Using electromagnetic waves originating in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, conductivity profiles reaching the deep upper mantle show surprising variability in water content.
Editors’ Highlights
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The Other, Deeper, South American Flat Slab
Tomographers trace the slab subducting beneath South America into the lower mantle, providing the most complete picture of structure beneath the continent to date.
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Eruption and Emissions Take Credit for Ocean Carbon Sink Changes
A new model explains why the ocean’s capacity to take up carbon was reduced on a decadal scale, by accounting for reduced pCO2 emissions and ocean state changes due to the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.
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Extremely High Carbon Return in Certain Volcanic Arcs
By comparing measured volcanic output with subducted carbon fluxes from drill cores, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone shows nearly complete slab carbon release at sub-arc depths.
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Meteoric 10Be Reveals Lithological Control on Erosion Rates
New meteoric 10Be data quantify fast erosion of slates in the Zhuoshui River catchment in Taiwan and demonstrate the influence of lithology on landscape steepness.
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Earthquake-coda Tomography Boosts Illumination of the Deep Earth
A new tomographic method based on correlations of seemingly chaotic earthquake coda waves yields otherwise unobservable arrivals, thus greatly improving illumination of the deep Earth.
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Volcano Monitoring Goes Offshore
Offshore observations by cabled ocean-bottom pressure recorders have revealed details of the 2015 eruption of Axial Seamount submarine volcano in the Pacific Ocean.
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How Does Convection Work Over the Tropics?
A new conceptual framework on how convection works in the tropics helps advance understanding of the contrast between land and ocean and how the tropics will respond to climate change.
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Using Saturn’s Rings as a Seismometer
The Cassini spacecraft observed spiral density waves in the rings of Saturn which can be used to probe its interior structure and rotation.
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New Analysis Helps Manage Risks to Shipping in the Great Lakes
Modeling of mysteriously fluctuating water levels in the Great Lakes has helped to optimize the prices of shipping insurance contracts along with investments in dredging navigation channels.