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In a part of the Apennines, where the Earth’s crust is thin and heat flow is high, production of CO₂ from deep below the mountains dominates over near-surface weathering processes that consume this greenhouse gas. Ultimately, the magnitude of deep CO₂ release tips the balance towards a landscape that is a net carbon emitter.

A global gauge-corrected monthly river flow and storage dataset suggests that residence time is a key driver of water storage and variability and indicates substantial freshwater discharge to the ocean from the Maritime Continent.

Aerosol–cloud interactions are the largest uncertainty in radiative forcing. We combined machine learning and long-term satellite observations to quantify aerosol fingerprints on tropical marine clouds, using degassing volcanic events in Hawaii as natural experiences, and found that cloud cover increased relatively by 50% in humid and stable atmosphere, leading to strong cooling radiative forcing.

The regional geodynamic gradient controls metamorphic carbon release during mountain building and regulates the inorganic carbon budget, according to carbon estimates in two river catchments of Italy’s central Apennines.

Mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation abyssal limb has weakened over the past two decades in the North Atlantic, most likely due to reduced Antarctic Bottom Water formation rates.

Changes in anvil clouds with warming do not produce a negative feedback on climate sensitivity as previously thought, according to an ensemble of cloud-resolving models.

Burbankite is a rare sodium carbonate mineral that is easily dissolved away in its host igneous rocks. Its formation and dissolution can help concentrate rare earth elements that are vital for a low-carbon future, as Sam Broom-Fendley explains.

Compositional and structural variations within Earth’s lower mantle are a complex puzzle to which seismic data hold clues.

Advances in seismological observational and modelling techniques are needed to constrain complex lowermost mantle structures and understand their influence on the global dynamics and evolution of Earth’s interior.

Nature Geoscience spoke with Samantha Hansen, a geophysicist at the University of Alabama and Sebastian Rost, a global seismologist at the University of Leeds about the ultralow velocity zones in the lowermost mantle.

The size and shape of the North American ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum was set by atmospheric moisture transport feedbacks during summer, not by the geometry of the earlier intermediate-sized ice sheet, according to a coupled climate–ice sheet model.

There are no good models for the chemical evolution of the Earth’s surface over the planet’s lifetime, because models typically overlook the progressive build-up of carbonate rocks in the crust. A new model that includes this accumulation enables the reconstruction of major oxygen and temperature trends throughout Earth’s history.

Satellite observations from volcanic eruptions suggest that aerosols induce substantial cooling due to the reflectivity of increased tropical marine cloud cover, implying a high climate sensitivity.

The accumulation and subsequent recycling of carbonate in the crust may have helped to drive the oxygenation of the early Earth, according to an ocean and atmosphere box model incorporating the inorganic carbon cycle.

Human activities have altered the production, transport and fate of mud and associated organic carbon, with important implications for global carbon cycling.

Neoproterozoic banded iron formations formed in partially glaciated oceans where iron-rich and oxygenated water masses met, according to ocean modelling.

Pollution by per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) is widespread in global water resources and likely to be underestimated, according to global analysis of available PFAS data.

The Moon’s primordial solidification is believed to have produced a layer of dense ilmenite cumulates beneath the crust. Remnants of this layer have now been detected under the lunar nearside.

The Moon’s gravity field preserves a record of the overturn of the early lunar mantle and sinking of dense ilmenite-bearing cumulates, according to a comparison of Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory gravity data and geodynamic models.

A global data analysis suggests that a large fraction of surface waters and groundwaters globally have concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that exceed international advisories or national regulations.