Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
In active mountain belts, erosion is driven by bedrock landsliding. River water chemistry in New Zealand’s Southern Alps suggests that stochastic mass wasting processes also enhance chemical weathering in such environments.
The sediment load of China’s Yellow River has been declining. Analysis of 60 years of runoff and sediment load data attributes this decline to river engineering, with an increasing role of post-1990s land use changes on the Loess Plateau.
Extreme daily precipitation is thought to increase with warming at a rate of 6.5% per K. High-resolution simulations for the southern UK show this scaling for present conditions, but above 22 °C this scaling fails owing to changes in dynamics.
Microbial reduction of arsenic-bearing iron oxides releases arsenic into groundwater in Asia. Laboratory and field studies in the Mekong Delta reveal that arsenic release is limited to near-surface sediments of permanently saturated wetlands.
The International Year of Soils draws attention to our vital dependence on the fertile crumb beneath our feet. Soil is renewable, but it takes careful stewardship to keep it healthy and plentiful.
Multi-actor integrated assessment models based on well-being concepts beyond GDP could support policymakers by highlighting the interrelation of climate change mitigation and other important societal problems.
Subducting oceanic plates are often considered as cold, rigid slabs. Analysis of seismic anisotropy in the subducted Nazca Plate beneath Peru suggests that the plate has deformed internally during subduction.
The moon Phobos will eventually either disintegrate to form a ring or crash into Mars. Observational constraints and geotechnical considerations suggest that Phobos will partially break apart into a ring, with stronger fragments impacting Mars.
Low soil fertility can limit crop productivity, which in turn constrains the ability of poor households to invest in improving soils. This self-reinforcing feedback can trap households in chronic poverty for years or even generations.
Flood basalt eruptions have been linked to extinction events. Numerical simulations suggest that the environmental effects of sulphur emissions from these volcanoes would be limited unless the eruptions were frequent and sustained.
A global picture of the age structure and flow path of groundwater is lacking. Tritium concentrations and numerical modelling shed light on both the most recently replenished and the longest stored groundwater within Earth's continents.
Slip during subduction zone earthquakes is often assumed to occur on a single fault. Analysis of a 2011 Chilean earthquake shows that the event was composed of two quakes, with megathrust rupture triggering slip in the overriding plate.
Subduction carries water into the Earth where it can influence seismicity. Analysis of the structure of the Alaskan subduction zone suggests fluid delivery is influenced by faults in the oceanic plate that formed at the mid-ocean ridge.
Global mean temperatures during the Pliocene epoch were warmer than at present, with a shallow meridional temperature gradient. Numerical simulations suggest that since the Pliocene, the meridional and zonal temperature gradients have varied in tandem.
Groundwater recharged less than 50 years ago is vulnerable to contamination and land-use changes. Data and simulations suggest that up to 6% of continental groundwater is modern—forming the largest component of the active hydrologic cycle.