Volume 1 Issue 2, February 2008

Geoscientists explain women's under-representation in our field along three dominant themes: the structure of academia, historically low numbers of women, and women's views and choices. Which factor they perceive as most important depends overwhelmingly on their gender.

The influence of global warming on temperature trends at higher altitudes has been hotly debated. Stratospheric ozone depletion is another piece in the remaining tropical climate puzzle.

Rising carbon levels contributed to profound climate change 55 million years ago. Where did that extra carbon come from? One proposal — a cometary impact — is rebuffed by two analyses of magnetic particles in clay sediment cores from New Jersey.

Local changes in the velocity of ambient seismic noise just before volcanic eruptions could indicate increased magma pressure within volcanoes. Continuous monitoring of such changes may therefore prove to be a potent tool for forecasting eruptions.

Impact craters often have asymmetric shapes, which have been used to infer the direction and angle of impact. But pre-existing structural or topographic heterogeneities also play an important role in crater asymmetry.

Ice-sheet stability is affected by a complex interplay between meltwater and the geological characteristics of the bedrock under the ice. The identification of a recently active subglacial volcano in Antarctica adds uncertainty to this system.

In the auroral region, solitary plasma waves form in a low-density plasma when energetic electron beams hit and energize ambient ions to escape velocity. Electromagnetic waves from lightning trigger similar plasma behaviour in the equatorial ionosphere.

Rivers may be efficient environments for metabolizing terrestrial organic carbon that was previously thought to be recalcitrant, owing to pockets that provide geophysical opportunities by retaining material for longer, and to the adaptation of microbial communities, which has enabled them to exploit the energy that escapes upstream ecosystems.

The occurrence of lower-hybrid solitary structures in the ionoshere are triggered by lightning-induced whistlers, revealing a new coupling process between the troposphere and the ionosphere.

Observed estimates of ice losses in Antarctica combined with regional modelling of ice accumulation in the interior suggest that East Antarctica is close to a balanced mass budget, but large losses of ice occur in the narrow outlet channels of West Antarctic glaciers and at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula.

A significant fraction of the anthropogenic nitrogen input into the coastal oceans from fertilizers is transferred back to land by commercial fisheries.

Increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to ocean acidification, causing significant reductions in the growth of crustose coralline algae.

Nanoscale evidence suggests that the Tumbiana Formation stromatolites in Australia were influenced by microbial activity. In the stromatolites, clusters of organic globules are closely associated with 2,724-million-year-old aragonite crystals.

A strong radar reflection in the West Antarctic ice sheet is related to the eruption of the newly identified Hudson Mountains Subglacial Volcano dated to 207 BC. This eruption probably caused short term changes in regional glacial and meltwater flow.

It may be possible to predict eruptions of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano by continuously monitoring changes at depth using very small fluctuations in the ambient seismic noise. The changes are probably related to inflation caused by movement of magma at depth.

The final geometry of an impact crater can be significantly influenced by the geological and geomorphological structure of the impact site; therefore, it may not on its own provide accurate information regarding the direction and angle of impact.

Viscous relaxation, rather than afterslip, most likely dominated ground deformation after two large earthquakes in Iceland. This suggests that afterslip may play a relatively less important role in immature fault zones as compared with more mature ones such as the San Andreas fault.

Beneath the dust and hummock grass of the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, Pascal Philippot and Martin Van Kranendonk searched for signs of ancient life in some of the oldest rocks recovered on Earth.

Sean Gulick and colleagues circumnavigated a flotilla of floating skin divers' platforms to obtain seismic profiles of an impact crater.