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Ozone is an air pollutant and a greenhouse gas. Simulations with a global chemistry transport model reveal that the spatial distribution of ozone precursor emissions dominates the global ozone burden, and that emissions in the tropics matter most.
The origin of carbon-rich magmas is unclear. Boron isotopic analysis of carbonatite magmas that formed over the past 2.6 billion years reveals a link to carbon recycled during tectonic plate subduction.
Cloud feedbacks strongly influence the magnitude of global warming. Climate model simulations show that these feedbacks vary strongly as the spatial patterns of sea surface temperatures change over time.
Oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the mantle at subduction zones. Analysis of fragments of lower oceanic lithosphere brought to the surface by petit-spot volcanoes suggests this lithosphere may be enriched by melts prior to subduction.
The late Palaeozoic was marked by a series of glacial–interglacial cycles. Geochemical and fossil data suggest a role for terrestrial vegetation–carbon cycle feedbacks in the climate response to orbital forcing.
The North Atlantic Oscillation profoundly influences European and North American winter weather. Dynamical model predictions now exhibit skill in prediction of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation more than one year in advance.
Winter cooling over Eurasia has been suggested to be linked to Arctic sea-ice loss. Climate model simulations reveal no evidence for such a link and instead suggest that a persistent atmospheric circulation pattern is responsible.
Links between subduction zone earthquakes and slow slip on the plate interface are unclear. Reconstructions of a slow slip event in the Guerrero subduction zone segment, in Mexico, suggest that the event triggered the 2014 Papanoa earthquake.
Upward fluxes have been thought to dominate nutrient replenishment at the ocean surface. A numerical model reveals that lateral transfer is an important source of phosphorus and nitrogen for all five subtropical gyres.
Gender disparities in science are well documented. An analysis of 1,224 recommendation letters from 54 countries for geoscience postdoctoral fellowships reveals that women are half as likely to receive an excellent letter as men.
The planet Mercury has contracted over its history. The identification of small thrust fault scarps suggests the occurrence of tectonic activity on Mercury within the past 50 million years and thus a slow-cooling planetary interior.
Life at ocean depths below ∼100 m requires organic carbon from the upper ocean. Analyses of satellite and Argo-float data reveal that seasonal changes in mixed-layer depth supply substantial amounts of carbon to this deep and dark ecosystem.
A period of continental aridification and ecosystem change occurred about seven million years ago. A global sea surface temperature reconstruction identifies cooling temperatures and a strengthened meridional temperature gradient at this time.
Buoyant continental crust is thought to resist subduction. Calculation of the crustal mass balance during the collision between India and Eurasia indicates that about 50% of pre-collisional continental crust has been subducted into the mantle.
Little is known about the character of the Hadean crust. Geochemical analyses of the 4-billion-year-old Acasta Gneiss from Canada suggest Earth’s earliest crust formed from a mafic reservoir, similar to the formation of oceanic crust today.
The Earth’s outermost core is thought to be stratified. Turbulent mixing experiments suggest that merging between the cores of projectile and planet following the Moon-forming giant impact could have produced the stratification.
Tidal triggering of earthquakes is debated. Analysis of global earthquake catalogue data compared with tidal stress histories suggests that the probability of a large earthquake is greater during times of maximum tidal stress amplitude.
Aquatic CO2 emissions are expected to increase if warming reduces photosynthesis relative to respiration. An analysis of streams across a 41 °C temperature gradient reveals that the thermal responses of respiration and photosynthesis are similar.
The internal dynamics of pyroclastic density currents are not easily observed. Experiments reveal how the underflow and turbulent ash-cloud regimes within pyroclastic flows are dynamically coupled through a zone of intermediate turbulence.
International trade links regions of production and consumption. Analyses with a multiregional input–output model based on trade data reveal that much of East Asia’s aerosol radiative forcing is tied to consumption in developed countries.