A global study of lavas from volcanic hot spots suggests that contrary to accepted wisdom, Earth’s deep mantle may have the same composition throughout. Not everyone is convinced, however.
geochemistry
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Microbe Preferences Drive Ocean Carbon Pump
New research offers insight into how certain bacteria degrade organic matter in Earth’s oceans.
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Earthquakes May Lace Quartz Veins with Gold
Seismic activity may kick off chemical reactions that seed nuggets of gold.
Posted inScience Updates
Volcanic Anatomy, Mapped as It Erupts
Testing during the 2021 Tajogaite eruption on La Palma demonstrated the value of near-real-time petrological analyses as a supplement to seismic and geochemical data for eruption monitoring.
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The Origin of the Moon’s Thin Atmosphere Might Be Tiny Impacts
Minuscule meteoroids slamming into the lunar surface could be kicking up most of the atoms that make up the lunar exosphere.
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Sensing Remote Realms of the Deep Ocean on Earth—and Beyond
A novel laser-equipped probe is collecting measurements of deep-sea geochemical environments that once seemed impossible to gather, pointing the way toward future explorations of other ocean worlds.
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Curiosity Digs Up Evidence of a Cold, Wet Martian Past
Amorphous materials, which are rarely studied on Earth, yield insights into the history of Gale Crater and the early Martian environment.
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A Sugar Coating for Arrokoth
A Kuiper Belt object might contain ribose and glucose on its surface—the same elements that could have seeded life on Earth.
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Toxic Metal on the Rise in the Baltic Sea
Postwar reconstruction is likely the cause of elevated thallium levels, but low-oxygen, high-sulfide conditions keep the material, which is extremely dangerous to mammalian health, from moving into the human food chain.