ALBERT

Beschreibung: Invertebrates in estuaries could be at a greater risk of parasitism as climate change causes sea levels to rise. A new paper published 8 December in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (doi:10.1073/pnas.1416747111) describes how rapid sea level rise in the Holocene affected the population of parasitic flatworms called trematodes.

Beschreibung: About an hour and a half before the launch of the Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft at 6:22 p.m. on 28 October, Jeff Goldstein arrived at his vantage point on Arbuckle Neck Road in Assawoman, Va. It was just 1.5 miles from launchpad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Goldstein, director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) had come with about 35 elementary school through college students, as well as some parents, teachers, and school administrators, to watch the liftoff that would deliver the students' microgravity experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).

Beschreibung: Americans are very worried about the threat of natural disasters—but don't seem to be prepared for one. This conclusion comes from Chapman University's recent Survey on American Fears, released on 21 October. The survey asked 1500 Americans to rank how worried they were about several types of natural disasters and then how prepared they were for each.

Beschreibung: Microbial communities in thawing permafrost contribute a significant amount to atmospheric methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. A new paper published in Nature on 23 October describes how a newly discovered microbe— Methanoflorens stordalenmirensis —adds another layer to the complicated relationship between the world's permafrost fields and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Beschreibung: Crowdsourcing—“the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent [expert] and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people” [ Howe, 2009]—has fundamentally changed and enhanced the collection and dissemination of data. Crowdsourcing has proven effective for rapid data collection, especially where in-depth knowledge of a topic or discipline is not a necessity.

Beschreibung: I am a counter by nature. I count things as an effective way to occupy my mind. How many people are in this room? How many are women? How many are wearing glasses? How many people are using a Mac versus a PC?

Beschreibung: Ethics education is an increasingly important component of the pre-professional training of geoscientists. Geoethics encompasses the values and professional standards required of geoscientists to work responsibly in any geoscience profession and in service to society. Funding agencies (e.g., the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health) require training of graduate students in the responsible conduct of research; employers are increasingly expecting their workers to have basic training in ethics; and the public demands the highest standards of ethical conduct by scientists. However, there is currently no formal course of instruction in ethics in the geoscience curriculum, and few faculty members have the experience, resources, and sometimes willingness required to teach ethics as a component of their geoscience courses.

Beschreibung: U.S. hydrocarbon production is on the rise, meaning that transporting hydrocarbons—whether by pipelines, trucks, or trains—is as well. However, increasing environmental concerns, mixed with other issues such as energy independence and landowner rights, is making this transportation a hot-button issue.

Beschreibung: Lava from Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano, which began erupting on 29 August, now covers 60 square kilometers of the Holuhraun lava field. Scientists have arrived in droves to study the ongoing fissure eruptions.

Beschreibung: In the early years of the 20th century, physicist Bernard Brunhes, then director of the Geophysical Observatory of Puy de Dôme (now Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont), measured for the first time reverse magnetization in samples from a basaltic lava flow and from the underlying backed argillaceous sediments from the village of Pontfarein (now Pont Farin) in the Cantal volcanic district (Auvergne, France).

Beschreibung: During the latter half of the Cenozoic, starting during the Pliocene, the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) underwent a change from warm, wet climate conditions—which scientists refer to as “permanent El Niño”—to more moderate conditions like those observed today. Although scientists can track this change using marine proxy records, they are still puzzled as to why the sudden shift occurred.

Beschreibung: Scientists who study the physics of inland and coastal water bodies met in Trento, Italy in July for the 17th in a series of workshops that seek to expand cooperation with researchers in related fields. The workshops aim to facilitate the dialogue among physical limnologists, modelers, and colleagues from other disciplines, such as biologists, chemists, and engineers. This year's workshop was attended by 47 participants from 17 different countries.

Beschreibung: Saturn's magnetosphere exhibits phenomena with 10.7-hour periodicity that scientists do not fully understand. One proposed explanation is that twin vortices in the upper atmosphere at Saturn's north and south poles generate currents that drive the magnetosphere periodicity.

Beschreibung: On 9 December a dynamic, new, broadly inclusive, and freely accessible Earth and space science news website will launch: Eos.org. This new site is inspired by AGU's vision to galvanize our community of Earth and space scientists to collaboratively advance and communicate our science.

Beschreibung: The motion of the Earth's mantle is controlled in part by how mantle minerals respond to changes in temperature and pressure. The chemical and physical shifts that minerals undergo as they are heated and squeezed cause some to sink down toward the core and others to rise up toward the surface. This buoyant pressure and gravitational sinking, in turn, affect the convection of the mantle and the large-scale cycling of the Earth.

Beschreibung: Because the Earth's population is slated to hit 9 billion in the next century, food scarcity has become an increasingly important topic of study. Food availability is widely examined, but D'Odorico et al. point out that reliance on trade to distribute food has not been sufficiently quantified.

Beschreibung: As a glacier slides slowly into the sea, buoyancy eventually trumps gravity, and the sheet of ice floats. The place where the ice starts leaving the ground is called the grounding line, and this line can shift as the mass of the glacier shifts with precipitation or climate. Studying the movement of the grounding line through time helps scientists determine the stability of the glacier and its mass budget—the balance of how much mass the glacier is gaining or losing.

Beschreibung: The Edmond M. Dewan Young Scientist Scholarship fund has reached its goal of $25,000. Those who donated to the fund share AGU's mission in taking an active role in educating and nurturing the next generation of scientists and ensuring a sustainable future for society. Thanks to the generosity of more than 100 members of the AGU and science community, a deserving graduate student of atmospheric or space physics will receive financial assistance to further his or her research and advance his or her research and future career.

Beschreibung: Throughout the western United States, scientists have noticed that warming has reduced snow accumulation and led to earlier snowmelt, a change that could have dire consequences for the region's ecology and industries. Specifically, previous research has found that the rain-snow transition zone—the area where precipitation is dominated by rain versus snow in the winter—has shifted significantly in the past few decades.

Beschreibung: Coastal Oregon is home to a number of slow, recurrent landslides. During bouts of heavy rain, water gets into the soil, reducing friction and causing the ground to slip. Often, these landslides creep along at a barely perceptible rate—less than a centimeter per day. Yet the landslides are a lurking threat, as past events that have damaged infrastructure and cut communities off for months at a time have demonstrated.

Beschreibung: Surface ice on oceans and lakes can cause major problems onshore and offshore. Specifically, surface waves interacting with ice can create hazardous conditions for cargo ships, damage coastal structures, and carry important nutrients away from the shore.

Beschreibung: To study how an impacting plume modifies the mantle lithosphere, we analyzed the microstructures and crystal preferred orientations (CPO) of 29 peridotites and 37 pyroxenites that sample the mantle root of the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) from 60 to 120 km depth. The peridotites show a strong compositional variability, but homogeneous coarse-granular to tabular microstructures, except for those equilibrated at the shallowest and deepest depths, which are porphyroclastic. All peridotites have clear olivine CPO, with dominant fiber-[010] patterns. Low intragranular misorientations and straight grain boundaries in olivine suggest that, above 100 km depth, annealing often followed deformation. Calculated density and P-wave velocities of the peridotites decrease weakly with depth. S-wave velocities decrease faster, resulting in increasing Vp/Vs ratio with depth. Calculated densities and seismic velocity profiles are consistent with those estimated for normal mantle compositions under a cold oceanic geotherm. Enrichment in pyroxenites may further increase seismic velocities. The calculated seismic properties cannot therefore explain the low S-waves velocities predicted by Rayleigh wave tomography and ScS data in the mantle beneath the OJP. Calculated P- and S-wave anisotropy is variable (2-12%). It is higher on average in the deeper section of the lithosphere. Because olivine has dominantly [010]-fiber CPO patterns, if foliations are horizontal, vertically propagating S-waves and Rayleigh waves will sample very weak anisotropy in the OJP mantle lithosphere. Moreover, if the orientation of the lineation changes with depth, the anisotropy-induced contrast in seismic properties might produce an intralithospheric reflector marking the stratification of the OJP mantle root.

Beschreibung: The quantification of heat and mass flow between deep reservoirs and the surface is important for understanding magmatic and hydrothermal systems. Here, we use high-resolution measurement of carbon dioxide flux (ϕCO 2 ) and heat flow at the surface to characterize the mass (CO 2 and steam) and heat released to the atmosphere from two magma-hydrothermal systems. Our soil gas and heat flow surveys at Rotokawa and White Island in the Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, include over 3,000 direct measurements of ϕCO 2 and soil temperature and 60 carbon isotopic values on soil gases. Carbon dioxide flux was separated into background and magmatic/hydrothermal populations based on the measured values and isotopic characterization. Total CO 2 emission rates (ΣCO 2 ) of 441 ± 84 t d -1 and 124 ± 18 t d -1 were calculated for Rotokawa (2.9 km 2 ) and for the crater floor at White Island (0.3 km 2 ), respectively. The total CO 2 emissions differ from previously published values by +386 t d -1 at Rotokawa and +25 t d -1 at White Island, demonstrating that earlier research underestimated emissions by 700% (Rotokawa) and 25% (White Island). These differences suggest that soil CO 2 emissions facilitate more robust estimates of the thermal energy and mass flux in geothermal systems than traditional approaches. Combining the magmatic/hydrothermal-sourced CO 2 emission (constrained using stable isotopes) with reservoir H 2 O:CO 2 mass ratios and the enthalpy of evaporation, the surface expression of thermal energy release for the Rotokawa hydrothermal system (226 MW t ) is 10 times greater than the White Island crater floor (22.5 MW t ).

Beschreibung: To better constrain the mechanical behavior of sediments accreted to accretionary prism, we conducted triaxial mechanical tests on natural samples from the Miura-Boso paleo-accretionary prism (Japan) in drained conditions with confining pressures up to 200 MPa as well as post-experiments P-wave velocity (V p ) measurements. During experiments, deformation is principally non-coaxial and accommodated by two successive modes of deformation, both associated with strain-hardening and velocity-strengthening behavior: (1) compaction-assisted shearing, distributed in a several mm-wide shear zone and (2) faulting, localized within a few tens of µm-wide, dilatant fault zone. Deformation is also associated with (1) a decrease in Young's modulus all over the tests, (2) anomalously low V p in the deformed samples compared to their porosity and (3) an increase in sensitivity of V p to effective pressure. We interpret this evolution of the poroelastic properties of the material as reflecting the progressive breakage of intergrain cement and the formation of microcracks along with macroscopic deformation. When applied to natural conditions, these results suggest that the deformation style (localized vs distributed) of shallow (z 〈 a few km) sediments is mainly controlled by the variations in stress/strain rate during the seismic cycle and is therefore independent of the porosity of sediments. Finally, we show that the effect of strain, through cement breakage and microcracks formation, may lower V p for effective pressure up to 40 MPa. As a consequence, the low V p anomalies observed in Nankai accretionary prisms by seismic imaging between 2 and 4km depth [ Kitajima and Saffer , 2012] could reflect sediment deformation rather than porosity anomalies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Beschreibung: This study presents a new thermodynamic model for the calculation of phase relations during the melting of anhydrous spinel lherzolite at pressures of 1–2.5 GPa. The model is based on the total energy minimization algorithm for calculating phase equilibria within multicomponent systems and the thermodynamic configuration of Ueki and Iwamori [2013]. The model is based on a SiO 2 – Al 2 O 3 – FeO–Fe 3 O 4 –MgO–CaO system that includes silicate melt, olivine, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and spinel as possible phases. The molar Gibbs free energy of the melt phase is modeled quasi-empirically, and the thermodynamic parameters for silicate melt end-member components are calibrated with a polybaric calibration database. The temperatures and pressures used in this newly compiled calibration dataset are 1230–1600 ∘ C and 0.9–3 GPa, corresponding to the stability range of spinel lherzolite. The modeling undertaken during this study reproduces the general features of experimentally determined melting phase relations of spinel lherzolite at 1–2.5 GPa, including the solidus temperature, the melt composition, the chemical reaction during melting and the degree of melting. This new thermodynamic modeling also reproduces phase relations of various bulk compositions from fertile to deplete spinel lherzolite and can be used in the modeling of polybaric mantle melting within various natural settings. Comparing the results derived from this new modeling with those produced using previous models indicates that the new approach outlined here, involving a combination of total energy minimization and the direct calibration of melt thermodynamic parameters at pressure and temperature conditions corresponding to mantle melting with a relatively simple melt thermodynamic equation, can accurately model polybaric melting phase relations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Beschreibung: As part of the Amazon Web Services Hack-A-Thon, this year's AGU Fall Meeting attendees will be challenged to create an idea for a Web product based on climate change data for individual cities.

Beschreibung: The rate of ocean acidification in coral reefs outpaces the rise in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in Earth's atmosphere, indicating that anthropogenic carbon emissions alone are not to blame for the threat to coral reefs, a new study shows.

Beschreibung: Although it is not possible to predict when an earthquake will occur, many earthquakes have been found to have had some precursor activity. To study precursors of stick-slip behavior, Johnson et al . conducted laboratory experiments on a sheared granular material under normal stress ranging from 2 to 8 megapascals as an analog for a fault under tectonic stress. They found that acoustic emissions and microslips are a precursor to larger movements. Very similar results were obtained in a discrete element simulation of sheared beads. These types of experiments could help scientists better understand when earthquakes are more likely to occur. As shown by a number of researchers, very similar activity preceding faulting can occur in the Earth.

Beschreibung: In Arctic seafloor sediments, methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is trapped in chemical structures called hydrates. Methane hydrates form at low-temperature, high-pressure conditions, and methane can be released if the temperature rises. Previous studies have raised concern that global climate change could lead to release of significant amounts of methane from Arctic hydrates.

Beschreibung: A 308-year ice core record provides new data on climate variability in coastal West Antarctica and shows that a clear warming trend has occurred in recent decades. To study climate over the past 3 centuries, Thomas et al . analyzed stable isotopes in the ice core, which provide a record of past temperatures. They observed that climate variability in coastal West Antarctica is strongly driven by sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure in the tropical Pacific.

Beschreibung: Knowledge on the behavior of Mg isotopes during metamorphic dehydration is the prerequisite for applying Mg isotopes as tracers for crustal recycling. Here, we report Mg isotopic compositions of metapelites from the Onawa contact aureole, Maine. Except one sample, all metapelites across the aureole, from the wall-rock regional metamorphic rocks to the partially melted rocks adjacent to the pluton, have similar Mg isotopic compositions (δ 26 Mg = -0.09 to +0.12‰). This observation indicates limited Mg isotope fractionation during metamorphic dehydration and fluid-rock interaction, due to the low Mg concentration in fluids relative to rocks. Our results suggest that Mg isotopic compositions of metapelites can record those of their protoliths and, hence, recycled clastic sedimentary materials may preserve their low-temperature Mg isotopic signatures through subduction zones. Therefore, Mg isotopes may serve as new tracers for crustal recycling, for example, tracing components experienced weathering cycles within granite sources.

Beschreibung: When tectonic plates collide, the less buoyant plate will, in some cases, be forced beneath the other. At such subduction zones the sinking tectonic plate, known as a slab, does not follow a simple path from the surface to the deeper mantle. Instead, new research by Fukao and Obayashi suggests that subducting slabs pass through four largely distinct stages as they penetrate toward the core. To systematically catalog the stages of slab subduction, the authors analyzed roughly 10 million observations of the subsurface that were part of a tomographic study that used primary seismic waves to detect the structure of slabs in subduction zones around the Pacific.

Beschreibung: It is an honor and privilege to accept the David Perlman Award. Though I have never met Dave, he is a legend, and I can only hope to have a reporting career half as distinguished and a third as long as his own.

Beschreibung: It's my pleasure to nominate Paul Voosen, the former science reporter for Greenwire , for the David Perlman award. Last November, as Superstorm Sandy pounded the East Coast of the United States, Paul found himself stranded for several days in Miami, mourning a recently deceased family member.

Beschreibung: Some of the most dramatic effects of climate change have been observed in the Earth's polar regions. In Greenland, ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated in recent years [ Shepherd et al ., 2012]. Outlet glaciers are changing their behavior rapidly, with many thinning, retreating, and accelerating [ Joughin et al ., 2004]. The loss of ice weighing on the crust and mantle below has allowed both to rebound, resulting in high rock uplift rates [ Bevis et al ., 2012]. Changes in ice cover and meltwater production influence sea level and climate feedbacks; they are expected to contribute to increasing vulnerability to geohazards such as landslides, flooding, and extreme weather.

Beschreibung: Suzette Kimball, who has served as acting director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since February 2013, will be nominated to be director of the agency, U.S. president Barack Obama announced on 9 January. If Kimball's nomination is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she will lead the science agency, which has more than 8000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1.1 billion.

Beschreibung: With titles like “Correlates of avian building strikes at a glass façade museum surrounded by avian habitat” and “Electrospray ionization FT-ICR/MS investigation of zinc sulfate clusters,” a series of posters presented at AGU's Fall Meeting on 12 December 2013 might seem like a session covering general contributions from AGU members. However, something was unique about the posters: Most were created and presented by high school students.

Beschreibung: Magnetic anomaly identifications underpin plate tectonic reconstructions and form the primary dataset from which age of the oceanic lithosphere and seafloor spreading regimes in the ocean basins can be determined. Although these identifications are an invaluable resource, their usefulness to the wider scientific community has been limited due to the lack of a central community infrastructure to organize, host and update these interpretations. We have developed an open-source, community-driven online infrastructure as a repository for quality-checked magnetic anomaly identifications from all ocean basins. We provide a global sample dataset that comprises 96,733 individually picked magnetic anomaly identifications organized by ocean basin and publication reference, and provide accompanying Hellinger-format files, where available. Our infrastructure is designed to facilitate research in plate tectonic reconstructions or research that relies on an assessment of plate reconstructions, for both experts and non-experts alike. To further enhance the existing repository and strengthen its value, we encourage others in the community to contribute to this effort.

Beschreibung: A writer needs two distinct qualities to produce an article like “The Calm Before the Wave,” the piece on tsunamis for which Tim Folger is being honored with the 2013 Walter Sullivan Award. Like any good science writer, he needs the ability to sort through a large mass of scientific information and transform it into a clear, compelling narrative. But he also needs an empathic eye and ear—the ability to feel his way into the lives of people whose stories are utterly different from his own and to see and hear the telling details that will make those people come alive on the page.

Beschreibung: We present an efficient method for high-volume heavy mineral separation from clay-rich rocks using an ultrasonic probe. The ultrasonic clay separator (UCS) is an easily constructed device that allows for the recovery of high-density minerals, as small as 10 microns, with a minimum of sample preparation. Heavy mineral recovery from clay-rich material with the UCS yields a greater number of small (〈100 micron) grains and approximately double the amount of material from that of gravity settling and decanting. Despite development with heavy mineral recovery in mind, the UCS should suitable for recovering small grain size geologic materials from flocculating clay-rich material.

Beschreibung: In the detachment mode of slow seafloor spreading, convex-upward detachment faults take up a high proportion of the plate separation velocity exposing gabbro and serpentinized peridotite on the seafloor. Large, long-lived hydrothermal systems such as TAG are situated off-axis and may be controlled by fluid flow up a detachment fault, with the source of magmatic heat being as deep as 7 kmbsf. The consequences of such deep circulation for the evolution of fluid temperature and salinity have not previously been investigated. Microthermometry on fluid inclusions trapped in diabase, gabbro and trondjhemite, recovered at the Atlantis Massif Oceanic Core Complex (30° N, mid-Atlantic Ridge), reveals evidence for magmatic exsolution, phase separation, and mixing between hydrothermal fluids and previously phase separated fluids. Four types of fluid inclusions were identified, ranging in salinity from 1.4 wt.% NaCl to 35 wt.% NaCl, although the most common inclusions have salinities close to seawater (3.4 wt.% NaCl). Homogenization temperatures range from 160 to 〉400 °C, with the highest temperatures in hypersaline inclusions trapped in trondjhemite and the lowest temperatures in low salinity inclusions trapped in quartz veins. The fluid history of the Atlantis Massif is interpreted in the context of published thermochronometric data from the Massif, and a comparison with the inferred circulation pattern beneath the TAG hydrothermal field, to better constrain the pressure temperature conditions of trapping and when in the history of exhumation of the rocks sampled by IODP Hole U1309D fluids have been trapped.

Beschreibung: Deformation processes involve systems of tens to hundreds of kilometers moving at highly variable rates. Because direct kinematic observations have proven difficult, geoscientists are sometimes found in the lab creating analogs, or laboratory models of the Earth. The main scope—and a key challenge—of laboratory modeling of Earth systems is to provide a quantitative approach for understanding geological processes. Since the last decade, various image analysis techniques in laboratory modeling have been designed and used to constrain the kinematics of the simulated processes at an unprecedented resolution. These techniques prove to be the key quantification tools in experimental modeling, not only allowing mechanical analysis of the experiments but also producing experimental data sets that are directly comparable to geophysical and geodetic data in nature and numerical models.

Beschreibung: Continental scientific drilling is an important tool for exploring natural and anthropogenic processes on Earth. In past decades the results obtained from lake drilling projects contributed significantly to a better understanding of short-term and long-term climate change and natural hazards.

Beschreibung: We, Kevin's friends and colleagues, are pleased to have prepared his nomination package. Across the broad and expansive climate science community, there are very few people who have a history of sustained engagement like Kevin. Whereas many people have worked to convey the importance of climate change, Kevin has tirelessly done so for decades. In addition, the breadth of his activities is astonishing. It includes innumerable interviews on radio, on television, and in printed media over the past 30 years. He has also taken on many leadership communication roles within the scientific community, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to name just one.

Beschreibung: Ted Flinn and John LaBrecque followed remarkably, perhaps eerily, similar career paths. Ted started as a seismologist, John as a tectonician and sea-going geophysicist. Both decided to rededicate their efforts toward supporting the geophysical community, recognizing that it depends ever more critically on global, space-based measurements and observations. Ted did that a decade after the 1968 Williamstown conference, and John did it a decade after the 1988 Coolfont conference. Both of these history-making conferences focused on the geophysical uses of space assets to study the planet.

Beschreibung: Chapman conferences are intended for deeper discussions of specific topical areas of scientific interest. This Chapman conference was organized to review and discuss new strategies to observe and understand processes and drivers in the biogeosphere, particularly those related to coupled biogeochemical and hydrological processes in terrestrial systems. The topics presented at the meeting included transport and exchange processes of organic and gaseous compounds across the soil-water and soil-plant interfaces, monitoring strategies of soil-mediated processes and drivers from the local to the catchment scale, and the impact of soil formation and functions on ecosystem services. These topics were addressed and intensively discussed by participants covering the fields of soil systems sciences, hydrology, and biogeosciences.

Beschreibung: It is a great pleasure and an honor to give the citation for the 2013 Athelstan Spilhaus awardee, Iain Stewart, professor of geoscience communication at the University of Plymouth, recognizing his truly exceptional work over the last decade in communicating geoscience to the general public. Iain has been making documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic, and Discovery for nearly a decade. These programs have huge international audiences and wide-reaching impact.

Beschreibung: I am delighted to be recognized with this prize. I want to first thank AGU and the prize committee and, especially, Nature's Own for establishing this prize in a field that has become contentious and highly political. It did not used to be this way. Following the media frenzy with the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, there was hope at the 2009 Conference of Parties meeting in Copenhagen that an international framework agreement on climate change might be achieved. It was not to be. Planned actions to address issues of climate change were undermined by huge funding of misinformation by vested interests. It was not helped by so-called “climategate” in which many emails illegally hacked from a computer server at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom were released, cherry picked, distorted, and misused by climate change deniers. Minor errors in the IPCC report were blown out of all proportion and ineffectively addressed. I was caught up in all this, and one of my many emails went viral: the “travesty” quote in which I bemoaned the inability to close the global energy balance associated with short-term climate variability but which was misinterpreted as saying there was no global warming. These examples highlight failures of communication.

Beschreibung: Solomon Hsiang is representative of a new generation in the geosciences community, whose work spans several disciplines, drawing on methods and concepts from far outside the traditional physical science domain in order to make progress on difficult questions at the intersection of natural science, social science, and public policy. Broadly speaking, by examining how humanity has responded to climate variability and change in the distant and recent past, Sol's research elucidates the question of how humanity may respond to a changing climate in the future. Combining large, independent sets of social science, meteorological, and climatological data and analyzing them with tools more common in microeconomics than natural science, Sol, still at an early stage of his career, has made critical contributions to an incipient revolution in our understanding of the sensitivity and adaptability of humans and their social arrangements to climate variability and change. Such insights will greatly improve the information base from which effective public policy is developed.

Beschreibung: Thanks to AGU and our citationist, Richard Alley, for this joint award to Erna and myself. While it is, of course, personally gratifying, we also consider it an acknowledgement that “science journalism” has broadened out from print to include video in all forms—from PBS primetime to YouTube anytime—and also social media and spoken-word presentations. We're pleased that this is one more way in which AGU is validating the participation of its members in all forms of public outreach. We're gratified that our efforts in this regard have been supported by NSF, NASA, and NOAA, among other government agencies, and are happy to acknowledge their “priceless” role as funders. As one of our current collaborators, former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, likes to say, “The science isn't done until it's shared”…and there are more and more ways in which that sharing can be done.

Beschreibung: On 24 August 2013 a sudden burst of gas erupted from the ground near Rome's airport, about 15 kilometers southwest of the city. The eruption produced a crater that was initially about half a meter wide but that gradually increased in size and eventually reached a diameter of about 3 meters.

Beschreibung: Dr. Chelle Gentemann is a worthy recipient of the Charles S. Falkenberg Award. Through her leadership at both national and international levels, Chelle has contributed significantly to improving the accuracy, accessibility, and utility of satellite-derived fields of sea surface temperature (SST) for a wide range of applications, including numerical weather forecasting, operational oceanography, and climate research.

Beschreibung: Thank you, Cinna, for your kind and generous citation and for your friendship. It is a great recognition having been selected for the 2013 International Award. I feel honored, especially considering the international breadth of AGU, fostering scientific excellence and promoting research in Earth and space sciences worldwide. AGU has evolved over the years, becoming increasingly international and multidisciplinary, providing the intellectual framework and networking for research collaboration. I have been privileged to serve as International Secretary of the Union, which together with work in the committees permitted me to better appreciate the range of activities and the programs AGU does to serve its membership and the geophysics community.

Beschreibung: The meaning of “interdisciplinary” has evolved over my career. When I started my science research career, it meant bridging atmospheric and ocean science and embracing the science of the Earth system and its interacting components. Thus, I found a home at AGU submitting science abstracts to atmospheric science, oceanography, or hydrology sessions. In fact, my first research paper appeared in Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR)-Atmospheres , and a letter to the editor and response appeared in JGR-Oceans . It also meant getting scientists in these disciplines talking to each other. I organized a seminar series at Rice University under the umbrella of an Earth Systems Institute that included the Departments of Space Physics and Astronomy, Geology and Geophysics, Biology, and Hydrology. I also began working with Dr. Patricia Reiff, a space physicist with a passion for science education.

Beschreibung: It is really wonderful to receive this award and the recognition of AGU for my work. I've been a member of the Union since my Ph.D. days, 25 years or so ago, when I was working on earthquake faulting in Greece and Turkey. Its meetings were always the place that showcased geoscience at its most novel and exciting. It was the breadth of what was on offer that was so exhilarating. My doctoral studies had already opened up fairly wide vistas for me since my interest in Holocene earthquake activity also required an understanding of the Mediterranean's rich cultural history and the vagaries of millennial-scale climate fluctuations. Later, my research would distract me into farther-flung realms, such as volcanic faulting on Mount Etna, paleotsunamis along Aegean shores, even postglacial earthquakes in northern Scotland! Kindly colleagues would occasionally advise me to focus my efforts on a single substantive area of research, cautioning that my flighty research forays weren't conducive to climbing the academic ladder. I'm sure they were correct. Or would have been proved so if I hadn't been rescued by television.

Beschreibung: I am honored to receive this award, created by Peter Schlosser, nominated by my postdoc advisor Michael Oppenheimer, and alongside my thesis advisor Mark Cane, recipient of this year's Maurice Ewing Medal—all role models and original pioneers in “the application and use of Earth and space sciences to solve societal problems.”

Beschreibung: A question about how to predict the runoff from a basin where there is no history of flow measurements is probably featured in almost every hydrology graduate student's oral examinations. It has certainly been one of the longest-standing problems for the profession. The International Association of Hydrological Sciences Prediction in Ungauged Basins initiative [ Wagener et al ., 2004] has focused researchers and meetings on the topic, culminating in this book, which assembles the thoughts gathered over the last decade.

Beschreibung: From Cosmos to Mars and Pluto and back home, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles and Erna Akuginow have invested their careers reporting the best modern science in novel, compelling, and accessible ways through documentaries, live events, print, and new media. They are outstanding recipients of the AGU Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism.

Beschreibung: Clouds' effects on climate are significant and complex. Many cloud processes occur at small scales and are difficult to calculate in large-scale models, so general circulation models typically use parameterizations to represent a range of cloud properties.

Beschreibung: We study the elastic wave speed structure of the crust and the uppermost mantle in western Tibet using P and S-wave arrival times from regional earthquakes recorded by a temporary seismic network. We relocate the earthquakes, and subsequently invert travel time residuals for 3D distributions of wave speed. Resolution tests with a variety of input structures are used to verify the reliability of our results. The crust beneath western Tibet has low P-wave speed (5.9 - 6.3 km/s) throughout its nearly 80 km thickness, with lower values in this range concentrated within the Lhasa block. Beneath the Himalaya wave speeds are higher. Southern and western limits of the slow material beneath the Tibetan Plateau correlate with the Karakoram fault, and dip beneath the plateau at ~40° angle. We find no evidence of a sub-horizontal low velocity zone in the crust. In the uppermost mantle we find a long and narrow region of fast (up to 8.4 km/s) P-wave speed extending from the Karakoram fault in NE direction, and crossing the Bangong-Nujiang suture. In a north-south cross-section, the distribution of relatively fast P-wave speed suggests a ramp-flat geometry consistent with India underthrusting the Tibetan Plateau at least as far as 32.5°N. A plausible interpretation of the upper mantle fast feature is the formation of eclogite from the mafic lower-crustal material of India after it is underthrust beneath Tibet. Notably, in western Tibet this process only takes place in a narrow region.

Beschreibung: We have employed shear wave splitting techniques to image anisotropy beneath the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, in southeastern Papua New Guinea. Our results provide a detailed picture of the extending continent that lies immediately ahead of a propagating mid-ocean ridge tip; we image the transition from continental to oceanic extension. A dense shear wave splitting dataset from a 2010-11 passive-source seismic deployment is analyzed using single- and multi-channel methods. Splitting delay times of 1-1.5 s are observed and fast axes of anisotropy trending N-S, parallel to rifting direction, predominate the results. This trend is linked to lattice-preferred orientation of olivine, primarily in the shallow convecting mantle, driven by up to 200 km of N-S continental extension ahead of the westward-propagating Woodlark Rift. This pattern differs from several other continental rifts that evince rift-strike-parallel fast axes and is evident despite the complex recent tectonic history. We contend that across most of this rift, the unusually high rate and magnitude of extension has been sufficient to produce a regime change to a mid-ocean-ridge-like mantle fabric. Stations in the south of our array show more complex splitting that might be related to melt or to complex inherited structure at the edge of the extended region.

Beschreibung: From April 2010 through February 2011, CO 2 flux surveys were performed on Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand. The area has been hydrothermally active with fumaroles and sublacustrine hydrothermal activity before and since the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886. The total CO 2 emission from the lake calculated by sequential Gaussian simulation is 549 ± 72 t day -1 . Two different mechanisms of degassing, diffusion through the water-air interface and bubbling, are distinguished using a graphical statistical approach. The carbon dioxide budget calculated for the lake confirms that the main source of CO 2 to the atmosphere is by diffusion covering 94.5 % of the lake area (mean CO 2 flux 25 g m -2 day -1 ) and to a lesser extent, bubbling (mean CO 2 flux 1297 g m -2 day -1 ). Mapping of the CO 2 flux over the entire lake, including over lakefloor vents detected during the survey, correlates with eruption craters formed during the 1886 eruption. These surveys also follow regional tectonic patterns present in the southeastern sector of Lake Rotomahana suggesting a deep magmatic source (~ 10 km) for CO 2 and different pathways for the gas to escape to the surface. The values of δ 13 C CO2 (-2.88 and -2.39 ‰) confirm the magmatic origin of CO 2 .

Beschreibung: Nine AGU members are among the 102 researchers that U.S. president Barack Obama announced on 23 December as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Beschreibung: An 8 January decision by the White House to propose an extension of the International Space Station's (ISS) operation until at least 2024 would allow for increased research on board the floating laboratory, a longer planning horizon for commercial activities, and a continuation of international cooperation in space, administration officials said. The proposal, which has received initial support from some key members of Congress, would be the second extension for ISS under the Obama administration and would accommodate increased research related to long-duration human space flight, Earth science, and other areas. ISS, which in the United States is authorized under the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, was last extended in 2010 and costs about $3 billion annually to operate.

Beschreibung: Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and three major river forecasting centers of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) have discontinued a long-standing practice of publishing consensus water supply forecasts in western U.S. river basins.

Beschreibung: Atmospheric and Space Electricity (ASE)

Beschreibung: Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano has been erupting since 1983. Starting in 2003, researchers noticed an inflation of the magma chamber beneath the volcano; this inflation accelerated in 2006. In June 2007, the volcano's eruption peaked with a burst of activity known as the Father's Day event. In the buildup to those eruptions, according to new research by Wauthier et al ., a pair of large-magnitude earthquakes hit, with an epicenter beneath the volcano. Earthquakes are common around the volcano, which sits on Hawaii's Big Island, but with magnitudes of 4.7 and 4.1, the two 2007 earthquakes were among the most powerful recorded in the region since records began in 1959.

Beschreibung: When the temperature rises on Baffin Island, in the Canadian high Arctic, ancient Polytrichum mosses are exposed from beneath melting glacier ice. Within a few years of exposure the mosses are quickly eroded away by snow and wind, but trapped beneath the ice, they can remain, frozen, for thousands of years.

Beschreibung: Since the first up-close observations of Saturn, made by the Pioneer 11 probe in 1979, a great deal has been learned about the dynamics of the gas giant's magnetosphere. In-depth observations made by the Cassini orbiter, which has been circling Saturn since 2004, have revealed fundamental differences between the behavior of Saturn's magnetosphere and that of the Earth's magnetosphere. Earth's magnetospheric plasma is largely populated by ions captured from the solar wind, whereas Saturn's plasma comes predominantly from water vapor that spews from massive geysers on the southern end of its icy moon Enceladus. Ionized water vapor from Enceladus streams out at 12 to 250 kilograms per second, yet observations show that the concentration of plasma in Saturn's magnetosphere is at a relatively steady level. This discrepancy has left researchers searching for potential plasma loss mechanisms. In a review, Thomsen highlights the progress made in recent years in understanding this question.

Beschreibung: The 27 February release of an environmental review of geological and geophysical (G&G) survey activities off the mid- and South Atlantic outer continental shelf is a key step toward potentially opening the area to oil and gas exploration, according to industry and environmental groups. That is a prospect industry groups favor and environmental groups say will harm marine life.

Beschreibung: Scientific discovery, technological revolutions, and complex global challenges are commonplace in the modern era. People are bombarded with news about climate change, pandemics, and genetically modified organisms, and scientific literacy has never been more important than in the present day. Yet only 29% of American adults have sufficient understanding to be able to read science stories reported in the popular press [ Miller, 2010], and American students consistently rank below other nations in math and science [ National Center for Education Statistics, 2012].

Beschreibung: In the shadow of the Matterhorn, the broad form of the Matter Valley—like so many throughout the Alps—is interrupted by a deep U-shaped glacial trough. Carved into a landscape reflecting millennia of tectonic uplift and river erosion, growing evidence suggests the 100-meter-deep U-shaped groove was produced shortly after a shift toward major cycles of Alpine glaciation almost a million years ago. Subsequent glaciations may have therefore had little effect on the landscape.

Beschreibung: The U.S. Senate confirmed Kathryn Sullivan as under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere on 6 March. She also becomes administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Beschreibung: The proposed federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2015, released by the White House on 4 March, would provide small increases for a number of science agencies, although some, including NASA, would see a dip in funding. Overall, the budget proposes $135.4 billion for federal research and development (R&D) activities, an increase of $1.7 billion (1.2%) over the FY 2014 enacted levels.

Beschreibung: Regional-scale geologic structures characteristic of mantle lithosphere within cratons found in continent interiors are interpreted using geo-registered diverse data sets from the Slave craton of northwest Canada. We developed and applied a new method for mapping seismic discontinuities in three dimensions using multi-year observations at sparse, individual broadband receivers. New, fully 3-D conductivity models used all available magnetotelluric data. Discontinuity surfaces and conductivity models were geo-registered with previously published P-wave and surface wave velocity models to confirm first-order structures such as a mid-lithosphere discontinuity. Our 3-D model to 400 km depth was calibrated by ‘drill hole’ observations derived from xenolith suites extracted from kimberlites. A number of new structural discontinuities emerge from direct comparison of co-registered data sets and models. Importantly we distinguish primary mantle layers from secondary features related to younger metasomatism. Sub-horizontal Slave craton layers with tapered, wedge-shaped margins indicate construction of the craton core at 2.7 Ga by underthrusting and flat stacking of lithosphere. Mapping of conductivity and metasomatism in 3-D, the latter inferred via mineral recrystallization and resetting of isotopic ages in xenoliths, indicates overprinting of the primary layered structures. The observed distribution of relatively conductive mantle at 100–200 km depths is consistent with pervasive metasomatism; vertical ‘chimneys’ reaching to crustal depths in locations where kimberlites erupted or where Au mineralization is known.

Beschreibung: Understanding the nature of the crust has long been a goal for seismologists when imaging the Earth. This is particularly true in volcanic regions where imaging melt storage and migration can have important implications for the size and nature of an eruption. Receiver functions and the H- κ stacking (H κ ) technique are often used to constrain crustal thickness (H) and the ratio of P- to S-wave velocities ( κ ). In this paper I show that it is essential to consider anisotropy when performing H κ . I show that in a medium with horizontally transverse isotropy a strong variation in κ with back azimuth is present which characterises the anisotropic medium. In a vertically transverse isotropic medium no variation in κ with back azimuth is observed, but κ is increased across all back azimuths. Thus, estimates of κ are more difficult to relate to composition than previously thought. I extend these models to melt induced anisotropy and show that similar patterns are observed, but with more significant variations and increases in κ . Based on these observations I develop a new anisotropic H- κ stacking technique which inverts H κ data for melt fraction, aspect ratio and orientation of melt inclusions. I apply this to data for the Afar Depression and show that melt is stored in interconnected stacked sills in the lower crust, which likely supply the recent volcanic eruptions and dike intrusions. This new technique can be applied to any anisotropic medium where it can provide constraints on the average crustal anisotropy.

Beschreibung: A Fortran 90 program to visualize data on the Yin-Yang grid system is developed. The purpose of this study is to provide simulation researchers with a source code as a starting point of their own custom-made visualization tools. A basic but sufficiently diverse set of visualization methods are implemented using a Fortran 90 binding for OpenGL for scalar and vector fields defined or simulated on the Yin-Yang grid.

Beschreibung: Twelve submarine mud volcanoes (MV) in the Kumano forearc basin within the Nankai Trough subduction zone were investigated for hydrocarbon origins and fluid dynamics. Gas hydrates diagnostic for methane concentrations exceeding solubilities were recovered from MVs 2, 4, 5, and 10. Molecular ratios (C 1 /C 2 〈250) and stable carbon isotopic compositions (δ 13 C-CH 4 〉−40‰ V-PDB) indicate that hydrate-bound hydrocarbons (HCs) at MVs 2, 4, and 10 are derived from thermal cracking of organic matter. Considering thermal gradients at the nearby IODP Sites C0009 and C0002, the likely formation depth of such HCs ranges between 2,300 and 4,300 m below seafloor (mbsf). With respect to basin sediment thickness and the minimum distance to the top of the plate boundary thrust we propose that the majority of HCs fueling the MVs is derived from sediments of the Cretaceous to Tertiary Shimanto belt below Plio-/Pleistocene to recent basin sediments. With respect to sizes and appearances hydrates are suggested to be relicts of higher MV activity in the past, although the sporadic presence of vesicomyid clams at MV 2 showed that fluid migration is sufficient to nourish chemosynthesis-based organisms in places. Distributions of dissolved methane at MVs 3, 4, 5, and 8 pointed at fluid supply through one or few MV conduits and effective methane oxidation in the immediate subsurface. The aged nature of the hydrates suggests that the major portion of methane immediately below the top of the methane-containing sediment interval is fueled by current hydrate dissolution rather than active migration from greater depth.

Beschreibung: 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology depends critically on well calibrated standards, often traceable to first-principles K-Ar age calibrations using bulb-tracer systems. Tracer systems also provide precise standards for noble-gas studies and interlaboratory calibration. The exponential expression long-used for calculating isotope tracer concentrations in K-Ar age dating and calibration of 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age standards may provide a close approximation of those values, but is not correct. Appropriate equations are derived that accurately describe the depletion of tracer reservoirs and concentrations of sequential tracers. The true form of the expression is a power law, not exponential, and a similar expression was presented by Miiller (2006, J. Res. Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol., 111 (5), 335–360). Evaluation of the expressions demonstrates that systematic error introduced through use of the exponential approximation may be substantial where reservoir volumes are small and resulting depletion constants are large. Traditional use of large reservoir to tracer volumes and the resulting small depletion constants have kept errors well less than experimental uncertainties in most previous K-Ar and calibration studies. Use of the proper expression, however, permits use of volumes appropriate to the problems addressed.

Beschreibung: Natural hydrate-bearing sediment (HBS) predominantly exists in non-cementing habit, and its limited availability for use in laboratory studies demands a time-effective and repeatable laboratory process for forming representative samples with natural accumulation habit. This study reports on a three-step laboratory process for forming non-cementing methane hydrate in sandy sediments: (1) initial HBS formation under excess-gas conditions; (2) slow saline water (5wt % CaCl 2 ) injection under strictly controlled PT conditions; and (3) a temperature warming/cooling cycle. Changes in compressional wave velocity ( V p ) of sediment, as well as pressure-temperature (P-T) condition, were monitored throughout the tests. The evolution of V p , in good agreement with rock physics model calculations, suggested that the transition from cementing hydrate into non-cementing hydrate occurs during saline injection as well as temperature warming/cooling cycle. The proposed process appeared to be an efficient and consistent substitute for the existing methods, to form non-cementing hydrate habit in sandy sediments.

Beschreibung: Great earthquakes anticipated on the Cascadia subduction fault can potentially rupture beyond the geodetically and thermally inferred locked zone to the depths of episodic tremor and slip (ETS) or to the even deeper forearc mantle corner (FMC). To evaluate these extreme rupture limits, we map the FMC from southern Vancouver Island to central Oregon by combining published seismic velocity structures with a model of the Juan de Fuca plate. These data indicate that the FMC is somewhat shallower beneath Vancouver Island (36–38 km) and Oregon (35–40 km) and deeper beneath Washington (41–43 km). The updip edge of tremor follows the same general pattern, overlying a slightly shallower Juan de Fuca plate beneath Vancouver Island and Oregon (˜30 km) and a deeper plate beneath Washington (˜35 km). Similar to the Nankai subduction zone, the best constrained FMC depths correlate with the center of the tremor band suggesting that ETS is controlled by conditions near the FMC rather than directly by temperature or pressure. Unlike Nankai, a gap as wide as 70 km exists between the downdip limit of the inferred locked zone and the FMC. This gap also encompasses a ˜50 km wide gap between the inferred locked zones and the updip limit of tremor. The separation of these features offers a natural laboratory for determining the key controls on downdip rupture limits.

Beschreibung: Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell released a new strategy on 10 April 2014 to advance landscape-scale, science-based management of America's public lands and wildlife. The strategy will implement mitigation policies and practices at the Department of the Interior that can encourage infrastructure development while protecting natural and cultural resources.

Beschreibung: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released the latest edition of its National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2011), the nation's most comprehensive look at land surface conditions. The database divides the lower 48 states into 9 billion geographic cells, providing consistent information about land conditions on regional and nationwide scales.

Beschreibung: Energetic protons emitted in bursts from the Sun pose a potential hazard for spacecraft, satellites, humans in space, and aircraft at high latitudes. Researchers have now verified that a set of sensors used to measure solar proton events are correctly intercalibrated to provide early warning of the events.

Beschreibung: A little more than 50 years ago, on 27 March 1964, the Great Alaska earthquake and tsunami struck. At moment magnitude 9.2, this earthquake is notable as the largest in U.S. written history and as the second-largest ever recorded by instruments worldwide. But what resonates today are its impacts on the understanding of plate tectonics, tsunami generation, and earthquake history as well as on the development of national programs to reduce risk from earthquakes and tsunamis.

Beschreibung: As the wildfire season approaches, the Obama administration has released its new National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, developed by federal, state, tribal, and community partners. The strategy outlines new approaches to maintain healthy ‘landscapes, prepare communities for the fire season, and better address the nation's fire threats. “Through more strategic coordination with local communities the National Cohesive Strategy will help us better protect 46 million homes in 70,000 communities from catastrophic wildfires,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Beschreibung: The L'Oréal For Women in Science program is calling for women postdoctoral scientists to submit applications for the L'Oréal USA Women in Science Fellowship. Five women scientists in a variety of fields, including life and physical/material sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics, will receive grants of up to $60,000 each. Since the program began in 1998, more than 2000 women scientists worldwide have been awarded fellowships. Application materials are available at https://lorealfwis.aaas.org/login/indexA.cfm; the deadline to apply is 19 May 2014.

Beschreibung: Laser spectroscopy for analysis of stable isotopes is a rapidly emerging technology with the potential to enable new scientific investigations in hydrology and biogeochemistry. The two basic advantages of laser spectroscopy over mass spectrometry—lower instrument cost and ease of use—mean more laboratories can obtain the capability. Portability of instruments allows field deployment with online analysis of large numbers of samples outside the laboratory. However, the novelty of laser spectroscopy for isotope applications means there is little collective experience, so its strengths and limitations are not as well understood as those of mass spectrometry.

Beschreibung: Each year, AGU members and donors go above and beyond, providing the essential funding necessary for AGU to reach its goals and promote new programming for our members and the scientific community.

Beschreibung: A dozen meters beneath the surface of the southeastern Greenland Ice Sheet is an aquifer that holds roughly as much water as Israel's Dead Sea. The unconfined aquifer occupies about 980 cubic kilometers of Greenland's porous firn, snow that is more than a year old but has not yet compacted to ice. Were the aquifer to drain into the ocean, the water could cause as much as 0.4 millimeter of global sea level rise. Koenig et al . build on their 2011 discovery of the aquifer and report the first attempts to directly measure its properties.

Beschreibung: After graduation, many undergraduates feel pressure to jump immediately into graduate school or to land a job. That path keeps students from pursuing an internship or temporary position in something that might provide authentic and useful professional experience that would help establish a desirable career.

Beschreibung: During eruptions onto low slopes, basaltic Pahoehoe lava can form thin lobes that progressively coalesce and inflate to many times their original thickness, due to a steady injection of magma beneath brittle and viscoelastic layers of cooled lava that develop sufficient strength to retain the flow. Inflated lava flows forming tumuli and pressure ridges have been reported in different kinds of environments, such as at contemporary subaerial Hawaiian-type volcanoes in Hawaii, La Réunion and Iceland, in continental environments (states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington), and in the deep sea at Juan de Fuca Ridge, the Galapagos spreading center, and at the East Pacific Rise (this study). These lava have all undergone inflation processes, yet they display highly contrasting morphologies that correlate with their depositional environment, the most striking difference being the presence of water. Lava that have inflated in subaerial environments display inflation structures with morphologies that significantly differ from subaqueous lava emplaced in the deep sea, lakes, and rivers. Their height is 2 to 3 times smaller and their length being 10 to 15 times shorter. Based on heat diffusion equation, we demonstrate that more efficient cooling of a lava flow in water leads to the rapid development of thicker (by 25%) cooled layer at the flow surface, which has greater yield strength to counteract its internal hydrostatic pressure than in subaerial environments, thus limiting lava breakouts to form new lobes, hence promoting inflation. Buoyancy also increases the ability of a lava to inflate by 60%. Together, these differences can account for the observed variations in the thickness and extent of subaerial and subaqueous inflated lava flows.

Beschreibung: A new initiative is using advances in satellite technology, open access to data, cloud computing, and crowdsourcing to try to stem deforestation around the world.

Beschreibung: Eric J. Barron has been selected as the eighteenth president of Pennsylvania State University; he will assume that role on 12 May. Barron has been president of Florida State University in Tallahassee since 2010. His previous positions include serving as director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 2008 to 2010, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2008, and dean of Pennsylvania State University's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 2002 to 2006.

Beschreibung: When fresh river water first flows into the salty coastal ocean, the two types of water remain highly stratified. However, the difference in velocity between the river and ocean waters can cause turbulence—chaotic motion that breaks through density barriers and promotes mixing. Understanding the role of turbulence in driving coastal water properties—from temperature to salinity to nutrient load distributions—requires a more complete understanding of the physics of coastal turbulence.

Beschreibung: AGU is committed to the progress of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational programming for the next generation of scientists. STEM ensures the future of science and technology by providing academic and professional support to students in these fields.