Exploring Near-Surface Geophysics and Tectonics: From Conventional Modeling to AI Solutions

Geophysics plays important roles in comprehending both the shallow and deep architecture based on variations in subsurface physical properties beneath the Earth's surface, resulting in noninvasive characterization with detailed insights into geological processes and the composition of materials. Geophysical methods, being the indirect tools, have inherent strengths and limitations, handled by advanced integrated analysis and modeling of multi-parametric geophysical data. It allows us to explore and understand the deep domains such as crustal structure, tectonics, mantle dynamics, and shallow processes like natural hazards, near-surface engineering, and resource exploration problems with better accuracy.

This research topic explores the developments and applications for solving challenging geophysical research problems. It aims to focus on scientific contributions to handle complex geophysical datasets, advanced analysis, and modeling for detailed geological interpretations. The earth science community increasingly adopts advanced technologies and interdisciplinary approaches to solve complex geoscience problems. Effective implementations have been achieved using model-based approaches, and valuable insights have been gained through data-driven interpretations. Joint inversion methods effectively reduce the interpretation limitations associated with the non-uniqueness of conventional techniques. Earth observations satellite missions are pointing out global scenarios of large-scale earth surface as well as subsurface processes. By integrating these datasets with terrestrial observations, sustainable solutions and a better understanding of complex processes can be attained.

We look forward to receiving high-quality research papers that illustrate diverse methodological and technical approaches to acquiring data and/or extracting useful signals and/or geological insights. We encourage works that report and explore the integration of multi-parametric data, new geophysical observations, and applications/case studies on the following research areas:

• Crustal Structure and Tectonics
• Near Surface Geophysics
• Natural resources exploration and management
• AI/ML/Geostatistical approaches in geophysical data modelling