Earthfill dams located in seismic regions are highly vulnerable to earthquake-induced deformations, particularly when founded on soft alluvial soils. This study presents a comparative numerical investigation of earthfill dams with asphalt and clay cores subjected to seismic loading. A 20 m-high zoned embankment dam founded on soft alluvial deposits was modeled in PLAXIS2D and subjected to four earthquake records. The dynamic responses at the crest and downstream slope were evaluated in terms of acceleration, settlement, and lateral displacement. The results indicate that while lateral displacements are nearly identical for both core types, dams with clay cores experience significantly higher seismic settlements, reaching up to 35% more than those with asphalt cores under strong earthquake loading. Overall, the asphalt core demonstrated enhanced resilience, exhibiting reduced settlement due to its higher stiffness, viscoelastic behavior, and inherent capacity for self-healing following seismic loading.

Building resilience is largely affected by the socioeconomic characteristics of the community as well as the physical and environmental local characteristics. The effectiveness of the adopted policies for resilience building partly relies on considering public concerns and insights. Insights from public narratives can enrich the resilience-building policies by sharing experiences or evidence from past disasters. Furthermore, it reveals priorities and concerns that society is expecting to be addressed. Even if the concerns are triggered by misinformation, addressing them (e.g., by disseminating corrective information) can increase the success of resilience-building policies. Tracing the public narrative over time shows how much people’s perspectives have changed after the disaster and how the relief and resilience-building efforts were compatible with society’s expectations. This study is aimed at extracting such insights from the public narrative on social media platforms after Morocco’s 2023 earthquake.

Levee overtopping poses a significant risk to flood defense infrastructure by inducing severe erosion and scour, particularly along the landward slope and toe regions. This study investigates the effectiveness of an integrated protection system combining seamless cement coating with strategically placed H-type piles to mitigate scour and modify flow dynamics under prolonged overflowing. A series of physical model tests were conducted to evaluate full and partial concrete slope protection with and without pile integration. Results showed that the seamless concrete revetment significantly delayed slope failure, resisted joint-related seepage, acted as a rigid cantilever, and maintained the structural integrity despite surrounding erosion. The inclusion of emergent H-type piles at the downstream toe disrupted the overflow jet, enhanced early energy dissipation, and reduced scour dimensions. The FC + P_ES (fully coated with emergent piles) configuration exhibited the strongest performance, reducing downstream scour length by 40%, upstream extent by 66.7%, and maximum scour depth by 7.7% compared to the FC_NP (fully coated, no-piles) condition. Partial slope coverage combined with emergent piles delayed scour initiation by approximately threefold, highlighting the synergistic effect of combined surface and flow-deflected structures measures. Conversely, bed-level piles redirected jet energy beneath the surface layer, intensifying vertical scour and upstream erosion, indicating the critical importance of pile placement and elevation. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating seamless surface protection with vertical flow disrupters to effectively manage flow-induced erosion and enhance levee resilience against overtopping floods. This hybrid approach offers a practical solution for flood-prone riverine levee systems.

Ground subsidence in mined-out areas has irreversible impacts on residents’ lives and infrastructure, making its monitoring and prediction crucial for ensuring safety, protecting the ecological environment, and promoting sustainable development. This study employed the Small Baseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SBAS-InSAR) technique to process Sentinel-1A satellite images of Liaoyuan’s Northern New District from August 2022 to March 2025, deriving ground deformation data. The SBAS-InSAR results were validated using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measurements. Monitoring revealed deformation rates ranging from −26.80 mm/year (subsidence) to 13.12 mm/year (uplift) in the area, with a maximum cumulative subsidence of 59.59 mm observed near the Xi’an Sixth District. Based on spatiotemporal patterns, most mining-induced subsidence in the study area is in its late stage, primarily caused by progressive compaction of fractured rock masses and voids within the collapse and fracture zones. Using subsidence data from August 2022 to March 2024, three prediction models—LSTM, GRU, and TCN-GRU—were trained and subsequently applied to forecast subsidence from March 2024 to August 2025. Comparisons between the predictions and SBAS-InSAR measurements showed that all models achieved high accuracy. Among them, the TCN-GRU model yielded predictions closest to the actual values, with a correlation coefficient exceeding 0.95, validating its potential for application in time-series settlement monitoring.

Landslides are a persistent hazard in the tectonically active Central Himalaya, frequently affecting roads and settlements. However, quantitative assessments of their spatial drivers have remained limited. This study investigated landslide susceptibility along a 90 km section of the Uttarkashi–Gangotri highway to identify dominant triggering factors and generate a reliable risk map. We applied the AHP–GIS framework, guided by a multi-criteria decision-making approach. Nine thematic parameters, such as slope, geology, lineament density, drainage density, proximity to roads, rainfall, aspect, curvature, and land use/land cover were utilised to quantify their relative influence on slope failure. Results showed that slope (23%), geology (22%), and lineament density (21%) were the most influential factors. Secondary contributions came from drainage density (9%), proximity to roads (8%), and rainfall (>231 mm). The susceptibility map was validated using 105 landslide inventory points, with 64 events (61%) located in very high-risk zones and 31 (30%) in high-risk zones. The model achieved a predictive accuracy of 0.817 based on the Area Under the Curve (AUC) metric. High-risk zones are aligned with steep slopes (30–50°), convex curvatures, and barren land, particularly near infrastructure. These findings provide a scientific tool for hazard mitigation and support disaster risk reduction in similar mountainous regions worldwide, contributing to safer infrastructure development.

This paper presents a systematic review of research investigating the effects of elevated temperatures on sedimentary rocks. The literature was selected using keyword-based searches of titles, abstracts, and keywords in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. In total, 107 relevant articles published between 2010 and 2024 were critically examined to address research questions on temperature-treated sedimentary rocks. Furthermore, both bibliometric analysis and systematic synthesis of experimental data were performed. The review identifies sandstone as the most-studied rock type, followed by limestone. It reveals that standard experimental methods include unconfined compressive strength (UCS), Brazilian tensile strength (BTS), and P-wave velocity tests. The study’s findings indicate that a temperature threshold of 400–600 °C governs deterioration in engineering properties, driven by the quartz α–β transition in sandstones and calcite decomposition in limestones. Normalized data show that UCS, BTS, and elastic modulus decline significantly beyond this threshold, while porosity increases. The study highlights the influence of fabric anisotropy, mineralogy, and heating conditions on rock behaviour, and identifies research gaps related to confined testing, real-fire scenarios, and anisotropic rocks. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the literature, the principal factors and processes occurring at different temperature ranges were identified and discussed.

During January–February 2025, the Santorini volcanic complex experienced intense seismic activity, increasing interest and concern regarding the possible reactivation of the magmatic system. This study investigates the spatial and magnitude distribution of seismic events with the aim of distinguishing between tectonic and volcanic earthquakes and understanding the underlying processes governing seismicity in the region. The analysis is based on data from the national and local seismic network, including epicenter and focus determination, local magnitude (ML) calculation, depth analysis, statistical processing, and the application of machine learning methods for event classification. The results show that tectonic earthquakes are mainly located at depths, D > 8 km along active faults, while volcanic earthquakes are concentrated at shallower levels (D < 5 km) below the volcanic center. The analysis of b values suggests the differentiation of the focal mechanism, with higher values for volcanic events, which is related to fluid and magmatic pressure processes. The spatiotemporal evolution of seismicity demonstrates seismic swarm characteristics, without a main earthquake, which are attributed to processes within the subvolcanic system. The study contributes to improving the understanding of the current seismovolcanic crisis of Santorini and enhances the ability to identify magmatic instability processes in a timely manner, critical for hazard assessment and monitoring of the South Aegean volcanic arc.

Landslides are a major natural hazard capable of causing severe damage to infrastructure, ecosystems, and human life. They result from complex interactions of geological, hydrological, and environmental factors, with soil properties playing a crucial role by influencing the mechanical behavior and moisture dynamics of slope materials that drive initiation and progression. In South Africa, few studies have examined soil influences on landslide susceptibility, and none have been conducted in the Eastern Cape Province. This study investigated the role of soil physical and chemical properties in landslide susceptibility by comparing profiles from landslide scars and stable sites in the Port St. Johns and Lusikisiki region. Samples from topsoil and subsoil horizons were analyzed for soil organic matter (SOM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), exchangeable sodium adsorption ratio (SARexc), and texture. Statistical analyses included the Shapiro–Wilk test to evaluate data normality. For inter-profile comparisons, Welch’s t-test was applied to normally distributed data, while the Mann–Whitney U test was used for non-normal distributions. Intra-profile differences across more than two groups were assessed using the Kruskal–Wallis test for the non-normally distributed data. Results showed that landslide-prone soils had higher SOM, CEC, and Ksat in topsoil, promoting moisture retention and rapid infiltration, which favor pore pressure build-up and slope failure. Non-landslide soils displayed higher sodium-related indices and finer textures, suggesting more uniform water retention and resilience. Vertical variation in landslide soils indicated hydraulic discontinuities, fostering perched saturation zones. Findings highlight landslide initiation as a product of interactions between hydromechanical gradients and chemical dynamics.

The failure of large gravity dams during an earthquake could lead to calamitous flooding, severe infrastructural damage, and massive environmental destruction. This paper aims to demonstrate reliable methods for evaluating dam performance after a seismic event. The work included a seismic hazard analysis and nonlinear finite element modelling of concrete cracking for two large dams (D1 and D2, of 35 and 90 m in height, respectively) in Eastern Canada. Dam D1 is located in Montreal, and Dam D2 is located in La Malbaie, Quebec. The modelling approach was validated using the Koyna Dam, which was subjected to the 1967 Mw 6.5 earthquake. This paper reports tensile cracks of D1 and D2 under combined hydrostatic and seismic loading. The latter was generated from ground motion records from 11 sites during the 1988 Mw 5.9 Saguenay earthquake. These records were each scaled to two times the design level. It is shown that D1 remained stable, with minor localised cracking, whereas D2 experienced widespread tensile damage, particularly at the crest and base under high-energy and transverse inputs. These findings highlight the influence of dam geometry and frequency characteristics on seismic performance. The analysis and modelling procedures reported can be adopted for seismic risk classification and safety compliance verification of other dams and for recommendations such as monitoring and upgrading.

An attempt is made at recognizing the main effects of the strong 1939 earthquake in the Easternmost Anatolian Fault on the seismic activity in key Mediterranean tectonic zones. The major earthquake trends since 1800 indicate that, in the decades following 1939, both the number and intensity of significant earthquakes increased in the central and western NAF, the western Anatolia, the Crete–Rhodes Arc, the Peloponnesus, Sicily, and even the Tell zones. In contrast, seismicity experienced a sharp decline in the Serbo-Macedonian, Epirus-Albanides, and Calabria zones. These findings provide additional constraints on the geodynamic and tectonic framework and on the role played by post-seismic relaxation in the Mediterranean region.