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Temperature overshoot scenarios that make the 1.5 °C climate target feasible could turn into sources of political flexibility. Climate scientists must provide clear constraints on overshoot magnitude, duration and timing, to ensure accountability.
Seismic activity within subducted slabs could be caused by differential stress release, according to analysis of fossilized remnants of earthquake slip in an exhumed slab. These deep earthquakes were previously thought to mark either slab dehydration, or thermal runaway processes .
The fraction of NO2 in NOx emitted from European road transport is up to a factor of two smaller than used in policy projections, suggests an analysis of 130 million roadside observations. Roadside air quality standards may thus be obtained faster.
A spike of carbon-rich volcanism during the Ediacaran period identified in detrital zircon data may reflect a reorganization of the Neoproterozoic deep carbon cycle.
Rising oxygen levels may have facilitated the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event according to a reconstruction of atmospheric oxygen concentrations.
Recurring slope lineae are likely to be dry granular flows with little-to-no requirement for large volumes of liquid water on Mars, according to an emerging view that is supported by topographic analyses.
An increase in biodiversity 450 million years ago coincided with a rise in atmospheric oxygen concentrations, suggests a geochemical analysis. Oxygen availability may have thus helped spur the radiation alongside climatic cooling.
Consolidated sediments in the Cascadia subduction zone may create conditions favourable for megathrust earthquake ruptures over long distances and close to the trench, according to analyses of seismic velocity of sediments from the region. Less-consolidated sediments instead may promote aseismic slip of the plate boundary.
A super-hydrated clay mineral may play an important role in the solid Earth’s water cycle, according to laboratory experiments. The mineral kaolinite can carry and release large amounts of water during subduction.
Storms are not only generated at higher latitudes, they also travel further in a warmer climate, according to analyses of climate model output with a storm-tracking algorithm. The larger travel distance is attributed to stronger upper-level winds and increased atmospheric water vapour.
Continental rifts are stores and sources of abundant carbon, according to calculations of carbon storage, enrichments and mobilization in rift systems. Continental rift systems are likely to play an important role in Earth’s deep carbon cycle.
Degassing of large amounts of CO2 from continental rifts may have contributed to greenhouse climate episodes over the past 200 million years, according to numerical models.
The current distribution of crops around the world neither attains maximum production nor minimum water use, according to a crop water model and yield data. An optimized crop distribution could feed an additional 825 million people and substantially reduce water use.
Storm-resolving simulations of the tropical Atlantic region bring out the doldrums, a zone of calm and variable winds in the deep tropics that was described in the nineteenth century and then forgotten.
The world's inland waters are under siege. A system-level view of watersheds is needed to inform both our scientific understanding and management decisions for these precious resources.