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Venusian highland terrains such as Ishtar Terra formed from melting beneath thinned lithosphere that created a stiff mantle root in a mechanism akin to craton formation on the early Earth, according to three-dimensional computational simulations.
Climate model simulations and reanalysis data suggest that inhibition of atmospheric convection by dry air intensifies moist heatwaves, and this process may further increase moist heatwaves under climate warming.
Mooring observations suggest that deep-sea currents exhibit substantial variability over tidal and seasonal timescales, driving a complex pattern of sediment transport.
Late Pliocene warmth did not lead to substantial deep water formation in the North Pacific as previously proposed, according to benthic foraminifera carbon isotope transects.
Oxygen is generated abiotically at the abyssal seafloor in the presence of polymetallic nodules, potentially by seawater electrolysis, according to in situ chamber and ex situ incubation experiments.
Groundwater supplies about 59% of global river flow, suggesting a larger contribution of groundwater to the global water cycle than currently appreciated, according to an analysis integrating estimates from models and observations.
The increasing use of manufactured sand in China since 2010 has greatly reduced the proportion of natural sand in the country’s total sand supply, from 80% in 1995 to 21% in 2020, according to a material flow analysis of sand in China.
The melting behaviour of Earth’s primitive mantle was strongly sensitive to changes in oxygen fugacity, according to high-pressure experiments on pyrolite under different redox conditions.
Earth system models project that lake temperatures will warm beyond the range of natural variability to which aquatic ecosystems are adapted in the coming decades, with conditions exceeding natural analogues sooner at lower latitudes.
Core processes, dynamically linked to mantle and climate-related surface processes, contribute to both the long-term trend and shorter-term fluctuations observed in Earth’s polar motion, according to predictions from physics-informed neural networks.
The high oxygen fugacities and water contents recorded by zircons from Archaean granitoids can be explained by partial melting at the base of overthickened oceanic crust without requiring subduction, according to a phase equilibrium modelling study.
Nitrogen deposition in China decreased by 14% between 2010 and 2020, with greater declines in nitrogen from industrial than agricultural sources, according to decadal observations of atmospheric deposition of different forms of reactive nitrogen.
Extreme and highly variable summer floods in the Nile River valley through the North African Humid Period were modulated by both interannual and multi-decadal climate modes, according to an offshore sedimentary archive.
Delamination of the lithospheric mantle from the overriding Eurasian plate below the Tibetan Plateau is consistent with topographic, magmatic and seismic observations, according to numerical simulations of the geodynamic evolution of the plateau.
Oxygen in shallow shelf waters rose linearly with atmospheric oxygen in the Neoproterozoic era, potentially driving the first radiation of marine animals, but widespread ocean oxygenation came later, according to reconstructions of oxygen levels and marine productivity.
Climate simulations suggest atmospheric tides in resonance with atmospheric waves on early Earth when days were shorter could have modified tropical convection patterns and warmed the planet despite a fainter Sun.
Modelling results suggest that ice sheets may be more vulnerable to ocean water intrusion at the grounding zone than previously thought due to a potential tipping point that leads to runaway melting.
An absence of sapropels in eastern Mediterranean sediments suggests an expansion of vegetation over a relatively humid North African landscape preceding the mid-Pliocene glaciation, potentially facilitating early human migration.
Machine learning analyses of global datasets of radiocarbon in river particles and coastal sediments reveal different patterns of organic carbon transfer and accumulation across the land–ocean continuum worldwide.