Articles in 2017

Ancient hydrothermal deposits formed in the Martian subsurface may be the best targets for finding evidence for ancient life on Mars, and clues about the origin of life on Earth.

A water-rich layer of partial melt marks the base of the lithosphere in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, according to analyses of seismic data.

Size, morphology, silica content and life cycle of diatoms affect their contribution to the export of carbon to the deep ocean, suggests a literature review.

Volcanism in the western US may result from warm oceanic mantle beneath the Pacific Ocean being drawn eastwards by mantle flow induced by the sinking of Farallon slabs, according to numerical model simulations.

The exploration of ocean worlds in the outer Solar System offers the opportunity to search for an independent origin of life, and also to advance our capabilities for exploring and understanding life in Earth’s oceans.

Wind power for energy generation is projected to decrease in northern mid-latitudes and increase in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere, suggests an analysis of climate model simulations utilizing an industry wind turbine power curve.

Making sense of exoplanet observations requires better understanding of terrestrial atmospheres in our solar system, especially for Venus. We need to not just intermittently explore, but continuously monitor these atmospheres — like we do for Earth.

A combination of two anoxygenic pathways of photosynthesis could have helped to warm early Earth, according to geochemical models. These metabolisms, and attendant biogeochemical feedbacks, could have worked to counter the faint young Sun.

The faults in creeping segments of subduction zones are weaker than those in locked segments, according to analyses of stress orientations and GPS data from subduction zones globally.

Amplification of the methane cycle by anyoxygenic photosynthesis could have warmed early Earth and countered the faint young Sun, geochemical modelling suggests. A combination of H₂-based and Fe²⁺-based photosynthesis acts to enhance methane fluxes.

Extratropical feedbacks between climate and aerosols from landscape fire and biogenic secondary organic aerosols are significant, according to a global aerosol model that is constrained by observations.

Iceberg melt is the largest annual freshwater source in a south Greenland fjord, with release largely below 20 m depth, according to iceberg-model simulations. Furthermore, iceberg melt peaks later in the year than other sources of freshwater.

Collisions of large differentiated impactors during the late stages of Earth’s accretion may have heterogeneously mixed projectile material into the Earth, explaining observed chemical and isotopic heterogeneities in mantle materials.

Emissions of CO₂ from the continents and underlying mantle are emerging as potentially important drivers of past climate fluctuations.

Progress in the post-combustion treatment of diesel vehicle exhaust has led to shifting proportions of the constituents of nitrogen oxides. Observations from 61 European cities suggest that the outlook on attaining NO₂ standards is more optimistic than expected.

Past megathrust earthquakes in the Costa Rica subduction zone have slipped all the way up to the seafloor, according to analyses of core and seismic data. This shallow slip was accommodated by layers of weak biogenic ooze.

A link between CO₂ outgassing from carbonatite volcanoes during the Ediacaran and one of the most prominent carbon cycle perturbations in Earth’s history is suggested by an analysis of the trace-element composition of detrital zircons.