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Thanks to global carbon-cycle feedbacks, the Earth may have escaped global glaciation during the Neoproterozoic era, enabling photosynthesis to continue.

The tropical belt has been widening over past decades — as estimated from a number of independent lines of evidence — shifting the dry subtropical climate zones polewards around the world.

Over the past 15 million years, Arctic Ocean circulation has exhibited two distinct modes: during the interglacial periods of the past two million years, including the present, Arctic intermediate water was mainly derived from North Atlantic inflow. By contrast, between 15 and 2 million years ago, and during glacial periods thereafter, brine formation on the Eurasian shelves contributed substantially to Arctic intermediate water.

Multibeam mapping of the northwestern Indian Ocean seafloor provides clear evidence of dextral strike-slip motion along the Owen fracture zone and helps constrain the nature of deformation as well as the rate of slip along this little-studied plate boundary.

Forests in northern Asia had fewer trees at the peak of the last Ice Age compared with their modern counterparts.

The shift of autumnal colouring of leaves to later in the year is due to high ambient atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and is independent of temperature.

Although the climate on Venus is very different from that on Earth, many features of the two planets' atmospheric circulations and their lightning regimes are more similar than we thought.

The peak flow of glacier lake outburst floods — and consequently their potential for devastation — depends on air temperature.

Both the continued bulldozing by India and the collapse of the thicker parts of the Eurasian plate towards the circum-Asiatic oceanic plates contribute to the ongoing deformation of the Asian continental interior.

The iron-rich dust entering the subtropical northeast Atlantic Ocean comes from the Anti-Atlas Mountain belt in Morocco.

Diamond-bearing rocks from the Dharwar Craton in India were probably sourced from deeper parts of the Earth's mantle than previously thought.

Shrub encroachment into the Arctic tundra could cause early snowmelts and warmer springtime temperatures.

Melting glaciers in Greenland cause uplift of the underlying crust.

By slowing down the rate of river incision, large landslides govern a river's response to climatic or tectonic changes and significantly influence landscape evolution.

Amazonian fires and the associated emissions of smoke particles to the atmosphere have been much lower in 2006 than was expected from previous years, thanks to a successful international agreement.

The hitherto enigmatic lead isotopic composition of oceanic basalts is governed by the transfer of lead from the subducted oceanic crust to the overlying mantle wedge.

The acceleration of sea ice decline owing to the loss of the Arctic Ocean's insulating icy lid can now be quantified