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The tsunami triggered by the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake carried debris seaward. Satellite data and numerical simulations suggest that small-scale wind modifications over a smooth film-covered sea surface affected debris motions.
The influence of NOx levels at night on atmospheric oxidation is unclear. Analyses of aircraft observations suggest that night-time oxidation is transitioning from a high- to low-NOx regime in the southeast US due to declines in NOx levels.
During glacial climates, the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation has changed abruptly. Climate model simulations show that gradual changes in atmospheric CO2 levels can trigger such events via atmospheric moisture transport.
Dissolved inorganic carbon is buried in dryland basins that do not drain to the sea. Based on measurements of sediment chemistry in twelve of these sites, closed basins are estimated to store 0.15 Pg of dissolved inorganic carbon annually.
Over the early twenty-first century, model-derived warming trends exceeded observed warming. Analyses of global-mean tropospheric temperature suggest that these differences are likely to stem from missing external influences in the models.
Many lakes in China are subject to eutrophication. Water quality analyses on 862 Chinese lakes reveal that better sanitation has reduced phosphorus inputs in the most populated areas, but aquaculture and livestock offset improvements elsewhere.
Whether subducted oceanic crust is recycled via the mantle back into newly forming seafloor at mid-ocean ridges is unclear. Laboratory partitioning experiments now reveal that recycled material is not required to create oceanic lithosphere.
Production of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide occurs episodically in small soil volumes. Soil microcosm experiments reveal that water absorption by plant residue raises moisture levels and accelerates nitrous oxide production by microbial denitrification.
Earth’s continents are depleted in some economically important elements. Geochemical analysis reveals that some sulfide-loving elements are preferentially delaminated and recycled back into the mantle during subduction.
The North Atlantic region experiences climate variability on multidecadal timescales. An analysis of a tree-ring network shows this variability can be attributed to both internal and external forcing over the past 1,200 years.
The El Niño of 2015–2016 was unusual and exceptionally strong. Satellite observations and modelling suggest that convective lofting and sublimation of ice particles during this event contributed to moistening of the lower stratosphere.
Super-eruptions require high magma supply rates. Numerical simulations show that even for volcanoes with low supply rates, the warming influence of magma on the crust prevents solidification, allowing super-eruption volumes of magma to accumulate.
Understanding biosphere–atmosphere feedback loops can improve forecasts of climate and vegetation resilience. Analyses of satellite observations reveal that feedbacks are strong in regions that determine the net terrestrial carbon balance.
Collisions of dust particles with a planet’s atmosphere lead to the accumulation of metallic atoms at high altitudes. MAVEN spacecraft observations reveal a persistent—but temporally variable—metal layer of Mg+ ions in the Martian atmosphere.
Brown carbon absorbs light, but its climate impacts in the upper troposphere are not well known. A series of aircraft observations in the US reveals that convection lofts brown carbon to high altitudes, causing greater warming than at lower altitudes.
Models and proxy data diverge on the global temperature evolution of the Holocene, perhaps due to representation of the seasons. Isotopic analyses of stalagmites from the Ural Mountains suggest that winter climate dominated in the Eurasian interior.
Earth’s mantle has cooled since the Archaean. Geochemical identification of anomalously hot lavas formed above the Galapagos Plume 89 million years ago, however, implies that a hot mantle reservoir may have persisted for billions of years.
Quartz minerals in Earth’s crust are thought to melt at high temperatures. Laboratory friction experiments, however, show that metastable melting of quartz on a fault surface can occur at lower temperatures, and could lead to large earthquakes.
Shallow volcanic earthquakes can aid eruption forecasts. Analysis of seismicity beneath the Klyuchevskoy volcano group in Russia reveals much deeper magma-induced earthquakes that may serve as an early eruption indicator.
Climate change is expected to release carbon stored in permafrost soils. Sampling of sites across the Tibetan Plateau in the early 2000s and early 2010s reveals increased carbon stocks in shallow soils, which may offset losses from deeper soils.