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Hydrophones are used to monitor sediment transport in the river by listing to the acoustic noise generated by particles impacts on the riverbed. However, this acoustic noise is modified by the river flow and can cause misleading information about sediment transport. This article proposes a model that corrects the measured acoustic signal. Testing the model showed that the corrected signal is better correlated with bedload flux in the river.

Packing models promise efficient and accurate porosity predictions of fluvial sediment deposits. In this study, three packing models were reviewed, calibrated, and validated. Only two of the models were able to handle the continuous and large grain size distributions typically encountered in rivers. We showed that an extension by a cohesion model is necessary, and developed guidelines for successful predictions in different rivers.

The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge about mud-volcano-like structures on Mars, address the critical aspects of process of sedimentary volcanism, identify key open questions, and point to areas where further research is needed to understand this phenomenon and its importance for the red planet’s geological evolution.

Various models have been used in science and practice to estimate how much large wood (LW) can be supplied to rivers. This contribution reviews the existing models proposed in the last 35 years and compares two of the most recent spatially explicit models by applying them to 40 catchments in Switzerland. Differences in modelling results are discussed, and results compared to available observations coming from a unique database.

We investigated the mineral content and geochemical composition of the upper 6 meters of regolith, formed by weathering of granitic rocks in Mediterranean and humid climate. We found that the development of the upper regolith in the Mediterranean climate is controlled by secondary minerals which cause fracturing and thus facilitate fluid infiltration to depth. The upper regolith in the humid climate is controlled by secondary minerals that cause a reduction of fluid infiltration to depth.

Using satellite images, we show that, unlike other examples of earthquake affected rivers, the rivers of Central Nepal experienced little increase in sedimentation following the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. Instead, a catastrophic flood occurred in 2021 that buried towns and agricultural land under up to 10 meters of sediment. We show that, in this example, intense storms remobilised glacial sediment from high elevations causing much greater impact than flushing of earthquake-induced landslides.

We compile data on carbonate denudation, the sum of mechanical erosion and chemical weathering, from cosmogenic nuclides and use them in conjunction with weathering data to constrain the partitioning of denudation into erosion and weathering. We show how carbonate erosion and weathering respond to different climatic and tectonic conditions and find that variations in denudation partitioning can be used to explain the vastly different morphology of carbonate landscapes on Earth.

Our detailed investigation of Martian gullies formed in different substrates in 29 craters distributed between 30°–75° S latitude suggests that they can be differentiated from one another in terms of (1) morphology and length of alcoves, and (2) mean gradient of the gully-fans. The comparison between the melton ratio, alcove length and fan gradient of Martian and terrestrial gullies suggest the Martian gullies were likely formed by terrestrial debris-flow like processes in the past.

Seasonality in precipitation (P) and vegetation (V) jointly influence catchment erosion (E), although which factor plays the dominant role is unclear. In this study, we performed a sensitivity analysis of E to P-V seasonality through numerical modeling. Our results suggest that P variations strongly influence seasonal variations in E. While the effect of seasonal V variations is secondary but significant. This is more pronounced in moderate and least pronounced in extreme environmental settings.

Swiss researchers carried out repeated rockfall experiments with rocks up to human-sized in a steep mountain forest. This study focuses mainly on the effects of the rock shape and of lying deadwood. The results show that cubic shape rocks have a longer mean runout distance in forested areas than platy-shaped rocks with the same mass. The findings enrich common practices in modern rockfall hazard zoning assessments and urge strongly to incorporate rock shape effects.

All rocks have cracks that can influence virtually every process acting on Earth's surface where humans live. Yet, scientists have not standardized their methods for collecting crack data. Here we draw on past work across geo-disciplines to show why standardization is important and propose a list of baseline data for fracture-focused surface processes research. We detail its rationale and the methods for collecting it. We hope its wide adoption will improve knowledge of rock fracture overall.

We measured rock strength and amount of fracturing in the two different rock types, sandstones and carbonates, in Last Chance Canyon, New Mexico, USA. Where there is more carbonate bedrock, hills and channels steepen in Last Chance Canyon. This is because the carbonate type bedrock tends to be more thickly bedded, is less fractured, and is stronger. The carbonate bedrock produces larger boulders than the sandstone bedrock which can protect the more fractured sandstone bedrock from erosion.

We simulate the transport of material through numerically simulated river deltas under natural and human-modified (embankment construction and channel dredging) scenarios to understand their impacts on material transport. Human modifications reduce the total area visited by passive particles, and alter the amount of time spent within the delta relative to natural conditions. This work can help us understand how future construction may impact land building or ecosystem restoration projects.

Alpine rivers have experienced strong changes over the last century. In the present study, we explore the potential of historical multi-temporal elevation models, combined with recent topographic data, to quantify 66 years (from 1953 to 2019) of river changes in the glacier forefield of an Alpine catchment. Thereby, we quantify the changes in the river form as well as the related sediment erosion and deposition.

We explore the relation between the spatial patterns of rainfall return levels for various timespans (1–72 h) and landslide density during a rainfall event that triggered widespread landslides. We found that landslide density increases with increased rainfall return levels for the various examined timespans. Accordingly, we conclude that whether rainfall intensities reached exceptional return levels for a wide time range is a key determinant of the spatial distribution of landslides.

Landslide processes are causes of major concern to population and infrastructures on Reunion Island. In this study, we used data from the Copernicus Sentinel 1 satellite to map ground motion in Cirque de Salazie, Reunion Island. We concentrate on the cyclonic season 2017–2018. Our results show ground motion in the Hell-Bourg, Ile à Vidot, Grand Ilet, Camp Pierrot, and Bellier landslides. We show an unknown pattern of ground motion situated in a non-instrumented, uninhabited area on the ground.

Water in fractures drive many processes that destabilize steep permafrost-affected rock walls. However, quantitative knowledge on water availability for infiltration is limited. Here we use a numerical model and field measurements to estimate the water balance in a steep rock walls site. We show that snowmelt is the main source of water at elevations >3600 m and that snowpack hydrology and sublimation are key factors. Below 3600 m, surface water availability is increased rapidly due to rainfall.

A novel, artificial intelligence-based riverbed sediment analysis methodology is introduced, which uses underwater images to identify the characteristic sediment classes. The main novelties of the procedure are the followings: underwater images are used; the method enables continuous mapping of the riverbed along the measurement vessel’s route contrary to conventional techniques; cost-efficient; works without scaling.

Planetary surfaces are shaped by both wind and water were their resulting surface features are commonly observed by aerial images. Deep Springs playa, CA provides an comparable wet-to-dry transitioning landscape as experienced in Mars' past. Our results, made through collected weather data and drone footage, showed that some features, when observed solely by aerial imagery might be interpreted as being formed by wind when in fact other processes were more influential in their formation.

The results support that strong scaling relationships exist in both laboratory-scale and field scale submarine canyon-fan systems. We propose that fault slip rate controls the convergence and merging speed of submarine canyon-fan systems, which in turn affects their number and spacing. We further propose a general rule to predict fan volumes by using canyon lengths.

Observations of interaction between extreme physical erosion and chemical weathering dynamics are limited. Here, we presented a major elements of stream water in the badland catchment at 3-hour intervals during a 3-day typhoon. The excess sodium in the evaporite deposits causes material dispersion through deflocculation, which enhances the suspended sediment flux. Moreover, we observed a shift from predominantly evaporite weathering at peak precipitation to silicate weathering at peak discharge.

We compare models of erosion against a global compilation of long-term erosion rates in order to find and interpret best-fit parameters using an iterative search. We find global signals among exponents which control the relationship between erosion rate and slope, as well as other parameters which are common in long-term erosion modelling. Finally, we analyse the global variability of parameters and find a correlation between precipitation and coefficients for optimised models.