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Melts from diverse mantle components are delivered to the lower oceanic crust and preserved at centimetre scale, according to the wide range in the Nd and Sr isotope composition of gabbroic minerals from a segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Stress cycling in subducting crust before and during slow slip events is due to accumulation and release of fluid pressure, according to analysis of small earthquakes in the Hikurangi subduction zone.
Atmospheric temperature fluctuations are the main influence on Arctic sea-ice variability, whereas other factors explain only 25% of variability, according to an analysis of Earth system model simulations.
An internal redox see-saw between the Panthalassa Basin and the proto-North Atlantic can explain cyclic changes in the sediment record throughout the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum 97 to 91 million years ago, according to simulations with a numerical ocean model.
Shallow moonquakes detected at four Apollo landing sites between 1969 and 1977 occurred during maximum stress and in close proximity to young faults, suggesting that the Moon is tectonically active, according to reanalyses of the seismic data and tidal force modelling.
Compared to the past few centuries, Central Pacific El Niño events have become more frequent, whereas the number of Eastern Pacific events has declined in the most recent decades, according to reconstructions from a network of seasonally resolved coral records.
Fluctuations in early Cambrian biodiversity of animals coincided with extreme oscillations in atmospheric and shallow-ocean oxygenation, according to analyses of carbon and sulfur isotopes in Cambrian-age marine carbonates.
Global warming impacts during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event were initially more severe for terrestrial ecosystems than marine ecosystems, and included a loss of vegetation diversity, according to spore–pollen assemblage data from Pliensbachian–Toarcian rock samples.
High melt rates in a key location beneath the Ross Ice Shelf result from a seasonal inflow of water heated in the Ross Sea Polynya, according to in situ observations.
Moon formation by a giant impact ejecting material from a magma ocean on Earth reconciles geochemical and dynamical constraints on its formation, according to numerical simulations.
Organic aerosols that sediment from Titan’s atmosphere may float, form a film and damp waves on Titan’s seas, according to computations. This damping effect could explain the observed smoothness of Titan’s seas.
In the Proterozoic, sulfate concentrations in the oceans were low and atmospheric methane levels high, according to mass balance and diagenetic models that investigate the oxidation state of the Proterozoic oceans.
Nitrogen deposition in China has been almost constant over the past decade, as decreasing wet deposition has balanced increasing dry deposition, according to analyses of extensive datasets on wet and dry nitrogen depositions in China.
A mantle component that is isotopically depleted is intrinsic to the Hawaiian mantle plume, and is probably sourced from the lower mantle, according to radiogenic isotope analyses on shield-stage tholeitic basalts from Mauna Kea.
Geomagnetic jerks in the Earth’s magnetic field are caused by the arrival of hydromagnetic waves and could be generated by sudden releases of buoyancy in the Earth’s core, suggest geodynamic numerical model simulations.
After a fault ruptures, the recovery of its strength may be accelerated by earthquakes that redistribute stress, according to an analysis of temporal variation in crustal seismic velocity on the Longmenshan fault in China.
Microplastics can reach and affect regions far from where they are released because of atmospheric transport, suggest analyses of atmospheric deposition in a remote, pristine mountain catchment in France.
Water is uniformly present at low concentrations in the Moon’s subsoil and is emitted by meteoroid impacts, according to analysis of water releases detected by NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer.
Eleven phases of advance of the Greenland Ice Sheet, following the first expansion between 3.3 and 2.6 million years ago, are documented in analyses of a grid of seismic reflection data.
Deep Atlantic carbon storage increased and the meriodional overturning circulation weakened at the mid-Pleistocene transition to 100,000-year glacial–interglacial cycles, according to analyses of foraminifera trace elements and Nd isotopes.