JOURNAL REVIEW December 16 – December 23 (Nature, Science, PNAS, Nature Geoscience, Nature Communications)

NATURE

1. China lands rover on Moon

David Cyranoski

China has become only the third country to soft-land a craft on the Moon— and the first to do so since the Soviet Union in 1976. Its Chang’e 3 spacecraft dropped safely to the surface on 14 December.

2. Seabed scars raise questions over carbon-storage plan

Richard Monastersky

Unexpected fractures above the world’s biggest storage site could provide path for leaks.

3. Worldwide acceleration of mountain erosion under a cooling climate

Frédéric Herman, Diane Seward, Pierre G. Valla,  Andrew Carter, Barry Kohn, Sean D. Willett & Todd A. Ehlers

Nature 504, 423–426 (19 December 2013) doi:10.1038/nature12877

To establish what effect the Late Cenozoic cooling climate shift might have had on global erosion, inverse modelling of thermochronometric ages is used to show that erosion rates are increased by cooling, especially in glaciated mountain ranges.

SCIENCE

4. Sea-Level Rise by 2100

John A. Church, Peter U. Clark, Anny Cazenave, Jonathan M. Gregory, Svetlana Jevrejeva, Anders Levermann, Mark A. Merrifield, Glenn A. Milne, R. Steven Nerem, Patrick D. Nunn, Antony J. Payne, W. Tad Pfeffer, Detlef Stammer, and Alakkat S. Unnikrishnan

Science 20 December 2013: Vol. 342 no. 6165 pp. 1445, DOI:10.1126/science.342.6165.1445-a

5. Unexpected Stable Stoichiometries of Sodium Chlorides

Weiwei Zhang, Artem R. Oganov, Alexander F. Goncharov, Qiang Zhu, Salah Eddine Boulfelfel, Andriy O. Lyakhov, Elissaios Stavrou, Maddury Somayazulu, Vitali B. Prakapenka, and Zuzana Konôpková

Science 20 December 2013: 1502-1505.

We synthesized cubic and orthorhombic NaCl₃ and two-dimensional metallic tetragonal Na₃Cl. These experiments establish that compounds violating chemical intuition can be thermodynamically stable even in simple systems at nonambient conditions.

Our results suggest that new stable compositions with unusual chemical bonding may exist in other simple systems, such as important planet-forming systems such as Mg-Si-O and H-C-N-O.

PNAS

6. Formation of highly porous aerosol particles by atmospheric freeze-drying in ice clouds

Gabriela Adler, Thomas Koop, Carynelisa Haspel, Ilya Taraniuk, Tamar Moise, Ilan Koren, Reuven H. Heiblum, and Yinon Rudich

PNAS 2013 110 (51) 20414-20419; published ahead of print December 2, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1317209110

Here we simulate an atmospheric freeze-drying cycle of aerosols in laboratory experiments using proxies for atmospheric aerosols. We find that aerosols that contain organic material that undergo such a process can form highly porous aerosol particles with a larger diameter and a lower density than the initial homogeneous aerosol. These observations may have implications for subsequent cloud formation cycles and aerosol albedo near cloud edges.

7. Sensitivity to ocean acidification parallels natural pCO2 gradients experienced by Arctic copepods under winter sea ice

Ceri N. Lewis, Kristina A. Brown, Laura A. Edwards, Glenn Cooper, and Helen S. Findlay

PNAS 2013 110 (51) E4960-E4967; published ahead of print December 2, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1315162110

Here, we report results from Arctic under-ice investigations of copepod natural distributions associated with late-winter carbonate chemistry environmental data and their response to manipulated pCO2 conditions (ocean acidification (OA) exposures). The results support the hypothesis that the natural range of pCO2 experienced by an organism determines its sensitivity to future OA

NATURE GEOSCIENCE

8. Delamination and recycling of Archaean crust caused by gravitational instabilities

Tim E. Johnson, Michael Brown, Boris J. P. Kaus & Jill A. VanTongeren

Nature Geoscience 7, 47–52 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2019

The Archaean Earth was much hotter than today. Numerical modelling shows that the base of thickened crust that formed at the time would have been so dense that it dripped back into the mantle.

9. Ebullition and storm-induced methane release from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf

Natalia Shakhova, Igor Semiletov, Ira Leifer, Valentin Sergienko, Anatoly Salyuk, Denis Kosmach, Denis Chernykh, Chris Stubbs, Dmitry Nicolsky, Vladimir Tumskoy & Örjan Gustafsson

Nature Geoscience 7, 64–70 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2007

Large quantities of methane lie trapped beneath the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Measurements in the southern Laptev Sea around the Lena River delta suggest that bubbles and storms facilitate the flux of some of this submarine methane to the atmosphere.

10. Ocean-driven heating of Europa’s icy shell at low latitudes

K. M. Soderlund, B. E. Schmidt, J. Wicht & D. D. Blankenship

Nature Geoscience 7, 16–19 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2021

Liquid water may hide beneath the frozen surfaces of Jupiter's moon Europa and other icy worlds. Extending ocean science beyond Earth, planetary oceanographers are linking Europa's ocean dynamics to its enigmatic surface geology.

11. Potential influence of sulphur bacteria on Palaeoproterozoic phosphogenesis

Aivo Lepland, Lauri Joosu, Kalle Kirsimäe, Anthony R. Prave, Alexander E. Romashkin, Alenka E. Črne, Adam P. Martin, Anthony E. Fallick, Peeter Somelar, Kärt Üpraus, Kaarel Mänd, Nick M. W. Roberts, Mark A. van Zuilen, Richard Wirth & Anja Schreiber

Nature Geoscience 7, 20–24 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2005

The first known phosphorus-rich deposits formed 2 billion years ago, but their origins are unclear. Geochemical and palaeontological analyses of 2-billion-year-old deposits from northwest Russia suggest that the presence of sulphur-oxidizing bacteria and a sharp oxic–anoxic transition in the sediments allowed for phosphorus accumulation in this setting.

12. Evidence for biogenic graphite in early Archaean Isua metasedimentary rocks

Yoko Ohtomo, Takeshi Kakegawa, Akizumi Ishida, Toshiro Nagase & Minik T. Rosing

Nature Geoscience 7, 25–28 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2025

The Archaean rocks of Isua, West Greenland, contain graphite, but its origins are debated. Geochemical and microscopic analyses suggest that the graphite was formed from biologically formed carbon that was deposited at least 3.7 billion years ago.

13. Recurring slope lineae in equatorial regions of Mars

Alfred S. McEwen, Colin M. Dundas, Sarah S. Mattson, Anthony D. Toigo, Lujendra Ojha, James J. Wray, Matthew Chojnacki, Shane Byrne, Scott L. Murchie & Nicolas Thomas

Nature Geoscience 7, 53–58 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2014

Dark streaks that appear on the surface of Mars during warm seasons have been observed at the mid-latitudes and tentatively attributed to the flow of briny water. Imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over multiple Mars years suggests that these seasonally active features are also present in equatorial regions, where liquid surface water is not expected.

14. Warming early Mars with CO₂ and H₂

Ramses M. Ramirez, Ravi Kopparapu, Michael E. Zugger, Tyler D. Robinson, Richard Freedman & James F. Kasting

Nature Geoscience 7, 59–63 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2000

Ancient valleys suggest a warm early Mars where liquid water flowed, but a greenhouse effect strong enough to offset a dim early Sun has been difficult to explain. Climate simulations suggest that sufficient concentrations of the greenhouse gases CO₂ and H₂ — outgassed during volcanic eruptions — could have warmed Mars above water’s freezing point.

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS

15. Spatial optimization of carbon-stocking projects across Africa integrating stocking potential with co-benefits and feasibility

Michelle Greve, Belinda Reyers, Anne Mette Lykke & Jens-Christian Svenning

Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2975 doi:10.1038/ncomms3975

Received 28 June 2013 Accepted 21 November 2013 Published 19 December 2013

Africa is one of the fastest growing regions for the voluntary carbon market. Here, Greve et al. quantify the potential for aboveground C stocking across tropical Africa and assess the optimal placement of carbon-stocking projects when also taking co-benefits and feasibility into account. 

16. The discovery of kimberlites in Antarctica extends the vast Gondwanan Cretaceous province

Gregory M. Yaxley, Vadim S. Kamenetsky, Geoffrey T. Nichols, Roland Maas, Elena Belousova, Anja Rosenthal & Marc Norman

Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2921 doi:10.1038/ncomms3921

Received 09 September 2013 Accepted 12 November 2013 Published 17 December 2013

Here we report the first bona fide Antarctic kimberlite occurrence, from the northern Prince Charles Mountains, emplaced during rifting of India from Australia-Antarctica.