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.
Cement production is a source of CO2. Analysis of carbonation, a process that sequesters CO2 during the lifetime of cement, suggests that between 1930 and 2013, it has offset 43% of CO2 emissions from cement production globally.
A lot of methane is emitted from oxygenated seawater, where its production should be inhibited. Seawater incubations and organic matter characterizations reveal that bacteria aerobically produce methane from phosphonates in organic matter.
Organic matter represents a large pool of carbon in the ocean. Radiocarbon and chemical analyses suggest that larger particles are preferentially remineralized in the Pacific Ocean, with smaller particles and molecules persisting longer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Landfalling typhoons can cause great damage in East and Southeast Asian countries. An analysis of bias-corrected data sets reveals that the proportion of the strongest landfalling typhoons has at least doubled over the past decades.
The carbon abundance in the Earth’s mantle is enhanced relative to sulfur. Experiments suggest that the accretion of a differentiated planetary body to the growing Earth could explain the silicate Earth’s carbon and sulfur budgets.
The composition of subduction zone lavas varies systematically. Numerical simulations and geochemical analysis of lavas from the Chilean Southern Volcanic Zone suggest that the thermal structure of the mantle wedge controls lava composition.