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The Juan de Fuca plate, which subducts below the Cascades, is remarkably dry, according to reconstructions of water content based on seismic data. Decompression rather than hydrous melting must therefore be responsible for Cascades volcanism.
Niobium may be sequestered into the cores of some asteroids rather than remaining in their mantles according to measurements of meteorites and partitioning experiments. Accretion of such asteroids may explain why Earth’s mantle is depleted in niobium.
The production and consumption of organic carbon in inland waters varies with water residence time and biotic processes, suggest analyses of dissolved organic carbon from Northern Hemisphere water bodies. Inland waters mediate carbon transport between land and ocean.
Approximately 8% of the fluvial suspended sediment exported to the world’s oceans comes from rivers draining the Greenland ice sheet, according to an analysis of satellite imagery. Furthermore, the export is dominated by areas where subglacial erosion is high.
Extreme methane rainstorms on Titan occur in mid-latitudes, where alluvial fans are most common, according to a general circulation model. Average precipitation rates are insufficient to actively shape Titan’s surface.
Substantial amounts of organic carbon have been buried in the Wax Lake delta, USA, over the past 20 years, according to sediment analyses. This suggests that river diversions can lead to both coastal accretion and carbon sequestration.
Vertical migration of organisms and deep currents control the transport and characteristics of particles at the equator, according to an analysis of current and particle measurements. Particles fluxes are an important part of the ocean carbon cycle.
Transient winter restratification events can promote phytoplankton blooms in the North Atlantic subpolar gyre, according to float data. Typical winter conditions feature a deep mixed layer that limits phytoplankton activity.
Bursts of methane stored in the Martian subsurface may explain intermittent warm climates on ancient Mars, according to numerical simulations. Sedimentary evidence for palaeolakes requires infrequent, yet sustained, lake-forming climates.
Impacts could have driven transient subduction events on the Hadean Earth, according to numerical simulations. The scenario reconciles evidence for tectonic activity with that for an otherwise tectonically stagnant early Earth.
Unloading of the lithosphere due to reduced sea level in the Mediterranean 6 million years ago may have triggered magmatism around the region, according to numerical models. The eruptions cannot be easily explained by tectonic processes.
A decrease in mafic continental crust coincides with the rise of O2 in the Earth’s surface environments about 3 billion years ago, according to an analysis of sediment chemistry. Reduced rates of serpentinization of mafic material, which produces chemicals that react with O2, could explain the link.
Microbes on glacial snow and ice reduce albedo and increase melting. Field experiments show that nutrient and meltwater additions increase microbial abundance and that areas of microbe-covered snow generate increased snowmelt.
If CO2 emissions after 2015 do not exceed 200 GtC, climate warming after 2015 will fall below 0.6 °C in 66% of CMIP5 models, according to an analysis based on combining a simple climate–carbon-cycle model with estimated ranges for key climate system properties.
Seismic waves can trigger further fault slip. Analysis of seismic and geodetic data shows that seismic waves from the 2016 Kaikōura, New Zealand earthquake were amplified by subduction zone sediments, triggering slow fault slip up to 600 km away.
Super-eruptions are fed by large magma reservoirs. Geochemical analyses of volcanic rocks erupted in New Mexico suggest the magma was stored under cool conditions in the crust for 600,000 years, before late-stage heating triggered an eruption.
Productivity in the eastern equatorial Pacific is limited by the availability of iron. Geochemical analyses of a 100,000-year-long sediment core suggest that pulses of dust deposition during Heinrich stadials fuelled primary productivity.
Atmospheric organic compounds are central to key chemical processes that influence air quality. Concurrent measurements of a wide range of these compounds, including previously unmeasured ones, provide closure on OH reactivity.
Venus is covered by thick clouds that move with the prevailing winds. Images from JAXA’s Akatsuki orbiter taken in July 2016 reveal more variability deep in the cloud layer than expected, including a feature consistent with an equatorial jet.
Earthquakes can occur at great depths in the Earth, within subducting tectonic plates. Deformation experiments suggest these deep earthquakes can be triggered by localized heating of the slabs under high pressures.