Nature Geoscience contents: October 2011 Volume 4 Number 10 pp653-727

TABLE OF CONTENTS October 2011 Volume 4, Issue 10 Editorial Correspondence In the press Research Highlights News and Views Letters Articles Recommend to your library Web feed Article has related Backstory Available online only Subscribe Advertisement Attending GSA 2011? Visit Nature Geoscience at the Nature Publishing Group booth #1005 Stop by our booth to ‘Spin-the-Wheel’ for your chance to win; including a free personal subscription to Nature or Nature Geoscience for one year and entry into the daily Flip VideoTM drawing*. *While stocks last. Daily drawing takes place on October 9, 10 and 11 only.   Editorial Top Beyond mining p653 doi:10.1038/ngeo1291 Global demand for raw materials is at an all time high, and rising. As mining companies scale up their operations in response, society needs to develop strategies to keep damage to a minimum. Full Text | PDF Correspondence Top Aquifer arsenic source pp655 - 656 J.M. McArthur, P. Ravenscroft & O. Sracek doi:10.1038/ngeo1277 Full Text | PDF See also: Correspondence by Neumann et al. Reply to 'Aquifer arsenic source' p656 Rebecca B. Neumann, Khandaker N. Ashfaque, A. B. M. Badruzzaman, M. Ashraf Ali, Julie K. Shoemaker & Charles F. Harvey doi:10.1038/ngeo1278 Full Text | PDF See also: Correspondence by McArthur et al. In the press Top Accelerating debate p657 Axel Bojanowski doi:10.1038/ngeo1280 Full Text | PDF Research Highlights Top Spicy climate | Stuck in the mud | Churned up | Walker slows down | Titan's dry lakebeds News and Views Top Biogeochemistry: Wake-up call for isoprene emissions pp659 - 660 Alexander T. Archibald doi:10.1038/ngeo1281 Naturally produced hydrocarbons such as isoprene influence air quality and climate. Accounting for circadian control of isoprene emissions helps to bring model simulations of ground-level ozone into closer agreement with observations. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Hewitt et al. Geodynamics: East Africa on the rise pp660 - 661 Raphaël Pik doi:10.1038/ngeo1274 The growth of East Africa's high topography during the past 30 million years cannot be explained by typical mountain-building processes. Numerical modelling shows that much of this topography formed in response to upwelling in the underlying mantle. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Moucha & Forte Palaeoclimate: The past is not the future pp661 - 663 Andrey Ganopolski & Alexander Robinson doi:10.1038/ngeo1268 During the last interglacial period, summer temperatures were warmer and the Greenland ice sheet smaller than today. Modelling suggests that the low ice-sheet volume was not simply a consequence of high ambient temperatures. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by van de Berg et al. Palaeontology: Microfossils from early Earth pp663 - 665 Emmanuelle J. Javaux doi:10.1038/ngeo1279 Proof that purported fossils of early life are truly old and biological is often controversial. Detailed analyses confirm the early evolution of microbial sulphur cycling and reveal microfossils in 3.4-billion-year-old beach sandstones. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Wacey et al. Atmospheric chemistry: Particulars of particle formation pp665 - 666 Jeffrey Pierce doi:10.1038/ngeo1267 Atmospheric aerosols strongly influence Earth's climate, but how they form has remained a mystery. According to cloud chamber experiments, a mixture of vapours, as well as ions formed by galactic cosmic rays, contribute to the particle formation recipe. Full Text | PDF Geoscience JOBS of the week Faculty Position in Marine Ecology Duke University Durham, US Cluster Hires Virginia Tech Blacksburg, US 4 PhD grants in planetary geosciences Institut of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences Wroclaw, PL Two tenure-track positions in planetary geosciences Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences Wroclaw, PL Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track, Interdisciplinary Physical Oceanography The University of British Columbia Vancouver, CA More Science jobs from Geoscience EVENT 40 years of Earthwatching, 40 days to save the planet. 13.10.11 London, UK More science events from Letters Top Cold glacial oceans would have inhibited phyllosilicate sedimentation on early Mars pp667 - 670 Alberto G. Fairén, Alfonso F. Davila, Luis Gago-Duport, Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, Carolina Gil, Christopher P. McKay & James F. Kasting doi:10.1038/ngeo1243 Phyllosilicate minerals are rare in the Noachian-aged crust of the northern lowlands of Mars, compared with the tropical highlands. Geochemical and climate modelling suggest that this dichotomy is consistent with the presence of a cold ocean fringed by cold-based glaciers. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Ground-level ozone influenced by circadian control of isoprene emissions pp671 - 674 C. N. Hewitt, K. Ashworth, A. Boynard, A. Guenther, B. Langford, A. R. MacKenzie, P. K. Misztal, E. Nemitz, S. M. Owen, M. Possell, T. A. M. Pugh, A. C. Ryan & O. Wild doi:10.1038/ngeo1271 The volatile organic compound isoprene — a precursor to the air pollutant ozone — is produced by many plant species. Canopy-scale measurements in Malaysia, combined with model simulations, suggest that isoprene emissions are under circadian control. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Archibald Extreme sediment pulses generated by bend cutoffs along a large meandering river pp675 - 678 Jessica A. Zinger, Bruce L. Rhoads & James L. Best doi:10.1038/ngeo1260 Riverbed cutoffs affect the river-channel geometry and flood-plain morphology. Field studies following two cutoff events in the Wabash River, USA, show that these events also trigger the release of large volumes of sediment, much of which is deposited immediately downstream. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Significant contribution of insolation to Eemian melting of the Greenland ice sheet pp679 - 683 Willem Jan van de Berg, Michiel van den Broeke, Janneke Ettema, Erik van Meijgaard & Frank Kaspar doi:10.1038/ngeo1245 During the last interglacial period, the volume of the Greenland ice sheet was up to 60% smaller than today. Climate and ice-sheet modelling suggests that about 55% of this change was caused by higher ambient temperatures and the remaining 45% was a result of higher insolation and the associated climate feedbacks. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Ganopolski & Robinson Sea-level oscillations during the last interglacial highstand recorded by Bahamas corals pp684 - 687 William G. Thompson, H. Allen Curran, Mark A. Wilson & Brian White doi:10.1038/ngeo1253 Whether sea level was stable during the last interglacial remains a subject of debate. An analysis of the U-Th ages of coral reefs in the Bahamas, corrected for open-system behaviour, confirms the presence of at least one oscillation within the sea-level highstand. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Significant increase in relief of the European Alps during mid-Pleistocene glaciations pp688 - 692 Pierre G. Valla, David L. Shuster & Peter A. van der Beek doi:10.1038/ngeo1242 The effect of expanded glaciation on the relief of mountain ranges is debated. Chronometric and model data from the European Alps suggest that relief in the Rhone Valley was enhanced as a result of the increased incision of the valley following the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Transient metazoan reefs in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction pp693 - 697 Arnaud Brayard, Emmanuelle Vennin, Nicolas Olivier, Kevin G. Bylund, Jim Jenks, Daniel A. Stephen, Hugo Bucher, Richard Hofmann, Nicolas Goudemand & Gilles Escarguel doi:10.1038/ngeo1264 Microbes were thought to be the dominant reef constructors following the end-Permian mass extinction. Sponge-microbe reef deposits formed in the Early Triassic from the western United States suggest that instead, metazoan-reef building continued immediately following the extinction wherever marine conditions allowed. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Microfossils of sulphur-metabolizing cells in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks of Western Australia pp698 - 702 David Wacey, Matt R. Kilburn, Martin Saunders, John Cliff & Martin D. Brasier doi:10.1038/ngeo1238 Geochemical evidence suggests that sulphur-metabolizing bacteria were present at least 3.5 billion years ago. Geochemical and petrological analyses of microstructures from 3.4-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia suggest they are the remains of early sulphur-reducing and sulphur-disproportionating bacteria. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Carbonate dissolution during subduction revealed by diamond-bearing rocks from the Alps pp703 - 706 M. L. Frezzotti, J. Selverstone, Z. D. Sharp & R. Compagnoni doi:10.1038/ngeo1246 The mechanisms by which carbon is transported from subducted oceanic crust into the overlying mantle wedge are poorly understood. Geochemical analyses of diamond-bearing fluid inclusions found in the western Alps indicate that carbon dissolution, driven by fluids released from the subducting plate, provides an efficient mechanism to transport carbon into the mantle. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Changes in African topography driven by mantle convection pp707 - 712 Robert Moucha & Alessandro M. Forte doi:10.1038/ngeo1235 Africa/'s topography is characterized by large-scale uplifted domes and subsided basins. Numerical simulations of mantle flow suggest that high topography along Africa/'s eastern margin formed as a result of the northward migration of the tectonic plate over the African superplume during the past 30 million years. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Intensive hydration of the mantle transition zone beneath China caused by ancient slab stagnation pp713 - 716 Takeshi Kuritani, Eiji Ohtani & Jun-Ichi Kimura doi:10.1038/ngeo1250 The mantle transition zone beneath China is anomalously hydrated. Geochemical analyses of basalts erupted above the mantle transition zone in northeast China indicate that water may have been added to this zone during the dehydration of subducted slabs, on two separate occasions over the past one billion years. First paragraph | Full Text | PDF Articles Top Assimilation of upwelled nitrate by small eukaryotes in the Sargasso Sea pp717 - 722 Sarah E. Fawcett, Michael W. Lomas, John R. Casey, Bess B. Ward & Daniel M. Sigman doi:10.1038/ngeo1265 Low levels of biologically available forms of nitrogen can limit phytoplankton growth. Isotopic analyses of seawater samples collected from the Sargasso Sea in the summer suggest that small phytoplankton obtain half of their nitrogen from upwelled nitrate. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Significant role of the North Icelandic Jet in the formation of Denmark Strait overflow water pp723 - 727 Kjetil Vage, Robert S. Pickart, Michael A. Spall, He[eth]inn Valdimarsson, Steingrimur Jonsson, Daniel J. Torres, Svein Osterhus & Tor Eldevik doi:10.1038/ngeo1234 The largest dense-water plume feeding the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation from the Nordic seas comes from Denmark Strait overflow water. Measurements of hydrography and water velocity north of Iceland and ocean model simulations indicate that a significant part of this water is supplied by the North Icelandic Jet. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Top Advertisement Stay connected to Nature Geoscience. 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