I. Atmospheric Sciences

1.Characterizing Superwarm Periods in Earth’s History

DeepMIP Kickoff Meeting; Boulder, Colorado, 14–15 January 2016

2. Volcanic Eruptions Stir an Already Complex Atmosphere

A study of Earth's atmospheric response to major volcanic eruptions seeks to reconcile contradictions between observations and climate models.

II. Geology & Geophysics

1.2016 Class of AGU Fellows Announced

The American Geophysical Union has chosen 60 new Fellows and will honor them at the upcoming 2016 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

2.Tiny, Deep Quakes Increase on San Andreas as Tides Tug on Fault

When the gravity of the Sun and Moon causes Earth's crust to bulge every 2 weeks, slow-moving earthquakes proliferate in the lower reaches of the San Andreas, a new study finds.

3.New Geophysical Research Letters Editorial, Revisions Policies

Changes in submittal, editorial, and review policies support high standards and timely publication in the face of the increasing number of papers submitted.

4.Honoring Earth and Space Scientists

AGU members and others in the news

5.Revising the Displacement History of New Zealand's Alpine Fault

A reinterpretation of structural and paleomagnetic data suggests that New Zealand's Alpine Fault accommodates a far greater percentage of geologically recent plate motion than previously thought.

6.Tracking Down Elusive Origins of Kazakhstan's 1889 Chilik Quake

New fieldwork and satellite data suggest that three faults may have caused a large earthquake near Almaty, Kazakhstan, more than a century ago.

III.Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

1.Augmented Reality Turns a Sandbox into a Geoscience Lesson

Superimposing responsive digital effects onto sand in a sandbox places educators, students, and policy makers in an augmented reality, offering a hands-on way to explore geoscience processes.

IV. Planetary Sciences

1.Reconstructing Catastrophic Floods on Earth and Mars

A new theoretical model suggests that ancient floods that carved canyons on Earth and Mars may have been much smaller but lasted longer than previously thought.

2.A Cluster of Water Seeps on Mars?

The discovery of dense concentrations of recurring flowlike features in two Valles Marineris chasms could aid in the search for life and influence future exploration of the Red Planet.

V.Ocean Sciences

1.The Dance of Surface Waves and Ocean Circulation

One mathematical model best describes the complex interplay between an ocean's surface waves and its underlying circulation.

VI.Space Science & Space Physics

1.Venus's Unexpected, Electrifying Water Loss

New research shows that an electric field surrounding Venus is stripping its atmosphere of water—and the same phenomenon may plague exoplanets scientists hope might be habitable.

VII.Science Policy & Funding

1. USGS Seeks to Contain Damage from Scientific Misconduct at Lab

Although damage from the specific incident "is relatively well contained," the issue threatens the agency's reputation for high-quality science and goes counter to its standards, according to a USGS official.

VIII.Earth and Space Science

1.Predicting the export and fate of global ocean net primary production: The EXPORTS

Earth’s carbon cycle is heavily influenced by ecological processes in the ocean. The quantification and understanding of the intricate relationships between carbon dioxide and ocean ecosystems, and what effects these have on the present and future conditions on Earth, is one of the greatest challenges in oceanography. One of the most important aspects that preclude the full understanding of the ocean carbon cycle is the lack of parallel measurements at a global scale; this also hinders our ability to make robust predictions in an uncertain future.

2.Study identifies link between cold temperatures in New York, destructive storms in Spain

Over the past few winters, Gabriele Messori and his colleagues have noticed an intriguing weather pattern: bitterly cold days in the eastern United States were often followed by extremely wet and windy weather in Europe.

IX.AGU.Blogosphere

1.Sjögren Glacier Fast Flow, Fast Retreat, Antarctica

Sjögren Glacier flows east from the northern Antarctic Peninsula and prior to the 1980’s was a principal feeder glacier to Prince Gustav Ice Shelf. This 1600 square kilometer ice shelf disintegrated in the mid-1990’s and was gone in 1995 (Cook and Vaughan, 2010). Scambos et al (2014) noted a widespread thinning and retreat of Northern Antarctic Peninsula Glaciers with the greatest changes where ice shelf collapse had occurred, Sjögren Glacier being one of the locations. Scambos et al (2004) first documented the acceleration of glaciers that fed an ice shelf after ice shelf loss in the Larsen B region. A new paper by Seehaus et al (2016) focuses on long term velocity change at Sjögren Glacier as it continues to retreat. This study illustrates the acceleration is long lived with a peak velocity of 2.8 m/day in 2007 declining to 1.4 m/day in 2014, compared to a 1996 velocity of 0.7 m/day, which was likely already higher than the velocity in years prior to ice shelf breakup. Here we examine Landsat images from 1990, 2001, 2005 and 2016 to illustrate changes in terminus position of Sjögren Glacier

2.Gangotri and China: three fascinating new landslide videos

As Asia reels under extraordinary rainfall under strong monsoon conditions, three new, interesting landslide videos have been posted on Youtube. The first shows a rather elegant rockslide on the highway to Gangotri in Uttarakhand in northern India.