Reviews & Analysis

Most climate models consider only short-term processes such as cloud and sea-ice formation when assessing Earth's sensitivity to greenhouse-gas forcing. Mounting evidence indicates that the response could be stronger if boundary conditions change drastically.

Processes and triggers of deformation in big, slow-moving landslides are often unclear. The Slumgullion slide seems to stick and slip in tune with atmospheric tides.

In a warming climate, large lakes experience increasing water temperatures and ice loss. Observations from Lake Superior show that regional temperature rise has led to an increase in wind speeds over the lake.

Volcanic rocks on the sea floor are home to diverse and abundant microbial communities. Microscopic and spectroscopic analyses suggest that iron and manganese derived from hydrothermal venting support microbial colonization of the ocean crust.

Carbon dioxide uptake by the terrestrial biosphere has the potential to mitigate fossil fuel emissions. Comprehensive estimates of Europe's greenhouse-gas balance suggest that any uptake of carbon dioxide by the terrestrial biosphere is offset by methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

Efforts to control climate change require the stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. An assessment of the trends in sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide suggests that the sinks are not keeping up with the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, but uncertainties are still large.

The rapid increase in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases necessitates the consideration of mechanisms for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. Recent work suggests that fluid or gaseous carbon dioxide can be injected into the Earth's crust, and locked up as carbonate minerals to achieve near-permanent and secure sequestration.

Faults that develop in subducting slabs act as conduits for sea water. Numerical modelling indicates that pressure gradients resulting from the bending of slabs may then drive the water deep into their interior.

Sea ice is an integral component of the climate system, but a difficult one to reconstruct. Biochemical tracers preserved in marine sediments now reveal the waxing and waning of sea ice since the Last Glacial Maximum in an Arctic Ocean gateway.

The stratospheric ozone layer has undergone severe depletion as a result of anthropogenic halocarbons. Although the Montreal Protocol has provided relief, anthropogenic emissions of another substance, nitrous oxide, are set to dominate ozone destruction.

The use of more realistic parameters in numerical geodynamo simulations tends to generate less Earth-like magnetic fields. This paradox could be resolved by considering uniform heat flux instead of uniform temperature at the core's surface.

Mountain landscapes are shaped by tectonics and climate. A series of laboratory experiments has documented a mechanism by which mountain river networks split as the geometry of a mountain evolves in response to an orographic precipitation gradient.

The El Niño/Southern Oscillation phenomenon is the most prominent source of climate variability. Emerging evidence suggests that its signature is not limited to the lower layers of the atmosphere.

Past interglacials can be thought of as a series of natural experiments in which boundary conditions varied considerably. Examination of the palaeoclimate record of the past 800,000 years reveals a large diversity among interglacials in terms of their intensity, duration and internal variability.

Palaeomagnetists' basic assumption that Earth's magnetic field is a GAD, that is, a geocentric axial dipole, has been challenged by anomalous magnetic data from ancient Canadian basalts. At a closer look, fast continental drift could explain this anomaly.