News & Comment

Crumpling of the crust above a sinking dense mantle layer, which is underneath central Europe, triggered the formation of the eastern Alps and the Carpathian mountains, and its surroundings were stretched to form the Pannonian Basin.

In each of the three main ocean basins, dense water from around Antarctica circulates in the bottom layers, and in the Atlantic ocean, an upper circulation cell that is driven from the north caps the bottom loop.

Thanks to global carbon-cycle feedbacks, the Earth may have escaped global glaciation during the Neoproterozoic era, enabling photosynthesis to continue.

Forests in northern Asia had fewer trees at the peak of the last Ice Age compared with their modern counterparts.

The shift of autumnal colouring of leaves to later in the year is due to high ambient atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and is independent of temperature.

Although the climate on Venus is very different from that on Earth, many features of the two planets' atmospheric circulations and their lightning regimes are more similar than we thought.

The peak flow of glacier lake outburst floods — and consequently their potential for devastation — depends on air temperature.

Both the continued bulldozing by India and the collapse of the thicker parts of the Eurasian plate towards the circum-Asiatic oceanic plates contribute to the ongoing deformation of the Asian continental interior.

The iron-rich dust entering the subtropical northeast Atlantic Ocean comes from the Anti-Atlas Mountain belt in Morocco.

Diamond-bearing rocks from the Dharwar Craton in India were probably sourced from deeper parts of the Earth's mantle than previously thought.

Shrub encroachment into the Arctic tundra could cause early snowmelts and warmer springtime temperatures.

Melting glaciers in Greenland cause uplift of the underlying crust.

By slowing down the rate of river incision, large landslides govern a river's response to climatic or tectonic changes and significantly influence landscape evolution.

Amazonian fires and the associated emissions of smoke particles to the atmosphere have been much lower in 2006 than was expected from previous years, thanks to a successful international agreement.

The hitherto enigmatic lead isotopic composition of oceanic basalts is governed by the transfer of lead from the subducted oceanic crust to the overlying mantle wedge.

The acceleration of sea ice decline owing to the loss of the Arctic Ocean's insulating icy lid can now be quantified

Near slow-spreading oceanic ridges, hydrothermal vent fluids can take an express loop guided by shallow-angle faults in the oceanic crust.