On a Monday morning in 2023, Turkey was hit by two powerful earthquakes in quick succession.
The first, the worst to strike the country since the Erzincan quake of 1939, measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and struck near Gaziantep in the southeast of Turkey, killing more than 1,300 people in the region and neighbouring Syria, with the impact felt as far away as Cairo, Egypt, and Italy bracing for a possible tsunami.
The British Geological Survey explains that earthquakes like these, which so often have devastating consequences, are the result of “sudden movement along faults within the earth”.
An earthquake struck about 29km north of Rhodes, the largest of the Dodecanese islands near the Turkey border, at around 2.17am (local time) today at a depth of 68km, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
Here’s a look at the map showing where exactly the quake occured:
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook a coastal town in Turkey on Tuesday, causing panic among residents, officials said. Dozens were reported injured after jumping from windows or balconies to get out of their homes while a teenager died after being taken to the hospital.
No major damage was reported.
The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said the quake hit at 2:17 a.m. and was centered in the Mediterranean Sea, off the holiday resort of Marmaris. It was felt in neighboring regions, including on the Greek island of Rhodes, waking many from their sleep.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that a 14-year-old girl was taken to hospital and died there after what he said was an anxiety attack. It was not known if she had any underlying conditions.
Nearly 70 other people were treated for injuries after jumping from windows or balconies in panic, he said. There were no reports of damage to buildings, he added.
In September 2023, a bizarre global seismic signal was observed which appeared every 90 seconds over nine days—and was then repeated a month later. Almost a year later, two scientific studies proposed that the cause of these seismic anomalies were two mega tsunamis which were triggered in a remote East Greenland fjord by two major landslides which occurred due to warming of an unnamed glacier.
The waves were thought to have become trapped in the fjord system, forming standing waves (or seiches) that undulated back and forth, causing the mystery signals.
However, up to now no observations of these seiches existed to confirm this theory. Even a Danish military vessel which visited the fjord three days into the first seismic event did not observe the wave which was shaking Earth.
In a new study, Oxford researchers used novel analysis techniques to interpret satellite altimetry data. This measures the height of the Earth’s surface (including the ocean) by recording how long it takes for a radar pulse to travel from a satellite to the surface and back again. The work is published in Nature Communications.
Up to now, conventional satellite altimeters were not able to capture evidence of the wave due to long gaps between observations, and the fact that they sample data directly beneath the spacecraft, producing 1D profiles along the sea-surface. This makes them incapable of depicting the differences in water height needed to spot the waves.
This study used data captured by the new Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, launched in December 2022, to map the height of water across 90% of the Earth’s surface.
At the heart of SWOT is the cutting-edge Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, which uses two antennas mounted on a 10-meter boom on either side of the satellite. These two antennas work together to triangulate the return signals that bounce back from the radar pulse—enabling them to measure ocean and surface water levels with unprecedented accuracy (up to 2.5 meters resolution) along a swath 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite image of the Dickson Fjord in East Greenland with the observed sea-surface height measurements from the SWOT satellite of the Earth-shaking wave on October 11th overlaid. Credit: Thomas Monahan.
Using KaRIn data, the researchers made elevation maps of the Greenland Fjord at various timepoints following the two tsunamis. These showed clear, cross-channel slopes with height differences of up to two meters. Crucially, the slopes in these maps occurred in opposite directions, showing that water moved backwards and forwards across the channel.
To prove their theory, the researchers linked these observations to small movements of Earth’s crust measured thousands of kilometers away. This connection enabled them to reconstruct the characteristics of the wave, even for periods which the satellite did not observe. The researchers also reconstructed weather and tidal conditions to confirm that the observations could not have been caused by winds or tides.
Lead author Thomas Monahan (DPhil student, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford) said, “Climate change is giving rise to new, unseen extremes. These extremes are changing the fastest in remote areas, such as the Arctic, where our ability to measure them using physical sensors is limited. This study shows how we can leverage the next generation of satellite earth observation technologies to study these processes.”
“SWOT is a game changer for studying oceanic processes in regions such as fjords which previous satellites struggled to see into.”
Co-author Professor Thomas Adcock (Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford) said, “This study is an example of how the next generation of satellite data can resolve phenomena that has remained a mystery in the past.
“We will be able to get new insights into ocean extremes such as tsunamis, storm surges, and freak waves. However, to get the most out of these data we will need to innovate and use both machine learning and our knowledge of ocean physics to interpret our new results.”
In the southern flanks of the Indian Ocean and the central and eastern Pacific, just north of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, lie the Subantarctic Mode Waters. As part of the global ocean conveyor belt, these large masses of seawater transfer substantial amounts of heat and carbon northward into the interiors of the Indian and Pacific oceans. These waters hold about 20% of all anthropogenic carbon found in the ocean, and their warming accounted for about 36% of all ocean warming over the past two decades—making them critical players in Earth’s climate system.
Prior research has suggested Subantarctic Mode Waters form when seawater flowing from warm, shallow subtropical regions mixes with water flowing from cold, deep Antarctic regions. But the relative contributions of each source have long been debated.
Researcher Bieito Fernández Castro and colleagues have now used the Biogeochemical Southern Ocean State Estimate model to investigate how these water masses form. The model incorporates real-world physical and biogeochemical observations—including data from free-roaming floats—to simulate the flow and properties of seawater. The researchers used it to virtually track 100,000 simulated particles of water backward in time over multiple decades to determine where they came from before winding up in Subantarctic Mode Waters.
The research is published in the journal AGU Advances.
The particle-tracking experiment confirmed that subtropical and Antarctic waters indeed meet and mix in all areas where Subantarctic Mode Waters form but offered more insight into the journeys and roles of the two water sources.
In the Indian Ocean, the simulations suggest, Subantarctic Mode Waters come mainly from warm, shallow, subtropical waters to the north. In contrast, in the Pacific Ocean, Subantarctic Mode Waters originate primarily from a water mass to the south known as Circumpolar Deep Water.
Along their southward flow to the subantarctic, subtropical waters release heat into the atmosphere and become denser, while ocean mixing reduces their salinity. Meanwhile, the cooler Circumpolar Deep Water absorbs heat and becomes fresher and lighter as it upwells and flows northward from the Antarctic region to the subantarctic.
These findings suggest that Subantarctic Mode Waters affect Earth’s climate differently depending on whether they form in the Indian or Pacific Ocean—with potential implications for northward transport of carbon and nutrients. Further observations could help confirm and deepen our understanding of these intricacies.
More information: Bieito Fernández Castro et al, Sources, Pathways, and Drivers of Sub‐Antarctic Mode Water Formation, AGU Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2024AV001449
What happened to all the megafauna? From moas to mammoths, many large animals went extinct between 50 and 10,000 years ago. Learning why could provide crucial evidence about prehistoric ecosystems and help us understand future potential extinctions. But surviving fossils are often too fragmented to determine the original species, and DNA is not always recoverable, especially in hot or damp environments.
Now scientists have isolated collagen peptide markers which allow them to identify three key megafauna that were once present across Australia: a hippo-sized wombat, a giant kangaroo, and a marsupial with enormous claws.
“The geographic range and extinction date of megafauna in Australia, and potential interaction with early modern humans, is a hotly debated topic,” said Professor Katerina Douka of the University of Vienna, senior author of the article in Frontiers in Mammal Science.
“The low number of fossils that have been found at paleontological sites across the country means that it is difficult to test hypotheses about why these animals became extinct,” explained first author Dr. Carli Peters of the University of Algarve.
“Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry—ZooMS—could increase the number of identified megafauna fossils, but only if collagen peptide markers for these species are available.”
Walking with giants
Analyzing the peptides—short chains of amino acids—found in samples of collagen allows scientists to distinguish between different genera of animals, and sometimes between different species. Because collagen preserves better than DNA, this method can be applied successfully in tropical and sub-tropical environments where DNA is unlikely to survive. But most reference markers are for Eurasian species that never lived in other parts of the world.
This research develops new reference markers for an Australian context, allowing scientists to glean more information from Australia’s fragmented fossil record.
“Proteins generally preserve better over longer timescales and in harsh environments than DNA does,” said Peters. “This means that in the context of megafauna extinctions, proteins may still be preserved where DNA is not.”
The scientists chose to study Zygomaturus trilobus, Palorchestes azael, and Protemnodon mamkurra, three species which could be particularly valuable for understanding megafauna extinctions.
Z. trilobus and P. azael are from families of animals that went completely extinct during the Late Quaternary, while P. mamkurra survived long enough that it could potentially have overlapped with humans arriving in Tasmania. Dr. Richard Gillespie, a co-author, previously dated the bones to beyond 43,000 years ago.
“Zygomaturus trilobus was one of the largest marsupials that ever existed—it would have looked like a wombat the size of a hippo,” said Douka.
“Protemnodon mamkurra was a giant, slow-moving kangaroo, potentially walking on all fours at times. Palorchestes azael was an unusual-looking marsupial that possessed a skull with highly retracted nasals and a long protrusible tongue, strong forelimbs, and enormous claws.
“If the early modern humans who entered Sahul—the paleocontinent that connected present-day Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania 55,000 years ago—came across them, they would have certainly got a big surprise.”
Markers of the past
The scientists ruled out any contaminants and compared the peptide markers they found to reference markers. The collagen in all three samples was well-preserved enough for the team to identify suitable peptide markers for all three species.
Using these markers, the team were able to differentiate Protemnodon from five living genera and one extinct genus of kangaroos. They were also able to distinguish Zygomaturus and Palorchestes from other living and extinct large marsupials, but they couldn’t differentiate the two species from each other.
This is not unusual with ZooMS, since changes in collagen accumulate extremely slowly, over millions of years of evolution. Unless further research allows for more specificity, these markers are best used to identify bones at the genus level rather than the species.
However, the ability to tell apart genera from more temperate regions of Sahul does present an opportunity to try to identify bones found in more tropical areas, where closely related species—which are likely to have similar or even the same peptide markers—would have lived. DNA rarely preserves over time in these regions.
“By using the newly developed collagen peptide markers, we can begin identifying a larger number of megafauna remains in Australian paleontological assemblages,” said Peters.
“However, there are a lot more species for which collagen peptide markers still need to be characterized. Two examples would be Diprotodon, the largest marsupial genus to have ever existed, and Thylacoleo, the largest marsupial predator.”
More information: Carli Peters et al, Collagen peptide markers for three extinct Australian megafauna species, Frontiers in Mammal Science (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fmamm.2025.1564287
A study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics has identified four previously unknown primordial open cluster (OC) groups in the Milky Way.
Open clusters, loose assemblies of stars born from the same giant molecular cloud (GMC), are typically considered to form in isolation. However, the newly discovered OC groups consist of multiple member clusters originating from the same GMC, formed through sequential star formation processes.
Notably, two of these groups, labeled G1 and G2, appear to have formed via a hierarchical mechanism triggered by multiple supernova (SN) explosions.
Using high-precision data from the Gaia satellite, researchers from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Yunnan Observatories, and the University of Heidelberg, identified the OC groups by analyzing correlations in three-dimensional (3D) positions, velocities, and ages. G1 and G2 display distinct ring-like and arc-like morphologies, suggesting external compression events.
Based on these findings, the researchers adopted a triggered star formation framework to construct spatial correlation maps between cluster age and distance from potential SN explosion sites around the birthplace of OC groups. A clear age-distance correlation emerged, supporting a scenario in which multiple SN explosions, occurring over a short timespan, sequentially triggered the formation of G1 and G2.
Four newly reported primordial open cluster groups (G1–G4). The blue, green, red, and orange dots represent OC groups G1, G2, G3, and G4, respectively. The black arrows denote the tangential velocity of the member OC, with arrow lengths scaled proportionally according to the red reference arrow located in the upper right corner. Credit: XAO
To further validate this hypothesis, they performed trajectory traceback analyses of 607 pulsars, which are remnants of SN explosions. Several candidates were found to have birthplaces matching the predicted explosion region. This spatial agreement, together with the observed cluster age gradients and SN remnant locations, supports a feedback-driven and hierarchical formation of OC groups.
This study highlights the pivotal role of feedback processes such as SN explosions in regulating large-scale star formation and the dynamical evolution of star clusters in galactic environments. Moreover, it also provides new insights into tracing feedback imprints in the galactic structure and establishes a framework for connecting star formation, stellar evolution, and feedback processes across different scales.
More information: Guimei Liu et al, Formation and evolution of new primordial open cluster groups: Feedback-driven star formation, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2025). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202452774
Forests in the Peruvian Amazon aren’t growing back after gold mining—not just because the soil is damaged by toxic metals, but because the land has been depleted of its water. A common mining method known as suction mining reshapes the terrain in ways that drain moisture and trap heat, creating harsh conditions where even replanted seedlings can’t survive.
The findings, published in Communications Earth & Environment, revealed why reforestation efforts in the region have struggled. One of the study’s co-authors is Josh West, professor of Earth sciences and environmental studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“We’ve known that soil degradation slows forest recovery,” said West, who is a National Geographic Explorer. “But this is different. The mining process dries out the land, making it inhospitable for new trees.”
Mapping a damaged Amazon landscape
The research team was led by Abra Atwood, a scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and a former student of West, who earned her doctorate at USC Dornsife in 2023.
Working with colleagues from Columbia University, Arizona State University and Peru’s Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, the team studied two abandoned gold mining sites in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, near the borders of Brazil and Bolivia.
They used drones, soil sensors and underground imaging to understand how suction mining reshapes the land. The technique, commonly used by small-scale and often family-run operations, blasts apart soil with high-pressure water cannons.
The loosened sediment is funneled through sluices that filter out gold particles, while lighter material, including nutrient-rich topsoil, washes away. What remains are stagnant ponds—some as large as football fields—and towering sand piles up to 30 feet high.
Unlike excavation mining, which is used in other parts of the Amazon and can preserve some topsoil, suction mining leaves little behind to support new growth.
To measure soil moisture and structure, the researchers used electrical resistivity imaging, a technique that tracks how easily moisture moves through soil. They found that the sand piles act like sieves.
Rainwater drains through them up to 100 times faster than in undisturbed soil. These areas also dry out nearly five times faster after rain, leaving little moisture available for new roots.
To compare conditions, the team installed sensors in various locations—sandy and clay soils, pond edges and undisturbed forests—and found that deforested sites were consistently hotter and drier. On exposed sand piles, surface temperatures reached as high as 145 F (60°C).
“It’s like trying to grow a tree in an oven,” West said.
Drone-mounted thermal cameras showed how barren ground baked under the sun while nearby forested areas and pond edges stayed significantly cooler.
“When roots can’t find water and surface temperatures are scorching, even replanted seedlings just die,” said Atwood. “It’s a big part of why regeneration is so slow.”
Saving the Amazon with better practices
Although the team observed some regrowth near pond edges and in low-lying areas, large swaths of land remained bare, especially where sand piles are widespread. These spots, which are farther from the water table and lose moisture quickly, are harder to reforest.
Between 1980 and 2017, small-scale gold mining destroyed more than 95,000 hectares—an area more than seven times the size of San Francisco—of rainforest in the Madre de Dios region. In and around the Tambopata National Reserve, operations continue to expand, threatening both biodiversity and Indigenous lands. Across the Amazon, gold mining now accounts for nearly 10% of deforestation.
The researchers suggest that recovery efforts could benefit from reshaping the terrain itself. Flattening the mining sand piles and filling in abandoned ponds could bring tree roots closer to groundwater, improving moisture retention and boosting regrowth. While natural erosion may eventually do the same, the process is far too slow to meet urgent reforestation needs.
“There’s only one Amazon rainforest,” West said. “It’s a living system unlike anything else on Earth. If we lose it, we lose something irreplaceable.”
More information: Abra Atwood et al, Landscape controls on water availability limit revegetation after artisanal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). Data on HydroShare Resources: DOI: 10.4211/hs.05a0490e971f491fa64c62cbde499a6a
A cascade of events in the Swiss Alps led to the dramatic collapse of the Birch glacier, wiping out Blatten village in the valley below, glaciologists and geoscientists told AFP on Friday.
Experts knew days ahead of Wednesday’s landslide that the glacier was likely to suffer a catastrophic failure. But the reasons why date back much further.
There are strong theories on the causes, and to what degree the disaster is linked to climate change—but these are yet to be confirmed by scientific analysis.
“This can be considered as a cascading event, because we have different processes involved,” explained Christophe Lambiel, senior lecturer at the University of Lausanne’s Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics.
Mountain above the glacier
The 3,342-meter (10,965-foot) high Kleines Nesthorn mountain above the glacier was already somewhat unstable, and rockfalls accelerated dramatically around 10 days beforehand.
Experts feared a total collapse within hours, but instead there were successive rockfalls over several days, which was actually the best-case scenario.
Rockfall onto glacier
Three million cubic meters of rock were deposited on the glacier.
“If you put a lot of weight on an unstable foundation, it can just slip away. And this is what actually happened,” Matthias Huss, the director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland (GLAMOS), told AFP.
“The glacier accelerated strongly in response to this additional loading, and then the disaster struck.”
Freeze-thaw leads to weathering and rockslides.
The Birch glacier
The Birch glacier was a special case: the only Swiss glacier that was advancing rather than shrinking. However, this was not because of extra snowfall.
Its advance “was quite likely due to the pre-loading with rockfalls from this mountain, which has finally collapsed. So the landslide didn’t start from nothing,” said Huss.
The glacier was on a steep slope, and even steeper at the front, worsening the dynamics.
Smaller-scale falls from the front of the glacier Tuesday were expected to continue, with Wednesday’s sudden total collapse considered a less-probable scenario.
How the glacier collapsed
The rockfalls altered the stress equation between the weight of the glacier and the slope, which governs its forward speed, Lambiel told AFP.
Like pushing a car, it takes a lot of force to initiate movement, but less once it is on the move, he explained.
Huss said the 1,000 meters of elevation between the glacier and the Lotschental valley floor added a “huge amount of potential energy”, which through friction melts part of the ice, making the fall “much more dynamic than if it was just rock”.
Dust rising after the collapse of the Birch glacier in Wallis canton.
Role of melting permafrost
Permafrost conditions are degrading throughout the Alps. Ice inside the cracks in the rocks has been thawing to ever-deeper levels over the last decade, especially after the summer 2022 heatwave.
“Ice is considered as the cement of the mountains. Decreasing the quality of the cement decreases the stability of the mountain,” said Lambiel.
Huss added, “At the moment, we can’t say it’s because of permafrost thaw that this mountain collapsed—but it is at least a very probable explanation, or one factor, that has triggered or accelerated this process of the mountain falling apart.”
Role of climate change
Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria, told AFP: “There is no clear evidence as of yet, for this specific case, that this was caused by climate change.”
Huss said making such a direct link was “complicated”.
“If it was just because of climate change that this mountain collapsed, all mountains in the Alps could collapse—and they don’t,” he said.
Around three million cubic metres of rock fell on top of the glacier, increasing its weight.
“It’s a combination of the long-term changes in the geology of the mountain.
“The failing of the glacier as such—this is not related to climate change. It’s more the permafrost processes, which are very complex, long-term changes.”
Lambiel said of a link between climate change and the glacier moving forward over time: “Honestly, we don’t know.
“But the increasing rockfalls on the glacier during the last 10 years—this can be linked with climate change.”
Other glaciers
Modern monitoring techniques detect acceleration in the ice with high precision—and therefore allow for early warning.
Lambiel said around 80 glaciers in the same region of Switzerland were considered dangerous, and under monitoring.
“The big challenge is to recognize where to direct the detailed monitoring,” said Huss.
Lambiel said sites with glacier-permafrost interactions above 3,000 meters would now need more research. But they are difficult to reach and monitor.
The Birch glacier plunged down the side of the valley.
Steiner said, “Probably the rapidly changing permafrost can play some kind of role.
“This is concerning because this means that mountains are becoming a lot more unstable.”
A recent study, published in Papers in Palaeontology, discusses the reanalysis of the only known Idiorophus patagonicus specimen.
After a nearly 130-year scientific slumber, the study, titled “Awakening Patagonia’s sleeping sperm whale: A new description of the Early Miocene Idiorophus patagonicus (Odontoceti, Physeteroidea),” provides new insights into early sperm whale evolution, body size, and feeding behavior.
The fossils were first described by Richard Lydekker in 1893 and given the scientific name Physodon patagonicus. However, as the name Physodon had already been used for both isolated teeth found in the Miocene layers in Lecce, Italy, and was an earlier name given to sharks, a new name was suggested in 1905 by Abel. He suggested the taxon ought to be called Scaldicetus, which became a wastebasket taxon for any species that did not fit neatly into any other taxonomic group.
Eventually, I. patagonicus was given the name Idiorophus by Kellogg in 1925.
The fossil specimen was recovered somewhere in the Early Miocene Gaiman Formation (20 million years old), at Cerro Castillo, in front of Trelew, Argentina, although the exact location is unknown.
Of the many sperm whales (Physeteridae) that existed during the Miocene, today only three species remain: Physeter macrocephalus (Giant Sperm whale), Kogia sima (Dwarf sperm whale), and Kogia breviceps (Pygmy sperm whale).
The I. patagonicus specimen underwent a thorough anatomic and taxonomic revision, revealing several new insights.
The I. patagonicus specimen was a subadult, measuring between 5 and 6 meters in length. Based on its phylogenetic analysis, it was not closely related to any other Physeteridae species in the region. Additionally, it may have been one of the earliest species of physeterids or possibly even the ancestor of all physeterids.
Its rostrum (snout) provided some of the most intriguing insights pertaining to its feeding habits, according to Dr. Florencia Paolucci, “The ecomorphological features of Idiorophus point to a lifestyle quite different from that of modern sperm whales. It was likely an active predator of large fish and possibly some seabirds, while extant sperm whales feed mostly on cephalopods or small fish through suction feeding.
“Unfortunately, most of the traits related to diving behavior in living cetaceans are found in soft tissues, which don’t preserve in fossils. In some cases, parts of the basicranium, especially the bones that house the sinus system, can give clues about diving abilities—but in this case, the basicranium of Idiorophus wasn’t preserved.”
Despite the insights gained from this study, there are still many unanswered questions about I. patagonicus. When asked about the timespan this species existed, Dr. Paolucci acknowledges the limitations of their research: “Unfortunately, I don’t have clear answers yet, and it’s hard to draw conclusions based on a single specimen. We know the age of the fossil based on the surrounding sediments, which indicate an Early Miocene age (around 20–19 million years ago).
“Since the studied specimen is the only one known for Idiorophus, we can’t determine whether the species lasted for a longer time span—we just know it was present in the Early Miocene.
“As for its extinction, we’ve recently been working on sperm whales from a more global perspective, looking at specimens from other regions and different time periods (e.g., Late Miocene). So, there’s still a lot of work to be done on this topic.
“For now, any hypothesis is on the table—from global climate changes that may have altered ocean dynamics and prey availability, to potential competition with other marine mammals (e.g., dolphins). Hopefully, future analyses will allow us to test these ideas properly.”
However, recent science and technology funding cuts have made future fieldwork difficult, explains Dr. Paolucci, “The type specimen is the only one known for this species so far. I really hope to find more during future fieldwork. But with the severe cuts to science and technology currently happening in Argentina under President Javier Milei’s government, that possibility is becoming increasingly distant.”
More information: Florencia Paolucci et al, Awakening Patagonia’s sleeping sperm whale: A new description of the Early Miocene Idiorophus patagonicus (Odontoceti, Physeteroidea), Papers in Palaeontology (2025). DOI: 10.1002/spp2.70007
