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Water at the base of ice sheets can lead to faster ice flow. Radar sounding of the Greenland ice sheet reveals that refreezing of this water can also induce large changes in ice flow and structure.
The origins of topographic relief are challenging to disentangle. Modelling shows that differential isostatic rebound due to erosion of rocks of variable density may influence topography, inspiring a fresh look at topographic highs in landscapes.
Rapid deposition of wind-borne silt after the end of the last glacial period buried a large reservoir of organic carbon in the deep soil. Geochemical analyses suggest that this sequestered soil carbon could be released to the atmosphere if exposed to decomposition.
The processes responsible for the growth of Earth's first continents are enigmatic. The geochemical signature of 4-billion-year-old rocks discovered in Canada points to a key role for shallow magmatic processes above upwelling mantle rocks.
The discovery of water in lunar samples in 2008 challenged the notion that the Moon's interior had lost all its volatiles. Since then, analyses of the water concentrations and isotopic compositions in lunar samples taken together suggest that the Moon is heterogeneously wet, which may lend clues to its origin.
Microbes quickly consumed much of the methane released in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Time-series measurements now suggest that, after a steep rise, methane oxidation rates crashed while hydrocarbon discharge was still continuing at the wellhead.
Abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period affected most of the Northern Hemisphere. Greenland ice core data suggest that for the penultimate abrupt warming event, climate change was nearly synchronous at high and low latitudes.
Ethanol has been heralded as a cleaner fuel for cars than gasoline. An analysis of air quality data suggests that a switch from ethanol to gasoline use in São Paulo in response to changing prices led unexpectedly to lower local levels of ozone pollution.
Record-breaking heatwaves in 2003 and 2010 surprised both the public and experts. Observations provide new insights into how temperatures escalated to unprecedented values through the interaction of boundary-layer dynamics and land surface drying.
Carbon loss from subducting slabs is thought to be insufficient to balance carbon dioxide emissions at arc volcanoes. Analyses of ancient subducted rocks in Greece suggest that fluid dissolution of slab carbonate can help solve this carbon-cycle conundrum.
A dense early atmosphere has been invoked to explain the strong greenhouse effect inferred for early Mars. Yet an analysis of the smallest impact craters suggests that the atmospheric pressure on Mars 3.6 billion years ago was surprisingly low.
Ocean island lavas have complex geochemical signatures. Numerical simulations suggest that these signatures may reflect the entrainment and transport to Earth's surface of both primordial material and recycled oceanic crust by deeply rooted mantle plumes.
Oxygen-producing photosynthesis must have evolved before the pervasive oxidation of the atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago, but how long before is unclear. Geochemical analyses of ancient sedimentary rocks now suggest that cyanobacteria generated oxygen at least 3 billion years ago.
The tropical belt has become wider over the past decades, but climate models fall short of capturing the full rate of the expansion. The latest analysis of climate simulations suggests that a long-term swing of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is the main missing cause from the coupled climate models.
The climate regimes of monsoon regions and deserts are connected. Satellite data and numerical experiments reveal that an increase in dust aerosol loading over the Arabian Sea and West Asia can lead to enhanced summer monsoon rainfall over central India on timescales of days to weeks.
As Mercury's interior cools and its massive iron core freezes, its surface feels the squeeze. A comprehensive global census of compressional deformation features indicates that Mercury has shrunk by at least 5 km in radius over the past 4 billion years.
The oxygenation of the Earth's deep oceans is often thought to have triggered the evolution of simple animals. A review article proposes that instead, the evolution of animal life set off a series of biogeochemical feedbacks that promoted the oxygenation of the deep sea.
