Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets On Earth, as in other rocky bodies with an atmosphere, the most dramatic variations in wind, temperature, and humidity occur within the lowest part of the atmosphere in contact with the surface. Air flowing over rugged terrains spins up eddies, which transport heat, momentum, and humidity in and out of the surface. This turbulent transport shapes the near-surface weather, and thus plays a key role in the design of atmospheric instrumentation onboard current and future m ..read more

When 70,000 fans bounced up and down to Taylor Swift last year, the ground pulsed with them, making distinct spikes in seismic signals that many referred to as Swift quakes. Scientists have now analyzed the tremors to learn about their source. Researchers have debated what causes these types of seismic signals at large events, said Gabrielle Tepp, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Some argued that it’s crowd motion, whether that be dancing at a rave or jumping at a football game. Others suspected that the blaring music itself is the cause. Tepp and her col ..read more

The rock known as gabbro features in many trendy kitchen countertops, where its durability, heat resistance, and bold black-and-white veining make it an attractive addition. Its chemistry also made it ideal for creating the early building blocks of the continents, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Early Earth was covered in a hardened shell of dark basaltic crust that crystalized as the planet’s primordial ocean cooled. How the lighter and chemically distinct continental crust formed later is still under debate. The new study proposes that gabbros melted within earl ..read more

The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. Silvan Leinss from Gamma Remote Sensing has very kindly captured and downloaded webcam images from the Corvatsch skiing station on the day of the Piz Scerscen rock avalanche. The camera was pointed at the slope that failed, although unfortunately the position of the sun was a little suboptimal. Shortly after the sun rose, at 06:17 local time, the camera captured this image. At this time there was no sign of any landslide activity:- A webcam image of the site of ..read more

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres The cloud electrification process has great significance in understanding the microphysical properties and lightning discharges of thunderstorms. The in-cloud electric fields due to cloud electrification may lead to variations of orientation and alignment signatures of ice particles in the upper parts of the thunderstorms. Wang et al. [2024] present new dual-polarization observations of electrically aligned ice crystals in a localized storm to show how the observati ..read more

Soil ecosystems play fundamental roles in sustaining food and fiber production, improving water quality and availability, sequestering carbon, and providing other societal needs. Climate warming affects the ability of soils to provide these ecosystem services, likely posing broad consequences for food security and the stability of ecosystems belowground and aboveground. To predict and manage these consequences effectively, it is crucial to understand how soil processes respond to rising temperatures. Scientists worldwide have been conducting deep-soil-warming experiments, in which soil layers ..read more

Source: Earth’s Future Much of Earth’s water is hidden hundreds of meters beneath our feet, among soil particles and deep within rock pores and fractures. Mining, oil and gas production, water wells, and other human activities involve extracting various fluids from or injecting them into the ground. Much attention has been paid to the toll these processes take on shallow groundwater and the water cycle. But less is known about how these activities affect the deep subsurface (500 meters to several kilometers deep), much of which was previously isolated for very long periods of geologic time. In ..read more

This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Esta es una traducción al español autorizada de un artículo de Eos. Según un nuevo análisis publicado en Scientific Reports, el evento de El Niño en curso probablemente causará un rompimiento de récords en las temperaturas promedio superficiales del aire en varias partes del mundo antes de empezar a decaer este verano. “Conocer que estas son regiones con riesgo potencial en algún momento de este año nos otorga una ventaja al momento de preparar un plan sobre cómo proteger vidas, propiedades y los recursos marinos vivos.” Los investigadore ..read more

A thriving coral reef is a noisy place, just like a bustling city. Fish call out to each other, crabs clatter along, and snapping shrimp fire their oversized bubble-popping pincer to stun prey. And just like a city, the reef soundscape is punctuated by daily rush hours and lull periods. Scientists listened in on three flourishing coral reefs in Hawaii over the course of a year and uncovered a dramatic change in reef noise that unfolds as the Moon rises and sets. “This is an important development in understanding what a healthy reef sounds like,” said Lauren Freeman, an oceanographer from the ..read more

Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: Community Science Science is capable of pointing communities to emerging hazards that can impact their ability to operate and thrive. From long-term impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events, to localized issues, such as sinkholes, science offers insights and prediction potential. Yet, to turn this into action that can have a lasting impact, there is a need to make a link with the people who will need to face these hazards and address them together. The CREATE Resilience project, led by the not ..read more