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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.
To keep global warming below 2 °C, countries need long-term strategies for low-emission development. Without these, immediate emissions reductions may lock-in high-emitting infrastructure, hamper collaboration and make climate goals unachievable.
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.
The composition of Earth's crust depends on the style of plate tectonics and of the melting regimes in the mantle. Analyses of the oldest identified rocks suggest that these styles and the resulting crust have changed over Earth's history.
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.
There is potential evidence for a stratified layer at the top of the Earth's core, but its origin is not well understood. Laboratory experiments suggest that the stratified layer could be a sunken remnant of the giant impact that formed the Moon.
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.
Marine macroalgae are dominant primary producers in coastal zones. A review of the published literature suggests that macroalgae may play an important role in carbon sequestration.
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.