A global characterization of mantle flow patterns beneath active oceanic transforms suggests pervasive upwelling stabilizes divergent plate boundaries by warming and weakening these enigmatic features.
Earth's interior
Tracking Deep-Earth Processes from Rapid Topographic Changes
Rapid elevation-rise in Turkey, tracked by marine sediments that now sit at 1.5 km in elevation, is linked to deep-Earth processes that can explain short-lived, extreme rates of topographic change.
New Thermodynamic Model for Computing Mantle Mineralogy
A newly developed open-access software package called MMA-EoS can calculate whole mantle mineralogy in multicomponent systems by Gibbs energy minimization.
Probing the Grain-Scale Processes That Drive Plate Tectonics
New experimental data suggest that rock composition may play a critical role in forming and perpetuating shear zones.
Richard J. O’Connell (1941–2015)
This son of a Montana sheriff discovered the fundamental rules underlying complex geophysical phenomena, and he taught others to do the same.
Competing Models of Mountain Formation Reconciled
The author of a prize-winning paper published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems describes new insights into crustal mechanics and the formation of the Himalaya.
Earth's Wobbly Path Gives Clues to Its Core
Understanding the Earth Core and Nutation; Brussels, Belgium, 19–21 September 2016
Synthesizing Our Understanding of Earth's Deep Carbon
The Deep Carbon Observatory is entering a new phase, in which it will integrate 10 years of discoveries into an overarching model to benefit the scientific community and a wider public.
A Significantly Hotter Mantle Beneath Iceland
Estimates of crystallization temperatures from four eruptions in northern Iceland offer improved constraints on the mantle's temperature beneath this anomalous divergent plate boundary.
Canil and Elliott Receive 2016 N. L. Bowen Award
Dante Canil and Tim Elliott will receive the 2016 N. L. Bowen Award at the 2016 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 12–16 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "outstanding contributions to volcanology, geochemistry, or petrology."