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The Earth may become inhospitable to land mammals in about 250 Myr owing to climate warming and drying associated with the assembly of the next supercontinent, Pangaea-Ultima, according to combined tectonic, climate and mammal habitability modelling.

Flat microplastic fibres have much longer residence times and travel further in the atmosphere than previously appreciated, according to simulations of the settling of microplastics with different shapes.

Phosphorus from intensive agriculture contributes to increased algal blooms, threatening ecosystems and drinking water sources. We found increasing dissolved phosphorus concentrations in more than 170 Great Lakes Basin streams, despite stable or decreasing total phosphorus levels. Higher latitudes experienced greater relative increases, potentially due to warmer winters and altered flow pathways.

Oceanographic observations indicate sustained warming and enhanced basal melt since 2016 below the Fimbulisen ice sheet in East Antarctica, associated with increased subpolar westerlies and reduced sea ice.

Glacier ice contains high-pressure air bubbles, which burst into seawater as ice melts at tidewater glacier termini. Laboratory measurements found that these bubbles double the rate of ice melt. Theoretically, this effect could be even larger in a real glacier. However, bursting bubbles are currently neglected in models projecting sea level rise.

From pressure indicator to paint brightener, Alicia Cruz-Uribe examines the many uses of rutile.

Climate change together with the recent onset of El Niño this year has led to widespread heatwaves. As these events become increasingly commonplace, cities around the world urgently need to build resilience to heat.

Analyses of phosphorus concentrations in more than 370 watersheds of the Great Lakes Basin from 2003 to 2019 suggest widespread increases in soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations, despite often decreasing or non-significant trends in total phosphorus.

Laboratory experiments suggest that bursting bubbles enhance ice melt from tidewater glaciers, and consequently, glacier-ice structure needs to be accounted for in projections of ice loss and sea-level rise.

Analysis of mineral inclusions in magmas that crystallized before and after the Great Oxidation Event reveals marked changes in the oxidation state of sulfur — owing to the recycling into the mantle of sediments that had been geochemically altered at the surface by atmospheric events.

Measurements from a yearlong drift in sea ice across the Central Arctic show that large amounts of fine sea salt particles are produced during blowing snow events, affecting cloud properties and warming the surface.

Fine sea salt aerosols produced by blowing snow in the Arctic impact cloud properties and warm the surface, according to observations from the MOSAiC expedition.

While generally tracking Northern Hemisphere summer insolation, the Earth gained energy during cold millennial scale events throughout the past 150,000 years, according to an analysis of benthic oxygen isotopes.

Subduction of sediments shaped geochemically by an increasingly oxidized atmosphere shifted the redox state of the mantle during the early Proterozoic, according to an analysis of sulfur speciation in apatites from ancient igneous zircons.

Fluids at the plate interface are sourced from the dehydrating slab mantle beneath the Shumagin Gap in Alaska, and contribute to regional seismic risk by influencing rupture propagation, according to magnetotelluric observations and electrical resistivity modelling.

The chemical signatures of granitic continental crust from the earliest Archean are consistent with formation during subduction, indicating some form of plate tectonics was active at the time.

Improving air quality by reducing atmospheric aerosols can bring valuable health benefits, but also generally leads to warming. Now, research suggests that in cleaner air the local cooling effect of planting trees may be stronger in middle and low latitude regions.