Study bolsters hypothesis that volcanoes on China’s Hainan Island were formed by a hot spot.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Karst Groundwater Contributes to Deformation in Eastern Alps
GPS data show compression and extension strains in the region resulting from changes in aquifer water levels.
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Peering Through Titan’s Haze to Better Understand Its Surface
Variations in grain size and water ice content detected on Saturn’s largest moon offer evidence of geologically related units that resemble the mountain-to-desert transition on Earth.
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Depth Matters in Peat Bog Nutrient Cycling
Peatlands store around a third of Earth’s soil carbon, and a new study begins to reveal how the ecosystems’ organic matter changes with depth.
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Mysterious Aurora Borealis Feature Explained for the First Time
High-speed particles cause indentations in the magnetopause to form “throat auroras.”
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A Novel Way to Map Debris Thickness on Himalayan Glaciers
By combining changes in elevation with other data, scientists have developed a method for estimating the thickness of debris covering glaciers on whose water more than 800 million people depend.
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Magma Flow in a Major Icelandic Eruption
Mechanical modeling suggests that previous, undetected eruptions released tectonic stress near the ice-covered Bárðarbunga volcano.
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Challenging the Day Diagram, a Rock Magnetism Paradigm
A critique of the plot routinely used to determine bulk magnetic properties concludes the technique is so ambiguous that new approaches to understanding magnetic mineral assemblages must be developed.
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What Shaped the Northern Apennine Deformation Front?
An integrated interpretation of well and seismic reflection data from Italy’s Po Valley shows the range’s undulations are controlled by the slope and composition of two major gliding horizons.
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Using Microbes to Predict the Flow of Arctic Rivers
Bacterial DNA provides a good estimate of river discharge.