Articles in 2017

Partial desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea may have boosted magmatism during the Messinian epoch.

Impacts could have driven transient subduction events on the Hadean Earth, according to numerical simulations. The scenario reconciles evidence for tectonic activity with that for an otherwise tectonically stagnant early Earth.

Unloading of the lithosphere due to reduced sea level in the Mediterranean 6 million years ago may have triggered magmatism around the region, according to numerical models. The eruptions cannot be easily explained by tectonic processes.

Serpentine minerals in Earth's early upper continental crust suppressed atmospheric oxygen levels until the upper crust became granitic.

A decrease in mafic continental crust coincides with the rise of O₂ in the Earth’s surface environments about 3 billion years ago, according to an analysis of sediment chemistry. Reduced rates of serpentinization of mafic material, which produces chemicals that react with O₂, could explain the link.

The careful compilation and interpretation of molybdenum isotopes can track the expansion of sulfidic bottom waters. A synthesis and analysis of data from two Mesozoic ocean anoxic events and the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum applies these techniques to constrain past ocean deoxygenation.

Microbes on glacial snow and ice reduce albedo and increase melting. Field experiments show that nutrient and meltwater additions increase microbial abundance and that areas of microbe-covered snow generate increased snowmelt.

If CO₂ emissions after 2015 do not exceed 200 GtC, climate warming after 2015 will fall below 0.6 °C in 66% of CMIP5 models, according to an analysis based on combining a simple climate–carbon-cycle model with estimated ranges for key climate system properties.

Changes in dust flux, export productivity, and bottom-water oxygenation in the equatorial Pacific Ocean have been tightly linked with variations in North Atlantic climate over the past 100,000 years, according to analyses of marine sediments.

Seismic waves can trigger further fault slip. Analysis of seismic and geodetic data shows that seismic waves from the 2016 Kaikōura, New Zealand earthquake were amplified by subduction zone sediments, triggering slow fault slip up to 600 km away.

Super-eruptions are fed by large magma reservoirs. Geochemical analyses of volcanic rocks erupted in New Mexico suggest the magma was stored under cool conditions in the crust for 600,000 years, before late-stage heating triggered an eruption.

Productivity in the eastern equatorial Pacific is limited by the availability of iron. Geochemical analyses of a 100,000-year-long sediment core suggest that pulses of dust deposition during Heinrich stadials fuelled primary productivity.

Scientists based in North America and men are overrepresented in our authors' reviewer suggestions.

Climate sensitivity, the long-term warming due to doubled atmospheric CO₂ levels, is estimated in the range of 1.5 °C to 4.5 °C. A synthesis of work reveals that whether the value falls at the high or low end, future emissions will have to be strongly limited.

Atmospheric organic compounds are central to key chemical processes that influence air quality. Concurrent measurements of a wide range of these compounds, including previously unmeasured ones, provide closure on OH reactivity.

A fast equatorial jet in the Venusian cloud layer has been revealed by the Akatsuki orbiter by tracking cloud movement in near-infrared images. The findings suggest that the Venusian atmosphere is more variable than previously thought.

Developments in attribution science are improving our ability to detect human influence on extreme weather events. By implication, the legal duties of government, business and others to manage foreseeable harms are broadening, and may lead to more climate change litigation.

Venus is covered by thick clouds that move with the prevailing winds. Images from JAXA’s Akatsuki orbiter taken in July 2016 reveal more variability deep in the cloud layer than expected, including a feature consistent with an equatorial jet.