into the fireball to redeposit either downwind as radioactive fallout or in the near-field as a unique, anthropogenic silicate glass trinitite. Manhattan Project physicists and chemists came to see soils at the Trinity site as a useful medium to assess the explosive power of the weapon they had developed. They devised ingenious ways to enter the high radiation field of the post-detonation crater at Ground Zero in order to sample soil bearing the radioisotope footprint of the fireball. A blend of out-of-the-box thinking, battle-proven US Army military hardware, gutsy geotechnical improvisation and emerging environmental radioactivity analytical capabilities provided the answers needed by strategists at this critical stage in the Second World War.