Volume 13 Issue 1, January 2020

Geoscientists in the United States are predominantly White. Progress towards diversification can only come with a concerted shift in mindsets and a deeper understanding of the complexities of race.

Strengthening and poleward movement of the Southern Westerlies, and increased melting of the Antarctic ice sheet play a primary role in changes observed in the Southern Ocean over the past few decades, according to measurements and modelling.

Differential cycling of carbonate and organic carbon in the mantle may link the Great Oxidation Event and the subsequent increase in carbon isotope values, according to a model that links the Earth’s surface and interior.

Glaciers in the Karakoram region, with their balanced or slightly positive mass balance, stand out from global glacier shrinkage, but this anomaly is not expected to persist in the long term, according to an overview of the possible explanations.

Interannual variations of long-lived trace gas mole fractions at the Earth’s surface are primarily driven by the stratospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, according to surface measurements and model simulations. Ignoring this variability may induce errors in estimating emissions of trace gases.

Internal waves can relieve coral reef heat stress, according to an analysis that isolates the effect at different depths using a compilation of high-resolution temperature records.

Physical and biogeochemical changes in the Southern Ocean over the past decade are largely due to growing meltwater input and intensifying poleward winds, according to observations from ships and floats and model simulations.

Ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem was twice the global average during the past century and influenced by decadal climate variations, according to a record of the calcification rate of planktonic foraminifera from the Santa Barbara Basin.

Deep-reaching, small-scale oceanic fronts can drive upward heat transport from the ocean interior to the surface in eddy-rich regions, suggest satellite and in situ observations of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Slow-moving landslides in two valleys in Peru were initiated by irrigation programmes in the region, suggest analyses of 40 years of satellite data.

Two intervals of distinctly lower Indian Ocean sea level during the last two millennia occurred during times of relatively low incoming solar radiation, according to an analysis of U–Th dated coral microatolls in the Maldives.

High extinction intensity during Late Ordovician but not Cenozoic transitions to glacial conditions can be attributed to both temperature and palaeogeography, according to analysis combining climate models and simulations of virtual species.

Carbon cycling in the mantle may be a common mechanism that links the Great Oxidation Event and the subsequent Lomagundi increase in carbon isotope values, according to a box model that accounts for carbon and oxygen fluxes and reservoirs.

Rapid oceanic and atmospheric circulation shifts led to a transient peak in the mean temperature of the ocean at the start of the Last Interglacial, according to noble gas isotope records from an Antarctic ice core.

River meanders migrate much faster in barren than in vegetated landscapes, according to global analyses of active meander migration of both unvegetated and vegetated rivers. The difference in migration rates suggests that the rise of land plants had a significant influence on landscapes.

Recent seismicity near Mayotte in the Indian Ocean is due to dyke propagation from and drainage of a 25–35 km deep magma reservoir, according to an analysis of earthquake and deformation data.