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Direct human impact on land disturbances in the USA is declining, while less controllable, undirected wild disturbances are increasing, according to a long-term record of high-resolution satellite imagery.
Aerosol deposition onto the surface of the ocean has been underestimated, suggesting that aerosol lifetimes over the ocean are longer than previously appreciated, according to a global compilation of cosmogenic beryllium isotope data.
The proposed basal magma ocean within the early Earth may have been contaminated by oxides exsolved from the core that can explain seismic velocity anomalies observed in the lowermost mantle, according to thermodynamic and geodynamic modelling.
Reactive poorly crystalline iron minerals play a critical role in organic carbon accumulation. Insights from a coastal survey show they are abundant in coastal wetlands and may boost the ‘rusty carbon sink’ in these key carbon-storing environments.
Barite is a relatively heavy mineral that is used in both the medical field and the oil and gas industry. Formed in marine environments, it also provides a valuable record of deep geological time.
The mineralogy of samples returned from asteroid Bennu yield valuable insights into the physical and chemical processes — on both small and large scales — that shape small bodies in the Solar System.
Ocean simulations and proxy-constrained climate reconstructions suggest that the rapid retreat of West Antarctic outlet glaciers was initiated by local northerly wind trends over the twentieth century.
Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization is an effective pathway to increase soil carbon sequestration through microbial necromass accumulation and plant-derived carbon inputs, as shown by a 180-year soil fertilization experiment, 14C labelling, metagenomics and metabolomics.
A decade-long field experiment reveals that topsoil nitrogen stocks in a permafrost ecosystem decreased by 7.7% following eight years of warming. This reduction could be largely attributed to increased nitrogen retention by perennial plant biomass, and increased nitrogen losses through leaching and gaseous emissions from soils.
Topsoil nitrogen stocks declined over a ten-year field warming experiment in a permafrost ecosystem due to enhanced plant nitrogen uptake, nitrogen leaching and gaseous losses, suggesting that permafrost soil nitrogen stocks are vulnerable to warming.
The lithospheric mantle may be delaminating from the crust in an oceanic plate segment offshore Southwest Iberia, which could be the ultimate cause of the 1755 Great Lisbon Earthquake, according to seismic imaging and numerical simulations.
Widespread changes to regional flood response were observed worldwide following three large explosive eruptions at tropical latitudes, according to a statistical comparison of seasonal peak flows and their climate drivers.
The combination of plate motion and intraplate stress with a high-resolution, plate-boundary-resolving, global convection model has made it possible to holistically evaluate plate driving forces and reveal that Sumatra–Java slab pull is the predominant driver of the India–Eurasia collision. This suggests the growth of the Tibetan Plateau required external forces from adjacent subduction zones.
Ancient sedimentary DNA evidence shows that large blooms of the haptophyte algae Phaeocystis antarctica enhanced marine carbon uptake during the Antarctic Cold Reversal.
A secondary zone of subsidence near the volcanic arc in subduction zones is indicative of the locking state of the megathrust, which for the Lesser Antilles megathrust suggests that it is locked, according to numerical simulations and deformation data.
Analysis of millimetre-sized fragments from asteroid Bennu suggests that its parent asteroid coalesced in the outer Solar System from primordial nebular dust and ice and was poor in chondrules, objects common in primitive meteorites. Abundant phyllosilicates with minor sulfides, carbonates and magnetite formed during early alteration by water, with evaporite minerals forming later.
Material from the Hokioi crater on asteroid Bennu experienced space weathering and suggests microcratering plays a more active role on carbonaceous bodies than initially thought, according to a study of OSIRIS-REx asteroid return samples.
Samples returned from asteroid Bennu largely comprise hydrated sheet silicates with sulfides, magnetite and carbonate that indicate alteration by a fluid that evolved from neutral to alkaline, according to a micro- and nanoscale mineralogical study.
