New evidence from deep mantle plumes suggests that Earth’s liquid outer core might be leaking tungsten isotopes into the lower mantle.
geochemistry
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Hiding Deep Hydrous Melts at the Core-Mantle Boundary
Silicate melts containing H2O in the lowermost mantle are surprisingly dense and may stagnate there, trapping primordial volatiles and potentially causing some of the ultra-low velocity zones.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Land Use Affects Nutrient Pollution in a Changing Climate
As heavy rain falls more frequently, the land alongside a river has a greater effect on the waterway’s nutrient levels—for better or worse.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Organic Gases Released and Taken Up by Soil Lack Quantification
Soils both emit and take up different biogenic volatile organic compounds, altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere and influencing local, regional, and global climate.
Posted inNews
The Dawning of the Age of Old Aquifers
A new technique using 81Kr can measure the age of old groundwater in arid regions. The method can be used as a proxy for past climates and weather patterns.
Posted inNews
New Tool Reveals That Soils Are Teeming with Active Microbes
BONCAT, a new type of amino acid tagging, highlights and categorizes active soil microbes in situ.
Posted inNews
How Ice Cores Are Helping to Track Preindustrial Ozone
Research helps allay concerns about discrepancies between atmospheric chemistry models and historical direct measurements.
Posted inNews
The Jail That Keeps Oxygen in the Air
Oxygen shouldn’t be in the air we breathe. But it is, and the reason why is almost criminal.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Treating Colloids as Clusters Better Predicts Their Behavior
New research suggests that an accurate prediction of colloidal particle mobilization in the environment should account for the effect of clustering.
Posted inNews
Alexander R. “Mac” McBirney (1924–2019)
This former West Point graduate and coffee grower transformed igneous petrology and volcanology.