Barren marine deserts bloom seasonally with iron infusions from Asian dust storms.
Asia
Shallow Low Frequency Tremors in Japan Trench
A new seafloor seismic network detected low-frequency tremor on the subduction zone interface offshore northern Japan, indicating regions of slow slip in close proximity to shallow megathrust events.
The Search for the Severed Head of the Himalayas
To unearth the very first sediments to erode from the Himalayas, a team of scientists drilled beneath the Bay of Bengal.
What Drives Surface Winds in a Deep Valley?
Surface winds in a Himalayan valley are found to vary daily and seasonally due to factors including pressure gradient, advection, turbulent vertical mixing, and the presence of glaciers.
Route for Upwelled Kuroshio Waters into East China Sea Shelf
A simple algorithm obtains short-term variations in upwelling, which show that the subsurface Kuroshio waters can upwell directly into the East China Sea shelf under the advection of the Kuroshio.
Glacial Census Reveals Ice Thicknesses Around the World
Researchers modeled over 200,000 glaciers and found that mountainous regions in Asia contain significantly less glacial ice than previously estimated.
Unraveling the Origin of Slow Earthquakes
Different nucleation styles detected in five slow-slip events in the same area of Japan’s Ryukyu subduction zone suggest the physical properties along this tectonic plate interface change over time.
Landslide Database Reveals Uptick in Human-Caused Fatal Slides
Records of nearly 5,000 landslides around the world show that human activities like construction, illegal mining, and hill cutting are increasingly responsible for fatal slides, particularly in Asia.
Two Active Volcanoes in Japan May Share a Magma Source
Evidence collected following the 2011 eruption of Japan’s Shinmoedake volcano suggests that the powerful event affected the behavior of an active caldera nearby.
At-Sea Workshop Advances Subduction Zone Research
International Ocean Discovery Program Core-Log-Seismic integration at Sea (CLSI@Sea) workshop; Nankai Trough, Philippine Sea, off the coast of southwest Japan, January–February 2018