An ultraslow-spreading stretch of the Southwest Indian Ridge is thicker than expected: both tectonic and volcanic processes may be feeding the growing seafloor there.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
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Probing for Earthquakes' Origins
To better understand how earthquakes nucleate, scientists spy on the Alpine Fault in New Zealand.
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Large Variability Measured in Kuroshio Current East of Taiwan
Ship surveys show that the "Gulf Stream" of the Pacific is not a stable boundary current.
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What Formed These Curious Ripples on Mars?
Dunes, ridges, or something else? Scientists seek to understand the origins of transverse aeolian ridges.
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Circulation Models Cannot Simulate Organized Tropical Convection
Challenges in predicting and simulating the Madden-Julian Oscillation indicate a lack of understanding of the atmospheric circulation pattern's fundamental physics.
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Spacecraft Records Rising-Tone Magnetosonic Waves
A rising tone in wave frequencies suggests a complicated, nonlinear series of interactions between electromagnetic sound waves and protons near the magnetic equator.
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To Help Fix the Hole in the Ozone Layer, Just Add Ice
Computer simulations show that adding tiny droplets of ice to the atmosphere during the spring could help eliminate chlorofluorocarbons and repair the hole in the ozone layer.
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Microbial Communities Form Iron Shells in Abandoned Mines
Fungi and bacteria deposit metal ions on steel objects left behind by miners. These metals form strange clam-like shells on the steel surfaces.
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Predicting Space Weather on a Satellite Superhighway
Scientists combined 82 satellite years of data to create a more comprehensive model of how plasma behaves in a region of Earth's magnetosphere with heavy spacecraft traffic.
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How Powerful Is Jupiter's Aurora?
Scientists have mapped Jupiter's spectacular aurora in unprecedented detail with the Hubble Space Telescope.