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In an attempt to assess the factors controlling the rates of glacial melt in West Antarctica, Adrian Jenkins and colleagues found themselves waiting anxiously for their submersible, Autosub3, to return from under an ice shelf.
Aquifers are the primary source of drinking water for up to two billion people. To avoid overexploitation, lengthy renewal periods of some aquifers must be taken into account.
Two environmental disasters in April 2010 have ranked high on the public agenda. The coming months will clarify the extent of the damage, and demand Earth scientists' expertise.
In their pursuit of palaeoclimatic reconstruction, Andrew Cohen and colleagues experienced the 'Eureka!' highs and dangerous lows of sediment coring in Lake Tanganyika, East Africa.
Between 1960 and 2000, Asian and Latin American food production tripled, thanks to the use of high-yielding varieties of crops. Africa can follow suit, but only if depletion of soil nutrients is addressed.
The world's soils are under pressure from climate change and population growth. Investors' interest is surging, but scientists have yet to pay soils due tribute.
A multitude of organisms makes soils the fertile factories of food and fibre production, decomposition and nutrient cycling that they are. But tying changes in soil biodiversity to shifts in ecosystem function is a daunting task.
Vladimir Samarkin, Michael Madigan and colleagues travelled to Don Juan Pond in Antarctica, in an attempt to understand life on Mars. Instead, they discovered an unexpected link between the geosphere and atmosphere.
Twitter messages offer first-hand accounts of earthquakes within minutes. Analyses of their content and geographic distribution can be a useful supplement to instrument-based estimates of quake location and magnitude.
