The accurate estimation of bearing stratum depth, the subsurface soil or rock layer depth that can support a foundation, is key to preventing soil-related disasters in earthquake-prone areas and ensuring a building’s structural safety. However, traditional methods to assess this depth involve high costs, time, and labor. Now, researchers from Japan have demonstrated improved depth prediction accuracy by employing machine learning algorithms, making it both cost-effective and a generalizable alternative to traditional field surveys.

Solid-oxide fuel cells are a promising material for future green energy infrastructure due to their high efficiency and long lifespan. However, they require operation at high temperatures of around 700-800℃. Now researchers at Kyushu University have succeeded in developing a new SOFC material with an efficient operating temperature of 300℃. The team expects that their new findings will greatly accelerate the practical application of green energy devices.

UVic research published in Nature Geoscience today provides the most comprehensive view into how fast glaciers erode and how they change the landscape. Most importantly, the research also provides an estimate of the rate of future erosion for more than 180,000 glaciers worldwide.

Natural weathering processes are removing CO₂ from the air in a wide range of environments across continents and ocean. Until recently these ‘CO₂ vacuum cleaners’ were often studied separately, without properly examining their complex interactions. Now, an international team of Earth scientists is proposing an integrated vision of the many factors that influence the removal of atmospheric CO₂ from the highest mountain peaks to the deep ocean floor, including their various interactions. The so-called weathering continuum provides a much more complete picture on what controls and regulates the natural removal of CO₂, which could help in the development of enhancing weathering techniques.

Subduction, a crucial geological process on Earth, may have begun hundreds of millions of years earlier than traditionally believed. This surprising discovery comes from a new study published by researchers from GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, along with international colleagues, in Nature Communications. The team from Potsdam (Germany), Grenoble (France), and Madison (USA) presents groundbreaking evidence that subduction and continental crust formation during the so-called Hadean Eon were already active and more vigorous than previously thought.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team of researchers improved the precipitation simulation over the Tibetan Plateau using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with an optimized convective entrainment scheme and a turbulent orographic form drag scheme.