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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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March 2012 Volume 5, Issue 3 |
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 |  Editorial
In the press
Research Highlights
News and Views
Review
Letters | |
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Editorial |  Top |
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Sandblasted by the Sun p157
doi:10.1038/ngeo1420
The Earth's magnetic field protects us from solar activity, but the Moon and Mars are more exposed. The upcoming solar maximum is the perfect time to observe how our dynamic Sun affects its planets.
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In the press | Top |
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Deep sea vent diversity p159
Alexandra Witze
doi:10.1038/ngeo1407
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Research Highlights | Top |
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Rained-down ridge | Mercury and plants | Early emergence | Ocean spin | Cretaceous forests |
News and Views | Top |
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Geomagnetism: Hum from the quiet zone pp161 - 162
John A. Tarduno
doi:10.1038/ngeo1413
During the middle of the Cretaceous period, the polarity of Earth's magnetic field remained stable. A magnetic survey of oceanic crust formed during that time, however, suggests that the field intensity was surprisingly variable.
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See also: Letter by Granot et al. | | Oceanography: Arctic freshwater pp162 - 164
Cecilie Mauritzen
doi:10.1038/ngeo1409
The Arctic Ocean has become less saline, perhaps in response to climate change. Satellite and in situ observations reveal changes in the regional wind patterns that have re-routed freshwater and prevented it from leaving the Arctic Ocean in the past decades.
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See also: Letter by Giles et al. | | Geomorphology: Flow and form pp164 - 165
Keld R. Rasmussen
doi:10.1038/ngeo1408
Dune fields often exhibit complex patterns of vegetation and morphology over relatively short distances. An analysis of the White Sands dune field in New Mexico attributes the shift in dune form to the development of an internal boundary layer over the rough dune-field surface.
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See also: Letter by Jerolmack et al. | | Plate tectonics: Lost sea floor pp165 - 167
Lijun Liu
doi:10.1038/ngeo1410
The configurations of ancient tectonic plates are difficult to reconstruct. Seismic images of deep subducted plates, combined with data from ancient volcanic arcs, help to derive a tectonic map of the Pacific Ocean as it was 200 million years ago.
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See also: Letter by van der Meer et al. | | Biogeochemistry: Ancient organics reign on glaciers pp167 - 168
Martyn Tranter
doi:10.1038/ngeo1411
Glaciers supply downstream ecosystems with reactive dissolved organic carbon during periods of ice and snow melt. An analysis of glacier meltwaters in Alaska shows that anthropogenic aerosols fertilize these waters, raising questions about glacier greening.
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See also: Letter by Stubbins et al. | | Atmospheric chemistry: Update on Amazonian atmosphere pp168 - 169
Mike J. Pilling
doi:10.1038/ngeo1412
Atmospheric measurements reveal unexpectedly high concentrations of hydroxyl radicals over tropical forests. Incorporation of a new mechanism of isoprene oxidation into a chemistry model brings simulations into closer agreement with these observations.
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See also: Letter by Taraborrelli et al. | | | | |
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Review | Top |
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Closure of the meridional overturning circulation through Southern Ocean upwelling pp171 - 180
John Marshall & Kevin Speer
doi:10.1038/ngeo1391
The meridional overturning circulation of the ocean plays a central role in the climate and its variability. This Review of recent studies emphasizes the importance of wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean for global ocean circulation.
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Letters | Top |
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Recent extensional tectonics on the Moon revealed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera pp181 - 185
Thomas R. Watters, Mark S. Robinson, Maria E. Banks, Thanh Tran & Brett W. Denevi
doi:10.1038/ngeo1387
On the Moon, extensional tectonic features have only been observed close to the influence of the mare basalt-filled basins and floor-fractured craters. Analysis of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images reveals several potentially very young extensional tectonic features in the farside highlands, implying that extensional stresses may locally exceed compressional ones.
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Neutral buoyancy of titanium-rich melts in the deep lunar interior pp186 - 189
Mirjam van Kan Parker, Chrystèle Sanloup, Nicolas Sator, Bertrand Guillot, Elodie J. Tronche, Jean-Philippe Perrillat, Mohamed Mezouar, Nachiketa Rai & Wim van Westrenen
doi:10.1038/ngeo1402
The absence of very deep moonquakes implies that the lower mantle of the Moon is partially molten. An analysis of the density range of lunar melts at high pressures suggests that only titanium-rich melt is neutrally buoyant deep within the Moon.
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Hydroxyl radical buffered by isoprene oxidation over tropical forests pp190 - 193
D. Taraborrelli, M. G. Lawrence, J. N. Crowley, T. J. Dillon, S. Gromov, C. B. M. Groß, L. Vereecken & J. Lelieveld
doi:10.1038/ngeo1405
The hydroxyl radical is a key oxidant in the Earth's atmosphere. The inclusion in an atmospheric chemistry model of a detailed mechanism of isoprene oxidation, involving the buffering of hydroxyl radical concentrations, improves agreement between model simulations of hydroxyl radical levels and observations.
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See also: News and Views by Pilling |
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Western Arctic Ocean freshwater storage increased by wind-driven spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre pp194 - 197
Katharine A. Giles, Seymour W. Laxon, Andy L. Ridout, Duncan J. Wingham & Sheldon Bacon
doi:10.1038/ngeo1379
An increasing amount of freshwater has been stored in the Arctic Ocean over the past few decades. Satellite measurements of sea surface height reveal a spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre in the western Arctic that is associated with changes in the wind field, and is estimated to have led to the additional storage of about 8,000 km3 of freshwater.
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See also: News and Views by Mauritzen |
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Anthropogenic aerosols as a source of ancient dissolved organic matter in glaciers pp198 - 201
Aron Stubbins, Eran Hood, Peter A. Raymond, George R. Aiken, Rachel L. Sleighter, Peter J. Hernes, David Butman, Patrick G. Hatcher, Robert G. Striegl, Paul Schuster, Hussain A. N. Abdulla, Andrew W. Vermilyea, Durelle T. Scott & Robert G. M. Spencer
doi:10.1038/ngeo1403
Glacier-derived dissolved organic matter represents a quantitatively significant source of ancient, but bioavailable, carbon to downstream ecosystems. Anthropogenic aerosols supply glaciers with aged organic matter, according to an analysis of organic matter from glaciers in Alaska.
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Tranter |
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Underestimation of volcanic cooling in tree-ring-based reconstructions of hemispheric temperatures pp202 - 205
Michael E. Mann, Jose D. Fuentes & Scott Rutherford
doi:10.1038/ngeo1394
A large volcanic eruption in AD 1258–1259 is expected to have caused substantial climate cooling, but evidence for this effect is absent from tree-ring-based temperature reconstructions. Numerical modelling of tree growth shows that the lack of cooling is probably an artefact caused by low sensitivity to cooling in trees growing near the treeline.
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Internal boundary layer model for the evolution of desert dune fields pp206 - 209
Douglas J. Jerolmack, Ryan C. Ewing, Federico Falcini, Raleigh L. Martin, Claire Masteller, Colin Phillips, Meredith D. Reitz & Ilya Buynevich
doi:10.1038/ngeo1381
Dune fields often show abrupt changes in morphology over short distances, but the mechanism driving the changes has been unclear. Physical modelling and airborne altimetry from White Sands, New Mexico, show that the development of an internal boundary layer is linked to the vegetation and hydrologic patterns observed there.
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See also: News and Views by Rasmussen |
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Soil production limits and the transition to bedrock-dominated landscapes pp210 - 214
Arjun M. Heimsath, Roman A. DiBiase & Kelin X. Whipple
doi:10.1038/ngeo1380
The depth of the Earth's soil cover is controlled by the competing processes of soil production and erosion. Estimates of the rates of these processes over rugged topography suggest that soil-production rates will increase over surfaces that are subject to rapid erosion.
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Intra-Panthalassa Ocean subduction zones revealed by fossil arcs and mantle structure pp215 - 219
D. G. van der Meer, T. H. Torsvik, W. Spakman, D. J. J. van Hinsbergen & M. L. Amaru
doi:10.1038/ngeo1401
The plate tectonic configuration of the Triassic–Jurassic palaeo-Pacific Ocean is unresolved. Analyses of ancient geological rocks that are preserved at the margins of North American and Asian continents, combined with tomographic images of subducted slab remnants, indicate that subduction zones may have once existed in the centre of the palaeo-Pacific Ocean.
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Liu |
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Geomagnetic field variability during the Cretaceous Normal Superchron pp220 - 223
Roi Granot, Jérôme Dyment & Yves Gallet
doi:10.1038/ngeo1404
During the Cretaceous Normal Superchron 121–83 million years ago, the polarity of the Earth's geomagnetic field remained stable for an unusually long time. Deep-tow magnetic data suggest that despite the stability of the polarity, the field varied greatly throughout the interval.
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: News and Views by Tarduno |
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Long-term preservation of slab signatures in the mantle inferred from hydrogen isotopes pp224 - 228
A. M. Shaw, E. H. Hauri, M. D. Behn, D. R. Hilton, C. G. Macpherson & J. M. Sinton
doi:10.1038/ngeo1406
Subduction transports water into the mantle, but it is uncertain whether the water is preserved in the slab or is rapidly diffused. Analysis of hydrogen and boron isotopes in volcanic rocks sourced from an ancient subducted slab beneath the southwestern Pacific Ocean provides evidence for the long-term preservation of subducted water in the mantle.
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