The mantle's fabric - p205

doi:10.1038/ngeo175

The analysis of mantle-derived rocks on increasingly smaller scales and advances in geodynamic modelling are providing new insights into the nature of mantle heterogeneity and magmatic processes.

Full Text - The mantle's fabric | PDF (103 KB) - The mantle's fabric

Climate predictions and observations - p206

Roger A. Pielke, Jr

doi:10.1038/ngeo157

Full Text - Climate predictions and observations | PDF (117 KB) - Climate predictions and observations

The illusion of gender parity - p207

Julia Heathcote

doi:10.1038/ngeo153

Full Text - The illusion of gender parity | PDF (81 KB) - The illusion of gender parity

Expectations and gender imbalance - p207

Kim Hannula

doi:10.1038/ngeo158

Full Text - Expectations and gender imbalance | PDF (81 KB) - Expectations and gender imbalance

To blog or not to blog? - p208

Gavin Schmidt

doi:10.1038/ngeo170

Scientists know much more about their field than is ever published in peer-reviewed journals. Blogs can be a good medium with which to disseminate this tacit knowledge.

Full Text - To blog or not to blog? | PDF (81 KB) - To blog or not to blog?

Minority report - p209

Myles Allen

doi:10.1038/ngeo174

Explaining science to journalists and the public on blogs is fast and efficient. But is it all just too good to be true? Can science survive Web 2.0?

Full Text - Minority report | PDF (84 KB) - Minority report

Desert nitrates, Gulf Stream impacts and more - p210

doi:10.1038/ngeo176

Full Text - Desert nitrates, Gulf Stream impacts and more | PDF (162 KB) - Desert nitrates, Gulf Stream impacts and more

Earthquakes: Tsunamigenic Middle Earth - pp211 - 212

Roger Bilham

doi:10.1038/ngeo165

Violent uplift of western Crete in AD 365 generated a Mediterranean-wide tsunami that tossed boats onto house-tops in Alexandria, Egypt. Although a similar earthquake may not recur for 5,000 years, contiguous fault segments could rupture sooner.

Full Text - EarthquakesTsunamigenic Middle Earth | PDF (300 KB) - EarthquakesTsunamigenic Middle Earth

See also: Article by Shaw et al.

Geomorphology: Muddying the waters - p212

Alicia Newton

doi:10.1038/ngeo171

Full Text - GeomorphologyMuddying the waters | PDF (275 KB) - GeomorphologyMuddying the waters

Subject Category: Geomorphology

Soil science: Scavenging for scrap metal - pp213 - 214

Benjamin D. Duval & Bruce A. Hungate

doi:10.1038/ngeo166

All organisms require elements to live, grow and reproduce, but some of these are hard to find or take up. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria solve the problem by secreting compounds that allow them to acquire the metals they need.

Full Text - Soil scienceScavenging for scrap metal | PDF (196 KB) - Soil scienceScavenging for scrap metal

See also: Letter by Bellenger et al.

Oceanography: Knock-on effect - p214

Alicia Newton

doi:10.1038/ngeo172

Full Text - OceanographyKnock-on effect | PDF (141 KB) - OceanographyKnock-on effect

Subject Category: Oceanography

Chemical geodynamics: Tracking mantle depletion - pp215 - 216

Andreas Stracke

doi:10.1038/ngeo163

Extraction of the continental crust has left the Earth's mantle depleted in certain elements. Some rocks from the Arctic Ocean floor suggest that the extent of depletion and heterogeneity in the Earth's mantle may be greater than we thought.

Full Text - Chemical geodynamicsTracking mantle depletion | PDF (283 KB) - Chemical geodynamicsTracking mantle depletion

Subject Category: Structural geology, tectonics and geodynamics

Atmospheric science: Predictable lightning paths? - pp216 - 217

Earle R. Williams

doi:10.1038/ngeo168

Electrical discharges from thunderstorms include bolts-from-the-blue, blue jets and gigantic jets along with the more common intracloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. All these phenomena can be understood in a single framework.

Full Text - Atmospheric sciencePredictable lightning paths? | PDF (151 KB) - Atmospheric sciencePredictable lightning paths?

Subject Category: Atmospheric science

See also: Letter by Krehbiel et al.

Palaeoclimate: Tree rings floating on ice cores - pp218 - 219

Paula J. Reimer & Konrad A. Hughen

doi:10.1038/ngeo167

Because of difficulties in creating a radiocarbon calibration that covers the end of the last glaciation, defining the timing and duration of the Younger Dryas cold event has been a challenge. Linking related cosmogenic isotopes in tree rings and ice cores may provide new insights into abrupt climate changes.

Full Text - PalaeoclimateTree rings floating on ice cores | PDF (173 KB) - PalaeoclimateTree rings floating on ice cores

Subject Category: Palaeoclimate and palaeoceanography

See also: Article by Muscheler et al.

Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon - pp221 - 227

V. Ramanathan & G. Carmichael

doi:10.1038/ngeo156

Black carbon in soot is an efficient absorbing agent of solar irradiation that is preferentially emitted in the tropics and can form atmospheric brown clouds in mixture with other aerosols. These factors combine to make black carbon emissions the second most important contribution to anthropogenic climate warming, after carbon dioxide emissions.

Abstract - | Full Text - Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon | PDF (580 KB) - Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon

Subject Categories: Atmospheric science | Climate science

Pattern of lobate scarps on Mercury's surface reproduced by a model of mantle convection - pp229 - 232

Scott D. King

doi:10.1038/ngeo152

Numerical simulations suggest that lobate scarps on the surface of Mercury could have resulted from compressive stresses induced by convection within the planet's mantle, in addition to those generated by global contraction.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - Pattern of lobate scarps on Mercury's surface reproduced by a model of mantle convection | PDF (463 KB) - Pattern of lobate scarps on Mercury's surface reproduced by a model of mantle convection | Supplementary information

Subject Category: Planetary science

Upward electrical discharges from thunderstorms - pp233 - 237

Paul R. Krehbiel, Jeremy A. Riousset, Victor P. Pasko, Ronald J. Thomas, William Rison, Mark A. Stanley & Harald E. Edens

doi:10.1038/ngeo162

Blue jets, gigantic jets, cloud-to-cloud discharges and cloud-to-ground lightning are all electrical discharges from thunderclouds. An analysis of numerical simulations and observations of these phenomena places them all in a unifying framework.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - Upward electrical discharges from thunderstorms | PDF (841 KB) - Upward electrical discharges from thunderstorms | Supplementary information

Subject Category: Atmospheric science

Spatial complexity of soil organic matter forms at nanometre scales - pp238 - 242

Johannes Lehmann, Dawit Solomon, James Kinyangi, Lena Dathe, Sue Wirick & Chris Jacobsen

doi:10.1038/ngeo155

At nanometre scales, organic matter forms in soil are spatially, rather than chemically, complex, according to X-ray spectromicroscopy studies of thin sections of entire and intact free microaggregates. Organic matter forms detected at this spatial scale have no similarity to organic carbon forms of total soil.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - Spatial complexity of soil organic matter forms at nanometre scales | PDF (899 KB) - Spatial complexity of soil organic matter forms at nanometre scales | Supplementary information

Subject Category: Biogeochemistry

Uptake of molybdenum and vanadium by a nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium using siderophores - pp243 - 246

J. P. Bellenger, T. Wichard, A. B. Kustka & A. M. L. Kraepiel

doi:10.1038/ngeo161

Biological availability of molybdenum and vanadium is facilitated by siderophores that are produced by cultures of the bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii during the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. This suggests that the production of strong binding compounds may be a widespread strategy for metal acquisition by bacteria and implies that the availability of molybdenum and vanadium may be critical for the nitrogen cycle of terrestrial ecosystems.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - Uptake of molybdenum and vanadium by a nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium using siderophores | PDF (291 KB) - Uptake of molybdenum and vanadium by a nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium using siderophores | Supplementary information

Subject Categories: Biogeochemistry | Ecology

End-Permian ozone shield unaffected by oceanic hydrogen sulphide and methane releases - pp247 - 252

Michael B. Harfoot, John A. Pyle & David J. Beerling

doi:10.1038/ngeo154

Destruction of the Earth's ozone shield due to the release of hydrogen sulphide and methane has been suggested as a cause of mass extinctions during periods of ocean anoxia over the past two billion years. This mechanism does not explain the end-Permian mass extinction, according to simulations with a two-dimensional atmospheric chemistry-transport model, which show that the ozone shield remains intact even with massive releases of hydrogen sulphide and methane.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - End-Permian ozone shield unaffected by oceanic hydrogen sulphide and methane releases | PDF (503 KB) - End-Permian ozone shield unaffected by oceanic hydrogen sulphide and methane releases

Subject Categories: Atmospheric science | Palaeoclimate and palaeoceanography

Rupture across arc segment and plate boundaries in the 1 April 2007 Solomons earthquake - pp253 - 257

Frederick W. Taylor, Richard W. Briggs, Cliff Frohlich, Abel Brown, Matt Hornbach, Alison K. Papabatu, Aron J. Meltzner & Douglas Billy

doi:10.1038/ngeo159

The largest earthquakes often cause rupture for hundreds of kilometres along a single subducting plate, and often begin or end at structural boundaries on the overriding plate. But the Solomons earthquake on 1 April 2007 ruptured across a triple junction, where the Australian and Woodlark plates subduct beneath the overriding Pacific plate.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - Rupture across arc segment and plate boundaries in the 1 April 2007 Solomons earthquake | PDF (1,418 KB) - Rupture across arc segment and plate boundaries in the 1 April 2007 Solomons earthquake | Supplementary information

Subject Categories: Seismology | Structural geology, tectonics and geodynamics

See also: related Backstory

Control of rift obliquity on the evolution and segmentation of the main Ethiopian rift - pp258 - 262

Giacomo Corti

doi:10.1038/ngeo160

The main Ethiopian rift has evolved in two stages, with successive activation of differently oriented fault systems. Analogue modelling of the Earth's lithosphere demonstrates that such a rift evolution requires neither magma weakening nor a change in plate kinematics.

First Paragraph - | Full Text - Control of rift obliquity on the evolution and segmentation of the main Ethiopian rift | PDF (1,851 KB) - Control of rift obliquity on the evolution and segmentation of the main Ethiopian rift | Supplementary information

Subject Category: Structural geology, tectonics and geodynamics

Tree rings and ice cores reveal ¹⁴C calibration uncertainties during the Younger Dryas - pp263 - 267

R. Muscheler, B. Kromer, S. Björck, A. Svensson, M. Friedrich, K. F. Kaiser & J. Southon

doi:10.1038/ngeo128

Attaching a 'floating' tree-ring chronology to ice core records that cover the abrupt Younger Dryas cold interval during the last glacial termination provides a better estimate of the onset and duration of the radiocarbon anomaly. The chronology suggests that marine records may be biased by changes in the concentration of radiocarbon in the ocean, which may affect the accuracy of a popular radiocarbon calibration program during this interval.

Abstract - | Full Text - Tree rings and ice cores reveal 14C calibration uncertainties during the Younger Dryas | PDF (635 KB) - Tree rings and ice cores reveal 14C calibration uncertainties during the Younger Dryas

Subject Category: Palaeoclimate and palaeoceanography

See also: related Backstory

Eastern Mediterranean tectonics and tsunami hazard inferred from the AD 365 earthquake - pp268 - 276

B. Shaw, N. N. Ambraseys, P. C. England, M. A. Floyd, G. J. Gorman, T. F. G. Higham, J. A. Jackson, J.-M. Nocquet, C. C. Pain & M. D. Piggott

doi:10.1038/ngeo151

In the year AD 365, an earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of the eastern Mediterranean coastal regions. The distribution of uplift at the time suggests that the earthquake occurred on a fault within the overriding plate at the subduction zone beneath Crete, and not on the subduction interface itself.

Abstract - | Full Text - Eastern Mediterranean tectonics and tsunami hazard inferred from the AD 365 earthquake | PDF (1,761 KB) - Eastern Mediterranean tectonics and tsunami hazard inferred from the AD 365 earthquake | Supplementary information

Subject Categories: Geomorphology | Structural geology, tectonics and geodynamics

See also: related Backstory

Islands across a fault - p280

doi:10.1038/ngeo173

After a magnitude 8.1 earthquake caused a deadly tsunami in the Solomon Islands, Fred Taylor and colleagues rushed to the epicentral area to learn about rupture across a subducting triple junction.

Full Text - Islands across a fault | PDF (165 KB) - Islands across a fault

Mediterranean island hopping - pE7

doi:10.1038/ngeo164

Beth Shaw and colleagues found the corals they were sampling being used as wall decorations, and braved nudist beaches in full field gear to understand the AD 365 earthquake.

Full Text - Mediterranean island hopping | PDF (218 KB) - Mediterranean island hopping

Late Glacial trees - pE8

doi:10.1038/ngeo169

A group of botanists, geographers and physicists foraged through gravel pits, tunnel plots and lignite mines for very rare logs from the Late Glacial.

Full Text - Late Glacial trees | PDF (202 KB) - Late Glacial trees