Summary
Geophysics applies the principles of physics to investigate Earth’s interior and near-surface structure, exploiting measurements of gravity, magnetic and electric fields, seismic waves and temperature. By combining data from surface surveys, boreholes, airborne platforms and satellites, geophysicists infer subsurface properties—density, magnetisation, conductivity, elastic moduli and porosity—and map geological features from sedimentary basins to mantle discontinuities. The field spans from exploration for groundwater, minerals, hydrocarbons and geothermal reservoirs, to fundamental studies of plate tectonics, mantle convection and core dynamics. Advances in instrumentation, computational modelling and inversion techniques now allow three-dimensional imaging from centimetre-scale fracture detection to whole-mantle structure, shedding light on processes that drive mountain building, volcanic activity and seismic hazard. Integration of multi-method datasets provides robust characterisation of resource reservoirs, guides sustainable extraction, informs hazard assessment and enhances our understanding of Earth’s thermal, compositional and dynamic evolution.
Research from Nature Portfolio
A major advance in seismic monitoring repurposes existing fibre-optic telecommunications cables as dense distributed acoustic sensing arrays. A year-long comparison with co-located seismometers demonstrated that microscale strain measurements along multi-kilometre cables yield high detection rates across a broad magnitude range. Spectral analysis of fibre data now permits quantitative mapping of earthquake dynamics and opens the prospect of pervasive environmental and structural monitoring via global fibre networks.
In electromagnetics, a hybrid finite-element mesh combining near-surface triangular prisms with deeper tetrahedral elements has been developed for magnetotelluric forward modelling in rugged terrain. By refining only the mountainous prism layers and coarsening the deeper mesh, this approach dramatically reduces degrees of freedom and computational cost while improving accuracy for high-frequency data, facilitating three-dimensional resistivity imaging of geothermal and mineral systems in complex topography.
Topic trend for the past 5 years
The graph below shows the article count in Nature Index journals for geophysics.
* The ‘Current Index’ represents data for a 12-month rolling window, the current window is 1 May 2025 - 30 April 2026.
Technical terms
Seismic tomography: Technique that inverts seismic wave traveltimes and waveforms to reconstruct three-dimensional velocity variations in Earth’s interior.
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS): Method using backscattered laser pulses in fibre-optic cables to continuously measure strain changes along the cable length.
Magnetotellurics (MT): Natural-source electromagnetic technique recording orthogonal electric and magnetic field variations to image subsurface resistivity.
Skin depth: Depth at which an electromagnetic wave’s amplitude decays to 1/e of its surface value, proportional to (ωμσ)–1/2.
Gravity anomaly: Difference between observed gravitational acceleration and that predicted by a smooth reference model, used to infer subsurface density variations.
Magnetic anomaly: Local deviation from Earth’s main magnetic field caused by induced or remanent magnetisation of geological bodies.
Notable articles in geophysics
- The break of earthquake asperities imaged by distributed acoustic sensing. Nature (2023).
- Dynamic strain determination using fibre-optic cables allows imaging of seismological and structural features. Nature Communications (2018).
- Distributed sensing of earthquakes and ocean-solid Earth interactions on seafloor telecom cables. Nature Communications (2019).
- Distributed acoustic sensing of microseismic sources and wave propagation in glaciated terrain. Nature Communications (2020).
- The relationship between shear wave velocity, temperature, attenuation and viscosity in the shallow part of the mantle. Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2013).
About these summaries
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Research
Position of Geophysics in Nature Index by Count
Leading institutions
| Institution | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) | 96 | 25.94 |
| Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) | 46 | 22.95 |
| Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres | 49 | 13.88 |
| University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) | 47 | 12.36 |
| The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) | 32 | 12.32 |
| China Earthquake Administration (CEA) | 45 | 12.24 |
| University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) | 45 | 11.57 |
| Tohoku University | 29 | 10.92 |
| China University of Geosciences (CUG) | 29 | 10.23 |
| U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | 23 | 9.71 |
Collaboration
Top 5 leading collaborators in Geophysics
Collaborating institutions
Note: Hover over the bars to view details about each institution's Share.
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