NATURE
1. Primitive layered gabbros from fast-spreading
lower oceanic crust
Kathryn
M. Gillis, Jonathan E. Snow, Adam Klaus, Natsue Abe, Álden B. et al.
Nature 505, 204–207 (09 January 2014)
doi:10.1038/nature12778
Drilling by the Integrated
Ocean Drilling Program has recovered primitive, modally layered,
orthopyroxene-bearing cumulate rocks from the lower plutonic crust formed at a
fast-spreading ridge, leading to a better-constrained estimate of the bulk
composition of fast-spreading oceanic crust.
SCIENCE
2. Transient Water Vapor
at Europa’s South Pole
Lorenz Roth, Joachim Saur,
Kurt D. Retherford, Darrell F. Strobel, Paul D. Feldman, Melissa A. McGrath,
and Francis Nimmo
Science 10 January 2014:
171-174. [DOI:10.1126/science.1247051]
Hubble Space Telescope
images of Jupiter’s moon Europa reveal emission consistent with transient water
vapor plumes.
3. Strong Sensitivity
of Pine Island Ice-Shelf Melting to Climatic Variability
Pierre
Dutrieux, Jan De Rydt, Adrian Jenkins, Paul R. Holland, Ho Kyung Ha, Sang Hoon
Lee, Eric J. Steig, Qinghua Ding, E. Povl Abrahamsen, and Michael Schröder
Science
10 January 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6167 pp. 174-178, DOI: 10.1126/science.1244341
Colder
surface ocean waters decreased the rate of melting under the Pine Island
Glacier ice shelf
in
2012.
PNAS
4. Initial stages of
calcium uptake and mineral deposition in sea urchin embryos
Netta Vidavsky, Sefi
Addadi, Julia Mahamid, Eyal Shimoni, David Ben-Ezra, Muki Shpigel, Steve
Weiner, and Lia Addadi
PNAS 2014 111 (1) 39-44; doi:10.1073/pnas.1312833110
We reconstructed various
stages of the formation pathway of calcium carbonate from calcium ions in sea
water to mineral deposition and integration into the forming spicules.
Monitoring calcium uptake with the fluorescent dye calcein shows that calcium
ions first penetrate the embryo and later are deposited intracellularly.
5. Re-Os geochronology and coupled Os-Sr isotope constraints on the
Sturtian snowball Earth
Alan D. Rooney, Francis A. Macdonald, Justin V.
Strauss, Francis Ö. Dudás, Christian Hallmann, and David Selby
PNAS 2014 111 (1) 51-56; doi:10.1073/pnas.1317266110
We present unique Re-Os geochronology and
high-resolution Os and Sr isotope profiles of glacial deposits in northwest
Canada. The postglacial Re-Os date of 662.4 ± 3.9 Mya represents direct
geochronological constraints for both the onset and demise of a Cryogenian
glaciation and suggests a 55-My duration of the Sturtian glacial epoch
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
6. Anthropogenic radionuclides in atmospheric air over Switzerland during
the last few decades
J. A. Corcho Alvarado, P. Steinmann, S. Estier, F.
Bochud, M. Haldimann & P. Froidevaux
Nature Communications 5,
Article number: 3030 doi:10.1038/ncomms4030
Here we show that plutonium and caesium radionuclides
are present in the stratosphere at higher levels than in the troposphere. Our
results also reveal that strong volcanic eruptions like Eyjafjallajökull in
2010 have an important role in redistributing anthropogenic radionuclides from
the stratosphere to the troposphere.
