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Ocean drilling is the most successful long-standing international collaboration in the geosciences. The invaluable archive of samples and data that has been built underpins our understanding of the Earth, its surface environment and climate. Planning the next phase is at an advanced stage.
The sea floor is emerging as a source of carbon to the overlying ocean. Scientific exploration of the sea bed is essential for a full understanding of the global carbon budget and the safety of deep-sea carbon storage proposals.
Massimo Frezzotti and colleagues saw their 17-ton vehicle drop 10 m into an ice crevasse in their quest to recover the climatic history of East Antarctica.
Pieter Vermeesch enjoyed training for a marathon in an empty two-dimensional space, with his eyes closed, in-between sampling aeolian dunes in the Namib Sand Sea.
Mitigation of climate change is increasingly being portrayed as technologically feasible, if only political support was adequate. But there are good reasons to be unsure.
Sea-level rise is progressively changing coastlines. The legal implications for the seaward boundaries between neighbouring coastal states are neither straightforward nor foreseeable.
Geoscience has played a key role in the recovery of Haiti since the earthquake, but warnings were not heeded in the political sphere. Along with better houses, an adaptive disaster-management infrastructure that incorporates science needs to be built.
Geophysical analyses of the 2010 Haiti earthquake suggest that there is still potential for seismic activity in the region. Building a more resilient country is the only option.
Matthew J. Hornbach and colleagues navigated shallow debris-filled waters in an attempt to understand the factors that contributed to tsunami generation during the Haiti earthquake.
The 2010 Haiti earthquake showed that building codes must be adopted and strictly enforced. Furthermore, timely disaster recovery requires these codes to be supplemented by comprehensive hazard-insurance programmes.
The deep ocean is largely uncharted territory. The aftermath of the BP oil spill has been a poignant reminder that its relative inaccessibility hinders exploration, but does not extend much protection from human interference.
